Sri Chinmoy answers, part 7

Part I

Question: Has it ever happened that the soul changes its mind about a particular reincarnation after a baby is born and therefore the baby dies?

Question: If a soul has already come into a body and then decides to leave, could another soul take its place?

Question: Has a Master ever changed the sex of an individual?

Question: Could a spiritual Master totally remove the mind from a particular person and put another mind in its place if the person is an adult?

If it happens, it is like an experiment. If it works well, then it is a miracle. But sometimes the old mind does not want to leave, so it comes back. When a Master puts in a new mind, it is like coming up with a new machine that has more capacity and potentiality than the old machine. You expect the new machine to perform well, but sometimes it does not work.

Question: If two souls have a connection, do they often incarnate together?

Question: When you say that two people are twin souls, does it mean that they were twins in a previous incarnation?

Question: What are group souls?

Question: Sometimes when a great soul is about to be born, earth is aware of the event and there is a special sign, like a star. Does the soul want this kind of thing?

Question: When the soul takes incarnation, are the astrological forces also chosen or is the soul more or less stuck with the astrological conditions that happen to prevail when it descends?

Question: So the soul doesn't work in conjunction with the planets?

Question: When you give a disciple his soul's name, is it connected with the promise that the soul made to God in the soul's world?

Question: When the soul incarnates in a new body, is it still able to communicate with previous family members?

Question: What is more important to the soul in selecting an incarnation: the family or the place?

Question: What determines the actual moment when the soul will leave the body?

Question: That is in the case of someone who is gradually dying. But what about the case of a plane crash or something involving many people?

Question: When a soul is born in a particular body, does it always stay in that body until the body dies, or does a more advanced soul sometimes take over the body for a particular mission?

Question: If a person gets a new heart, mind or vital, is he consciously aware of it?

Question: Certain disciples have incredible oneness with one another. Have their souls had a connection from birth or is it something that developed?

Question: How do you help the soul?

Question: If we are in a good consciousness at night, can we feel when you come to help our souls?

Question: Should the anniversary of the soul's departure from the earth-plane be celebrated as well as its birthday?

If someone here on earth very sincerely invokes the soul of a departed dear one on that person’s death anniversary, most of the time that soul will come unless it is on a very high plane. Highly developed souls sometimes do not want to come because they are countless miles away from us. For them, it is a difficult journey because of our lack of purity. Ordinary human beings are full of desires. They do not or cannot keep their consciousness pure even when they invoke their dear ones. The passageway between the relative’s prayers and the soul’s compassion is like a column of light. If the light is not pure, then it is very difficult for a high soul to travel through that passageway. Again, some souls are very brave. As soon as they hear the sincere invitation, they come, no matter how difficult it is for them. But if the person on earth is praying with pure concern and a very pure heart, then it is quite easy for them to come.

Usually, once a year on the death anniversary, people think of their dear ones and pray for them very soulfully. When they pray intensely, at that time they are likely to have purity also. When one is intensely concentrating on something, at that time one does not look around or allow outside thoughts to enter one’s mind. So intensity often brings absolute purity. To invoke a soul from the soul’s world, both purity and intensity are needed. With purity you go one step, and with intensity you go ten steps.

Question: Does the soul usually take the same mind when it reincarnates?

Question: What percentage of the time will the soul take the same mind?

Question: When the mind is taken by another soul, does the mind carry the karma from its previous life?

Question: Isn't the vital as destructive as the mind?

Question: How can the mind evolve?

Question: From which part of the being do most people get their sense of identification?

Question: When we leave the body, is there a sense of continuity?

Question: Why do people with a soul's connection look alike?

Question: Why is the soul affected by outer circumstances?

Part II

Question: When a jury is deciding a verdict, is there any karma involved if they find somebody guilty who happens to be innocent, or vice versa?

Question: I never meditate consciously on my soul; I only meditate on the Supreme. Is this a mistake?

