Question: How can we have more newness in our lives?2

Sri Chinmoy: Every day the sun rises. Every morning we can look at the sun, if we are lucky enough to have a clear day. Although it is the same sun that is rising, every day we can see a new beauty inside the sun. Our mind is telling us that it is the same sun that we saw yesterday and the day before yesterday. But when the heart sees this same sun, there is tremendous joy, tremendous thrill, tremendous ecstasy.

We have to see and feel everything with the heart, not with the mind. The mind will tell us, “I have seen the sun already; I have been seeing it for so many years. There is nothing new in it.” But when the heart sees the same sun, the heart sees something new, with a thrilling sensation. That thrilling sensation itself is creating something new, and that newness is creating something special.

When a grown-up enters into a garden every day, he sees the flowers and says, “They are all the same as they were yesterday.” When a child of four or five enters into the garden, he sees the same flowers that the grown-up sees, but he gets a totally different kind of experience, which is all joy. Every day he enters into the garden, but his mind is not seeing the flowers; it is his heart that is seeing them. When his heart sees a flower, that flower is something new for him. We see the same kinds of flowers for so many days, and once we see them, it is enough for us. Even the second day, it is all old. But every time the child sees the garden, for him everything is new.

Every day you are doing so many things. You are going to the health food store to work; you are taking exercise. If you use the mind, then everything becomes monotonous. You will say, “I have been doing this for ten days, ten months, ten years.” But if you use your absolutely childlike heart, everything is new, new, new.

In my case, if I use my mind to think of lifting 900 pounds, immediately I will say, “Oh God!” It is not out of fear, but because this lifting is boring — that is the right word. Every day I am trying to lift such heavy weights. Do I not have enough problems with myself, with my disciples, with the world? Do I have to go and stand under these 900-pound weights? The mind immediately comes forward with the most powerful discouragement. The mind says, “Do you have absolutely nothing better to do? Go and pray, go and meditate! Do something for the betterment of the world!” Like that the mind goes on.

But if I think of the Supreme, my Beloved, He says, “This is what I want you to do in the morning to manifest My Light in the world.” That message I get if I am in the heart, and my heart has accepted the message. Today is the fourth day I have lifted 900 pounds. When the mind is to the fore, by the second day the mind has become bored; it does not want to lift. But today, using my childlike heart, I did six lifts. When I use my childlike heart, I feel I am doing everything for the first time.

Every day I am giving prayers. You can say they are all different prayers, so there is newness. But if I use the mind, the mind will say, “This is such a stupid thing! Why do I have to give prayers every day? Who is going to listen to me? Who is practising my prayers? Do I practise my own prayers?” The mind is discouraging me and telling me not to continue because I am giving the same type of prayers every day. But the heart will say, “No! This is all new. It is all new life, new life, new life.”

When I am lifting 900 pounds, when I am cycling, when I am doing anything, if I use the mind, the mind will say it is monotonous. Afterwards, the mind will even go to the length of saying that it is ridiculous. The mind will say, “Am I so stupid as to lift weights? Am I so stupid as to waste my time with this inconscient metal?” But the heart is getting so much joy because the heart is listening to God while God is saying, “Do this, do this, do this!”

Every week you come to PS 86 to meditate. The mind says, “Oh my God, it is compulsory, compulsory!” The mind hates this kind of thing. The mind says, “Does Guru have nothing else to do? He has made this evening compulsory. I could have gone to the movies or watched television.” But the heart says, “Today, after one week, we will again be able to meet with our Guru. Today he will meditate. Today he will be able to feed our entire being with his light, with his joy, with his blessings.” The heart and the mind see the same reality, but the heart is giving us one message and the mind is giving us another message. For the mind, life is all monotony. For the mind, it is absolutely the same thing every day. There is no newness, no new life. But when we use the heart, every thing is new. If we use the heart for everything, we will see that inside the heart there is always newness, and inside newness is fulness. Although the mind is saying that everything is eternally old, the heart will say, “No, it is ever new.”

When we use the term ‘ever new’, that newness is in the heart. Anything that I do, if I do it with the heart, then it is totally new. If I am in the mind, nothing is new. Let us say that I am playing the violin. Every day I have been practising fifty songs. The mind will say, “Oh, fifty songs I have to practise!” But when I use the heart, fifty songs are over in the twinkling of an eye. I am even ready to practise a few more songs.

The heart gets joy every day, although outwardly it is doing the same thing. In your case, every day you are doing the same thing, but the heart is telling you that there is new joy, new joy, new joy. Every day customers are coming into the health food store. The mind tells you, “Oh, the same type of idiot has come in! I always have the same kind of experience.” But when you use the heart, every time you look at your vitamin pills, bottles and jars, you will get a new joy. You will be eager to see whether something new is written on the bottles or to notice something that you have never seen before. The heart is eager to see newness in the things it has been observing for years and years. But the mind does not want newness. One day it gets food, and then it starves because it feels that everything is old, old, old. But every day the heart says, “Perhaps there is something else here, something new.” Always the heart is looking for newness, but the mind does not look for anything.

