Spiritual words

AUM 454-471. On 18 October, at the Aum Centre in Puerto Rico Sri Chinmoy requested each disciple present at the Wednesday evening Meditation Class to give him one spiritual word or idea which he would elaborate upon. The entire program was tape-recorded and transcribed by Agni (Mr. Jose Luis Casanova).

Reflection

Spiritual reflection… If we can stay for five minutes without any thought in our minds, divine or undivine, good or bad, then we immediately get the reflection of our inner soul. This inner soul represents our divine perfection, both in our outer life and in our inner life. Through pure meditation, pure thought, pure character, we are in a position to reflect upon our inner divinity. One has to remain all the time deep inside in the inmost recesses of one’s inner being. It is from there that the actual inner illumination comes to the fore. This is reflection.

Spiritual wisdom

Wisdom can be physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual. Spiritual wisdom is the highest and deepest wisdom. This spiritual wisdom is the natural recognition, the spontaneous recognition of Truth. If we want to define spiritual wisdom in one short sentence, then we can say that spiritual wisdom is the spontaneous recognition of one’s inner Truth, inner Being, inner Reality. Without spiritual wisdom, we can never act the way the Supreme wants us to act. Spiritual wisdom is the first and foremost thing necessary in one’s absolute acceptance of God and finally for God-Realisation. Spiritual wisdom is not only the greatest help, but God’s peerless blessing to the sincere aspirant. He who has spiritual wisdom is sure to realise God in this world, here on earth.

Beauty

The poet Keats said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." But what is that thing? That thing, from the spiritual point of view, is our soul. The soul is eternally beautiful. God expresses Himself in the physical through beauty, pure beauty, beauty without a blemish. This beauty is not merely in the skin but it is in the soul and the soul expresses itself through the physical form.

About one hour ago, she (A) brought these most beautiful roses. I told her that the roses were beautiful but that she is more beautiful than the roses. It was not my flattery, when I told her that she is more beautiful than the roses. What I wanted to say is that her soul is infinitely more beautiful than the beautiful roses. Beauty is something that can be cultivated constantly in our outer nature and this beauty we can have, we can cherish as God’s choicest blessing in our outer and inner life. Just because God, our Father, is beautiful, because He is all Beauty, we have every right to become like Him. We want to possess in our outer life the beauty of the soul and we want to become really beautiful.

Awareness

Awareness is the first rung of the ladder of spirituality; the next is aspiration. Very often people are confused about the words "awareness" and "aspiration". One can be aware in any field: in the physical field, in the mental field or in the vital field; but aspiration is something deeper. This aspiration comes directly from the soul, from the Self. Aspiration comes from our inmost, inner being. Now, to speak about awareness, one who is not aware of one’s inner divinity which is all-pervading is, from the spiritual point of view, a dead soul. In our Upanishads, the seer cried out, "Arise, awake!" Unless one is aware of what one is doing, or what one wants to be, or what one wants to achieve, one is almost in the category of the animal consciousness. When we say "awareness", spiritually it is the awareness of our actual inner being; but very often when people say "awareness" they mean the awareness of the mind. They feel that the mind is the sole answer to all problems. But the real spiritual seekers or spiritual Masters say, "No, we have to go beyond awareness."

Awareness in the mental domain is, "What am I doing, what am I seeing, what am I eating, how am I behaving?" These are all in the field of the mind, but beyond the mind, there are many regions. And it is aspiration that takes us to the regions beyond the mind. So long as we are in the mind, we can be and we must be fully aware of all the activities that are taking place in the physical, in the vital, in the mind proper and in the world that is visible with our ordinary, outer eye. So awareness is the domain of the mind and if one wants to go one step ahead of awareness, then I am glad to say that it is in aspiration, the mounting flame. That mounting flame is deep within us, the mounting flame that climbs up to the Highest, the pinnacle. But we have to start our journey with awareness because without being aware of what we are going to do, say or become, we will be, in no way, making any progress. But this progress is very limited in comparison to our soul’s realisation which we get on the strength of our aspiration. Again I wish to say that awareness is of paramount importance to start the inner journey, to launch into the path of the Spirit.

Concentration

Concentration is the surest way to reach the goal. The goal can be God-Realisation, the goal can be success in a material field, the goal can be merely the fulfilment of human desires. It is concentration that acts like an arrow and enters into the target. He who is wanting in the power of concentration is no better than a monkey. A real aspirant, a devotee, sooner or later acquires the power of concentration either by the Grace of God or through his constant practice of the inner life or through aspiration. Concentration should be like a bullet entering and piercing the mail-coat of ignorance. Concentration is a real divine hero in each aspirant. Each aspirant can declare and proclaim that he has a divine hero, a divine soldier in him. And what is that divine warrior? It is his concentration. So if one wants to achieve or reach a goal in any walk of life, whether it is the human, earthly journey toward emancipation or the soul’s journey toward the absolute realisation, then I wish to say that concentration is the answer. Concentration is the aspirant’s true divine pride.

