Inner education and outer education¹

Dear friends, dear seekers, dear education-servers and wisdom-lovers, I deem it both a signal honour and an unusual privilege to be here with you to give a talk on education. My own education commenced with a simple prayer. The Vedic seer-teachers of the hoary past taught me not only how to pray soulfully, but also what to pray for:

Asato mā sad gamaya.
Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya.
Mṛtyor mā amṛtaḿ gamaya.

Lead me from the unreal to the Real.
Lead me from darkness unto Light.
Lead me from death to Immortality.

The modern teacher-reformers of the twentieth century have taught me how to revolt dauntlessly, and what to revolt against: bondage-day and ignorance-night.

I wish to speak on outer education and inner education. Education means success in the outer life. Education means progress in the inner life. Success is our conscious or unconscious self-aggrandisement. Progress is our spontaneous self-unfoldment. Success is the discovery of our temptation-hunger. Progress is the discovery of our birthless and deathless satisfaction-feast. Success wanes sooner than the soonest. Progress grows larger than the largest.

In the outer life, education is self-reliance. In the inner life, education is God-reliance. Self-reliance is quite often threatened by binding, blighting and teeming doubts. God-reliance is always inspired and energised by illumining and fulfilling faith.

Human education is a constant search for greatness. Divine education is a constant search for goodness. Greatness satisfies our sense of superiority, our sense of separativity, our dominating ego-personality. Goodness satisfies the illumining and fulfilling universality of our true divine existence.

Yesterday, from my animal education, I learned that might is right. Today, from my human education, I learn that right is might. Tomorrow, from my divine education, I shall learn that only light is might, only light is right. I shall ceaselessly learn to give constantly. Self-giving will be my divine might. I shall eternally grow into and become light. Indeed, this will be my supreme right.

There was a time when I thought that education was nothing other than the transmission of world-information. There was a time when I thought that education was nothing other than the dance of the mind’s supremacy, the ability to lord it over others. But now I have come to discover that education is at once self-mastery and God-discovery.

Each student has two special teachers, a philosophy teacher and a science teacher. The philosophy teacher tells him, “Look up, young man. Right above you, above your head, truth is looming large. Look up, and claim this truth unreservedly as your own.” His science teacher tells him, “Look forward, young man. Truth is right before your very eyes. Look forward and claim it dauntlessly as your own.”

Each teacher is also a student, and again, each student is a teacher. When a teacher claims to be an all-knowing authority, then he has failed to learn the most basic lesson. When a teacher claims to know next to nothing, then he knows the most important thing. Each teacher is aware of the truth that the mind-knowledge is an experiment of sound-reality, and the heart-wisdom is the experience of silence-reality.

With our egotistical vital, we declare the supremacy of our knowledge: we know everything. With our humility-light, we reveal to the world at large that we know nothing. Socrates is a radiant example. He realised that what he knew was next to nothing. His inner being and outer existence-reality were inundated with wisdom-light.

A seeker is blessed with the powerful teachings of three significant teachers: the religion teacher, the spirituality teacher and the yoga teacher. Each one has a special way to teach his students. The religion teacher says, “My son, be afraid of God. If you fear Him, then your earthly problems will be solved. Not only that, but fear of God will expedite your heavenly prosperity; therefore, cultivate the fear of God constantly in the very depth of your heart.”

The spirituality teacher says, “My son, love God. You are of Him and He is for you eternally. If you love Him, then your earthly problems will be solved and your heavenly progress will be faster than the fastest; therefore, love Him, for He is always with you and for you.”

The yoga teacher says, “My son, you and God are inseparably one, eternally one. Claim Him as your own, very own, and make Him the unique Goal of all your thoughts and actions. Your earthly problems will be solved in the twinkling of an eye, and you will become consciously one with your eternal Source.”

I have often been asked by my students as to how to educate a child. The spiritual education of children is of paramount importance. I wish to say that the education of a child starts from the very moment he sees the light of day. The moment he cries for the first time, the mother has to ask the soul of the child why he is crying. There can be two reasons. One reason is that the child has suddenly entered into the earth-arena and the vast ignorance-sea has frightened him. If the mother feels that this is the reason, then the mother has to tell the soul of the child that the ignorance-sea is shortlived. A day will dawn when the child will be the conscious possessor of wisdom-sea.

But there is another reason why the child may be compelled to cry. The soul of the child may have realised that here on earth it will not be able to enjoy divinely and supremely its previous closeness to its Source. If this is the answer the mother gets from the soul of the child, then the mother has to tell the soul of the child that he has come into the world for a special purpose — to please God, to fulfill God, to serve God in a special way. She has to tell the soul of the child that God is allwhere, on earth as well as in Heaven; therefore, the child need not miss God’s Light and Delight which it enjoyed in the realm of the soul. In either case, the mother has to speak to the inmost being of the child, to the real within him, to the soul.

The unification of two illumining and fulfilling processes can bring about abiding satisfaction. One is the involution process, and the other is the evolution process. If we believe in the ultimate transcendental Spirit and feel that this ultimate Spirit is Reality, we consciously enjoy the involution process. At that time we feel that God the Father is watching us, guiding us and leading us at every moment. If we believe that matter is reality, and that there is nothing as important or significant as the fulfilment of the material life, then we are unconsciously enjoying the evolution process.

At this point, our Father Heaven teacher tells us. “Children, become and give.” Our Mother Earth teacher tells us, “Children, give and become.” In the involution process, we give and become. We become and give in the evolution process.

There are many world teachers who have awakened human consciousness and enlightened human life. My heart is inspired to invoke the presence of three world teachers or world liberators, three spiritual Masters of the highest height: Sri Krishna, the Buddha and the Christ. I wish to show how the teachings of these three spiritual giants lead us and guide us faithfully to the same destination.

Sri Krishna’s loftiest message to his dearest friend and disciple was, Nimitta matram…: “O Arjuna, be a mere instrument,” for Sri Krishna knew that only if we become an instrument of the Highest will we have abiding inner peace and satisfaction.

The Lord Buddha used to say to his dearest disciple, Ananda, “Ananda, believe in and follow the Dharma, the inner code of life,” for he knew that only if we follow the code of the inner life soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally, can we attain the everlasting bliss of Nirvana.