How many people on a daily basis even think of their soul, let alone feel its existence, which is infinitely more difficult? Many people enter into a temple or church, but how many give importance to the altar? Some come to work there and others may move around everywhere in the temple, but how many of them even look at the shrine? The body is our temple and inside the body is our soul, the shrine. But we do not pay any attention to the soul. Most of my students, not to speak of other human beings, are not aware of their souls or consciously thinking of their souls even for one second in the day. Yet the soul is our most precious inner wealth; it is the most precious inner wealth of our body, vital, mind and heart.

Most of the time we act like crows. When the crow eats food, it keeps its eyes closed. It feels that if it cannot see others, then others are not able to see it, either. Human beings act the same way. Because our third eye is closed and we do not see our soul, we think that nobody is watching us. But somebody is watching us with his eyes wide open, and that is the soul. The soul is not fast asleep. The soul is observing us at every moment. If we have a little faith in the existence of the soul, we may say that the soul is watching us secretly. But the soul is not watching us secretly; it is watching us openly, only we do not see it.

Because we do not feel that there is anybody inside us who is watching us, we let our mind or restless vital rule us. We let our physical consciousness instigate us to do all kinds of undivine things, and we feel that only our mind or vital is aware of our behaviour. But no matter what the body, vital, mind and heart want to do in and through us, if we feel that there is a third party — infinitely higher and better — who is watching us, then we will be compelled to behave. In ordinary human life, if a child knows that the father is watching, he is reluctant to do something wrong. If he does, he knows his father may punish him. But if the child thinks that his father is in his office or out of town, then the child will do whatever he wants.

Again, it is possible for someone to make himself feel that he is misbehaving secretly and that the soul is not observing him. But he is only fooling himself. The soul is observing him at every moment, but it will not act immediately; it waits for the right moment to illumine him or punish him. Again, punishment itself is illumination.

So if we believe in the existence of the soul, then we are bound to take our outer life more seriously, for we know that we do not have permission to do certain things. And if we do not believe in the soul, if we do not feel the necessity of pleasing the soul, then there is no spiritual life at all for us.

Question: When my first husband died, I felt that his soul came into me.

Question: When he passed away, I felt that I was half dead.

Question: How do we actually know that we are getting close to realisation?

The whole problem in life lies in our obedience. We do not want to do the difficult thing; only the thing that is easy we want to do. We know what is right, but we want to follow the easier way. Americans do not like to take orders, but we do not realise that at every moment we are listening to someone or something. Most of the time we are obeying our stupid mind or vital. We are not doing it unconsciously. We know what we are doing; we are doing it deliberately.

Question: Does the Supreme have the same capacity of infinite Justice as He has of infinite Compassion?

Even on the outer plane, in comparison to the number of crimes being committed, how many people are actually caught? Crimes are happening everywhere, but how many people are being punished? And then there is the matter of inner crimes. It is an inner crime to try and destroy someone or to use bad will to prevent someone from getting ahead in life. It is an inner crime to hate someone because he or she is more beautiful than we are. It is an inner crime to curse someone because we are jealous of that person. For these crimes, who is getting punishment? If God used His infinite Justice the way He uses His infinite Compassion, then we would be nowhere. At every second, with an iron rod God would be standing before us! If we did something wrong, then we would be finished.

God has infinite Compassion, but inside His Compassion there is Wisdom also. We cannot separate God’s Wisdom from His Compassion. We may say that God’s Compassion is nothing but stupidity, but this is not true. God uses His Compassion because He feels that this medicine works better than anything else. But there may come a time when He sees that His Compassion-medicine is not working. Then He changes to another medicine: His Justice-medicine. But that particular medicine He will use only on rare occasions, when His Compassion is absolutely not working.

Question: Is God's Compassion for man diminishing over time?

