Preface

Precious are the words of a spiritual Master, conveying his message of inner and outer peace in so many forms. This volume reflects the various formal and informal settings in which Sri Chinmoy offered his instructive insights, and complements Sri Chinmoy’s many books of talks, university lectures, questions and answers, plays, stories, poetry and songs.

Compiled from transcripts of recordings and stenographic notes taken during events and functions over the years, this publication includes informal comments and stories which Sri Chinmoy shared at the time. Also included are a few selected photos from some of the meetings that appear in this volume, as well as some of the songs composed by Sri Chinmoy for these occasions, with music made available specially for this publication.

It is hoped that the book’s diverse format can provide a deeper glimpse into the many ways that the Master rendered his timeless teachings.

Meetings with Luminaries

Honouring Jane Goodall, World-Renowned Conservationist

On 18 April 2003 Sri Chinmoy honoured Dr. Jane Goodall, world-renowned conservationist and United Nations Messenger of Peace, known for her spiritual, compassionate approach to life, and her ground-breaking work observing chimpanzees. Sri Chinmoy welcomed her at the entrance of Aspiration-Ground meditation garden in Queens, as his students sounded conches. Dr. Goodall showed Sri Chinmoy a stuffed chimpanzee named Mr. H that she takes all over the world with her as a symbol of hope. Thousands of people have touched the monkey to offer good will for peace and to receive inspiration.

Before honouring Dr. Goodall, Sri Chinmoy asked: May I take blessings from you and from your monkey? (He then touched the stuffed animal, as have so many thousands of people around the world.)

Sri Chinmoy offered Dr. Goodall the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award, presenting her with a medallion and plaque that had her picture etched in glass.

Jane Goodall (after being lifted): After all these great political leaders, I don’t deserve this honour.

A recording was played in which Sri Chinmoy recited a poem she wrote when she was 19, saying that she was inspired by the Vedic seers of the hoary past when she composed this. The Singers then performed several songs Sri Chinmoy had composed in her honour, including one to her words. These songs appear at the end of this section, including music Sri Chinmoy set to the words of her poem written when she was 19.

Jane Goodall: First of all, I feel quite overwhelmed by this ceremony, “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart,” and by feeling somehow spiritually connected to the amazing people who stood there and were lifted before me. I feel very grateful, very humble and very happy to be here. The sun is almost shining, and we had the beautiful singing.

I wanted to share a message which I believe was sent to me by God just two weeks ago, through the animals that I love. Ever since 9/11 – when I was here in New York with Mary Lewis [Vice President of the Jane Goodall Institute and Assistant to Jane Goodall] and suffered with the city through the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Towers – I have been trying to travel around America with words of hope – hope for the future. For me, that hope derived from my childhood when we went through World War II and it seemed that England would be invaded, but somehow, although we were quite unprepared, we were not invaded; and although we knew people who were killed, somehow coming through that war. And hope from travelling around in other parts of the world where terrorist acts are not exactly accepted, but at least a part of life – and telling Americans, “Do not go around in fear. Do not let people make you afraid. Carry on with what you are doing.”

Then two weeks ago I was in a wonderful place in Nebraska on the Platte River, where I had gone to see the migration of the sandhill cranes and the snow geese, the most amazing migration on land in the world, with millions and millions and millions of birds. And on this day, 2,000 of these sandhill cranes came right outside the cabin, and for one and a half hours they did their beautiful dance with their wings outstretched, leaping up into the air, throwing up little pieces of grass and clods of earth.

The message that came to me was that, although it looks dark, although the days ahead are grim, there will indeed be peace at the end because cranes are the sign of peace. And that evening, going to where one of the main roosts was, maybe as many as 10 million birds came down onto the river, and gradually the river and the sandbanks were coated with a gray mantle of feathers, with white patches of the snow geese. On that river, in one month, they have to get enough body fat to fly to Siberia and to Alaska; they don’t stop again.

So here was another message, that even though we have damaged the environment, even though the Platte River is lower than it has ever been, even though there are pesticides out there on that land, there is still enough food for these amazing birds to go on this journey. The message was loud and clear, and it was a call to action. We must not let the people who are bombarding us with all these messages about fear and hate win. We must stand strong. We must go on protecting the beautiful world that God has given us so that when peace comes, we are ready for it. When peace comes, as it will, we must be ready for it.

Mahatma Gandhi said that if you look back through human history, you find that every evil regime is overcome by good. Just a few weeks ago as I was travelling around, a lady gave me a little bell, and she said, “If you are talking about peace and hope for the future, you must ring this little bell.” This little bell is made from metal from a defused landmine from the killing fields of Pol Pot, one of the most evil and brutal regimes in human history. But Pol Pot is dead; the Khmer Rouge is disbanded. The Cambodians are trying to put their lives back together again. So this little bell is a symbol of hope, a symbol of peace and a symbol of the fact that we must be ready for peace when it comes.

I truly thank you for honouring me in this way, and for all of the singing. I just feel very, very uplifted and very spiritually refreshed, and given a whole lot of extra energy for these hard days of travelling around trying to give hopeless people hope again, because without hope, we may as well give up. Without hope, we sink into apathy – and without hope in apathy, the evil forces that seem to be abroad will win – and we won’t let them.

Sri Chinmoy: Our dearest sister, we are extremely, extremely grateful to you for this blessingful message that you have so kindly offered to us. We shall cherish your blessingful presence here in the inmost recesses of our heart. We shall always think of you as a supreme messenger of peace. We shall feel your presence as a supreme messenger of peace and hope, peace and hope, peace and hope. With hope we are still alive, and with hope we shall be able to fulfil our promise, the promise of a oneness-world. Once more our heart is all gratitude to you, all gratitude to you.

Nationals wearing banners from 45 countries then salute Dr. Goodall.

Sri Chinmoy then accompanied Dr. Goodall to see the Pilgrim-Museum. When Dr. Goodall emerged from the museum, she delighted everyone with her imitation of a chimpanzee greeting call, explaining that she had performed this in Parliaments and other distinguished places around the world.

Sri Chinmoy: You were everything to the chimpanzees, their mother – everything.

Jane Goodall: They opened the door to a magic world for me.

Sri Chinmoy then accompanied Dr. Goodall to her car, to thunderous applause from the audience.

After Dr. Goodall left, Sri Chinmoy commented:

Inside the museum we had our real heart to heart talk. I admire her indomitable spirit. She has written many nice things in our guest book, plus she has presented me with one of her books. There she said she is so full of admiration for all that I am doing for mankind. These are her comments she has given in writing. She is very cosmopolitan in her views; she says she is a global human being, not a Briton anymore.

Today is a historical day for us, definitely, such a global figure! Instead of an hour, her visit was more than two hours. After playing the recording with my recitation of the poem she wrote at the age of 19 while attending a Theosophy course, I said, “You were inspired by the Vedic seers of the hoary past when you composed this particular poem.”

I said that definitely she was inspired by the Vedic seers of the hoary past. Both the “soul” and the “Eternal I” are prophetic utterances of the Vedic seers. Specially when I hear “Eternal I,” immediately it carries me to the Vedic era. When we say “Eternal I,” it may be just hopeful thinking, but when they say “Eternal I” in Sanskrit, it immediately reverberates in the depths of my heart, this message of the Eternal I.

She has such height and depth, but when I was talking to her, at that time she was eager to listen. She was listening very attentively and with real sincerity or admiration. She gave her full attention and receptivity. Even when I was saying casual things, she was paying such sincere attention.

(While looking at beautiful pictures on display of Dr. Goodall interacting with the chimpanzees):

How sweet they are! One picture shows her sincere and serious spirituality. In another photo she is all affection, and another one shows her feeling of oneness. Here her sincerity is so deep. Her far-flung vision, inner vision, is projected in her eyes. This is really her height of inner strength and outer hope. This picture is very deep and very high, very deep and very high.

(About the stuffed monkey Dr. Goodall brings with her when she travels):

It seems to me that it was a gift from a blind man to her. She said, “This is a miracle. If a blind man can give you this, then you can easily conquer the world.” So I mentioned that incident, and told her, “You have already conquered the world.”

She was saying that better days are coming ahead. When she came out of the museum, at that time the sun again appeared. She reminds me of Raisa Maximovna – hope, hope – and Raisa Maximovna’s immortal book, Hope.

Following are two songs Sri Chinmoy wrote in honour of Dr. Goodall, as well as two songs with music set to her immortal words.