Nirvana

When our Cosmic play is done, we enter into Nirvana, the Nirvanic state. Nirvana is the cessation of earthly activities. It is pure Bliss. This world is the playground of the dance of the Cosmic forces, but when we enter into Nirvana, the Cosmic forces yield to the ultimate Highest Truth and there the Knower, the Known and the Knowledge (the wisdom) are like three angels blended into one. We become both the Knower and the Known. Nirvana, however, is not the highest state for the divine worker. If one wants to serve God, the Supreme, here on earth, then he has to come back into the world again and again and serve the Supreme in humanity. This does not mean that the divine worker cannot have the experience of Nirvana. The experience of Nirvana is at the command of a truly God-Realised soul who wants to be a divine worker. If one does not have the experience of Nirvana, one cannot usually know what illusion is. The world, according to some spiritual teachers, is an illusion. When one enters into Nirvana, one realises what illusion is, what Maya is. But Nirvana is a very, very, very, very high state.

Beyond Nirvana is the state of Absolute Oneness. This oneness is dynamic oneness with God. Nirvana is the static oneness. There everything comes to an end in the static Bliss; this Bliss is unimaginable, unfathomable, indescribable. But if one wants to manifest the Supreme, manifest Divinity here in the field of creation, then one has to work in the absolute dynamism of the Supreme and not rest in Nirvana. But again, if one is a tired soul and wants to go beyond the conflict, beyond the capacities of the cosmic forces, then I wish to say that Nirvana has to be, is to be welcomed. Nirvana is for those who want to be satisfied with this static aspect of the Brahman Supreme. But if one wants to embody both the static and dynamic aspects of the Supreme and wants to work for the Supreme on earth, then I wish to say that one should go beyond Nirvana and enter the field of manifestation.

Joy

The world is crying for one thing and that is Joy. God Himself is trying to establish only one thing on earth in His creation and that is Joy. What you call Joy, we call in the deeper philosophy Bliss. This Bliss comes only when we want to know the Truth, feel the Truth, realise the Truth and become the Truth. Until we become the Truth, there can be no abiding joy. Very often we are mistaken; we are confused by the words "joy" and "pleasure". Very often people mistake pleasure for joy. In the ordinary world, the human conception of pleasure is erroneous. Pleasure is something that binds you, something that is fleeting and immediately is followed by frustration, anxiety, worry and depression and so forth. But Joy, real Joy is something that constantly grows, flows and gives us the feeling that we can walk farther, we can dive deeper, we can fly higher. When we truly embody Joy, inner Joy, we become the perfect expression of God’s Vision, Promise and Reality. What is God’s Vision? God’s Vision is that each human being can be as perfect, as compassionate, as powerful and merciful as He is. That is His Vision. What is His Promise? God’s promise is that He will make each individual feel that he can become God Himself eventually. And what is God’s Reality? God’s Reality is that each individual is already God unmanifested. So when one really possesses inner Joy, one will be endowed with God’s Vision, God’s Promise and God’s Reality.

Confidence

First of all, we have to have confidence in ourselves and then in God. If you say, "I do not have confidence in myself; I have confidence only in God," this is an indirect way of placing your responsibility at the feet of God. Then if you say, "I have confidence in myself but not in God", that kind of confidence is an erroneous conception of your own very limited capacity. In the spiritual life, when you say that you have confidence in yourself, it means that you are really and truly the channel of God. This is the confidence that is required, that you feel that God exists and that you are His child, His chosen child. Unless I have the confidence that I am God’s child, I will never make an attempt to bring to the fore my inner divine qualities. So when I make myself feel that I am God’s child and when that confidence looms large in me, only then is it possible to go one step forward. My self-confidence is absolutely necessary, but it does not give me the fullest realisation of Truth. But I know that with my own confidence, one day I will be able to achieve the highest, the deepest. From whom? From God. And here I must have confidence in God, not only that He has the highest and deepest Truth, but that He will give it to me. That much confidence I must have in Him: first, confidence in my knowledge that I am God’s child and that I have the power to aspire; second, confidence in God, that not only has He the Highest that I am aspiring for, but that He will give me what I need. So when I become the possessor of both these confidences, aspiration and God’s Realisation go together. Confidence is absolutely necessary in the inner life. In the ordinary human life, if one lacks confidence, someone else can help him, but in the spiritual life, if one does not have confidence, no matter how great his spiritual master may be, the disciple cannot go far. So confidence is of paramount importance in the disciple’s life.