The mind is always grumbling and fumbling. There is no worse thief than the mind. Today you are very happy because it is your birthday. Your mind will say, “Oh, today Guru is so nice to me because it is my birthday, but tomorrow Guru will neglect me. He will never be nice to me. Does he really care for me?” Like that, tomorrow is always coming into our mind to ruin today’s joy. Today I am giving you joy. I have invited your friends and I am doing this and that to make you happy. But always the mind comes and takes away half of today’s joy, or even more. Why? Because tomorrow you may not have the same kind of joy. How ridiculous! What a roguish nature the mind has! The mind immediately brings the future into the present. It gives the message that tomorrow you will not get the same joy, the same satisfaction, the same love, the same admiration from your Master or from your friends.

At that time you have to say, “I am not thinking of tomorrow; today is enough for me. Let tomorrow come as it may. Today I am so happy! Guru is observing my birthday, and he is giving me so much joy.” Stay with today — here and now. If you think of tomorrow, then the mind will say, “When tomorrow comes, it will be a totally different story.” Like a thief, that totally different story will immediately take away half of today’s joy.

If you are doing something great, you are so happy. But then the stupid mind comes into the picture little by little, like a rogue. Let us say that today you have become a world champion and you are very happy. But by the evening you think, “Perhaps tomorrow another fellow will take away my record.” In that way, tomorrow has come into today. Always in so many ways the mind is taking away our joy. The heart says, “Let us have joy today. Let tomorrow come tomorrow.” But the mind is inviting tomorrow into today to take away our joy. The mind says, “Today I have lifted a heavy weight, but tomorrow perhaps I will not be able to lift it.” The heart feels that since I have lifted today, I should stay with today’s joy. But the mind says, “I am just bragging! There are so many people in this world who are infinitely stronger than I am. They can easily do what I have done.” Now, why do we have to think of people who are in Africa or Bulgaria or somewhere else? Why do we have to imagine that they are infinitely stronger than we are, that they can easily do what we have done, except that they are not getting the opportunity?

This is how the mind takes away the joy that we have got from what we have achieved today! But the heart does not think of tomorrow. The heart only feels that it has achieved something and, therefore, it is so happy and so grateful to God. The heart is grateful to God because God has given us the capacity to do something. Today God has given me the capacity to lift a heavy weight, so I am grateful. I am keeping it between God and me. I am so grateful that He has given me the capacity, and I am so happy that He has made me happy. This is how we have to stop the mind from taking away our joy, and this is how we can always have newness. The heart’s joy always embodies newness. Any time we are happy, there is always newness. When we are unhappy, we are finished! We drag along the unhappiness of twenty or thirty years. The moment we are really happy, the heart holds and preserves our happiness. But the mind thinks that tomorrow again we will be unhappy. In that way the mind steals today’s happiness.

Do not allow the mind to play the role of a thief. If you are in the heart, then you will see that there is always newness-joy. A child always gets joy no matter how many times he enters into a garden. For him it is all joy, joy, joy. When our little dog Chela runs this side and that side, he has no mind. Such joy he is getting! If he were to think, “Every day I have to go that way,” then he would not run in any direction. He would forget about running! Like Chela, we also have to have the same spontaneous joy, and that spontaneous joy we get only if we are in the heart. We have to be childlike, not childish. When a grown-up acts childish, he will do something stupid. But a childlike heart, like a flower, always blooms and blossoms, blooms and blossoms.

There must always be newness. Every day the mind can invent ways to take away our joy. Always we have to fight against the mind. If we want to do something difficult, the mind will say, “Oh my God! For two days I succeeded and I got joy, but today I do not think I will be able to do it.” Then, when sadness and frustration enter into the picture, immediately we have to challenge the mind with our wisdom. We have to say, “So what if I do not succeed? My goal is not, let us say, to lift a particular weight. My goal is only regularity.” God is asking me to do something. He is not commanding me to be successful; He is only saying, “You must be regular.” He says, “Do it, do it!” and He asks me only to obey Him.

When I ask you people to do something, then you should do it wholeheartedly. I never say, “If you cannot do it, then I will throw you out of my boat.” I say, “Throw your heart and soul into this project.” But you create in your mind the belief that if you cannot do it, then I will be displeased. I will never be displeased with anybody who is not successful. I only observe the sincerity, the readiness, the willingness and the eagerness of that individual. I will never blame anybody for outer failure. But inner failure — when there is no readiness, no willingness, no eagerness — really bothers me. Sometimes I see the disciples working so hard. Then it is up to God to grant them success or failure. On our part, if we work with utmost readiness, sincerity, willingness and eagerness, then who is going to blame us if we do not succeed? Is God going to blame us? Never!

Always use the heart. The heart is always carrying newness, whereas the mind is carrying oldness. For the mind, there is no newness. By the second day, the mind loses all its enthusiasm because it feels that everything is too old, too old, too old. But for the heart, every day is new, like the sun. As I said earlier, when the sun rises, the mind will not care to look at the sun because the mind feels that it is the same old thing. Whether the sun is coming out of the water or out of the clouds, the mind does not care. But the heart is waiting for the sun. The heart says, “When will it come? When will it come? When will it come?” The heart’s eagerness always sees newness in everything. If we use the heart to obey God, to please God, then everything is new. Every day, even though we are doing and seeing the same thing outwardly, the heart is constantly feeling new joy, new joy, new joy.


SCA 789. Sri Chinmoy answered this question on 14 February 2000 in New York.