Jane Goodall: You Feed the World’s Oneness-Peace-Dream

Jane Goodall, Jane Goodall, Jane Goodall!
Your heart is everywhere compassion-fall.
Chimpanzee-heart-conqueror, creation-big-and-small-lover,
In teeming fields, champion supreme!
You feed the world's oneness-peace-dream.
You are your soul-smiles and heart-cries,
Your victory-banner God proudly flies.

Jane Goodall: Our Lord’s Fondness-Doll

"Among the Wild Chimpanzees"; "My Life with the Chimpanzees"
Jane Goodall, Jane Goodall, our Lord's fondness-doll!
Compassion-soul, affection-role, chimpanzee-mother,
You are their tears, you are their smiles, you are their hunger.
For freedom-kingdom, your heart their sole shelter.

Only If We Understand Can We Care

Only if we understand can we care.
Only if we care will we help.
Only if we help shall all be saved

- Jane Goodall

The Old Wisdom

Following is the poem Dr. Goodall wrote at age 19, while attending a Theosophy course, as set to music by Sri Chinmoy.

When the night wind makes the pine trees creak
And the pale clouds glide across the dark sky,
Go out, my child, go out and seek
Your soul: the Eternal I.
For all the grasses rustling at your feet
And every flaming star that glitters high
Above you, close up and meet
In you: the Eternal I.
Yes, my child, go out into the world; walk slow,
And silent, comprehending all, and by and by
Your soul, the universe, will know
Itself: the Eternal I.
The Old Wisdom

A Visit with Addwitiya Roberta Flack, Beloved Singer, Songwriter and Musician

On 18 April 2003, the beloved singer, songwriter and musician Addwitiya Roberta Flack visited Sri Chinmoy at Aspiration-Ground meditation garden, only one of many times she would come. On this occasion Sri Chinmoy honoured her with the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award. During the afternoon Sri Chinmoy requested Addwitiya to speak about her lifelong achievements, and the disciples also asked her questions about her various projects. Following are a few excerpts from the conversation.

While waiting for Addwitiya to arrive, Sri Chinmoy said: As soon as she comes, we will sing the songs. She is our dearest friend, dearest sister. Her love for us is absolutely sincere, absolutely, and vice versa: our love for her comes from the very depths of our heart. She is all for us.

When Addwitiya arrived, apologising for being late, Sri Chinmoy welcomed her and said: Whenever you come is the right time. Your love for us is boundless. Our love for you is boundless. When we deal with boundless love, we go far beyond time and space. So whenever you come is the most perfect time. Love is oneness. Oneness does not depend on earthbound time. Let us live in eternal time.

Before the Singers performed, Addwitiya was happy to recognise familiar faces, exclaiming: I know I’m in the right place because you guys are still here.

Addwitiya (referring to the flowers and decorations at Aspiration-Ground): This is so beautiful! It’s always beautiful, but today and this time, just for my eyes, because I’m not here every week like you are, it’s especially beautiful. It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful!

The Singers offered several songs Sri Chinmoy had composed in her honour, including several set to her words. After the first song, “Roberta Flack,” Addwitiya said: Thank you! Give yourselves a hand! Thank you so much.

After the Singers performed the rest of the songs, Sri Chinmoy requested her to speak, saying: Now kindly tell us something about your lifelong achievements and other things. I am anxious and eager to hear from you about your lifelong achievements.

Addwitiya: You know, above all, I’m so blessed! Sisters and brothers from all over the world, first of all I’m sitting here beside Guru, and I’ve had a very, very, very busy time in my life since I was here right on this spot a little while ago.

Speaking about starting her own record label, and young musicians re-recording her song: This is something that I feel grateful to God the Father for, because I am influencing their thinking, not harmonically and not melodically, but in terms of content, which is probably, in my opinion as an ex-school teacher, the most important thing that these young people could get from anybody who has been out here for a while. They can get the lesson that the content can change, and the song can still be important. Unfortunately, all of the scandal and bad content is encouraged by the industry because that of course sells CDs.

I’m sharing this story because I think that the songs that Guru has written for me are so important for me. They do express how I feel. I feel so important in terms of how people look at me and receive me, but I feel so helpless that just with the songs and just with the love and just with the heart, you can’t change the way people treat each other. A lot of these youngsters who are influenced by my music do have the funds. I mean, they’re making millions. I think we have to convince these young people that there is beauty and there is melody and there is harmony and that they can do something with all of this wealth, not just material wealth, but with all of this wealth of opportunity to go and do things and make the world a better place.

Speaking of Sri Chinmoy’s guidance: When I’m in Guru’s presence and when I’m here with you, it’s like being in another world. It’s like being in another part of the world, the best part of the world. The energy that brings you here is so full of spirit and goodness, and you are so humble and you are so beautiful, and you’re trying to make a difference, and you are being successful. It may seem hard because the sacrifice is always great – I know it is. But your reward is that you get people like me to get up and come and see you. I don’t care if you ever come to see me. I just want to be allowed to come to see you because when I leave here, I am so much stronger.

You know I’m not making this up, because you guys get it too. You get it. You cannot be around Guru, you can’t be this close especially, and not feel the surge, and that is a blessing. I am so blessed by God the Father to have been guided to Sri Chinmoy.

You can be an entertainer like I am or like Narada [Michael Walden] or, bless his heart, Mokshagun Clarence Clemons. You can be a well-known person. Meeting Guru sort of brings you down to the least common denominator. You under-stand what I’m saying, where this one number goes into everything. And it’s always correct because it’s the right number. Guru is so powerful in his spiritual essence that people like myself, everybody, would benefit, but especially people who don’t have time, who think, “I don’t have time. I can’t do it. I don’t have time to meditate. I don’t have time to read the Bible. I don’t have time to pray. I got to go, got to go. Got to be on stage, got to learn the song.”

Speaking about receiving an upcoming Emmy Award, and honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts when she delivers the commencement address: I was with Maya Angelou and Oprah Winfrey last Friday because Dr. Angelou had her 75th birthday, and Oprah is her godchild, and I was invited to share this with them. When Dr. Angelou got up to thank everybody who was there – and it was a great crowd of people from all races, all over the world – one of the last things she did was to quote a Negro spiritual, which says, “Done made my vow to the Lord, and I never will turn back. Oh I will go. I shall go to see what the end will be.” And that’s the way I feel about my life and my career as an artist and as a musician. I am not through. But I accept all the awards, Guru, that they give me, and I’m grateful for them.

After answering some questions from the audience, Addwitiya asks the visiting disciples to come up according to their countries, in alphabetical order, and speaks about her experiences with each country, sometimes playing music from their composers or folk songs. She commented: And you guys are sitting with a great composer, because a good composer, and Guru will tell you, is committed to composing. It’s like when he starts to paint birds. He doesn’t know if it’s going to be a billion or a gazillion. It’s actually a blessing to be able to sing a song, to be able to paint a picture – you know what I’m saying? – to be able to do something that’s outside of what you look like and outside of what you represent. You’re a weightlifter.

You can lift billions of pounds. It’s a blessing. And it gives you goose bumps. It gives me goose bumps to talk about all these musicians. I think, “Oh gosh, I’m so glad I studied that. I’m so glad I heard that. Thank you, God.” It’s wonderful, I’m telling you, it’s wonderful.

You are blessed to be in Guru’s presence. He’s a great composer, and so prolific!

Sri Chinmoy then lifts Addwitiya as part of the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” programme.

Sri Chinmoy: This medallion we give to Presidents and Prime Ministers, but you are our prime minister and president in our heart’s world. In our heart’s world, you are our beloved president, beloved prime minister.

Addwitiya: Thank you, Guru. Your love is so beautiful.

Sri Chinmoy: Addwitiya – her heart is larger than the largest: that we all know. And we shall always cherish it in the very depths of our own heart. Until we breathe our last, we shall always feel and cherish and treasure her heart of boundless love for us. Her boundless, boundless love for us we treasure in our heart-temple, plus her love for us is written in letters of gold. In letters of gold her love is written on the tablet of our heart.

Addwitiya: I love my Guru! And I’m inspired by all of you because you came from so far away to see someone that I love. I just want to thank you for giving me a chance to be here this day to share with you how much I love Guru as well.

As the audience applauds, Sri Chinmoy accompanies Addwitiya to the Pilgrim-Museum.

Following are three songs that Sri Chinmoy composed in honour of Addwitiya, as well as five songs with music set to her inspiring words.