The Saviour Christ offered a most significant prayer to His Heavenly Father on behalf of humanity. This peerless teacher prayed to his Heavenly Father with divine simplicity, “Father, let Thy Will be done,” because he knew that for aspiring and crying humanity, oneness with God’s Will is the only way to achieve boundless joy and satisfaction. All of these teachers knew that by becoming conscious and constant instruments of a higher Will we get abiding satisfaction, and by walking devotedly, unreservedly and soulfully along the road of the inner life, we receive boundless peace and bliss.

There are three kinds of education: human education, divine education and God education. Human education is world-information. One is curious to know what is happening here, there and everywhere. Divine education is conscious self-giving. We learn to offer ourselves to the world at large in order to make the world happy and prosperous, or in order to better the consciousness of the world. God education is satisfaction in perfection. How do we achieve satisfaction in perfection? We can do so only by pleasing God in God’s own way, according to His divine Will.

Each country has a special way of approaching the possibilities, potentialities and inevitabilities of education. India’s traditional way is by plain living and high thinking. America’s traditional way of approaching education is by promise-making and freedom-spreading.

When we think of education, immediately we think of truth. And what is truth? Truth is illumining beauty. This is why Keats’ utterance is immortal: “Truth is beauty, beauty truth.” Education tells us that we have to see beauty in truth and truth in beauty. Then finally, we have to see both as one truth in the form of beauty and beauty in the form of truth. When we see both truth and beauty as identical, then we can cry with Emily Dickinson’s heart, “I die for beauty.”

India’s motto is Satyam eva jayate: “Truth alone triumphs.” The Truth-Consciousness of the Absolute is Beauty itself. Truth, beauty and reality together move and together grow. They are inseparable.

From the physical and practical point of view, education is graduation. But if education is graduation, then we receive a deplorable experience. There is an oft-quoted story in India about a young graduate who said to the world, “World, look at me. I have finished my studies and got my degree.” The world said to the proud and haughty young man, “Sit down, young man. You have learned only the first letter of the alphabet. Now complete your education.” If education is self-illumination, an ever-transcending illumination, our starting point is aspiration and our journey’s close is realisation.

But once we enter into the world of aspiration, there is no rest for us. In the words of America’s immortal poet Robert Frost, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep; but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.” According to the highest interpretation, each individual soul has made a solemn promise to the Absolute to realise and manifest Him, and before that promise is fulfilled the soul can have no permanent rest. Here Robert Frost carries us not only into the world of aspiration, but also into the world of realisation. Aspiration is a continuous process. Once you enter into the world of aspiration, there is no rest. No matter what you receive, achieve or grow into, it is only the starting point for a higher achievement. It is an experience that grows and glows into realisation, and realisation itself is the beginning of a new experience — God-manifestation — which also is an endless process.

I have just said education is aspiration. Now I wish to say that education is dedication. When we are truly educated, inwardly or outwardly, we feel that it is dedication that has made us well educated. God does not want us to be His slaves. He wants us to be His friends. He serves us as His friends, as His comrades, as His compeers. The poet Rabindranath Tagore said, “God loves to see in me not His servant, but He Himself.” But we see God as an entity different from ourselves. We see or want to see Him according to our own idea, our fantasy, dream or mental hallucination. But God sees us as a prototype of His self-same Reality.

I come from India, while you are all either from America or from some other part of the world. The human mind will say, “I am a stranger here.” My human mind will also make me feel that you are strangers to me. Tagore most soulfully solved this problem for us with his poetic illumining vision. His poem is at once soulful and fruitful when it says: “Thou hast made me known to friends whom I knew not. Thou hast given me seats in homes not my own. Thou hast brought the distant near and made a brother of the stranger.” His poem tells us that our love of God illumines the darkness, makes the unfamiliar familiar, brings the distant near and transforms the sense of separativity into the song of oneness.

The question may flash across our minds whether a teacher can be a good teacher if he is not spiritual. I wish to say that no teacher can be good unless and until he is spiritual. But spirituality is a vast field. Spirituality does not necessarily mean only the life of concentration, meditation and contemplation. Spirituality encompasses the vast reality. If one is simple, humble, sympathetic, dedicated, or has many other divine qualities, then he undoubtedly is spiritual. A life of simplicity, a good moral character and a pure nature undoubtedly indicate spirituality. Spirituality is our birthright, although we may not consciously practice or cultivate spirituality in the strict sense of the term. But if a teacher embodies spiritual qualities such as honesty, simplicity, clarity, humility, purity and so on, then that particular teacher undoubtedly is spiritual; therefore, his teachings can be imprinted in letters of gold on the students’ aspiring hearts.

According to Mahatma Gandhi, the Father and teacher of the Indian nation, nonviolence is the best form of self-education and God-manifestation. Self-education and God-manifestation, according to the seekers, are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. When we educate ourselves, then the real in us, the divine in us, the Supreme in us, gets the opportunity for full manifestation. Inner cultivation and God-manifestation perfectly complement each other. Cultivation is the seed-reality and manifestation is the fruit-reality. They are inseparably joined. Here in America, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. also offered something significant, not only to the American nation, to the soul of America, but to the world at large. Largely inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings, he has contributed something great, divine and supreme. His inner feeling was that an unarmed truth and an unconditional love can alone have the last word.

All of us here are either students or teachers or both. To be on the safe side, we can say that we are all students, eternal students, like Socrates. God Himself is both a teacher and a student. When He cries with the earth-consciousness, He becomes a student. When He smiles with the Heaven-consciousness, He becomes a teacher. When He cries, He achieves. For whom? For us. When He smiles, He proceeds. For whom? For us. We are His yet unrealised reality-existence.

Since many of us here are teachers, for a few minutes let us offer our soulful prayer to the Supreme Teacher, the Absolute, our Beloved Supreme.

Interview for the Miami Herald²

Rick Ratliff: How did the meditation feel for you tonight? What did you feel from your audience?

Sri Chinmoy: I felt receptivity. Each individual has receptivity, and according to his receptivity each has received peace, light and bliss, which by God’s infinite Grace I brought down.