Renunciation

From the strict spiritual point of view, renunciation, the so-called earthly renunciation is not necessary for an aspirant. At the same time, we have to know what we mean by renunciation. If renunciation means leaving the family aside, not caring for society or humanity, then I wish to say that no matter what we renounce today, there will be something else tomorrow to stand in our way. Today the family is the obstacle; tomorrow it will be our friends or relatives; the day after tomorrow, it will be our country and the day after the world. There will be no end to this kind of renunciation.

Certainly we have to renounce in the spiritual life. What are we going to renounce? We are going to renounce fear, doubt, imperfection, ignorance and death. We are not going to renounce individuals; we are going to renounce qualities, the qualities which stand in the way of our union with the Divine. When we enter into the spiritual life, we get the opportunity to renounce, or rather to transform those qualities. When we speak of renouncing or transforming something, we immediately think of ignorance. Truly it is the one thing that we have to transform in our spiritual life.

Renunciation can never he applied to the world or to our dearest ones. If somebody says he is going to renounce the world in order to realise God, then I wish to say that he is mistaken. Today he will renounce the world and tomorrow he will find that the God he is seeking is nowhere else. He is in the world itself. So what is preventing him from seeing God in the world? It is his attitude. He has to try to see God in humanity. In order to see God in humanity, he has to remove the veil of ignorance that lies between him and the rest of the world. When the veil is rent, when the veil is, in fact, removed, there is nothing to be renounced. One sees God, one feels God, one is in God, here and beyond.

Prana

Prana is a Sanskrit word. It means life-breath, life-force, life-energy. Prana is a cosmic force or a cosmic energy which operates in the physical body. The human has a short span of life in which the prana lasts for forty, sixty or eighty years. But the cosmic energy in its own sphere lasts for Eternity. There is a connection, a connecting link between the cosmic energy which is infinite and the prana, as it is called when it enters into our physical body. It is the soul which calls the prana into the physical body for a short span of years. The soul and the prana work together. Then when it is God’s Will, the connection breaks between the cosmic energy and the prana enclosed in the physical frame. Then we lose the body; we die.

Now how can we make the best use of prana, this life-breath, this life-force? It is through purity. The purer we can be in our inner and outer life, the easier it will be for the life-force to act in accordance with the Will of God.

When prana becomes one with the cosmic will, immediately we see a great achievement, a grand achievement in our inner life. That achievement may come to us in the form of peace, in the form of joy or in the form of fulfilment. So when we meditate, if we can become conscious of our breathing, it will help us to become conscious of the great Divine Breath of which we are the instruments. When we start to meditate, if the flow of prana is spontaneous, steady and unobstructed, then the inner being is in a position to bring forward the inner wealth and make the outer personality feel, fulfil and realise the Highest. So, to come back, in order to get the best out of prana, one has to be fully, unreservedly and totally pure in one’s outer life and inner life. Then when prana, the life-force, is used in the service of the Supreme, he becomes the greatest pride of the Supreme.

Courage

In one of our Upanishads, it says that the soul is not to be won by the weakling. Courage is absolutely necessary in the spiritual life. It will be fruitless, on our part, to launch into the spiritual life if we do not have courage. This courage is not the courage of a haughty, rough person who will strike anyone in order to feel himself superior. This courage is totally different. This courage is our constant awareness of what we are going to become, of what we are entering into, what we are going to reveal. Here we have to jump courageously into the ocean of spirituality and when we jump, we have to know that we are not jumping into the sea of uncertainty. Uncertainty and spirituality never go together. So when we speak of courage, I wish to say that courage means certainty, it is not by hook or by crook that we are going to have God-Realisation; it is through constant self-offering. Self-offering is the most powerful weapon and it is in self-offering that true courage lies. When we know, feel and realise that God is ours and we belong to God, we get spontaneous courage streaming forth.

God and you are eternally one, one fulfilling the other. If you have indomitable courage or the soul will-power you can fulfil the Supreme and the Supreme can fulfil you. This you feel on the strength of your all-giving, all-sacrificing inner indomitable courage.

Selflessness

Selflessness has its true significance only in some higher ideal, higher reality, higher truth. Selflessness has to have an ideal, a realised soul, in order to fulfil itself. For the seeker of the ultimate Truth, selflessness means to embrace the ideal of the Master, the Guru. The disciple’s selflessness is the peerless treasure of the Supreme. This selflessness is the conscious inner cry for oneness with the Master, his ideal, his mission on earth. Total oneness with the Master’s ideal is the supremely significant task. If one does not identify with the Master’s consciousness, then one can never selflessly serve his ideals. So I wish to tell you that there can be nothing more important, more significant than selflessness. It is the real prize that God can cherish in your aspiring heart.