Roberta Flack

Roberta Flack, Roberta Flack, Roberta Flack!
On God's Compassion and Fondness-track.
With your heart's sweetness-song-tears you cry.
With your soul's fulness-music-smiles you fly.
Greatness-mountain-height, goodness-fountain-light.
You see not division-wall, ignorance-night.

Addwitiya

Addwitiya Addwitiya Addwitiya
Paramer pada talc thako basiya
Addwitiya Addwitiya Addwitiya
Paramere buke riikho sada kandiya
Dyuloker sangitc utho nachiya
Bhuloker puta dhan bhalobasiya

Supremely unparalleled Summit-Consciousness-Bliss,
Seated eternally at the Feet of the Lord Absolute.
Supremely unparalleled Summit-Consciousness-Bliss,
Your hunger-cry from time immemorial
Embodies the Soul Sovereign.
Dancing you arise from the silence-depths
Of the Universe
With Heaven's Music-Soul-Vision
And loving, sleeplessly, earth-heart's Purity-treasure.

Our Dear Sister Addwitiya

Our dear sister Addwitiya,
Within, without, ambrosia.
Our Lord's sweetness and fondness choice.
Humanity's heart-feeding voice.

Close to God

I really want to be close to God."

- Addwitiya Roberta Flack

I Am Trying

"I am trying to relate to the teacher inside myself."

— Addwitiya Roberta Flack

All I Want

"All I want is to become a bigger and better person from head to toe."

Let My Spirit Soar

"I want to keep my feet on the ground and let my spirit soar."

— Addwitiya Roberta Flack

My True Self

"People today are ready to hear the truth. If they like me, it is because of what I represent: My true self."

Function with Richard Gere, Celebrated Actor and Human Rights Activist

On 18 November 2003, Sri Chinmoy honoured Richard Gere, celebrated actor and human rights activist, with the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award at Aspiration-Ground meditation garden. After the Singers performed songs that Sri Chinmoy had composed for him, Sri Chinmoy lifted him and offered him the Award.

Sri Chinmoy (commenting on the songs): You give joy to millions and billions of people. He who gives joy to countless people has to have a heart of Infinity, so you have that heart. You give joy to countless people. Therefore, you must have a universal heart that gives you the capacity to give joy to boundless, boundless people.

Richard Gere: Thank you so much for those lovely songs. Not only are these beautiful songs, but he wrote them in six flats, which is really a difficult key to write in.

I didn’t know at all what to expect here. I was coming to see Guru, but I didn’t expect to have such a momentous occasion unfold here. Yet I’ve known of Guru’s work for some time, and certainly not directly from Guru, but from his students. It has always been very inspiring when we see them around the world and the good works that they do – talented musicians and writers and people who’ve been doing wonderful things, but not just in themselves. Somehow they carry a very deep love and compassion inside their hearts, and it seems to infuse everything that they do. And I can see now, meeting Guru, where that comes from.

You know, I have a step-daughter and I have a son, and my step-daughter’s about 13. She’s becoming a teenager, going through those difficult years when kids are almost impossible to be around. She doesn’t talk to me or her mother much, like most teenagers, but last night she came in the middle of the night to our bed, and she was just a frightened little girl. She’d been having nightmares, and we asked her what they were about. She said, “Oh, it was about snipers, snipers everywhere.” Snipers were getting in the house, and snipers were everywhere.

I said, “Honey, it’s very easy. You just have a very strong light inside of your heart, and this pure white light comes out from your heart and touches these snipers, and they turn into Buddhas, and they can’t hurt you then.”

That of course is what we all are. We’re really Buddhas, and we might appear to be difficult or snipers in some way, kind of emotional assassins sometimes, and we get angry and we do difficult things. But really we’re creatures of light. We’re Buddhas. And whenever I remember that myself, all of my problems dissolve and go away. It’s in the strength of our teachers that we know that and we remember that, and I can see in the faces of all these students here that Guru is a great teacher.

I can see the artistic mind that’s at play here – I mean, the metaphor of lifting up the world one by one. If Guru lived to be a million years old, I’m sure eventually every person on all the planets would be here to be lifted up.

Sri Chinmoy: I have lifted six thousand five hundred people.

Richard Gere: So you have six billion to go on this planet. But that’s really all of our jobs, isn’t it, to lift everyone else up. I think it’s a really wonderful metaphor here, and a wonderful gift that you’ve all given me. I thank you, Guru, very much for this and for the continuation of all the fine work that you’ve done over many decades. I’m sure you’ll continue for many, many, many decades to come. Thank you very much for this wonderful event today. Thank you.

After the ceremony, Sri Chinmoy accompanied Richard Gere to the Pilgrim-Museum.

Reflections on Richard Gere

The evening of 18 November 2003, during a function at Public School 86 in Queens, Sri Chinmoy offered the following reflections on Richard Gere’s visit to Aspir-ation-Ground, including to the Pilgrim-Museum after the Award ceremony.

Sri Chinmoy: In the museum we were speaking about Lord Buddha, and also Richard Gere’s humanitarian service. I said that if I say ‘service’, then I get the feeling that the God in me is very soulfully giving to the same God inside you, and vice versa. When we use the term ‘service’, we establish our oneness. When we use the term ‘charity’, we divide ourselves. We feel that one is superior, the other is inferior. Pride immediately enters. When we serve, I serve, you serve, there is no pride. I need something that you give me. You need something that I give you. You need my smile and my gratitude, and I need material help that I will get from you. If you see my smiling face and you feel my gratitude, then your purpose is fulfilled. And you give me the material help that I need, so it is mutual, reciprocal.

When we were speaking about Lord Buddha, I said that some people think that Lord Buddha’s philosophy is for us to disappear from the world, since he says that this world is full of sorrow. His next message, some people say, is to leave the world since it is full of suffering. I said that Lord Buddha’s message is to carry the suffering inside your heart and go beyond, go beyond, and transform the suffering into bliss. It is not that I will let the world continue suffering, and I will enter into Nirvana. Lord Buddha wanted us to catch the suffering and take it high, higher, highest. There he will transform it into Nirvana. Nirvana is not extinction, but Nirvana is the transformation of human suffering.

Very deep meditations we had, two times, inside the museum. In the guestbook he gave a very, very long message.

Following is a song composed by Sri Chinmoy in honour of Richard Gere, as well as two songs with music set to Richard Gere’s inspiring words.

Richard Gere: Lord Buddha’s Sleepless Compassion-Flood

Richard Gere, Richard Gere, Richard, Richard!
Your heart is God-Beauty's boundless orchard.
Lord Buddha's sleepless Compassion-Flood
The world discovers in your self-giving blood.
Within, you are a fountain-delight;
Without, the eraser of ignorance-night.
In the fleeting time you catch the Beyond;
Your breath, Heaven and earth's golden bond.

In Our Truest Selves

"In our truest selves we are after all, beings of silence and light."

— Richard Gere

We Exist Interdependently

“We exist interdependently."

— Richard Gere

Ceremony for Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Revered Messenger of Peace

On 16 March 2004, Sri Chinmoy honoured Archbishop Desmond Tutu, revered messenger of peace, in a ceremony held in the Javier Perez de Cuellar Room of the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. The Archbishop was in New York to address the UN community the following day as part of the Secretary-General’s lecture series.

When the Archbishop entered the beautifully decorated hall, Sri Chinmoy greeted him with folded hands, and the Archbishop then warmly embraced Sri Chinmoy. Sri Chinmoy performed on the Indian esraj, and the Singers offered several songs by Sri Chinmoy dedicated to the Archbishop.

After Sri Chinmoy presented the Archbishop with the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award, Archbishop Tutu offered the following remarks.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Your Eminence, your Holiness Sri Chinmoy, I am not usually tongue-tied and at a loss for words, but I am that now. I want to say a very big “thank you” to you and to all of those who are your followers. Thank you for the beautiful singing. Thank you for taking some of my words and putting them to music.

Part of what I try to say in a very slim volume¹ is that God’s Dream is that the world and all of creation are not going to be destroyed. Even in the presence of so much evil and conflict, those are not what will have the last word; that goodness and gentleness and compassion and love will ultimately prevail.