Rick Ratliff: In what way does it help in a meditation for you to face the audience?

Sri Chinmoy: When I face the audience, I devotedly become an instrument of the divinity that is within each individual. I do not act like a teacher or preacher, but I become absolutely one with the inner cry of those who are in front of me. The inner cry is for peace, light and bliss, whereas the outer cry is for name, fame and material possessions.

Rick Ratliff: When you participate in the meditation sessions at the United Nations, do you receive a different feeling from the audience?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, because those at the United Nations have been trained. Many of the members of the United Nations Meditation Group have been meditating with me for the last six years; therefore, they are experienced. Naturally, there will be a great difference when we meditate with experienced seekers, and with beginners. Today there were quite a few here who were absolute beginners.

Rick Ratliff: In a situation in which there are a number of beginners in an audience, can you be sure they are all meditating?

Sri Chinmoy: They are all like the members of a large family. In a large family there will be small children and there will be mature members, adults. The mother feeds the small children with one kind of food and she feeds the older children and adults with a different kind of food. Each person eats according to his capacity and his necessity. When I meditate with a large group like this, those who are advanced receive from me abundant peace, light and bliss. Those who are beginners get only an iota of peace, light and bliss because their inner hunger is not as powerful and their receptivity is not as vast as in those who are spiritually advanced. But just because they do have the hunger, they will definitely get something to eat according to their standard, like the small child in the family. When we are hungry, we go to the kitchen or to a restaurant to eat; but if we are not hungry, we do not go anywhere to eat. If they had not had any inner hunger at all, they would not have come here.

Rick Ratliff: Recent trends in the West indicate that a great number of people seem to feel spiritual hunger, and many have turned to the traditions of the East. In the past few years there have been a great many persons who have been declared spiritual Masters and so forth. Are all of these people true Masters?

Sri Chinmoy: That is up to the individual to judge. If an individual goes to a teacher himself, only then will he be able to judge whether the teacher is real or not. If he has never gone to see any teachers, he will have to depend entirely on the opinions of those who have visited the Masters themselves. But I tell seekers, as a general rule, that if somebody says that he will be able to grant them realisation overnight, or in a few weeks or months, then that particular person is not a real Master. If somebody says that he can grant them realisation provided they give him a certain sum of money, that person is not a real Master, for money-power cannot conquer God’s Love.

God-realisation is a vast subject. We cannot expect to learn it overnight. Just to get a limited amount of earthly knowledge we spend fifteen to twenty-five years in school. God-realisation means transforming our centuries-old ignorance. When we are trying to overcome ignorance and acquire wisdom-light, how can we expect to do this in the twinkling of an eye? It is impossible. So if some Masters proclaim that they can do this very quickly, or in exchange for some fee, then I tell the seekers that these Masters are not real.

Rick Ratliff: For example, one pays an initiation fee in Transcendental Meditation…

Sri Chinmoy: Of course, this depends on what you are promised in exchange for the fee. If you are taking a course, like a school course, to learn some specific thing, there may be a fee of five or ten dollars. If somebody is merely giving a course or teaching a technique of meditation, naturally he has the right to ask for a reasonable fee. But if somebody claims that he will give you God-realisation, and asks you to give him hundreds or thousands of dollars, or all your earthly possessions, then he is a false Master, and you will not get what you want from him.

Rick Ratliff: In terms of your own efforts, I assume you support yourself through the sale of your books?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, my three hundredth book was published last week. Mayor Beame of New York was kind enough to receive me on that occasion.

Rick Ratliff: Yes, I saw a copy of the article.

Sri Chinmoy: I also support myself through the sale of my records and tapes. By God’s Grace I am a singer and a musician, as well as an author.

Rick Ratliff: And you are a painter too, I understand.

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, but I do not sell my paintings. They are only for exhibition. From my books and records I can manage to support myself. Also, although my disciples are under no obligation to give me money, they do give me love-offerings occasionally. This is not like a fee, but as one can give flowers or fruits to his Master, even so one can give five dollars or ten dollars if he wishes to. He is under no obligation; it is not like tuition for a school. It is a spontaneous offering of love.

Rick Ratliff: The way I became aware of you was from the back of album jackets of Mahavishnu and Devadip. From the experience of this evening, I see there is a quietness and placidity to the meditation which seems to be in sharp contrast with the early records of the Mahavishnu Orchestra — “The Inner Mounting Flame” and “Love, Devotion and Surrender.” I was wondering whether you enjoy that music.

Sri Chinmoy: Did you hear me playing at the beginning of the evening?

Rick Ratliff: Yes, I heard you.

Sri Chinmoy: That is an Indian instrument, the esraj. I started playing the esraj very recently, during this year. Now, Mahavishnu and Devadip are both great musicians. Just because they are great, they have developed remarkable ways to present their musical talents and capacities to the world at large. Long before they came into our spiritual family they were well established, and they had their set pattern. After having accepted our path, they received considerable spiritual inspiration and they have brought to the fore their spiritual music to some extent. So the spiritual music and the music that they played before are now combined and synthesised. I do not want to say that previously their music was non-spiritual. No, before, they had their own way of presenting their skills. Now, because they have become conscious seekers of the Absolute, their present music has an added factor, and it will gain more of this as they themselves grow inwardly.

Rick Ratliff: Have you enjoyed Florida?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, I have been here for nine days and I shall be here for another five days.

Rick Ratliff: What did you think of Disney World?

Sri Chinmoy: Disney World is the world that has conquered human depression and frustration. Human depression and frustration are delaying humanity’s progress toward the transcendental Goal. When people go to Disney World, they do not get mere excitement. They get something infinitely more. Either consciously or unconsciously they get rid of the negative forces that take the form of worry, anxiety, insecurity, frustration and depression.

Rick Ratliff: Do you remember what some of the rides were that you went on?

Sri Chinmoy: I liked “America the Beautiful” the most. It gave me abundant joy. I told my disciples that for me it was worth coming to Florida just to see the Bicentennial presentation of “America the Beautiful,” because there the soul and the spirit of America are embodied and represented in a most striking manner.

Rick Ratliff: Well, it was very good talking to you. I appreciate it. There is a world of questions I could ask.