According to Indian tradition, if you have a wide forehead, it is an auspicious sign. One day I was doing the long jump and a friend of mine said to me, “Oh, you will become very great! You have such a wide forehead.” So I went and told my sister Ahana, “I will become very great.” She said, “Yes, yes, wait for another ten years and you will see what it means. In ten years you will lose all your hair!” In her loving way, she threw such cold water on me!

If I have a dollar and give it to you, then I have nothing. That is what happens on the outer plane. But God’s Capacity is different; it is like wisdom. If you give wisdom to somebody, you do not lose it. On the contrary, you gain more. When the teacher teaches his students, he does not lose his capacity; he only increases and increases it. Similarly, the Supreme’s Capacity does not decrease at all. At every second the Supreme is increasing His Capacity, whether it is Compassion or Forgiveness or anything else. It is always increasing, increasing, but we are not aware of it.

Part III

Question: It seems as though man today is only explaining things. When is that going to stop?

Especially in the spiritual life, explanations are only a waste of precious time. The person who wants to explain is a fool and the person who wants to have something explained is equally a fool. The spiritual life starts with faith, and faith does not need any kind of outer demonstration or justification. Each time we try to explain or have something explained, we are only feeding the reasoning mind. But God does not operate with the reasoning mind.

It is like dribbling a football. Let us say I have been dribbling all the time with my left foot, so the goalkeeper thinks that I will use my left foot to try to score a goal. But I only pretend to use the left; I actually score with the right. The goalkeeper is all the time preparing for a left-footed kick, and then I score with the right. Similarly, if our expectation-mind is following the ball, we will never be ready for what happens.

Question: How do we get beyond the mind?

Question: How can we experience the sweetness and purity of Mother Nature when we live in a place like New York?

Question: Why is humanity polluting and destroying Mother Nature?

Part IV

Mrs. Strong: The degradation of the earth is so far advanced right now that the great mystics, shamans and spiritual people are saying that we have already crossed the line of no return regarding the oceans, the soil and the forests. What is your opinion?

Mrs. Strong: But if the soil is dead, it’s dead. If a forest is gone, it’s gone. If the ozone is gone, it’s gone.

Question: In the movie _Apollo 13_, people were getting involved with all these machines and moving away from nature. Is it good for people to be so involved with machines? Is it good for people to go into space and do things that are unnatural? Is this useful for them?

With space exploration we are trying to do something that is like fireworks. It charms us, but it does not elevate our consciousness; it does not have sustaining power. In Apollo 13 we see people walking on the moon. We are enjoying it, but it is mostly the vital in us that is getting enjoyment. The soul is not enjoying this. Not even the heart is getting joy, because the heart wants to hear the melody that keeps earth in tune with Heaven, and that tune is not there.

Science is like a cow tied to a post. The cow is given limited freedom, but inside that limited area, the cow is destroying everything. If it sees a bucket, then it kicks that bucket. By kicking the bucket several metres, the cow is getting joy. But this kind of joy is all destruction. Fortunately, the cow has a limit. It cannot go beyond the length of the rope. Similarly, no matter how many centuries or millennia shall pass, the capacity of science will always be limited. Science is progressing and developing; miracles are being created at every second. You press a button and an atom bomb drops somewhere. But anything that is not creative will never be able to unite the suffering of Mother Earth with the smile of Father Heaven.

Part V

Question: Is the spiritual life easier or less strict today than it was in ancient days?

Question: Spiritually, is the world going forward or backwards?

In general, modern-day seekers have many opportunities that seekers of the past did not have. Now if you want to get inspiration by praying and meditating with hundreds of people, you get in your car and drive to church. In the days of the Vedic Seers, where could they find thousands of people meditating and praying, such as we find at our peace concerts? If many people are aspiring together most sincerely, there is often more intensity than if one person is doing it alone. In the tug-of-war against ignorance, if on one side there are ten or twelve people, there will be more strength. Some of the seekers may be weak, but even their little strength helps you have a better meditation. Again, if somebody is weak and you waste your time thinking of him or her in a negative way, when the time comes for you to pull hard and use all your strength, you cannot.