Creation

Each moment we are creating ourselves or rather God is creating Himself in us; but when we create ourselves without God’s Will, ideas, feelings, we break the real Truth. When we create with our mind, with our vital, with our physical life without being aware of what God’s intention is, we can seem to create, but actually in God’s view or in our soul’s view, we are uncreative. When we become the channel of the soul’s will, the soul’s intention, then at times outwardly we may seem to be doing nothing, wasting time, breaking the so-called laws of earthly life, paying no attention to earthly duties. But what we are actually doing is creating something deep in us. What we often do is to create something in us which is not the intention of our soul. We try to create ourselves by fulfilling our desires. God wants us to create His Life in us at every moment, to create His Dream in us consciously. Now when we say that we are God’s creation, if we say it from the mind, we do not actually feel it. We feel it only when we live the life of aspiration. Your creation is you yourself and that creation has to be moulded and guided and perfected by the Supreme in your Guru. It has to grow in the constant guidance of the Supreme. So offer yourself as a flower at the feet of the Supreme and your Guru. Then and only then will your creation be the constant instrument and fulfilment of the Supreme.

Eternity

Eternity, Infinity and Immortality: these three go together. Now when depression comes and attacks us, when frustration comes and attacks us and when worry and anxiety come and attack us and make us feel that we will never realise God, that time is very short, then immediately we have to take shelter in Eternity. Eternity has to be lived in our day-to-day life. We are eternal, we belong to Eternity. Each moment if we can feel that we belong to Eternity, then worries leave us, frustration leaves us, all negative thoughts and ideas leave us. But this eternity should not be just a kind of tendency to feel "Oh! we can wallow in the pleasure of idleness because we are eternal and of course one day we’ll realise God." No. We must try our utmost to realise God here and now at this very moment, but at the same time offering ourselves devotedly, soulfully, at the feet of the Supreme. His Eternity, His Now is our chance. He belongs to the eternal Now. The Supreme is always the eternal Now. So when the world wants to pull us back, we have to feel that we are not lost, we are in the eternal Now. For an aspirant, a spiritual person, eternity is nothing but the eternal Now.

Light

Light and darkness. Darkness makes us feel that we are nothing, we can do nothing, we are useless. Light makes us feel that we are everything, we can do everything, we can become everything. Now where is the Light, the real Light? The real Light is in the soul; it is not in the physical, it is not in the mind. It is deep in the soul. This Light is the constant expression of Truth. Wherever there is Light, there is expansion. Expansion of what? Expansion of Truth. Light and Truth go together. Darkness and conflict go together. Light one receives when one stays in the soul. Light one receives when one who is a sincere aspirant enters into the Master’s consciousness. The Master’s, the Guru’s consciousness is always inundated with spiritual Light, the Light of the Beyond. The light that we say we get from friends, relatives, worldly people, is no real light. It is only the chain of thoughts and ideas to which we give value. We always feel that others have more understanding and more knowledge than we. No, you will have more light than anybody when you stay in the soul. Your soul has infinitely more light than anybody else who is giving you intellectual information or outer knowledge. Now how can you enter into the soul in order to see the Light, feel the Light, and utilise the Light?

You can reach the Light by throwing off fear, the fear that is around you, in front of you, or the fear that is ahead of you; the fear of two years hence or three years or six years. The fear about your children, your friends, your country, your earth. You are the victim of fear, of the past, present and future, both in your own life and the life of your loved ones. If you have fear, you cannot enter into the soul. If you cannot enter into the soul you do not get the soul’s Light. So please try to discard fear from your outer life and also from your inner life. Then you will see that you are constantly being nourished by your soul’s Light and the Light of your Guru.

Humility

I am most happy to hear the word Humility. In our spiritual life, there can be nothing, nothing greater than humility. True wisdom, inner wisdom lies in humility. One has to be humble to whom? One has to be humble to the one whom he has accepted as a Guide, a Pilot, in his inner life.