Sri Chinmoy: Your questions have been most illumining. I am extremely grateful to you. In you I have discovered a very good, sincere and genuine seeker, and I wish you all success in your own way of aspiration and dedication to mankind. You are not a mere reporter. You are something infinitely more — you are serving mankind. You come to a spiritual teacher; then you share your experience there with the world at large. You are acting like a true messenger of light. I am a messenger, and you are a messenger. We are both instruments. You are not an individual reporter and I am not an individual teacher, but we are one. We have only one supreme cause: to serve humanity, to elevate the consciousness of humanity. What you want, you are doing in your own way. What I want, I am doing in my own way. What each person wants, he tries to do in his own way. Each individual on earth should be doing only one thing: serving humanity according to his capacity. Our careers may be different — I am a spiritual teacher and you are a reporter — but we are aiming at the same goal.

The Miami Herald

A long article about the meditation and interview appeared in the Miami Herald on Thursday, 30 December. Following is the beginning of that article.

Living Today
SECTION D
The Miami Herald
Thursday, December 30, 1976

‘I do not act like a teacher or a preacher.’ Sri Chinmoy explains, ‘but I become absolutely one with the inner cry of those who are in front of me … the inner cry is for peace, light and bliss. The outer cry is for name, fame and material possession.’

Sri Chinmoy Offers ‘An Iota Of Light, Peace and Bliss’
By RICK RATLIFF

No one was impressed with what Indian guru Sri Chinmoy had to say as he sat cross legged between flowers and candles before 350 persons in the Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School auditorium.

Sri Chinmoy, author of 300 books, painter, musician, leader of a spiritual movement and director of the United Nations Meditation Group, faced the audience Tuesday night for about an hour and a half.

And said virtually nothing.

But folks didn't get huffy, storm out and demand their money back. For one thing the event was free. For another, silence can be peaceful and peacefulness can nurture meditation. and meditation — public meditation — is what the evening was all about.

WHILE MANY OF those present were Sri Chinmoy disciples (recognizable because the women wore saris and the men wore white shirts and pants) many others were curious folk who dabble in the inner peace movement.

"I’m into mixed bag," said Paddy Long, 50, a high school guidance counsellor. "I do white light meditation and, I don’t know, I guess you’d call it a Ram Dass of the senses… You concentrate on the feet and see the feet disappear, then on the ankles…

"Basically what I try to do is quiet the chatterbox we call the rational mind.” He learned about the Sri Chinmoy session earlier that day he said, from a friend whose car he was fixing.

Addy Farinas, 41, the owner of a flower shop in Haileah, described herself as a follower of another guru — Paramahansa Yogananda.

BUT SHE SAW no conflict in attending a meditation with another master, she said, because they are all one — all united from one energy.

Meditation, she said, helps develop the spiritual side of her life.

The crowd was divided between persons in their late teens and early 20s, and those in middle age.

Younger attendees included Bill Luongo and Tom McCabe, both 18, who said they didn’t know a lot about Sri Chinmoy and had come to learn more.

"We’re seekers,” said Luongo with a quiet smile.

BEFORE THE meditation began. Sri Chinmoy’s disciples milled about, fixing up the stage and adjusting lights and microphones.

Some talked about his teachings. Michelle Samole, 24, is one of about 20 disciples who live in greater Miami, and has been a disciple for more than three years.

"He taught me … the soul which lives inside of us is like a spark of divine consciousness … By meditating, we can come in contact with divine consciousness.

"We do things everybody else does," she added. “We don’t hide in our houses and meditate all day." She and her husband, for example, both teach school.

“It’s not a matter of having to give up material things,” although disciples are asked not to smoke cigarets or drink alcohol.

THE IDEA, says another Miami disciple, Tom Pliske, is to improve oneself from, the inside, through a process Sri Chinmoy calls "love, devotion and surrender."

Sri Chinmoy arrived on stage unannounced, as the sound of talk filled the auditorium. But after Chinmoy stood silently and barely moving on center stage, with his palms pressed together chest high, the talking stopped.

Every motion stopped.

Sri Chinmoy pivoted his head very slowly from side to side. Candles reflected in his eyes, making them appear to flicker and glow.

Eventually he sat, took a bow in one hand and a musical instrument called an esraj in the other, and began to play.

THE ESARAJ looks like a cross between a sitar and a violin, and sounds, as one disciple put it later, "a bit other-worldly."

When he finished, he sat quietly again. The silence was broken occasionally by soft choruses and instrumental music, all sung or played by disciples. All the music had an Eastern flavor though some lyrics were In English.

Sri Chinmoy's audience, including many dressed in white, sat silently while he played an esraj and while his disciples sang. Some of the lyrics were in English, and expressed such questions as, “Problem … how to lighten?”

To-morrow's dawn

//[Continued from previous issue.]//

32.

Yours is the thought-power that strangles you. Yours is the will-power that saves you.

33.

Let us correct our folly. Let us not say anymore, “God of Compassion,” but, “God who is all Compassion.

34.

If you are familiar with appointments, how can you be unfamiliar with disappointments?

35.

Co-operation is when I willingly become your slave.

36.

I call him selfish precisely because he does not have the courage to serve me.

37.

You want me to tell you what I think of your mind. Well, I can only say that I prefer an impurity-hut to your mind.

38.

You want me to tell you what I think of your heart. Well, I can only say that I prefer your purity-heart to all the religious temples put together.

39.

When I use my mind-mirror, I look exactly like a panther. When I use my heart-mirror, not only do I look exactly like God, but I am God.

40.

A new meaning of prayer is concern. To show genuine concern for humanity is to become a supremely chosen instrument of God.

41.

Try to think soulfully. If you can think soulfully, God will not only have a place for you in His Cosmic Plan, but will make you a perfect instrument of His.

[To be continued in next issue.]

The Core of India's Light

//[Continued from previous issue.]//

40.

Amala

Total absence of impurity

The absence of impurity is not enough. The presence of purity not only can solve all inner problems but also can expedite teeming success in man’s outer life.

41.

Amara

Immortal

What we need is not an immortal body, but a constant God-receiving body and a God-manifesting heart.

42.

