The inner promise¹

The inner promise. The inner promise is a seeker’s inner progress. This progress inspires him, energises him and helps him to please God in God’s own way. The outer promise we make quite often, but the inner promise we make once or twice, not more, during our life’s span. The outer promise we make, but the inner promise we keep — we try to live up to it. Finally, we try to manifest this inner promise on earth. The outer promise we make to ignorance, to teeming ignorance, but the inner promise we make to God. Our outer promise is to torture the world either consciously or unconsciously or try to destroy the world. Change the face of the world and fulfil the world with the Divine Will, this is our inner promise that we have made to God.

Now, there are three steps, significant steps, to this inner promise. God is to be seen, God is to be felt and finally, God is to be realised. To see God we have to be far, far away from the snares of darkness and ignorance. To feel God, we have to live in the domain and realm of aspiration — the mounting flame within us. To realise God, we have to grow into divine and constant and supreme surrender.

After we have attained to God-realisation, there are two most significant steps, two more significant promises we have to make. These promises are God-revelation and God-manifestation. God-revelation is the promise made by the God-realised souls on the strength of their unconditional concern for suffering humanity. And God-manifestation is the unconditional promise of the God-realised souls to love mankind unconditionally and to manifest the Reality of Divinity here on earth.

In our day to day life, we see a child making promises to his mother. He won’t tell a lie. He won’t do anything wrong. But unfortunately, he tells lies, he makes mistakes and so forth. But the mother has boundless patience. She feels that sooner or later her child will tell the truth and will do everything right. Then, as a young boy, a teenager, he does quite a few things wrong and he promises to his parents that he will not do them anymore. Unfortunately he fails to keep his promise. But his parents have the capacity to forgive him. They feel that either today or tomorrow he will turn a new leaf. This is the inner confidence that they have on their son.

So in the spiritual life also, many people, many seekers make an inner promise, an inner commitment. They say that they will enter into the spiritual life, they will give real importance to the life of purity, life of aspiration, life of realisation, but unfortunately they fail to fulfil their promise. Nevertheless, God’s boundless compassion never leaves them. God, with His adamantine Will and with His vision of the ever-transcending beyond, sees that these seekers will sooner or later enter into the right path and they will walk, march, run towards the destined goal.

And then there are some advanced seekers who have made considerable progress in their inner life and who have made a promise to their own inner beings and to God that they will not give up their spiritual quest or journey unless and until they have realised God. God-realisation is their sole aim. As ill-luck would have it, after having some higher experiences, they do not want to march farther. They feel that these experiences that they have already acquired are more than enough, at least for this life. So they don’t want to go any farther. God-realisation at that point they do not need or they do not want. So God-realisation remains a far cry for them. But God knew that with utmost sincerity these seekers entered into the spiritual life and they have made considerable progress, but now they don’t want to run towards their destined goal. They don’t want to reach the farthest end of the golden shore. God again with His boundless compassion, observes the situation and tells the seekers, “Look, you will never be fulfilled. You will never see the face of satisfaction until you have seen the golden shore. You have not fulfilled your promise. But My promise to you is unconditional. I shall wait for you. I shall take you, carry you to the destined shore of the golden all at My choice hour. If you don’t want to run fast, faster, fastest, it is up to you, but you have to know that nobody on earth can remain unrealised, unfulfilled.” God says that this is the supreme decree. Each individual has to realise the highest Truth, but he who aspires will naturally reach the goal sooner than the others who are still in the world of sleep.

As human beings, most of us are extremely clever. We are clever, but we are not wise. We try to deceive others, human beings. Not only that — we go to the length of deceiving our Inner Pilot, God. In spite of knowing that we can never, never deceive the Inner Pilot, we unconsciously, sometimes consciously, deliberately try to deceive the Inner Pilot, God. We tell God, “Oh God, if You give us some inner wealth (that is to say, peace, light, bliss and so forth) we shall offer half of our peace, light and bliss to mankind. We shall not grab them all. We shall not use them all for ourselves.” It is just like saying to God, “If You give me a dollar, I will give half to mankind and only half I shall keep for myself.”