There is without doubt a lot of evil in the world. But God – looking on persons like yourself and those who are your disciples, looking on all the spiritual work that you do for peace here in the United Nations and in other parts of the world – God smiles because God says, “Yes, thank you, for you are vindicating me.” You are part of the spiritual force of Love that emanates from God and which will transform the evil of this world into its counterpart. Thank you for persisting and going on, going on. Perhaps the world continues its existence only because of people like yourselves who help to hold it in being.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Sri Chinmoy (presenting a book he wrote entitled Archbishop Desmond Tutu: The World-Compassion-Heart-Nest) ² I have written a book about you, with utmost humility. With my heart’s deepest love for you and with utmost humility, I am offering you this book.

The Archbishop presents Sri Chinmoy with his book entitled God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time, and signs it with the following words: “Sri Chinmoy, thank you so very much for all you mean for God’s world and God’s children. God bless you richly.”

Sri Chinmoy: We are truly grateful for your blessings, love and compassion.

Sri Chinmoy’s comment after the meeting: He is a man of compassion, a man of kindness, a man of self-giving.

A Meeting with Jenny Craig, Legendary Weight Loss Entrepreneur

On 16 March 2004, Sri Chinmoy honoured the legen-dary weight loss entrepreneur Jenny Craig in a ceremony held in the Javier Perez de Cuellar Room of the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Sri Chinmoy greeted Ms. Craig with folded hands as she received a warm round of applause. Sri Chinmoy played on the esraj, and the Singers performed a song Sri Chinmoy had composed for Ms. Craig. Sri Chinmoy then offered her the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award. Following are excerpts from the programme.

Jenny Craig: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I didn’t come prepared to say anything. But I just want to say that I am so deeply honoured and touched by this whole procedure. I mean, I’m just overwhelmed. And I wanted to thank each and every one of you for coming, especially in this weather. I truly appreciate it. And I want you to know that this award stands for everything that I believe in: inner peace and helping each person to be the very best that they can be, and all of us working together to make the world a little better place. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Sri Chinmoy gave Ms. Craig a copy of the song, as well as his book The Garland of Nation-Souls, collecting his talks delivered at the United Nations. He then invited members of the audience to ask her questions.

Jenny Craig: I have a question. Sri Chinmoy, how do you learn to do this? Lots of years of practice, right?

Sri Chinmoy: It is said that man proposes, God disposes. There was a time when I disliked vehemently weightlifting. I happened to be a champion athlete in my youth. According to Indian standards, I was something, a champion runner and sprinter. I thought weightlifting was meant only for others.

Only twice in my athletic career I lifted a 20-pound dumbbell, and I thought it was not meant for me, it would ruin my speed. But here in the West my Inner Pilot commanded me to enter into weightlifting. I am a man of prayers. He wanted me to be of service to mankind, specially to those who have been inspiring the whole world in various walks of life. So I am trying to be an obedient student of my Inner Pilot. Otherwise, there was a time when I vehemently disliked weightlifting.

Jenny Craig: It doesn’t show.

Sri Chinmoy: We have to surrender to God’s Will, if God wants us to like something. So in the last 18, 19 years I have been lifting very, very heavy weights, and also I have completed lifting over 7,000 people. Your number is 7,006. Also, I have not only lifted human beings. Last year I was in New Zealand, and I was inspired to lift 1,000 lambs, because lambs were so affectionate to the Saviour Jesus Christ. Also, according to our Indian mythology, cows are very significant. They are very, very sacred. So in New Zealand I lifted 100 very, very heavy cows as well. The cows and the lambs also play a significant role in God’s creation.

Whoever inspires humanity deserves our appreciation, admiration and encouragement. You have done so much for physical fitness. We feel physical fitness is of paramount importance. Physical fitness and the inner life of prayer and meditation go together. If I am physically unfit, I will not be inspired to get up early in the morning to pray and meditate. Physical fitness helps us tremendously in acquiring peace of mind. You have this motto, and your philosophy and our philosophy go together. It is never too late, you have said.

Jenny Craig: I absolutely believe that.

Sri Chinmoy: So you see, now I will be completing 73 years, and I started this weightlifting on the wrong side of 50. I was 55 or 56 at that time. Specially as an Indian, for us 50 years is really the old generation. Many, many things in my life I started seriously and sincerely after the age of 50, and your philosophy is never too late. If something is good, it is never too late, and always to continue. If something is good, continue, continue. And there is no such thing as impossibility. This is also our philosophy.

Jenny Craig: I agree!

Sri Chinmoy: According to our philosophy, impossibility is only a dictionary word. But in reality, impossibility does not exist. I have lifted many, many heavy objects – airplanes, helicopters, elephants and many others. If you live in the mind, impossibility appears. If you live in the heart, there is no such thing as impossibility. A child is not afraid of anything. He identifies himself with the object, with the person, whereas when we develop the mind, we create divi-sion, separativity. Then it is very difficult for us to accomplish something great for the betterment of mankind.

Now please share with us some of your thoughts and ideas.

Jenny Craig: It’s interesting because while you were talking, I was thinking about the analogy to business, and even to the beginning of self-improvement. The analogy I make in my memoir, The Jenny Craig Story,¹ is that advancing in business and in self-improvement is very much like lifting weights. You don’t start out lifting 100 pounds. You start with small increments, and the story you just told is exactly that same philosophy. You start with one cow, one lamb, and you build up until you can reach 100, and I think this is what happens in business and in self-improvement. You start with small things, and you gradually build up until you are the best that you can be.

Sri Chinmoy (to the audience): Please ask questions, sensible questions (laughter). May I know how long you take exercise every day: half an hour or an hour?

Jenny Craig: Usually an hour or an hour and a half. I’m fortunate in that I have a house on the beach. I walk four miles very vigorously. I used to run, but my knees started bothering me. So now I walk very fast on soft sand, and that is really very good cardio. And when I’m not at that house, because we’re there all summer, I have a gym in my other home and a tread-mill, and I put the treadmill at a very high position, like uphill, and work on that.

In answering a question about how many pounds her clients might have lost collectively: We have four and a half million clients, with an average loss of 30 pounds each, so 135 million pounds – more than you can lift, Sri Chinmoy!

While answering another question: I’ve always had very high energy and inner peace. I think that comes from Above. There’s nothing I take other than everyday vitamins, no kind of mood enhancements or anything. My husband, when we first got married, paid me a compliment, but at the time I thought it was an insult. He said, “You know, you’re just like a dog.” And I said, “What?!” He said, “You wake up happy every morning.” So he was really trying to pay a compliment.

I have always been very confident and very optimistic. I really believe that it comes from inner peace. I truly, truly believe there are no limits to what the mind and the body can accomplish, and Sri Chinmoy is living proof that that’s true.

Sri Chinmoy: Thank you!

Following is a song composed by Sri Chinmoy in honour of Jenny Craig.

Jenny Craig, Fitness-Champion-Soul

Jenny Craig, Fitness-Champion-soul,
A beckoning hand to ecstasy-goal.
You smash asunder and cast aside
Impossibility's giant pride.
The summit-heights your dauntless choice,
All-where, you are your confidence-voice.

Programme Honouring Yoko Ono, Artist and Peace Activist, with Addwitiya Roberta Flack as Special Guest

On 29 March 2004 Sri Chinmoy honoured the artist and peace activist Yoko Ono at a special programme at Aspiration-Ground meditation garden, with Addwitiya Roberta Flack as special guest. To begin the function, Sri Chinmoy played some of his haunting melodies on the Indian esraj. The Singers then performed a song Sri Chinmoy had composed in his native Bengali in Yoko Ono’s honour, as well as several quotes by Yoko Ono and her husband John Lennon that Sri Chinmoy had set to music. Yoko Ono was smiling and singing along with the Singers, who ended by singing a song in Japa-nese that Sri Chinmoy had composed for Japan. Sri Chinmoy then accompanied himself on the harmonium while singing the English translation of the song dedicated to Yoko Ono, and the Singers joined him.

Sri Chinmoy then lifted Yoko Ono and presented her with the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award. Excerpts from the ceremony follow.

Yoko Ono: Thank you so much. I am greatly honoured, and I feel that through love we are all brothers and sisters. I prepared this “love letter” to you, and I would like to read it now.

Reading: “I’m sending you a bottle of my love. Open it when you feel depressed. The content of the bottle never disappears or runs out, and it will give you the warmth you need.

“This is the time we are asked to carry the clearest vision of a peaceful world in unity, for negative thinking is a luxury we cannot afford. The opposite of love is fear, not hate. The opposite of wisdom is confusion, not stupidity. The fastest way between two points is desire and hope. So listen to your heartbeat and enjoy. Life is worth every minute of your love. I love you.”