Aṃbara

The sky

Why do we forget that we have two skies: the mind’s sky and the heart’s sky? Why do we forget the true truth that we are two skies: the mind-sky and the heart-sky? When we see that our mind-sky is overcast with teeming doubt clouds, we should try to look at our heart-sky, which is flooded with man’s perfection-cry and God’s Satisfaction-Smile.

43.

Amṛta

Nectar-delight

An act of forgiveness grants us nectar-delight noticeably.

An act of gratitude grants us nectar-delight profusely.

An act of unconditional surrender to God’s Will grants us nectar-delight immeasurably and supremely.

44.

Aṃśa

Part

The animal part in us needs God the Compassion.

The human part in us needs God the Illumination.

The divine part in us needs God the Perfection.

The Supreme part in us needs God the Satisfaction.

[To be continued in next issue.]

The third eye

All Angels Church, New York, 22 October 1976

The third eye

I wish to give a very short talk on the third eye; then we shall most soulfully concentrate, meditate and contemplate on the third eye.

The third eye fascinates curiosity seekers. Fortunately, we are not curiosity seekers. The third eye helps sincere seekers considerably on their way to self-discovery. Here we are all sincere seekers. The third eye fulfil’s God’s Dream in and through us precisely because we are true God-lovers.

The third eye is the eye of vision-light. What is vision-light? Vision-light is at once our self-transforming and self-transcending, God-revealing and God-manifesting reality. What else is vision-light? Vision-light is the capacity that we embody in order to differentiate our animal past and human present from our divine near future and our supreme distant future.

The message of our past was total destruction. The message of our present is conscious or unconscious division. The message of our near future is oneness, satisfaction in oneness. And the message of our distant future is perfection in satisfaction and satisfaction in perfection.

Some people are of the opinion that it is not advisable to open the third eye, for if it is opened prematurely, our inner progress will come to an end. They are of the opinion that it is not a boon — far from it — it is a veritable curse. But seekers must know that if they are really sincere, if they have the inmost cry, then God, the Author of all Good, will not open their third eye untimely. If they are sincere, God will do everything for them at the right hour. But if they are insincere, then naturally they may have to pay the penalty. Sincere seekers are those who have an adamantine will. They know perfectly well that there is only one way to achieve abiding satisfaction in life, and that way is to offer the results of all their actions to the Absolute Supreme soulfully, unreservedly and unconditionally.

Fear is the worst enemy of a seeker when he wants to open his third eye. On the one hand he is consumed with the desire to open his third eye. On the other hand, the moment the idea flashes across his mind that when his third eye opens he will see what he was in his past lives, he is afraid. What happens when an insincere seeker opens his third eye is most deplorable. If his past was not satisfactory, if it was most discouraging, then immediately he is shocked. He does not, cannot, see ahead. He curses himself. He loses all hope. He thinks that because he was so bad in the past, for him there can be no bright future. He is doomed to disappointment. His mental sky is overcast with clouds.

When an insincere seeker sees the future, the result is equally deplorable. If he sees something discouraging, frightening or saddening in the near future, then he is frightened to death. If he sees that one of his dear ones is going to die before long, then before the event actually occurs, he himself dies with fear and anxiety. For these reasons, the insincere seeker often feels it is not advisable to open his third eye.

But if a sincere seeker has the indomitable will right from the beginning to see the past and to enter into the future with a surrendering attitude, placing the results at the Feet of his Beloved Supreme, then fear cannot torture his life. If he sees that he was not aspiring in his past incarnation, so what? He knows that he has the golden opportunity to aspire in this incarnation. Just because he did not do something positive or constructive in the past does not mean that he cannot do it in the present. Just because he was not an honest man before, there is no reason why he cannot be honest now.

When our third eye is open, if we see that something is going to happen to someone in the immediate future, we have to remember who loves that particular individual more: we or the Source of all Love. Right now our love is very limited. We all know it. But there is Someone who has unlimited, infinite Love. We are right now praying to that Being or to that omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent Reality. That all-loving Reality undoubtedly has more compassion, more vision-light than we have; therefore, it is our bounden duty to surrender to the Will of the Absolute Supreme. If we are ready to place the results, the capacities, the achievements, the fruits of our vision at the Feet of the Supreme, then we are safe. There is no other way to have the third eye open and at the same time to make the fastest progress in the spiritual life.

When the third eye opens up, it sometimes creates tremendous excitement. If we know that something good is going to happen, if we come to see that something most encouraging and inspiring is going to happen, then we become overexcited. This excitement quite often delays the event. It also takes away our mental poise. Then in the inner world again we become bankrupt. So when we get an encouraging message by virtue of opening our third eye, we should look around and see if there is anybody on earth who has achieved more love, more knowledge, more wisdom, more light than we have. If we are sincere, then we are bound to see that there are people, there were people, and there will be people who have achieved infinitely more than we. Then immediately our excitement pales into insignificance. We can be happy, but if we are overexcited at seeing what is going to happen, then we lose our mental poise. Once we lose our mental poise we cannot make further progress in the spiritual life. So we shall not be overexcited when we see that something good is going to happen and, at the same time, we shall not be depressed or disheartened when we see an inauspicious future or past with the vision of our third eye.

Before we accept the spiritual life we wallow in the pleasures of ignorance. When we sincerely accept the spiritual life we try to give up our bad habits, and sooner or later we do succeed in giving up our bad habits. This is the proof that we have made considerable progress. This is the proof that we do not belong to the past reality; we belong to the future reality, which is growing in the immediacy of our aspiring today.

We pray and meditate with the hope that one day we shall enter into trance, for each seeker feels that trance, which is nothing short of bliss, is necessary in the spiritual life; it is something most advantageous, most illumining and most fulfilling. Here I wish to say that if one can open the third eye, this facilitates or expedites the attainment of trance. When the third eye is opened, we can run the fastest along the mental road to God. The mental world is obscure, dark, impure and insecure. But when we open the third eye and walk along the mental road, immediately everything that is insecure is made secure, everything that is impure is made pure, everything that is undivine is made divine. Everything that is dark is illumined by the third eye.