Now, God observes our sincerity. He examines the face of sincerity — whether we are really sincere or not. And what happens? God gives us peace, light, bliss, divine qualities to some extent and we feel that it was not according to our satisfaction. What do we do? Immediately we say, “Oh God, You have not given us the full amount, the full quantity. I wanted to have a dollar but You have given me half a dollar. You are very clever. You have already kept half a dollar for Yourself, that is to say, for humanity. So I cannot give humanity the peace, light, bliss that I already have, because I feel that You have not given me the full amount.”

How we try to deceive the divinity in humanity. Everybody here, here at this place, has something to offer — peace, light or bliss, sincerity, simplicity. There is nobody on earth who is not in a position to help the rest of mankind. This help, this service, if I can use the term service, can be offered by any individual here on earth. If somebody feels that he is more sincere than somebody else, then let his sincerity be shared with other persons. If somebody feels that he is pure, purer than somebody else, his neighbours or friends, let him share his purity. If somebody feels that he has aspiration, more aspiration than his friends or neighbours, let him share it. This is the promise that every moment we can make to God. And then we come to realise that every time when the soul enters into the field of creation and manifestation, the soul makes a most solemn promise to God, the Pilot Supreme, to try its utmost to reveal God here on earth. But unfortunately when the soul enters into the world, ignorance the sea tries to envelop the soul and our body, vital, mind and heart consciously or unconsciously get pleasure in identifying themselves with the ignorance-sea. But the soul is all-forgiving. It does not cast aside the body, vital, mind and heart. It has boundless patience.

If this body, vital, mind and heart identify themselves with the soul, then if they want to see the Truth with the soul’s eye — if that is their promise, if that is their only promise, inner promise, then the date of God-realisation, God-revelation and God manifestation on earth is not very far. Each individual can make a solemn promise to himself, to herself, to humanity at large. This is a promise of dedicated self-service. And when he fulfils his inner promise, God fulfils His highest promise of absolute Perfection in and through the aspirant.

1.

When I was an animal I evolved through selfishness. Now that I am a man my evolution can be achieved only through self-sacrifice.

The inner teaching²

We get the inner teaching either from a spiritual master or from our own soul. It is infinitely easier for us to get this inner teaching from a spiritual master, for we can speak to him and see him daily. He understands our language. He is one with us. Although in the inner world he is infinitely superior to us, he is in us and for us. His inner consciousness is flooded with peace, light and bliss. But we have to know that a day shall dawn when the message of the soul and the spiritual master’s teaching must go together. There can be no difference, no iota of difference between their teachings. But unless and until one has the capacity to dive deep within, it is always better and safer to listen to one’s master. It is not that one has to have a spiritual master all his life. No. For some time, especially at the beginning, one must have a spiritual master. When he himself realises the highest Truth, he does not need any spiritual guidance. He himself grows into effulgent light. The inner soul within him comes to the fore and leads him, guides him and moulds him and perfects his inner and outer nature.

The inner teaching. The inner teaching teaches us how to love mankind and how to serve the divinity in humanity. Simplicity, sincerity and purity — these are the three things that we need in our inner life. Simplicity, sincerity and purity.

Simplicity we need at every moment, for if the mind is not simple, if the mind is complicated, complex, then there can be no peace in our mind. A child is simple. He is all joy. In our day to day existence, unfortunately, we do not pay any attention to simplicity. If we go deep within, if we have a simple mind, simple existence we shall feel how lucky, how happy and how fortunate we are.

Sincerity — it is the life of our heart. If we have sincerity, then we have to know that we are already marching towards our destined goal. Sincerity is our safe-guard. Each moment a sincere seeker is running towards his destined goal, either consciously or unconsciously. If we want to make constant progress here on earth, then what we need is a sincere heart.