Addwitiya Roberta Flack explains the meaning of her name to her dear friend, Yoko Ono, and then speaks before performing John Lennon’s immortal song “Imagine,” accompanied by two guitar players: This is the world’s greatest song. And you know the song, so don’t sit there and act like I’m performing. We’re going to sing this for Yoko, okay?

Addwitiya sings “Imagine,” and Yoko Ono embraces her. Sri Chinmoy then requests the Singers to join Addwitiya while she sings “Imagine” a second time.

Yoko Ono: I just have to say that when Roberta started singing, I started crying. And when you all joined in singing, I started smiling. Thank you very much.

Addwitiya Roberta Flack: I have to tell you that Yoko and I have shared a lot of things over the past 30 years. We both live in the same building, and we both moved in the same year. They used to have a music room right behind my second room, and I had a wonderful opportunity to hear music in there. They had music all over, but I used to hear music coming out of that room quite often when John was still living.

And I treasure my friendship with her. When Guru asked me to come, I wriggled out of a few legal things I was supposed to do, so that I could be here to share this moment with Yoko, because I think she is, like Guru, one of the real spiritual leaders of the Universe. And she’s been consistent with that. I just think it’s nice when people in a very small, humble and special way can thank her for what she represents.

You know, a lot of people take her for granted, but she’s an extremely talented artist, a very gifted person, and a generous humanitarian. She does a lot of things for people, and especially kids. I don’t know if you’ve seen the Amnesty International public service announcement, where these kids from around the globe – it makes me cry – sing “Imagine.” I’ve heard “Imagine” like you have thousands of times, but when they sing it, there is so much sincerity and honesty there, and it seems to me that the message is really clear.

I really thank you for letting me share this moment with you, Yoko, and thank you, Guru, and thank you, my sisters and brothers.

Sri Chinmoy and Yoko Ono then proceeded to the Pilgrim-Museum, where Yoko Ono commented about the “Lifting Up the World” programme: I think when you are holding the weight, you are holding the weight of the whole world. You are holding the sky for us.

(When leaving) Thank you. Keep holding the sky up!

Following are songs composed by Sri Chinmoy in honour of Yoko Ono and John Lennon, as well as songs with music set to their inspiring words.

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono!
Dharabasi base bhalo dekho shuno
Gunabatee dayabatee premabatee
Charidhare bitairicho hiya jyoti

Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono!
Behold, harken!
The world citizens love you.
O virtue-kindness-love-flooded soul,
The light of your heart all-where shines.

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono!
Behold, harken!
The world-citizens love you.
O virtue-kindness-love-flooded soul,
The light of your heart all-where shines.

I Am an Endless Optimist

"I am an endless optimist."

— Yoko Ono

Art

Mirror Becomes a Razor

"Mirror becomes a razor when it is broken. A stick becomes a flute when it is loved."

— Yoko Ono

There Is No Problem

"There is no problem, only solution."

— John Lennon

The Unknown

I Feel Higher

"I feel higher than the Empire State Building."

— John Lennon

Declared by John Lennon when his son Sean Taro Ono Lennon was born. [New York Hospital, October 9, 1975]

Offering Gratitude to Special Guest Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

On 13 April 2004, Sri Chinmoy offered the following remarks about gratitude during a function at Aspiration-Ground attended by special guest Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative.

In 1964 I came to America on the 13th of April, to be precise. And today I am completing 40 years of my earth-life-existence in the heart of America, the West and the whole world. I most devotedly obeyed the Command of my Inner Pilot, my Absolute Lord Supreme, to come to America and be of service to the soul of the entire world. Over the years many, many, many kind-hearted, affectionate and self-giving brothers and sisters of the world have inspired me, encouraged me and blessed me so that I can become a choice instrument of God here on earth.

To each and every one, today I am offering only one thing: gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude from the inmost recesses of my heart. On the strength of their blessings, compassion, affection and encouragement, I am now a God-dreamer, God-lover and God-server throughout the length and breadth of the world.

Among those who have helped me unreservedly in so many ways inner and outer, my Bengali brother, Anwarul, without the least possible hesitation, tops the list. You are now Under-Secretary-General, but I prefer to call you Ambassador Chowdhury. When I call you Ambassador Chowdhury, all my affection, love and gratitude immediately come to the fore. I get such sweetness and fondness when I call you Ambassador Chowdhury, and not, sorry to say, Under-Secretary-General. That post may be infinitely higher, but like the nickname of a person, when the parents call the children by their nicknames, both the parents and the children get infinitely more joy than the name that is given for the school. So I always call you Ambassador Chowdhury. That gives me enormous love and delight.

To come back again, today is the day of my heart’s gratitude to all those who have inspired me, helped me unreservedly in various walks of life.

Sri Chinmoy lifts Ambassador Chowdhury as part of the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” series.

A Visit with Purushottama Robert Muller, Former UN Assistant Secretary-General, and His Wife, Barbara

On 8 May 2004, Sri Chinmoy honoured Purushottama Robert Muller, former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Chancellor of the UN University for Peace, and his wife, Barbara, at Aspiration-Ground meditation garden. Dr. Muller and Sri Chinmoy first met at the UN in January 1977, and their friendship has generated over the years many significant programmes and dialogues about spirituality and the United Nations.

Sri Chinmoy played the esraj, and the Singers performed two songs Sri Chinmoy had written in his honour, as well as four songs in which Sri Chinmoy had set music to Purushottama’s words. Sri Chinmoy then lifted the couple, presenting them with a trophy and gifts after they had garlanded each other with the special medallions.

The song entitled “Robert Muller” was published in Sri Chinmoy, Blue Waves of the Ocean-Source. New York: Agni Press, 1979.

Purushottama Robert Muller: Dear Sri Chinmoy, I was grateful to you for many, many years, when in the United Nations I discovered that you have a great love for the United Nations, and that the officials in the United Nations who were the most devoted, the most wonderful, the most helpful, were all officials who loved you and whom you helped – the staff who are part of Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations. Indeed, you have fulfilled many dreams of my life – the United Nations, the dream of peace, the dream of spirituality. You cannot imagine the influence you have had during my life.

During the War, I had promised to 20 young people that they would not be killed. Later I learned that they had all been shot. It was horrible. I promised to those 20 young people that I would spend the rest of my life for peace. You are fulfilling this, here again, with this beautiful ceremony that encourages me to continue to live as long as possible, to do everything I can, to wake up in the morning with new ideas for peace.

And since you have such beautiful representation of the art of music, I will make a little contribution also on the musical side. I was not allowed to learn music by my parents because we were very poor, and they wanted me not to be a poor musician. But my grandfather taught me the harmonica. In his memory – he who had changed five times his nationality in three wars between France and Germany, without leaving his village – in his memory I will play the “Ode to Joy” of Beethoven, in which all humans become brothers and sisters through my little ten-hole harmonica. (Plays the harmonica.)

Barbara Muller (presenting some posters and literature to Sri Chinmoy): You have opened yourself to the planet, and that is why we are here. God bless you for the work you are doing.

After the ceremony, Sri Chinmoy accompanied his guests to the Pilgrim-Museum. A few excerpts from their conversation follow.

Purushottama Robert Muller: Quite a beautiful museum! And very warm, very personal, not extravagant.

Sri Chinmoy (after hearing they had been married for seven years): Seven is a most significant number. In the occult world the number seven has a very special significance. There are seven higher worlds and seven lower worlds. When we leave the body, according to our – we cannot say achievements – according to our conduct, the way we behaved on earth, we go to the higher worlds. If we live a good life, then the higher worlds welcome us. If we do not, then there are the seven lower worlds to welcome us.

Purushottama Robert Muller: I want to reach a hundred years. What is your advice about how to do that?

Sri Chinmoy: God will definitely keep you on earth. You have sincere hunger, not for name and fame, but for service. You want to serve God, God the creation. God the Creator has inspired you, and God the creation is now utilising you. You want to serve God the creation, so God the Creator will definitely keep you on earth to serve Him here in His own Way because this world needs only one thing: peace, and you are the supreme messenger of peace on earth. God has not given up on it, although some governments do not believe in peace at this moment. But God knows unless and until this world is flooded with peace, God will have no peace. God Himself will have no peace if this earth planet is not inundated with peace.

Purushottama Robert Muller: What a wonderful message! I will remember it. You have done a wonderful job in the United Nations by believing in peace and making all the staff members believe in peace.