Now some people are humble only in the inner life; in the outer life they are very rude; they know everything. When it is a matter of aspiration, they are humble to their Master; when it is a matter of worldly wisdom, they think that they know infinitely more than the Master. The Master is then helpless. I wish to say that a spiritual Master, even in the outer world, is more capable of seeing the Truth, than the worldly-trained person because the Master is in constant touch with the Highest, the Supreme. When I tell some of you things about your outer life, your family life, your business life, your office life, I wish you to feel that I am telling you this from the Highest Source. But if you people feel, "No, you don’t understand; you would have to meet such-and-such a person, or learn such-and-such a skill," then I am not ready to help you. Beyond the physical is the spiritual and it is in the spiritual that the real Truth lies. It is from the spiritual, from the subtle physical that one can most effectively change the physical. So when it is a matter of action in the physical world, I wish to tell people and especially disciples, that if they take a humble attitude, if they are really humble, basking in the sunshine of true humility, then I can act. I can run and I can make them run speedily.

Very often their doctor tells them something; I tell them something else. Now I am not an M.D. I have not a doctor’s qualifications. But I wish to tell the disciples that I enter into the patient’s, the sufferer’s body infinitely faster than the X-Ray machine. At that time, if the Supreme wants me to tell the disciple what he should do, I tell. Naturally, at that time, the disciple should listen to me and not listen to the doctor’s advice. But again I am humble to the doctors because they are also doing God’s work and they are fulfilling God in their own way. But when there is a conflict between the doctor and a spiritual person, between the medical doctor and the spiritual doctor, I wish my disciples to understand that I go to the Source, the ultimate Source and then I tell them the absolute Truth. It is not only in the case of their illness, but in all aspects of their lives. I want to tell the disciples who have really accepted me that even in their outer lives, where they have had forty or fifty years of experience in practising some profession or dealing with someone, if I say "Do this", then I wish them to be wise and really humble and do it! The outer results may be, for the time being, painful or hurtful or even apparently harmful, but inside the process is being worked out and fulfilled in accordance with God’s Plan. Almost immediately the problems will he solved.

If there is no constant humility on the disciple’s part, then the Master is really digging a barren field. I am a farmer, a sincere farmer; I cultivate, I cultivate, but from some disciples I do not get any crop, not to speak of a bumper crop. Why? Because what I want to give is very rarely accepted with humility.

Sometimes people accept me when it suits their purpose. Very often my disciples listen to me either when it suits their purpose or when it is what they themselves want to do and they are delighted when I immediately say yes. Or when there is no way out, when they are blocked, they call me up and this becomes the time to offer their deep humility or surrender. I must not feel sad… only I feel that I am not given the proper chance, I am not given the full opportunity to act with or through the disciples. So I wish to say that I am very glad that you have asked me about Humility. All the disciples should feel that when it is a matter of the outer life, a problem, if you discuss the matter with humility and at the same time with the inner conviction that what the Master is saying is absolutely correct, if you feel this with full sincerity and with the spontaneous joy of acceptance, then you are my true disciple and your life can be a song of freedom and oneness with me.

Humility is the real secret of the spiritual life. If you want to make immediate inner progress, you have to be humble, not only in the inner life, but also in the outer life. Then only one realises God sooner than one’s expectations. Otherwise I am working, meditating and concentrating in vain. Something else is necessary along with my action and that is your real, spiritual attitude. What is the real attitude? It is humility. If we knock at God’s door without humility, God’s door will never open to us. So let us go and knock as humbly as possible at the door of the Supreme, Him to realise, Him to fulfil.

Virtue

To be an honest person, to tell the truth, to do nice things, to have a wonderful heart, a noble character, to do things that others may follow in is virtue. But the greatest virtue lies in the embodiment of Truth. This is not the ordinary truth, but the real Truth which says that I am the Truth. The ordinary truth says now I am telling lies, now I am telling the truth. But the real Truth is something different. The real Truth holds the world, the entire creation. Here, Creation and Truth cannot be separated. At present we separate them; we say Creation is here; Truth is there. But when we speak of the real Truth, it is oneness. The Ultimate Truth is absolute oneness with everything in the universe. We all have to become that Oneness.

Love

First of all, let us try to know what love is. If love means to possess someone or something, then that is not real love, not pure love. If love means to give oneself, to become one with everything and with humanity, then that is real love. Real love is total oneness with the object loved and with the Possessor of love. Who is the Possessor of love? God. Without love, we cannot become one with God. Love is the inner bond, the inner connection, the inner link between man and God, between the finite and the Infinite. We must always approach God through love. The first step is love; the second step is devotion; the third step is surrender. First let us love God; then we have to devote ourselves to Him alone; third we have to be at His feet and fulfil ourselves. So if we go throughout our journey with absolute love, we can never fail to reach God or fulfil Him in our own lives or in humanity. Where there is pure love, divine love, there is fulfilment. Where there is no divine love, it is all misery, frustration and finally it is spiritual death. Love is the secret key to open the Door of God.