Purity — purity in the body. This purity does not mean that we have to take bath ten times a day. No. It is the inner purity that we need and not the outer cleanliness. When we are pure, we can receive the divine peace, light, bliss and power in abundant measure. And when we can maintain our purity, peace, joy, light, bliss and power can dawn on earth. Here the whole role of purity is of paramount importance in our spiritual life.

In the inner teaching the roles of fear and doubt, courage and certainty. Fear, what is it? When we follow the spiritual life, we come to realise sooner than at once that fear is a real enemy. What does it do? It buys our coffin, long before we are destined to die. Doubt — it starts digging our grave while we are still alive, while still we are performing our earthly duties.

Courage — courage is our inner indomitable will. The outer expression of our inner indomitable will is manifested in the form of outer courage. Each moment we can see the reality, stand in front of reality, face to face.

Certainty — God is ours. God is not the sole monopoly of an individual. It is not that only realised souls can dare to claim that God belongs only to them. No. Far from it. Each individual has the right to proclaim that God is his, he belongs to God. He has to feel that God and he are eternally one and that God-realisation is his birthright.

The inner teaching. What do we learn from the inner teaching? Aspiration. It is the inner flame, mounting cry within us. Each individual has this burning flame within. But unfortunately, most of us do not take the trouble to use the flame of aspiration within us. We are fond of using something else in our day to day life — desire. Desire is something that binds us. Aspiration is something that frees us. The message of desire is to possess and be possessed. The message of aspiration is to expand, enlarge and immortalise our earthly existence.

When we desire, we live in the world of anxiety, worry, frustration, limitations, bondage and death. When we aspire, we live here on earth in our divine consciousness. We feel the message, the life-breath of infinity, eternity and immortality. These are not vague terms — infinity, eternity and immortality. Far from it. He who prays, he who meditates, he who concentrates, he who contemplates daily can easily enter into the domain of infinity, eternity and immortality. His consciousness is bound to be flooded with infinity’s peace, eternity’s light and immortality’s bliss.

The outer knowledge tells us how we can lord it over the world, how we can destroy the world. But the inner knowledge tells us how we can inseparably be one with God’s entire creation. Inner teaching means inseparable oneness, not only with the Creator, but also with His creation.

Inner teaching is very simple. As my introducer was kind enough and wise enough to say, that real Indian philosophy is not complicated, but people make it complicated and then they misunderstand it. The inner teaching also similarly at times has become a victim to complicated terms and so forth. Inner teaching is very, very simple. Anyone, anyone can learn the inner life, can try to live the inner life, can fulfil his inner existence, divine existence here on earth.

Philosophy is not the answer to the inner life. Religion is not the answer. Philosophy helps. Religion, too, helps to some extent, but spirituality, let us use the term ‘yoga’ — Sanskrit word, is by far the best answer to the inner life. Yoga means union. Conscious union with God. If we cry for our conscious union with God, then easily, without the least possible hesitation, we can live the inner life.

Now, philosophy — let us use the Sanskrit word darshan. It means to envision, to see. One of our India’s greatest spiritual masters, Sri Ramakrishna, said, “In days of yore people used to have vision. Now people study _darshan_!” This is the difference of Vedic seers who had the highest illumined vision and those who just study philosophy.

Religion, when we go deep inside religion, without fail we get the message of truth, but we don’t go deep within. I say, “My Hinduism is by far the best.” Immediately you tell me, “Stop! Stop! No comparison. Christianity is by far the best.” Then a follower of Judaism will not hesitate to contradict both of us. He will say, “No. Judaism is by far the best.” So this goes on, no end. This is our outer teaching. Each one is right in his own limited way. But we have to know the inner oneness, inseparable oneness with God and His creation. We can consciously achieve this oneness only through proper prayers, concentration, meditation and contemplation. Yoga transcends all religions. Religion is right in its own way. Philosophy is right in its own way. Philosophy can lead us right up to the door. Religion can lead us a few steps inside the room, but real meditation and spirituality — yoga, not only leads you right up to the throne, but will make you sit on the throne itself.