Question: What do you mean when you speak about our highest meditation?

Question: Can we lose our God-realisation when we try to reveal or manifest it?

Some people, after realisation, do not want to reveal God’s Light because it is so difficult. They say, “Who cares whether others believe that there is a most beautiful flower inside my heart? If they do not believe that I have divine peace, which they lack, then I do not have to show them.” They also say, “Who knows? While revealing or manifesting God’s Light, I may lose it.”

But others want to share the peace and light that they have inside because they feel that others will be miserable without it. This is the heart’s generosity and magnanimity of those daring souls who try to reveal and manifest God. They are not afraid of losing their inner wealth. They feel, “If I only possess something, then definitely I can lose it because my possession is separate from me. If there is a difference between my existence and my realisation, then naturally I can lose my realisation. But if I have become what I was longing for, then how can I lose it? What I have, I can lose; but what I am, I cannot lose.”

Question: How should we deal with our defects?

Question: What is poetry?

Question: What is the relationship between eagerness and perseverance?

When somebody succeeds, others may say, “Oh, he was lucky.” But it is not luck. Previously, this person may have failed over and over again; many times he may have been unlucky to the extreme. But unlike others, he did not give up, and then finally he succeeded.

Question: How can I not criticise others and what can I do when others criticise me? Sometimes I get very mad.

When you are inspired to criticise someone, immediately feel that what is disturbing you in the other person is some weakness that he has. Feel that the wrong thing that he or she is doing arises out of some deplorable weakness. Then try to feel that your criticism of the other person is only increasing his weakness and making it worse.

Also, you have to feel that your criticism is causing all kinds of ailments inside the other person. Then try to pull these ailments into your own system — into your hands or legs or head. Immediately you will say, “My God, it is so painful, so painful!” Then you will see how much suffering you are causing that person. Or imagine that your words of criticism are like an arrow that you have hurled at the other person, and now his entire being is bleeding. When you see him bleeding, your sympathetic oneness will make you feel miserable. It is the same kind of sympathetic oneness that Lord Buddha felt when he picked up the bird that had been wounded with an arrow.

When you identify yourself with the other person’s suffering, you will feel, “No matter how imperfect and useless he is, I have no right to cause this kind of suffering in him. I have come into the world to establish my oneness with others and not to destroy others with my criticism.” Then your heart of oneness will make you stop criticising the other person. These ideas I am giving you are very practical.

Another thing you can do is to feel that your criticism of the other person, which you are cherishing in your being, is a very heavy load. Also, the other person’s criticism of you is another heavy load that that person has thrust upon you. How can you move or even breathe if you are carrying two heavy loads on your shoulders? What you have to do is get rid of both loads. You have to cast them aside so that you can run the fastest towards your destination.

Question: Sometimes the world lowers my consciousness.

Question: You said that the process of successfully realising God is ninety-five per cent God's Grace and five per cent personal effort. But when we realise God, you said we realise that even our five per cent was God's Grace. That being the case, how can a seeker be responsible for his success or failure?

God will not blame you if you do not succeed, but God will definitely blame you if you do not try cheerfully, soulfully and self-givingly. God will blame you only if you do not try with a divine, self-giving spirit. You are responsible only for making the journey with the right attitude; you are not responsible if you do not meet with success. Success and failure are at His Feet, and you have to offer the results happily and prayerfully to Him.

Question: How important is common sense?

Part VI

Question: You often tell us the story of when Lord Krishna asked Arjuna the colour of some fruit on a nearby tree. Each time Arjuna said it was one colour, Krishna said it was a different colour, and immediately Arjuna changed his opinion to agree with Krishna. When we are dealing with you, how can we know when we should agree with you and when we should offer our own personal opinion?