Now, there is a slight difference between the third eye and the trance life. We have two ordinary, human eyes. When we use our human eyes, we see that the reality is at one place and the person who is watching the reality is at some other place. If you are sitting in front of me and I am looking at you, then you are the goal and I am the traveller. The destination and the starting point are at two different places. I am the starting point, and you are the goal. This is the understanding we get from our human eyes. But if we use the third eye, at that time the starting point and the destination are at the same place. They cannot be two; they are together.

Now, when we enter into trance, we get one experience which we usually do not get from the third eye. The third eye will show us that the starting point and the goal are together. But this vision of oneness may not give us immediate delight. If we can enter into trance, then immediately we get the universal Life and the transcendental Life together; therefore, we are flooded with delight.

When we enter into trance and we get abundant, boundless bliss, we are totally satisfied. But we do not know who embodies this infinite Delight. We cannot see the personal God who embodies both the transcendental Life and the universal Life. Just by entering into trance we cannot see the Owner, the Possessor. But if we can open the third eye, then we can see the Absolute Supreme in His subtle, personal aspect. Infinity is one thing, and the absolute Reality is something else. When we enter into highest trance, we enjoy infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. But He who embodies this infinite Peace, Light and Bliss will not be visible at all. Whereas, if we open the third eye, then we see the Transcendental Absolute, the Absolute Supreme. The Absolute Supreme is above, far above Infinity and Infinity’s Light, Delight, Peace and Bliss. So we get the utmost opportunity from the third eye.

Our aim, our goal, is to please the Absolute; therefore, we shall pray and meditate. If we feel that opening the third eye will help us so that we are not assailed by fear, doubt, anxiety and worry, then we should definitely meditate on the third eye, for the sooner we can clear away our mental jungle, the sooner we will reach our destination, which is the Golden Shores of the Ever-Transcending Beyond.

Now we shall concentrate on the third eye. The third eye is located in between the eyebrows and a little above. In this spot we shall concentrate, meditate and contemplate.

While concentrating, let us imagine for a few minutes just at the third eye a flame, a burning golden flame. What we call imagination is nothing short of an existence-reality, a world of its own. So let us concentrate, and while concentrating let us feel burning flames at our third eye. Please breathe in as slowly as possible, as quietly as possible, and while breathing in try to feel that you are not breathing in through your nose; you are breathing in through your forehead. While breathing out you are also breathing through your forehead. Then please feel the presence of burning flames inside your forehead, precisely inside the third eye.

Now let us meditate on the third eye. This time, also, please breathe in and out through your forehead, and now, imagine the planet sun or the inner sun, which is infinitely brighter than the planet sun. Please imagine at least one sun inside the forehead at the third eye, and inside that sun please imagine countless flames or rays of light. This time please keep your eyes fully open so that you can feel the vastness of the sun along with its light and power.

Now we shall contemplate. From the spiritual point of view contemplation is the sweetest form of inseparable oneness. This oneness is the oneness of the divine lover with the Beloved Supreme. The oneness that abides between the divine lover and the Beloved Supreme is called contemplation. It is by virtue of contemplation, proper contemplation, that we come to realise that we are not only divine seekers but also divine lovers, and that God is our Beloved Supreme. We are like tiny drops, while God is the ocean. Countless drops form the ocean, and again, the ocean embodies the drops. First we imagined flames, then the sun itself. When we can contemplate properly, we will become one with God Himself. When the seekers and God-lovers and God together play, sing and dance, at that time God is singing the song of multiplicity in unity. When the One Absolute remains in His transcendental aspect, and the seekers and God-lovers approach Him, then God is singing the song of unity in multiplicity. So let us contemplate on the third eye. For a few minutes let us feel that we are the lover-flames; then we shall feel that we are the Beloved-Sun. Thus we shall change our respective roles.

Questions and answers

The following questions were asked by Aradhana when Sri Chinmoy and a group of his disciples visited her apartment on 19 October 1976.

Question: Why has technology progressed so much in the past 50 years?

Sri Chinmoy: Technology has progressed because the human mind finds it very easy to manifest itself powerfully and dramatically through technology. The human mind has an instinctive urge to manifest the reality that it embodies as fast as possible, and it has discovered that technology is the fastest means for manifesting this reality. But technological progress has nothing to do with spiritual progress. It is the mental, vital and physical consciousness that is awakened technologically and mechanically.

If you compare the soul’s progress with the progress of technology, then there is no comparison. No matter how fast or how far technology has evolved and developed, it will be of no avail in the long run to gain soul’s light or to gain anything from Above.

If technological improvements give us some material comfort, if they create good circumstances surrounding us, they may help us in our inner quest. But sometimes when the circumstances around us are better, our aspiration is ruined. When all the world’s comforts are there, then instead of meditating and praying, we sleep. When technology brings too much comfort and pleasure to our life, then it is destructive.

We need not lead an austere life; a moderate degree of technology can be of great help to us in our life of acceptance. We can take as much help as we need from technology. But when it is a matter of the soul’s reality, the soul’s achievement, light, peace and all the spiritual things that we are crying for, then technology cannot do anything.

But why has technology improved? Because the development of the human mind finds that this is the best means so far to carry its messages or to carry the reality, the truth, that the mind has already achieved.

Question: When God is in His personal aspect, does His Consciousness go up and down? Does He ever get in a low consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: Even if He has a lower consciousness, His lowest consciousness will be at least one inch higher than ours. Even if He is in His lowest consciousness, His lowest consciousness will be at least one inch higher than your highest consciousness. But, in God’s case there is no such thing as lowest or highest. His Consciousness encompasses the entire universe.

We say that this is height, this is length, this is depth. But in God’s Cosmic Vision, that kind of term does not apply. For Him, wherever He is He can call Himself whatever Reality He wants to. If He is very deep within His own Consciousness, He does not have to say that He is in the inmost recesses of His Heart. What you may call depth, He can consider as Height.

Everything, as seen in God’s Eye, will puzzle us, whatever it is. Depth, height, length — these are all only words, our words. We have created height, depth, length and all these measurements. But God’s Height is just God’s Consciousness. He is everywhere. In our case, we are limited; we cannot be everywhere. Our head comes only up to here; we cannot touch the ceiling with it. But in God’s case, no matter where He is, even in His personal aspect, He can do anything. If we are here, we cannot be elsewhere. But God is everywhere.