When you follow the path of yoga, you will see that there is no quarrel, no conflict. I must add that one has to follow the path meant for him. Otherwise conflicts will arise. Each path claims to be by far the best. No. A sincere seeker, if he is a real sincere seeker, he will not find fault with any path.

As you know, there are three principal paths — karma yoga, the path of action and dedication; bhakti yoga, the path of love and devotion and jnana yoga, the path of knowledge and wisdom. But again in jnana yoga, the path of knowledge and wisdom, there is a special branch. We call it raja yoga, which you call in the West ‘mysticism’.

But I wish to say that if one is a true sincere seeker, genuine seeker, and if he follows the path of love and devotion, he cannot say a single word against the seeker who is following the path of knowledge, because we know all roads ultimately lead to Rome. I only take one road and you may take some other road but Rome is there — the goal. Each road has the right to lead the aspirant to his destined goal. So how can I contradict other paths? It is sheer foolishness on our part to discard other’s discovery.

Now, our inner teaching tells us that it is true that all paths will lead to Rome, to our destined goal, God. But there can be a path that leads us faster than the other paths. And that path is the path of love, devotion and surrender. All roads will lead us to our destination, but you can say that there are shortcuts. Here the path of love leads us much faster to our destination.

Now, when we follow the path of love, we find our spiritual life, inner life, most satisfactory. Here God is dearest to us, not because He is omnipotent, omnipresent or omniscient, but because He is all love. A child feels that his father is dearest to him precisely because he feels inside his father all love. He does not care to know how great his father is, whether his father is the magistrate, or barrister or president. Just because his father is dearest to him. Similarly, God, our eternal Father, can be approached most successfully and most convincingly with love. When we approach Him with love, we see that He is all love and when we just open our eyes and try to look at Him, we see that He is right in front of us, blessing us, embracing us. He says, “My child, I have been all the time waiting for you.” Here, love means one’s constant feeling of inseparable oneness with one’s Beloved.

The end of all inner teaching is love, the divine love — not human love. Human love binds; the result is frustration. And at the end of frustration, destruction looms large. But divine love is expansion, enlargement, feeling of one’s true oneness. So it we love a human being, we have to know that we love him precisely because deep inside that particular being is God — not because he is my father, or she is my mother or he is my brother, she is my sister and so forth. No. I love him just because inside the particular person I feel, I see the living presence of my dearest Beloved.

For those who want to follow the spiritual path, those who want to feel God as their very own, I wish to say, Love Divine is the answer. In Love Divine looms large and important the seeker’s real fulfilment and perfect perfection. This is the easiest path. This love is most convincing, most efficient. We all can practise the inner teaching by offering our true love to God, to the divinity inside humanity. The more we offer this divine love, the more we fulfil the Inner Pilot within and without us.

Life Divine is not a far cry here on earth. The fulfilment of divinity here on earth can never remain a far cry, if we know the secret of secrets. And that secret is to grow into the divine love where the lover and the Beloved become one, where the creation and the Creator become one, where the finite and the infinite become one. And it is here on earth that the message, the soul-stirring flute of infinity we shall hear. We don t have to go to heaven; we don’t have to go to any realms of consciousness, but right here, here and now, we can hear the message of liberation, enlightenment and divine fulfilment, if we follow the inner teaching which is Love Divine — love for love s sake, love for God’s sake.

The universe³

Oxford, to you I bow because you hold your tradition. Oxford, to you I bow because you own English glory. Oxford, to you I bow because you are the English pride.

Aum. Aum is God. Aum is the Inner Pilot. Aum is the universe.

Aum.

Pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṃ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate
Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate

The universe. Infinity is that. Infinity is this. From infinity, infinity has come into existence. When infinity is taken away, infinity remains the same.

Aum.