Barbara Muller: And lifting us up, and lifting up the planet for the higher elevation, for the higher goals. You’re doing your job well. God bless you for this wonderful event and your wonderful people. I don’t know of anything better that we have done in New York except to be here, and I thank you for that. We both thank you for that.

Purushottama Robert Muller: Maybe someday you can come to Costa Rica and you could speak at the University for Peace. This would be wonderful.

Barbara Muller: You should just have your music all over the planet. When you enter an airplane, your music should be playing.

Sri Chinmoy: Quite a few airlines have my flute music, my Western flute.

Barbara Muller: I’m writing (in the guestbook), “May God continue to bless and keep you strong…”

Purushottama Robert Muller: You must reach a hundred, too.

Barbara Muller: “…and long on this earth, this precious earth.”

Sri Chinmoy: It is a continuation of the journey. We call it death and life, only two terms. Life starts and death continues, and then again life comes back. It is a game going on: life and death, life and death. It is a continuous journey.

Barbara Muller: Well, God bless you all, and thank you, each and every one of you. It’s been our honour and pleasure. Thank you, Sri Chinmoy.

Purushottama Robert Muller: Thank you very, very much. And God bless you for your wonderful activities.

Sri Chinmoy: We are grateful to you for having blessed our Aspiration-Ground.

Following are two songs composed by Sri Chinmoy in honour of Purushottama Robert Muller, as well as four songs with music set to Purushottama’s inspiring words.

Muller, Our Brother-Friend!

Muller, Muller, our Brother-Friend!
In you we see a cosmic trend
Of gnostic height and vastness-light
And the UN soul of oneness-might.

Purushottama

Namo namo namo namo Purushottama
Namo anadir pran
Adilya rathe amrita brate
Purite chokite puta manorathe
Namo simahin biram bihin swapna oikya gan

I bow to You time and again,
O Being unparalleled, without second,
And life-breath of the beginningless beginning.
Seated in the chariot of the Sun-God
You are fullfilling in the twinkling of an eye
The vow of Your nectar-delight.
I bow to You, O Infinity's Reality-Existence,
Who ceaselessly embodies the Cosmic Vision
    of Oneness-Song.

A Day Without Laughter

"A day without laughter is a lost day."

— Robert Muller

Have a Dream

"Have a dream and believe in it. Strong dreams always come true."

We Need to Be Needed

"We need to be needed. Service to others can give us a new purpose in life."

— Robert Muller

Prayer and Meditation

"Prayer and meditation are two of the first revived ancient steps
towards a new age in which humans will use again
their wonderful powers of heart and soul
to live fuller and happier lives than ever before."

— Robert Muller

Honouring Khaliah Ali, Fashion Entrepreneur, Philanthropist and Daughter of Muhammad Ali

On 16 July 2004, Sri Chinmoy honoured Khaliah Ali, philanthropist, fashion entrepreneur and daughter of Muhammad Ali, with the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award at Aspiration-Ground medi-tation garden. She was accompanied by a friend from Australia, Johnny Abrams, who had been inspired over the years by the Guinness World Records of Sri Chinmoy’s student, Ashrita Furman. Excerpts from the programme follow.

Khaliah Ali: I am completely overwhelmed with gratitude. I thank you so very much for thinking of me and acknowledging me in this way. I’m so deeply touched. The one thing that I had said was that I spend my life doing what I perceive to be a very laud-able thing, and that is carrying on my father’s legacy through very, very many good causes. It’s a gift. It’s a blessing. And I’ve never been honoured for any of my work, nor have I looked to be.

But if there was a place to ever receive an award for the first time, I am completely speechless for this gift that you have given me. And I thank you so much. Today stands as a testimonial to many things, not just the good deeds of others. In addition to that, it’s one of those days I had really renewed my understanding and knowledge of what is beyond what’s controllable and tangible to me. Speaking about my brother, Johnny, when we initially spoke about today, I don’t think he nor I would have ever perceived the course of events that took place that led him to being here and having the opportunity to be with you, Ashrita, as well.

I couldn’t be in the presence of more people that I love and would want to be acknowledged with: my father in spirit; my son, my greatest blessing and gift and honour, besides today; my brother, Jarrat; my beautiful sister, Lydia; and some incredible new friends, and ones that I just recently met and feel like I know quite well already; the beautiful voices that sang – I take none of you for granted – and down to all the beautiful flowers! I was really overwhelmed. I thought, “What a gift! The flowers!” You know they’re living. They’re here for me, too.

So with much gratitude I thank you. And on behalf of my father’s spirit, which is here as well, and with all of us always – I think that’s why we love him so – I thank you.

Sri Chinmoy then lifted Johnny Abrams.

Johnny Abrams: I guess it’s funny how life is. One minute I’m at the other end of the world in Australia. The next minute I’m here. I had told Khaliah, and I’ve told a lot of people, about Ashrita Furman, and how and why I’ve been losing weight over the last three years during this transformation. I used to get up very early and go biking. And the first thing I would say when I went out there was Ashrita’s name, and then I would say, “God, please help me.” I remembered the story of how when he was doing his feats, how he would come to a certain point and he would ask God for help, and he would surrender to God, and he would get an incredible surge of power and energy by surrendering to the infinite power of the universe. And that’s really propelled me over the last couple of years.

I never thought I’d meet Ashrita Furman. I didn’t know when I’d ever be back in the States again, but it’s funny how life is. And it’s been a bit of a roller coaster for me these past two weeks. I lost my father last week, but somehow I feel like I’m part of another family, a bigger family today. It’s a good feeling. So I thank you all very much for this honour. It really means a lot to me.

Sri Chinmoy (to Johnny): Not only the physical transformation, but I can see clearly a spiritual transformation as well.

(To Khaliah Ali): I wish to share with you a most significant experience. Around 2:00 in the afternoon before your father fought with Earnie Shavers, I went to visit him in his hotel room. We talked and talked, and your father recited some of his poems, which I enjoyed very deeply. Then there came a time when we wanted to have a serious meditation, so both of us stood up and started meditating side by side. Alas, out of my tremendous respect, when I looked at his eyes from time to time, he was in another world, so I did not dare to stop the meditation. And your father also did the same. When he looked at me several times, I was meditating deeply, so he also did not stop me. So both of us were meditating and meditating.

Finally, the manager came up and with folded hands said, “Sri Chinmoy, Ali has to fight this evening.” So we stopped our meditation. This was one of my most memorable experiences that I had. Both of us had such love and admiration for each other, right from the beginning.

The first time I met with him was in 1966, and most recently in June of last year I lifted him and his wife, Lonnie, when they were honoured for their humanitarian work by the Oneness-Family School in Washington, DC that is run by one of my students.

Sri Chinmoy then accompanied his guests to the Pilgrim-Museum.

A Meeting with Anurag Mishra, Director of News for Doordarshan Television, India’s Public Television Broadcaster

On 17 September 2004 Sri Chinmoy honoured Anurag Mishra, Director of News for Doordarshan Television, at the United Nations during a meeting of the Peace Meditation Group held in Conference Room A. Later in the afternoon Sri Chinmoy offered him the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award at Aspira-tion-Ground meditation garden in Queens. Excerpts from both events follow.

Presentation at the United Nations

Anurag Mishra (after a presentation by Sri Chinmoy): Guru-ji always gives wonderful gifts, and this was the most unexpected. He always gives me love…He always directs you. He sees your progress. He keeps faith in himself and in us.

Fifteen years back I met him. This is what happens. I have been transformed, and so has the world been transformed. But the force which he is carrying with him is multiplying in progression. I am so happy to see some old friends here, and I must say he always gives me his delight and love. Always I remember somewhere he wrote that the cry which comes from inside is never unheard. Someone is there who is hearing us. Our cries and our tears come out in love and in friendship.

It has been most unexpected, and I am very delighted. The surprises in life are wonderful things when they happen, and this is one of those surprises. On behalf of my entire country and my organisation, I always will be indebted to him and to all of you. Thank you very much.

Sri Chinmoy: My dear brother-friend Anurag, I wish to offer my love, my gratitude, gratitude and gratitude from the inmost recesses of my heart. You are doing something very, very great for the soul, heart and life of our beloved Mother India. For that, not only we Indians, but also the citizens of the world are truly proud of you. Every day in the heart of Doordarshan, your Doordarshan, the whole world blossoms with new hope and new promise, and you are one of the choicest instruments.