God never loses His Height. He is not this moment at the foot of the mountain and next moment at the top. You can only say that if He has to pay considerable attention to one particular place, if one particular place demands more of His infinite Power of Concentration, then He will pay more attention to that place. Suppose one good, sincere seeker like you is crying for light, and your husband is not crying. At that time what will God do? Your husband is also God’s child, but you will receive more of God’s Power of Concentration, because you are trying more sincerely than somebody else. You have created receptivity, so you will get more of His loving, compassionate aspect.

If you want more attention, more concentration, more concern, more compassion from God, then you have to dig deep within and create receptivity. But God Himself will never be in a lower consciousness or a higher consciousness at a particular place or time. His Consciousness is omnipresent. It is only a question of how much you can receive. The human mind will say that God is in a higher consciousness here just because He is being manifested much more here than elsewhere, and the mind will say that over there God is in a lower consciousness, because it sees that He is not getting the opportunity to manifest Himself there.

In ordinary human life there are ups and downs. This moment we are at the foot of the tree; next moment we climb to the topmost branch. But in God’s case, because He is universal, He is everywhere; therefore, His Consciousness does not change. It does not have to change. The thing that changes is how much we can receive from Him, no matter where we are, at the foot of the tree or the top of the tree. Only our receptivity changes. When we are aspiring, we receive much, and we are in Heaven. When we are not aspiring, we do not receive anything; therefore, we are in hell.

Question: Last night you said that we would realise God before your chair would. Does it really matter, since we are dealing with Eternity and Immortality anyway, whether we are first or the chair?

Sri Chinmoy: If the heart becomes great, good, spiritual, then you will say, “What is the difference, since we are dealing with Eternity? If the chair wants to go to God before me, no harm. I will also reach God one day.”

But again, oneness with God’s Will is of paramount importance. God wants you to realise Him as soon as possible. Why? Because He needs you badly to manifest Himself. God has evolved His consciousness in and through you more than He has evolved through the chair, because God knows that you can manifest Him sooner than the chair can. This is no comparison between you and the chair, but the time has come first for you to realise God, reveal God and manifest God, so naturally you will try to do it.

Our so-called sympathetic heart may want to say, “Since the chair is also God’s creation, why should I not act like a perfect gentleman and let everybody else go first? I shall go last to show my heart’s magnanimity.” But God will say, “You stay with your heart’s magnanimity, but you are not one with My Will. My Will is that you realise Me as soon as possible. I am tired; I am exhausted. I want you to do a little work for Me.” Then what are we going to do? God wants us to shoulder a little bit of His burden, to take some of His responsibilities away from Him. At that time, if we become divinely stupid and say, “No, let the chair go first; let everybody else go first. Since God will wait for me, I will go last,” that will be a mistake. We have to identify ourselves with God’s Will first. God is inside the wall and inside the chair, but if we want to deal with Eternity, then we will take hundreds and thousands of incarnations to realise God, and that will be an act of stupidity.

We must identify ourselves with God’s Will, and let God decide whether we should run the fastest or the slowest. But it is a true truth that when we become one with God’s Will, God wants us to run the fastest because He needs more instruments like us, sincere instruments. The more He can get sincere instruments, the sooner He can manifest Himself totally here on earth. We have to be wise. What God wants, not what we feel is best or most spiritual, is the right thing to do. If it is God’s Will, then we will go last. But we already know that God wants us to go very fast, and if we do not do it, that means His manifestation is delayed by whom? By us.

Question: What should we do if we are meditating and we know we are not receptive, just sort of sitting there, and we don't have the capacity to be receptive at that moment?

Sri Chinmoy: There are many ways to develop receptivity or to get immediate receptivity. Two ways I can tell you. One way is to repeat the word “Supreme” over and over again, as fast as possible, just as fast as the Indian musicians say “sa, re, ga, ma, pa, da, ni, sa.” But it must be done in silence. First select one place in your body — suppose your Crown Centre — and concentrate there while repeating “Supreme” as fast as possible. Then select another spot and concentrate there. It is better to go from the top down than from the bottom up. You can try the forehead or the throat centre or any place. It does not have to be a psychic centre. It can be any place that you like. Suppose you like your right eye. Then concentrate there and chant “Supreme, Supreme, Supreme,” in silence. Or you can even chant your own name, or “Guru, Guru, Guru,” or any other thing in which you have all faith. Since you always have faith in the Supreme, that is usually the best.

If you can do this in seven different places in your body, at one particular place you will find that you are able to receive. You can concentrate anywhere — the head, the forehead, the heart, the navel, the foot — anywhere. In at least one particular place, if you have concentrated seriously, you will be bound to receive. Receptivity does not always have to be in the heart. Even in the foot you can receive something.

Receptivity is the flow of cosmic energy, cosmic light. When you concentrate anywhere, try to bring light into yourself. After you have brought it inside, the next thing is to bring it to the absolute right place, the heart. The best reservoir to store what you have received is the heart. If you cannot bring light inside yourself at all, then you will have no confidence, no satisfaction. It is like this: this is your apartment. You need water, but you do not have water here, so you have to bring it in from outside. Once you have brought it in, if you want to drink it, you bring it into the kitchen. If you want to take a shower, you can take it into the bathroom. The important thing is that you have brought it into your apartment. As long as you have brought it into your apartment, you know that you have water for your needs. You have tremendous confidence and satisfaction now that you have water at your disposal, which you previously did not have at all.

Another way to create receptivity when you do not have it, is immediately to feel that you are only three years old, a mere babe in the woods. You have no mother, no father, no brother, no sister, nobody at all to protect you, and you are alone in a forest on a very very dark night. All around you is darkness. Nobody is there to help you; death is dancing right in front of you. Then what do you do? You are totally lost, so you cry within for help: “Save me! Save me! I have nobody here! Save me!" When that kind of inner cry comes, the Supreme is bound to open your heart, or I will be there to open your heart.