Marcus Aurelius said, “The man who does not know what the universe is, does not know where he lives.”

The universe. The universe is God’s Creation and man’s realisation. The universe is God’s Compassion and man’s emancipation. The universe is God’s Concentration and man’s transformation. The universe is God’s Meditation and man’s revelation. The universe is God’s Contemplation and man’s manifestation.

The poet in me tells me that the universe is beautiful.

The singer in me tells me that the universe is enchanting.

The philosopher in me tells me that the universe is meaningful.

The Yogi in me tells me that the universe is soulful.

The God-lover in me tells me that the universe is fruitful.

My poet sees the truth. My singer feels the truth. My philosopher achieves the truth. My Yogi realises the truth and my God-lover becomes the truth.

Man’s dictionary houses millions of words. But God’s dictionary has only two words — aspiration and receptivity. Aspiration and receptivity are the two words we see in God’s dictionary. God out of His boundless Bounty offers these two most significant words, should I say, this significant wealth, to mankind — aspiration and receptivity. The aspiration of today is tomorrow’s salvation. The receptivity of today is tomorrow’s infinity.

In the finite we have to hear the message of the infinite. In the fleeting second we have to hear the message of the eternal beyond. In the domain of death, we have to hear the message of immortality.

Here at this point, the immortal poet Blake sings through us and for us:

This is the message a spiritual seeker can cherish. His inner being, inner life can be surcharged with this message and this message can reverberate in the inmost recesses of his aspiring heart.

The outer universe, the inner universe and the inmost universe. My physics friend, my chemistry friend, my geography friend, my astronomy friend — all of them inform me about the outer universe. I am most grateful to them. My psychology friend and my philosophy friend tell me about the inner universe. I am most grateful to them. My Yogi friend and my Avatar friend tell me about the inmost universe. I am most grateful to them. I ask them if they are totally satisfied with their achievements, discoveries and realisations. They flatly say, “No.”

My friends in the outer universe tell me that they have much more to discover and unravel. My friends in the inner universe tell me that they have much more to embody and realise. Finally, my friends in the inmost universe tell me that they have much more to reveal and manifest.

The visible universe and the invisible universe. The thinker in us sees the visible universe with the aspiring mind. The knower in us feels the visible universe with the aspiring heart. Now the invisible universe — in order to enter into the invisible universe, what we need is the soul’s illumining light. If we do not see with the soul’s illumining light, if we do not listen to the dictates of our soul, it is simply impossible for us to enter into the invisible universe.

The living universe and the evolving universe, the dying universe and the perishing universe. When we aspire, when we try to go beyond the boundaries of the finite, consciously, soulfully and spontaneously, we live in the living and the evolving universe. When we cherish doubt, jealousy, fear, imperfections, bondage, limitations and death, unconsciously or consciously, we live in the dying and perishing universe.

If we want to live in the universe, the spiritual universe or the real universe, we have to know that we have to abide by the laws of the universe. What are the laws of the universe? Love and serve. Love humanity. Serve divinity. We have to serve the divinity in humanity. We have to love humanity in divinity.

At this point, we can recollect the message of Plato, who said, “Through obedience we learn to command.” Now, if we obey the laws of the universe, then we can command ignorance and govern death.

The scientist wants to discover the entire universe. The spiritual person, the seeker of the infinite truth, wants to discover the universe. Now the spiritual scientist and the spiritual person, seeker, will always run together. They have the same message.

The scientist of scientists, Einstein, offers us the most sublime message:

“His life is worthwhile who lives for others.” This is precisely what a spiritual person, a seeker of boundless light and peace tells us. Only he who lives for others has a meaningful life. Verily this is the message of all secret and hallowed religions — ‘live for others’.