No matter how many times Krishna contradicted himself, Arjuna agreed with him. If Arjuna had been an ordinary human being, he would have said, “How many times do I have to agree with you? You corrected me and I agreed with you. Now why are you changing your mind again? What kind of man are you?” But Arjuna did not do that. He showed his obedience and also tremendous patience. All spiritual people have to go through this kind of examination.

To you, Arjuna may appear stupid because he continually changed his opinion. But Arjuna was not a fool. He was not as well-educated as his brother Yudhishthira, but he was far better educated than many people of his day, including Bhima, his other brothers, his cousins and so on. But Arjuna realised that he had to go beyond both form and formless to be one with Lord Krishna. Arjuna’s prayer was, “Lord, I want to be one with You. I want to see through Your Eyes; I want to feel with Your Heart.” Some people are clever. They say this prayer but continue to see with their own eyes and feel with their own heart. But Arjuna was not one of those; for him, this prayer was not mere words. He knew that Lord Krishna was a God-figure. That is why he made the promise, “Lord, from now on, I will make full surrender to You and become one with Your Will.”

This kind of oneness also exists in the ordinary human world. A Bengali mother will teach her child the word phul, which means ‘flower’. But a small child often is unable to pronounce it properly. He says, phu, phu! and does not use the ‘l’ sound. Even after twenty times he still says, phu, phu. The mother sees that by saying phu, the child is getting tremendous joy. So, if her heart is all oneness, she also starts saying phu to make the child happy. Her love for her child is infinitely more important to her than the correct pronunciation of the word. Her mother’s love exists one hundred per cent on the human level, and it is so strong that she surrenders to the child’s way of speaking. Sometimes twenty or thirty years later, after their children have grown up, you find Bengali mothers still using those wrong words that they learned from their children! Still they are getting so much joy from these childish words. This is called love between two human beings on the ordinary human plane.

On the human level, if the mother will call a flower phu to please her small child, on the divine level can the disciple not also surrender, out of his heart’s love, to the Master’s way of seeing reality? If the Master says, “One plus one equals four,” ordinary humans will say, “The Master is obviously an idiot. I do not want to be associated with him.” But the true disciple will say, “My Master is an ocean of love, light and delight. If he says that one plus one equals four, then he must be correct.” The disciples who insist that one plus one equals two are correct in mathematics, but spiritually they are millions and billions of miles away from the supreme truth.

On the human level, if you flatter a small child and agree with him, then the child will go into the kitchen and bring you some delicious food to eat. If you do not agree with him, he is not going to bring you such nice food. Sometimes God acts exactly like a child. By listening to yourself, you will get some satisfaction, certainly. But will you get your Master’s ocean of love and light? Who is going to give it to you? The one with whom you did not agree?

Question: During the Battle of Kurukshetra, Krishna got down from the chariot to fight even though he had taken a vow not to fight at all. I was wondering what this tells us about Krishna's personality?

Krishna told Arjuna, “He is already dead in the inner world. You have to fight him!” Still Arjuna could not bring himself to fight with his grandsire; so Krishna came out of the chariot with his discus. When Krishna decided to fight, he said, “My love for my Arjuna is infinitely more important to me than my so-called promise. People will say that I am not a man of my word. I do not care. I want to prove that my love for my Arjuna is infinitely more important than preserving honour in the eyes of the world. I am prepared to go against the ordinary light of morality in order to win the victory for Arjuna.”

When Vishma saw that it was Krishna himself who had come to fight him, he came running to be killed. He said, “My Lord, my Lord, I know who You are! If You kill me, I will be the happiest person. On the one hand, I am so sad that You are breaking Your Promise. But again, I am so glad that I will die by Your Hand. Kill me, kill me! I am dying to die by Your Hand!”

Then Arjuna said, “No, no, I am ready to fight!” He pulled Krishna back into the chariot and fought Vishma with utmost determination. At last, Vishma lay dying, and Arjuna brought water to his grandsire. When Arjuna saw that Vishma was shedding tears, he said to Krishna, “Our grandfather did not do anything wrong. He was so good, so divine. Why does he have to suffer? Why are there tears in his eyes?”