My dear Anurag, you do this most extraordinary work to bring the heart and life of India to the farthest corners of the globe, and at the same time the heart of Doordarshan brings the message-light from the farthest corners of the globe. In a sense you embody and reveal the messages throughout the length and breadth of the world. I am all gratitude to you, Anurag, and also to your Doordarshan, which is all loving and all serving. I am all love for you and your Doordarshan, and all gratitude as well.

“Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award, Aspiration-Ground

Sri Chinmoy (after lifting Anurag Mishra): I have honoured most distinguished people, world luminaries, and at the same time I feel each individual is unique, each individual carries a special dream of God. A special dream of God – that is the reason that I have been lifting for so many years human beings from various walks of life. Today I am extremely happy and delighted and grateful to your soul for having given me this golden opportunity to be of service to your life of unique dedication to mankind.

Anurag Mishra: Under Guru-ji’s direction and super-vision, I will be following the ultimate objective of any human being – to be a good human being, to contribute love and affection to this world, to unite people, unite hearts, unite the world.

I would say three or four lines that are in Bengali, and I will repeat in English also: “Nana bhasha, Nana mat, Nana paridhan, bividher majhe dekho milan mahan…” “Many languages, many opinions, many dresses, but everything is one.”¹ We all are together here. We come from different cultures. We come from different countries. We have different dresses. In many ways our thinking will be different on some issues. But there is one person who has united all of us. It is he who is before us, who is guiding the path, who is lighting the lamp, who is showing the way.

I am really emotionally choked. In India when you are emotionally choked – and we are very emotional – the words do not come out. They come in terms of tears. They come in terms of a smile. And when you look at Guru-ji when he is meditating, the light which comes out gives strength not only to all of us who are sitting here, to you who are sitting here.

Across the seas thousands of miles away, when I am Delhi, I do see him. That is what we call Devadashti. We always say, “There is somewhere farsightedness.” On the first day of my new assignment, Sri Chinmoy reached out to me. How did it happen? He was not aware that I had just become the Director of News for Doordarshan Television. I call it a miracle that it happened. But there is some bond of friendship, of togetherness. We believe in togetherness, and that is why we all are here. I pray to God that the concept and values of togetherness come into all our lives. Thank you very much.

Sri Chinmoy: You know Bengali so well! According to a Bengali dictionary, ‘Anurag’ is extreme eagerness in self-giving. Somebody is extremely eager to learn something, to do something, to become something good. This is the meaning of the Bengali term Anurag. Suppose somebody is praying to God. While he is praying, his entire being – his body, vital, mind, heart and soul – everything he uses with utmost eagerness and intensity. This is the Bengali meaning of Anurag.

Programme Honouring African Ambassadors, Co-hosted by UN Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari

On 28 October 2004, Sri Chinmoy offered the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award to African Ambassadors, in a programme co-hosted by United Nations Under-Secretary-General Professor Ibrahim Gambari, at Aspiration-Ground. Following are excerpts from the event, in which Sri Chinmoy lifted Professor Gambari and UN Ambassadors of Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, the African Union and others.

During the evening, the Friends of the Children of Angola offered Sri Chinmoy an award for his humanitarian aid, provided to the country at the request of Professor Gambari in his capacity as Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Africa.

Professor Gambari and Maria Milucha Abrantes, Chairperson of the Friends of the Children of Angola, present an award to Sri Chinmoy, which reads: “Friends of the Children of Angola Award is most gratefully presented to Sri Chinmoy for your unprecedented humanitarian service to the children of Angola and to the needy people of Africa and the entire world; and for your golden friendship with humanity by lifting up the children of Mother Earth and by filling us all with hope and goodness. Presented by Maria Milucha Abrantes, Chairperson, Friends of the Children of Angola – October 28th, 2004, New York.”

Maria Milucha Abrantes: I would like to let you know that Sri Chinmoy and his students sent to Angola over one million dollars in medical equipment, medicines, baby foods, books and toys. And the mentor was Professor Ibrahim Gambari.

Sri Chinmoy (accepting the award): I wish to thank you both from the very depths of my heart. This award I shall treasure precisely because it deals with children. Children are the true dreamers of God’s Peace. Children are our true future. They embody God’s Dream. They reveal God’s Dream. They manifest God’s Dream. We are all in a sense God’s children, no matter how old we are according to the earthly calendar. But we all can become children and act like children if we live in the heart. If we live in the heart, we can feel the real children inside our heart. They are all the time dreaming and dreaming for a better world. So let us all feel that we are all true children of God. To love God and to serve God we came into the world.

I am so happy that we are able to offer our service to the soul, heart and life of Angola. I bow to the soul of Angola for accepting our humble services.

Professor Ibrahim Gambari, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa: With what words can I say thanks to my highly esteemed Brother and Friend Sri Chinmoy! I certainly cannot say better than Nelson Mandela did, Archbishop Tutu, former President Gorbachev or U Thant, but at least in these very humble words, I accept, dear Friend and Brother – because in Africa we say you can choose your friend, but you cannot choose your brother. What I can choose is my friend. What I cannot choose is my brother. So I am very doubly pleased that you are my friend and you are my brother.

Sri Chinmoy: I shall try my very best to be worthy of you.

Professor Gambari: Absolutely! You are already. This is the third time that I have had the honour and privilege to be lifted. I accept on behalf of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and myself. On behalf of all my friends and brothers and sisters here, I want to thank you because you have not just lifted our bodies – which is an enormous feat – but you have above all lifted our spirits. You are a man of love. You are a man of compassion. You are a man of peace. This you have demonstrated among all our brothers and sisters and friends, because that is what you are.

We also want to thank you for those wonderful songs that you have sung each time we were lifted. But above all, with great humility I have to accept the songs which were composed for me by my Friend and Brother, Sri Chinmoy.

On behalf of all of us, thank you very much.

Please consider us forever as your friends and your brothers, because we share with you peace, love and brotherhood. Once again, Sri Chinmoy, dear Friend and Brother, thank you very much for welcoming us and receiving us so warmly.

Honouring Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland and UN Commissioner for Human Rights

On 30 October 2004, Sri Chinmoy warmly welcomed former President of Ireland and UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and her husband, Nick, a conservationist and lawyer, to Aspiration-Ground.

Sri Chinmoy opened the programme with a performance on the esraj, followed by a video showing former recipients of the award as well as some of Sri Chinmoy’s humanitarian activities. The Singers then performed several songs Sri Chinmoy had composed in the President’s honour, which deeply moved her. Excerpts from the event follow.

President Mary Robinson: Sri Chinmoy and all who are present, I’m really very humbled and indeed very uplifted by this very thoughtful ceremony this morning. Indeed, I’m afraid I was almost overcome by the beautiful singing and the choices of phrases that I was being honoured with. As President Nelson Mandela, Madiba¹ , said in the video, it is a shot in the arm.

We’ve also recently become grandparents. My husband Nick is here with me. And that is also an enormous shot in the arm. I was reminded by a friend of mine, who is also a grandmother, that it’s the best and least exclusive club in the world, which I liked very much. But somehow it renewed my commitment beyond belief.

So today is, in fact, very uplifting because the initiative that I now lead – which itself is very small but is trying to connect with others – we have also named Realising Rights. Everyone in the world should realise that they have human rights, as it says in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” And I’ve always liked that “dignity” comes before “rights.” Everybody should realise they have rights, and those with power should realise those rights, meaning implement them.

I’m afraid I’m incurable. I will go on doing this, but I do feel very uplifted. Thank you so much.

Sri Chinmoy then lifted the President and her husband together.

Sri Chinmoy (introducing his student Sundar Dalton): He comes from Ireland. He made arrangements for me to meet President De Valera and President Erskine Childers.

President Robinson: Yes, both of them I knew, but I knew Erskine Childers well.

Sri Chinmoy: Today I am blessed by a third President.

President Robinson: I must tell you a funny story. I mentioned this earlier. I served my seven years as President. Then there was a contested election, and President Mary McAleese was elected. And she finished her seven years in November. She’s done a good job so nobody opposed her, and I will go to Dublin on the 11th of November for her inauguration as President for a further seven years. Now we both tell the same joke, which is that small boys in Ireland weep on their mother’s knee and say, “Why can’t I grow up to be President?” (laughter) With two women Presidents, we’re a little ahead of the United States.

