Proclamations honouring Sri Chinmoy

City of Bristol

BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT 06010
Office of the Mayor

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS,
SRI CHINMOY of India, Director of the Meditation Group of the United Nations, is visiting Bristol, Connecticut on the 8th day of May, 1974; and

WHEREAS,
SRI CHINMOY has travelled to many parts of the globe, presenting his most beautiful and exceptional meditations on God, love and peace (both interior and exterior) to the leaders and people he has met throughout the world; and

WHEREAS,
A beautiful example of SRI CHINMOY'S thinking is the following quote written by him:

”We believe and we hold that each man has the potentiality of reaching the Ultimate Truth. We also believe that man cannot and will not remain imperfect forever. Each man is an instrument of God. When the hour strikes, each individual soul listens to the inner dictates of God. When man listens to God, his imperfections are turned into perfections, his ignorance into knowledge, his searching mind into revealing light and his uncertain reality into all-fulfilling Divinity."

WHEREAS,
India has long been a close and good friend of America; and

WHEREAS,
The Indian people have had such renowned leaders as the saintly MOHANDAS GANDHI a_k_a "Great Soul", who lead his people throughout his life through deep meditation, self denial, and a total resistance to war through peaceful protests of injustice; followed by JAWAHARLAL NEHRU, and now the gracious and lovely INDIRA GANDHI; not to forget her renowned aunt, MADAME PANDIT, who once served as Chairman of the Indian Delegation to the United Nations; and

WHEREAS,
The subject of World Peace is one in which we all believe and are working to achieve; knowing full well the blessings of brotherhood and the extreme folly, cruelty and senselessness of war; and

WHEREAS,
The Peace-loving people of India have bounded together and
over the years formulated a country strongly resistant to
aggression and war and dedicated to the principles of peace
and love.

NOW THEREFORE, I, FRANK J. LONGO, SR., Mayor of the City of Bristol,
feel it is indeed an honor to have as the honored guest of our City this
day the famous devotee to peace and meditation, SRI CHINMOY, and do
hereby proclaim Wednesday, May 8, 1974 as

BRISTOL — INDIA DAY

and encourage our citizens, our lawmakers, and our government to look to India, to help them in their needs, especially in the area of much needed food for that Country, and to welcome SRI CHINMOY this day to our City as a representative of a very strong and good country.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of the City of Bristol, this 8th day of May, 1974.

Mayor Frank J. Longo, Sr.

The Town of West Hartford — Proclamation

WHEREAS Sri Chinmoy has offered his dedicated service to many cities in Connecticut, and

WHEREAS Sri Chinmoy is director of the U. N. Meditation Group and is striving for individual peace, and

WHEREAS in recognition of Sri Chinmoy's philosophy on the nature of man and God, which is taught at the University of Connecticut, and

WHEREAS Sri Chinmoy is helping many people in the state of Connecticut find more inner peace and meaning in their lives, and

WHEREAS today, May 8, 1974 Sri Chinmoy is an honored guest at West Hartford,
I, Catherine C. Reynolds, Mayor, Town of West Hartford do hereby proclaim May 8, 1974 as

SRI CHINMOY DAY

Catherine C. Reynolds
May 6, 1974

University lecture — Love human and Love Divine¹

Dear sisters and brothers, I wish to share with you my humble philosophy, which is based on love. We know that there are two types of love: human love and Love Divine. In human love, what we actually try to do is to possess the many without caring for the One, the Source. But if we do not possess the Source, then the many cannot be of any help to us. If there is no root, then how will the tree grow? How will we be able to claim the branches or the flowers and leaves as our very own? With the divine Love, we go first to the One, the Source, and from there we go to the many. We become one with the root, and then we grow into the tree, which will manifest itself through the branches and leaves, the flowers and fruits. Divine Love is the song of multiplicity in unity.

In human love there is demand or, at least, expectation. Very often we start with demand, and when a higher wisdom dawns we no longer demand, but still we expect something from others. We convince ourselves that this expectation is justified. Since we have done something for others — offered our love — we feel it is quite legitimate to expect something in return.

But in divine Love there is no such thing as demand or expectation. In divine Love we just give what we have and what we are. What we have and what we are is dedicated service. In the human life, before we give our love, we try to discover love in others — that is, their love for us. In the divine Life, before we give our love to others, we try to discover Love in its reality and integrality within ourselves. Only then are we in a position to offer love to others. At first our satisfaction dawns when we feel that those to whom we offer our love accept it wholeheartedly. But there is an even higher form of divine Love when we go beyond this feeling, and give love just for the sake of self-giving. We give, and even if our love is not accepted, we do not mind. We shall go on giving, for we are all love, our Source is all Love.