Now, science and religion run abreast in this respect. But there is something else. We call it Yoga. It is a Sanskrit word. It means ‘union’ — union with God, union with infinity, eternity and immortality. Now, when we enter into the field of Yoga, we feel that our love, our service that we offer to mankind, is not for others, it is for us, for our enlarged part. There is no such thing as others. All are members of the same family. When we remain in the mire of ignorance, we say “I”, “You”, “Him”, and so forth, but when it is a matter of oneness, inseparable oneness — oneness with God, oneness with mankind, oneness with God’s Creation — then we cannot say that it is for others. It is for our sakes, for the sake of our enlarged and more complete self.

Discovery. Science will discover the truth. Religion, or should I say spirituality, will discover the truth in the universe and Yoga, oneness with God, will realise the ultimate truth for the universe. When the discovery of the scientist is complete, he will see that his universe is manifesting the truth of the ultimate beyond and when religion or spirituality discovers the ultimate truth, it will see that its universe is realising the truth of the ever-transcending beyond. Finally, when Yoga or union, conscious union with God and mankind, completes its journey, it will transform the face of the world. It will illumine the face of the earth.

Discovery of the scientist, discovery of spirituality and religion and discovery of one’s highest oneness, inseparable oneness with God, will run together like three brothers, running towards the eternal Father, the Goal.

2.

Think not. The more you think, the deeper will be your doom. Fear not, surrender. The dauntless spirit resides there.

Before the end of day

Before the end of Day
My Eye of Light shall change
My face of sombre clay
And touch my Spirit’s range.

Before the end of night

Before the end of Night
I can, I shall devour
Sleepless death’s senseless bite.
In me my Supreme, the Power.

I live

I live, I live, ever I live
His Face to see, His Love to be,
Him to receive, Him to achieve;
His Will my Root, His Smile my Tree.

I die and fly

I die, I die, ever I die
To feel His Feet of selfless Grace.
I fly with God Glowing endless high.
No more shall cry my human race.

My green-red journey and my blue-gold journey

Before my green-red journey’s earth-bound flight
My soul shook hands with God’s Compassion-Height.
Before my blue-gold journey’s heaven-bound flight
My life shakes hands with God’s Perfection-Light.

Reality⁴

There are three realities: God, Soul and Life.

God is the Transcendental Reality. Soul is the inmost Reality. Life is the universal Reality. God reveals the Soul. The Soul reveals Life. God, the Reality lives in His creative Will. Soul the Reality lives in its sustaining Will. Life the Reality lives in its fulfilling Will.

Again, God’s Realisation embodies His creative Will, His Concern shelters the soul’s sustaining Will. His Compassion feeds the life’s fulfilling Will.

Reality is a constant and dynamic process of our inner evolution. The Reality of the past is growing; the Reality of the present is soaring; the Reality of the Future will be glowing.

Real Reality is not an escape from Life. It is the acceptance of life, expression of Life and interpretation of Life. When we accept life, we become divine warriors. When we express life, we become conscious representatives of God. When we interpret life, we become God’s eternal pride.

Reality is at once the expansion of our human consciousness and the essence of our divine consciousness. Human consciousness shakes hands with possibility and ability. The divine consciousness embraces faith and surrender. The flowering of human consciousness is Realisation. The flowering of divine consciousness is manifestation. The human consciousness thought that God was unknowable. Now it feels that God is merely unknown. Soon it will realise that God is unmistakeably and unreservedly knowable. The divine consciousness knows that there was nothing, there is nothing and there can be nothing other than God.

Faith is the simple, direct, effective and complete form of Reality. Doubt is the complex, indirect, ineffective and incomplete form of Reality. Faith is God-Comprehension. Faith is God-description. Doubt is Truth-Detention. Doubt is Life-Suffocation.

Reality’s unity is God’s existence. Reality’s multiplicity is God’s experience. Reality’s singularity is God the Eternal Lover.

Reality’s Plurality is God the Eternal Love.

Reality’s Time-Age is Eternity.
Reality’s Experience-Age is Infinity.
Reality’s Realisation-Age is immortality.

3.

Man is Infinity's Heart.
Man is Eternity's Breath.
Man is Immortality's Life.