Usually I say, “Do not feel helpless; you are God’s child. Why should you have to be insecure?” But at times you have to realise that you are not receptive just because you have become too secure; you have become complacent. There is no other reason. You have become complacent because you do not feel the inner cry anymore. Why do you not feel the inner cry? The immediate answer is because you are satisfied with your material possessions or with the things that you have in your mind, in your vital and in your body. Once you are satisfied with the things that you have, why should you cry for something more? At that time your inner cry ceases.

But if you feel that you are helpless, absolutely helpless, and you are desperately in need of something, which is God’s Compassion, God’s Light, God’s Love, Peace or Bliss, naturally your inner cry will be strong. You need not feel that you are helpless and lost every day and every hour — far from it. But when you are not receptive, you have to realise that you are not receptive because you are complacent, because you feel that what you have is sufficient. If you are now self-sufficient, then why should God take care of you? You do not need His help.

But once you get light, try to grow into the light itself. If you see that you have got a little receptivity again, then dig more. Do not be satisfied with the receptivity that you have. Today if it is a tiny hole, then make it big. Make it into a pond, then make it into a big lake, then into a sea. Receptivity can be grown like that, gradually. Starting with a small hole, gradually make it large, larger, largest.

As long as you are complacent, you can have no receptivity. You have to change your attitude; you have to feel that you are totally, totally helpless and lost without God. Then only can you have receptivity.

These are the two ways to become receptive. The second method is much faster than the first, but the first method is good in that it makes you feel that you are working for receptivity, that you are trying. The second method makes you feel that it is beyond your power to work for anything; you must entirely depend on God’s Grace. If you take these measures, either concentrating on seven places, or becoming totally helpless, you will get immediate results.

Question: Does water really have consciousness, or does it just represent consciousness? ⁵

Sri Chinmoy: Water embodies consciousness; water represents consciousness. If one is a very advanced, highly developed seeker, not to speak of a great Master, then he is bound to see and feel that water embodies consciousness. Consciousness can take different forms. Water represents consciousness for those who have not yet discovered the oneness between the finite life and the infinite Life. They see that there is a great gap between the finite and the Infinite. But I always say that the finite and the Infinite are one in the same way that the drop and the ocean are one. Boundless drops make up the ocean. If one knows that the drop represents the ocean, then he will also feel that one or two drops embody the ocean itself.

Those who are not advanced separate the ocean from the drop, the finite from the Infinite. For them, the President of the country is one person, and someone else represents him as the Secretary of State. But if people are highly advanced, they will see that the one who is representing the President is definitely embodying his consciousness. It is the same with God and a true spiritual Master. When the spiritual Master is in his everyday consciousness, some disciples may think he is just a human being. But if the disciples are highly inspired, they will feel that the Master is the representative of God all the time. Even when the spiritual Master is in a high trance, some disciples may feel that the spiritual Master is one person and God is somebody else. But when the seekers develop receptivity, and the Master is in his absolutely highest consciousness, the disciples do not see any difference between the Master and God. At one moment Sri Krishna said that he was representing Brahman. The next moment he said that he was Brahman Himself. When life-energy is taken as inseparable from water, at that time water embodies consciousness. Consciousness is the connecting link between Heaven and earth, between the finite and the Infinite.

Question: Does any change take place in your body when the divine forces enter the physical?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly. Many times, when a very high spiritual force enters into me, a dynamic force, I see that I embody hundreds and thousands of lions. When infinite Peace enters into me, I see the Pacific Ocean. If a childlike force which is very sweet and beautiful enters into me, I see myself as a child of five or six years old. Many people have seen me as a small child when they have meditated with me. Again, when a force enters into me and wants to show me my ancient life as a Vedic seer, at that time I see myself as I was in many previous incarnations, in my traditional ancient consciousness. I see myself in the jungle with a long beard and moustache and long hair.

It is not in my subtle body that I see these changes, and I will not say it is in my gross physical. But part of the physical receives the force and is transformed in different ways. Here transformation does not mean illumination and perfection, but just changing from one form to another. I do not want to say that one consciousness is superior or inferior. This moment I see an ancient Vedic seer, and the next moment I see a little child four or five years old. It is not that I am unable to maintain my consciousness; only it is not necessary. Somebody may get inspiration from the first consciousness, and somebody else may get inspiration from the second one.

The body does change, and I see it with my own eyes. The powerful forces are bound to change it. Sometimes when a force descends very powerfully and I do not want to control that force, my nose and jaw shake. At that time I am not entering into a dramatic performance. If you hold something under a tap and run water over it in a particular way, it may shake under the pressure. But if you hold it more firmly, it will not shake. Light is descending powerfully and I am just letting it flow freely.

My body or my face may shake on rare occasions when I do not want to keep control. At that time it is very difficult to return to the earth-consciousness. Consciously I do not want to come down and I cannot come down immediately; it takes time. Only one disciple has touched me when I was in such a high consciousness — Kanan. One time in Ottawa at a public meditation my consciousness was so high that at first I did not try to come down. The physical in me was not functioning with the soul at all. Then I began trying desperately to come down, and I was able to come down while touching Kanan.

To come back to your question, the physical definitely changes. The actual physical height can change. Others will not be able to measure it, but spiritual Masters will be able to. It is not deception, but it occurs in the subtle form, so we will not be able to see how the height changes with our human eyes.

Question: Sometimes after I have a very high meditation at the Centre or in a meditation hall, I have so much energy that I really want to run around. I don't want to stay in the hall.

Sri Chinmoy: Your whole being has been energised in such a powerful manner that afterwards you are bursting with spiritual energy. When this energy outburst comes, it is usually at one particular place, such as the chest area above the heart — not actually in the heart itself. Or it may happen that at one particular part of your head, such as your forehead, you will feel energy is trying to come out of your head, as if something is going to burst.

If you are alone, at that time you can chant, you can read my poems aloud or you can sing. If you are with others, then in silence very soulfully sing some spiritual songs that you know. Let this energy, which comes in a very exuberant way, flow from the sole of your feet to the crown of your head like a river. Do not try to hold it. Let it not be accumulated at one particular place. Let it take the form of liquid energy. You will see that automatically you will become calm and quiet again. By consciously trying to help the energy flow from one place to another inside you, you will be able to enjoy that divine energy.