Krishna said to Arjuna, “Why are you asking me? Ask him! He will tell you.” So Arjuna asked his grandfather, “Please tell me why you are crying, Grandfather. In our kingdom, there is nobody as divine as you. It was you yourself who told us how to kill you. Who else on earth would have been so noble? But now that your death is fast approaching, why are you crying? Are you afraid of death?”

Vishma replied, “You fool! I am weeping not because I am afraid of death, but because the Pandavas have suffered so much. Krishna, the Lord of the Universe, was all the time with you and for you. So how is it that you have suffered so much? I do not understand the Lord’s Game. That is why I am shedding tears.”

Krishna answered him, “This is my creation. You will never be able to understand it. My mystery is unfathomable.”

Question: Did any of the Kauravas consciously take the side of the Pandavas?

Question: If someone is connected with a particular god or goddess, does that god or goddess show special concern for that person?

In the beginning, the cosmic gods and goddesses will help the seeker in so many ways when the seeker is praying and meditating. Then, when they see that the seeker is going beyond their height or domain, at that time they stand against him. First they feed you and feed you; then they stand in your way. But if you can go beyond them, they again become extremely close to you and try to help because they see that you have direct contact with the Absolute.

Question: Why do the gods or goddesses stand in somebody's way?

Question: Do cosmic gods and goddesses have the capacity to make spiritual progress?

According to our present standard, the cosmic gods seem unlimited. We have one dollar, let us say, and the cosmic gods have ten million dollars. But ten million is not the ultimate. After ten million comes one billion and so on. We feel that the cosmic gods are dealing with the Unlimited, but that is not the case. For that, it is necessary to take a physical body and evolve from the animal to the human to the divine and, finally, to the Supreme.

Question: Are the cosmic gods still cursing each other and fighting with one another as they did in the Puranas?

Also, we have to know that in those days the world was at a particular level of consciousness, and at every moment the cosmic gods had to deal with the imperfect nature of reality. Sometimes they showed their compassion aspect or forgiveness aspect, but most of the time they showed their power aspect. They used the power aspect of God right and left to exercise their supremacy — to conquer others and rule human life. They did not care for God the creation; they were ready to destroy it in the twinkling of an eye. But with power we cannot conquer anyone permanently; we can conquer someone for only five seconds or five days. It is only if we conquer someone with love that our victory lasts forever. Similarly, the joy that comes from supremacy is no joy at all, whereas the joy that comes from oneness, which is based on love, is true joy.

When America dropped the atom bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan surrendered. But did America conquer the heart of Japan? Did the Japanese love or respect America for having destroyed their country? No! By dropping a bomb on your head I can silence you for a few years. At that time I feel I am the happiest person. But eventually I realise that there are many people who are speaking ill of me, and I cannot get any joy. Everybody wants admiration from other people. If I am killing you, are you going to love and admire me? No! But if I come and embrace you with both arms wide open, then naturally you want to be my friend.

Question: In one of your poems you say that God will do everything for us if our every breath embodies soulful gratitude. This kind of gratitude seems far beyond our reach. How can we have it?

One way to get sweetness is to look at a most beautiful, fragrant flower. When we look at the flower and smell its fragrance, consciously or unconsciously we become one with its beauty and fragrance. At that time, its sweetness enters into us or our own sweetness comes forward; sometimes both happen simultaneously. Then our whole being becomes sweet and it is easier to have good thoughts. If we are really focusing all our attention on the innocent beauty and fragrance of God the creation through this flower, then impure thoughts — which include not only lower vital thoughts but also jealousy and meanness — disappear, and only sweet thoughts remain. And when sweetness comes to the fore in our nature, it becomes very easy to offer gratitude.

Question: How can we be sweeter?