In human love there is not only demand and expectation, but there is something even worse: withdrawal. First we demand, then we expect. When our expectation is not fulfilled, we sometimes try to withdraw from the person to whom we have offered our love. In divine Love, it is never like that. With divine Love we try to become one with the weakness, imperfection and bondage of others. Although we have inner freedom, we use this inner freedom not to lord it over others, but to become one, consciously one, with their imperfections. In this way we can understand them and serve them at their own level, with a view to transforming their imperfections.

The capacity of human love is so limited that we cannot expand ourselves and totally embrace one another. There is bound to be a feeling of supremacy. I shall love you, no doubt, but I wish to remain an inch higher than you. On that condition I shall love you. The superior loves the inferior because he is satisfied to some extent with his position in this relationship. The inferior very often loves the superior because of his insecurity. So love binds them and gives them both some sense of satisfaction. But in divine Love there is no such thing as superiority and inferiority. Divine Love always gives itself freely and wholeheartedly. Divine Love gets satisfaction only by offering itself totally and unconditionally.

In divine Love, we come to notice that the personal and the impersonal perfectly go together. There is a balance between the two. The personal in us enters into the vast, which is impersonal; and the impersonal in us enters into the personal to manifest its unmanifested Reality, Divinity and Immortality. In human love, the personal and the impersonal are two strangers; worse, they are at daggers drawn. The personal and the impersonal at best try to reach a compromise, but this compromise brings no satisfaction at all; in the very depth of human love, there is always a rivalry and competition between the two. On rare occasions, the personal says to the impersonal, which is inside the human being, “Let us alternate our reality, our height, our wisdom, our capacity. This moment you stand up and I shall remain seated; the next moment I shall stand up and you will sit.”

In human love, very often the physical mind, the doubting mind, the suspecting mind, comes to the fore. But in divine Love, we see only the loving heart, the surrendering heart, the all-beckoning heart. The mind loves a reality because it sees the reality according to its own understanding and vision. But the heart loves a reality because it sees the reality in the reality’s own form. The heart becomes inseparably one with the reality, with the very existence of that reality, both inner and outer. It sees the living breath of the reality in its own form and shape; it sees the body and soul of the reality all together.

In human love, the lover and the beloved are two separate persons. The lover is running toward the beloved, and when he reaches the beloved he finds his satisfaction. In divine Love, the lover and the beloved are one and inseparable. In divine Love, the Lover is the Supreme and the Beloved is the Supreme. In human love, we feel that satisfaction lies somewhere else — not within us, but in somebody else. But in divine Love, satisfaction is found nowhere else but in ourselves. The Lover and the Beloved are one and the same — the Supreme dwelling within and the Supreme outside us. When we speak of our ‘self’ as the divine Lover or Beloved, we have to know that this is the ‘Self' which is both the One and the many. This Self, the Supreme, finds its satisfaction only when It gets a glimpse of God’s Reality, Infinity, Eternity and Immortality in the many. This ‘Self' is the One, and It wants to see and feel Its Reality in the many.

Love is duty. In our human life we see duty as something mechanical, lifeless, forced — something thrust upon us. But in the divine Life, duty is something full of opportunity. At every second an opportunity is dawning for us to expand our life’s consciousness, our life’s reality, our life’s delight. So in the divine Life we welcome duty, for it increases our capacity and potentiality and expands the dream of our divine, unhorizoned Reality.

Life is the lesson of Love. Love is the lesson of Life. When we study Life’s lesson in our human life, the lesson is composed of fear, doubt, anxiety, worry and frustration. But in the divine Life, we see that Love is the lesson not only of Life, but also for Life — for the Life that is everlasting, ever-illumining and ever-fulfilling.

A divine Lover is he who believes in the divine miracle. A human miracle is something that feeds our curiosity, something that lasts for a fleeting second. But the divine miracle is the elevation of consciousness. To raise somebody else’s consciousness, to raise humanity’s consciousness even an iota is the true divine miracle. The conscious help the divine Lover gives to the seeker performs this divine miracle.

We are of God the eternal Love and we are for God the eternal Love. We are of God the Infinite Love and we are for God the Infinite Love. Eternity is the Source of the Silence-life; and Infinity is the message of the sound-life. From the One we came and for the many we exist. This is the real message of divine Love. We are of the One and we are for the many — the many in the One. This is the quintessence of Love Divine.

Poetry selections

Your Master

Your Master observes
More than he admits.

Your Master loves
More than he reveals.

Your Master cries
More than you see.

Your Master gives
More than you need.

What remains

The sweet rainbow comes and goes,
But its beauty remains.

The dear sun comes and goes,
But its duty remains.

The faithful day comes and goes,
But its sound remains.

The restful night comes and goes,
But its silence remains.

Courage

The animal in me
Showed the animal courage
By fighting and strangling.

The human in me
Showed the human courage
By snubbing and belittling.

The divine in me
Shows the divine courage
In accepting and loving.

The Supreme in me
Shows the supreme courage
In transforming, widening, deepening
    And finally transcending.

Short story — Be careful of ex-disciples²

“Master, I am at times so puzzled and so confused.”

“Why, my son?"

“Master, when some of your disciples leave you, they create such problems for me.”

“What kind of problems do they create?”

“They cause unnecessary confusion.”

“Do you mean that you also lose faith in me?”

“No, never!”

“Do you mean that they have a sound and convincing justification for their actions?”

“No, never!”

“Then why are you confused?”

“I do not exactly know why I am confused. But what frightens me, or what confuses me, rather, is this: if I speak to them or mix with them, you may throw me out of your ashram. Recently some of my very close friends left you. Now please tell me, what kind of relationship shall I maintain with them? Shall I totally ignore them? Shall I mix with them? Shall I try to bring them back?”

“Son, wait and see what they do. It is usually not good to ignore anybody. But if necessity demands, you can be totally indifferent. Whether you mix with them or not entirely depends on their inner life. Once someone leaves my ashram, it is useless to try and bring him back. It is just like the case of a broken mirror. You can repair it, but it can never be made perfect again.

“No matter who leaves a Master’s ashram, he will usually speak ill of the Master. When a disciple who is still with the Master hears an ex-disciple’s critical remarks, he may become a victim to doubt; and doubt is nothing but poison in the spiritual life. There are a few reasons why someone may leave my ashram: either he loses faith in me, or he is jealous of others’ achievements and closeness to me, or he wants to go back to his vital pleasure-life. But I tell you, by re-entering into the vital pleasure-life, he cannot discover his true self; by being jealous of others, he cannot discover his true self; by losing faith in me, he cannot discover his true self.

“Now I wish to tell you what you should do when a person leaves our ashram, whether he is a personal friend or a mere acquaintance. If an individual leaves our ashram and immediately goes to some other Master, you should not get angry with that disciple. You should always remember that, according to my philosophy, it is quite immaterial which Master takes a seeker to God. What is of paramount importance is whether the seeker actually reaches God. You can talk to someone who has left our ashram and accepted another Master if necessity demands. But do not go out of your way to mix with him, either to bring him back or to convince him that he has done something really wrong. You can, however, inwardly pray to the Supreme a few times to grant him illumination so that he will be able to know whether what he is doing is right or wrong. But if you mix with him often, you will only enter into a terrible conflict and meet with real spiritual disaster.

“Again, if you see that after having left our ashram, someone feels that he can go his own way, that he does not need any Master now that he has taken all the help he needed from me, you can be kind and sympathetic to him. You may feel sorry that since the poor fellow is no longer taking the help of his Master, who was his private tutor, his spiritual journey will take a very long time. But in no way should you try to convince him that he has done something terrible. If you do so, you will again only enter into unnecessary conflict, and this conflict will illumine neither of you. Still, if you feel the inclination to do so, you can pray to the Supreme a few times for his illumination, so that he will always be able to do the right thing.

“But if someone leaves me and speaks ill of me, of all my disciples, of God; if he mercilessly criticises the whole spiritual world, if he himself does not meditate but wants to take away some of my other disciples, then you have to know that his case is simply hopeless. He is really a sick man, and if you associate with a sick man, you yourself are apt to fall sick. You are certain to be affected by this spiritual disease. Spiritual life is for the sincere man, and not for the fool. If your heart wants to go and help him, you will only be caught by his ignorance. You will be of no help to him at all! So I tell my disciples not to mix at all with an ex-disciple who is bitterly against the spiritual life, against God, against me, against other spiritual Masters and everything that is spiritual. So, my son, when someone leaves our ashram, try to see which category he falls into, and then deal with him accordingly.”

“Master, after hearing this from you, on the one hand I am so illumined, but on the other hand I am totally disgusted with the stupidity of these disciples. No matter why your disciples leave you, they are simply stupid; they are simply sick. I will have nothing to do with a stupid or a sick fellow. But again, my own stupidity and sickness have not yet left me totally; otherwise, I would not have asked you this question. Who cares who comes and goes, as long as you give me eternal shelter at your feet, as long as I can grow inside your heart and fulfil you in your own way. I know and I strongly feel that if someone has seen you even once, he is forever yours. Outwardly he may leave you, but although his heart’s aspiration may be eclipsed from time to time, he will eventually look inward again to see the illumining sun which is your universal Self, and which ever illumines and ever fulfils the searching, seeking and crying humanity.”

The Master blessed the disciple with deepest joy and pride and said, “Son, you have understood my philosophy. Now manifest my philosophy in the life of your soul’s illumination, the life of your heart’s aspiration and the life of your body’s dedication.”

Song — Taba sri charan

[English Translation]

My supreme adoration is Your Feet.
Your very sight is my delight.
Your very touch is my new mind,
And Your Light of Infinite Wealth is my true home.

[Bengali Transliteration]

/Taba sri charan mama aradhan/
/Taba darashan mama harashan/
/Taba parashan mama naba man/
/Taba alodhan mama niketan/