President Robinson and her husband graciously accepted Sri Chinmoy’s invitation to visit the Pilgrim-Museum. President Robinson reminisced about her visit with the Dalai Lama, when he invited her to see his museum, which housed wonderful works of Tibetan culture.

She later signed the guest book thus: Dear Sri Chinmoy, I’m very honoured and humbled to have been lifted by you today. It was also a thrill that you then lifted Nick with me. As Madiba said, “It’s a shot in the arm.” May you continue your inspirational work for peace and for the oneness of the world. We need it more than ever. May all go well with you. Warm good wishes, Mary Robinson.

Mary Robinson: Human Rights’ Numero Uno

Mary Robinson, we sing the songs of your glories.
President Robinson, we strike the drums of your victories.
Ireland's present splendour-blossoms, your colossal contributions.
The human rights' Numero Uno in the comity of nations.

O ‘Voice of the Voiceless’!

O 'voice of the voiceless'! You are indeed priceless.

— President Mary Robinson

I Came into This Job

"I came into this job not to keep a job, but to do a job."

— President Mary Robinson

I Was Elected by the Women of Ireland

"I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system."

— President Mary Robinson

(On being elected Ireland's first woman President in 1990)

I Don’t Like Being in the Public Eye

"I don't like being in the public eye. I prefer to be at the back of a church."

— President Mary Robinson

I Am of Ireland

"I am of Ireland; come dance with me in Ireland."

— President Mary Robinson

(The end of the inaugural address.)

A Meeting with Tegla Loroupe, Marathon Champion and Peace Advocate

On 4 November 2004, Sri Chinmoy offered Tegla Loroupe, marathon champion and peace advocate, the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award at Aspiration-Ground. Excerpts from the programme follow.

Tegla Loroupe (accepting the award): I don’t know where to start, and I don’t know where to stop. I would like to thank Sri Chinmoy, the staff and every-body. I am so honoured. Running, as you said, is something that can unite human beings in this world. In the Bible it tells us you have to run and win the race of faith. Everybody who crosses the line is a champion. It doesn’t matter in what position you cross. We as Christians are peace-givers. God has given us the ability to do something.

Many years ago I saw a video of Mother Teresa and Sri Chinmoy. I came to know him when I came to the United Nations. And I can say today I am moved and I am honoured. For me, there are people who are my heroes, like Sri Chinmoy. The women who ran marathons, they were my heroes. I am so proud that we are lifting the world. It’s kind of a hidden message, but we have to open our minds. Sri Chinmoy is not only lifting us physically, but lifting our spirits, that God may give us more strength.

Tegla Loroupe speaks about the work of the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation “Peace Through Sports”.

So may God bless you, and thank you for honouring me. And I will promise that I will always try my best to reach the youth to make peace. And I hope one time, Sri Chinmoy, that you will come and join us in Kenya, in Africa.

(Presenting Sri Chinmoy a book): Now I have to offer you something from running. You offered me something on your side, and I have to offer you something. I just signed, “Tegla Loroupe, world record holder, 20,000 metres, 25,000 metres, 30,000 metres. May God give you all the power of peace to lift the world and make the people understand what peace and love mean. Never get tired. We will be there, as people, runners or marathoners. Peace.”

Following is a song composed by Sri Chinmoy in honour of Tegla Loroupe.

Tegla Loroupe

Tegla Loroupe, endurance, speed, World champion marathon you lead. You arc Kenya's supreme pride. Everywhere enjoy victory-ride.

Function with Irina Malikova and Her Son, Dimitri

On 7 November 2004, Sri Chinmoy honoured Irina Malikova, former Assistant to President Mikhail Gorbachev, and her son, Dimitri. Following are excerpts from the programme.

Sri Chinmoy: By this time I am sure you know who Irina Malikova is. Irina is my dearer than the dearest Sister-Friend. You know that President Gorbachev and Sri Chinmoy have established a very solid friendship, and who is responsible? One individual is responsible. Her name is Irina. She came and saw me, and gave a very nice report to her then boss, President Gorbachev. Then she came here a few times at my invitation, and she spoke very highly of me. She is the one who is fully responsible for this strong, inspiring, encouraging and illumining friendship between President Gorbachev and me. I shall remain eternally, eternally grateful to Irina. She is a true member of our small family or big family, whatever you want to call it. Her help in so many ways I can only feel. I will not be able to explain it. I will not be able to express it correctly, although I have written many books. She and I have established a deeper than the deepest inner connection, and her soul is extremely, extremely devoted to my soul.

A couple of times, my soul – and of course, the Grace of the Supreme – were solely responsible for her to remain on earth. My prayers, my meditations, my five cents’ worth of occult power or spiritual power – all I applied to keep her in the land of the living. Needless to say, it is the absolute, unconditional Grace of our Lord Beloved Supreme that keeps Irina on this earth planet.

I am so happy, so delighted and so excited that today she is with us. As I said before, what she has done for me can only be felt by my heart of gratitude and can never be expressed in words or in writing. Her mother and her husband are very, very close to me, and her son, Dimitri, is the dearest, sweetest child of my heart. You can see how fast he is progressing, in both his inner life and his outer life. His present progress is striking, and I am all pride, divine pride, in him.

Irina Malikova is not a mere name, human name, earthly name to me. It is a God-blossoming reality inside my heart, inside my life, that is growing and glowing, glowing and growing inside my earth-existence. And my earth-existence is all gratitude, gratitude, gratitude and gratitude to her, my dearest Irina. My gratitude to you, my dearest Irina, is ever-blossoming. I offer you my ever-blossoming gratitude and gratitude-heart.

Irina Malikova

Irina, Irina, Irina, Malikova!
Bhitiire abha bahire sobha tumije manolabha
Gorbachev Foundation Gorbachev bithi stapan
Paramanande tomar hiyare kareche baran
Tomar swapan tomar nayan gahe tar jaya giti
Dharar lagiya tumije tomar atmatyager priti

Irina, Irina, Irina Malikova!
In your inner Life blossoming light you are.
In your outer life illumining beauty you are.
You are everybody's increasing delight.
The Gorbachev Foundation in its wisdom-ecstasy's depth
Has accepted you and now claims you as its very own.
Through your dream-eyes and your reality-Life
Sleeplessly your heart is singing.

A Visit with Mahasamrat Bill Pearl and Bhavatarini Judy Pearl

The morning of 13 November 2004, Sri Chinmoy welcomed five-time Mr. Universe Mahasamrat Bill Pearl and his wife, Bhavatarini Judy Pearl, to Aspiration-Ground. Mahasamrat was to be the Master of Ceremonies that evening at York College, for Sri Chinmoy’s final event in his three-day weightlifting extravaganza.

At the beginning of the morning function, Mahasamrat generously offered hundreds of copies of his book, Beyond the Universe: The Bill Pearl Story, mainly to those visiting from around the world who did not yet have the book. Excerpts from the function follow, including some questions from the audience.

Sri Chinmoy (giving an overview of his weightlifting achievements in the last three days): I started my journey the day before yesterday. It started with small planes, a helicopter and a huge tree. Then yesterday I lifted a small house with a few people inside, and then an elephant and a camel. The camel was unmanageable, unruly. The elephant was nice. The elephant was not afraid of anything, but the camel – there was lots of trouble!

Our philosophy is progress, progress. In the seated calf raise, I think in my previous weightlifting exhibition I did 1300 pounds or so. This time I shall do 1500, plus I shall do two sets of 20 of 1200 in a row. There are also other new things. I lifted both of you together. This time I may lift four or five individ-uals together, a whole family.

Bhavatarini (commenting as Mahasamrat was answering audience questions): I just want to say a couple of things that Mahasamrat won’t say about himself. One of the things that I’m most proud of about him is that in a lot of business dealings and other dealings in life, we’ve met people that aren’t as nice as all of you. And Mahasamrat has never met a new person with the expectation of anything but fair-ness and goodness from them. He always expects the best from people, and he always gives the best he can to people. And that’s what I am the most proud of. He never gets discouraged by people disappointing him. He always goes on to the next person, expecting the best in them. And that’s probably one of the things that Guru has seen in him.

And about his diet, whenever he made a decision of what he was going to follow as a diet regimen when he was competing, he wouldn’t let himself consider for a moment cheating on his diet or having something that wasn’t part of that diet regimen, no matter how really difficult it was sometimes. Anything that he would decide that he was going to follow, he always followed it to the letter. And when people asked, “Well, how about when you wake up in the morning and you don’t feel like getting up and doing something,” he said, “I never do.” And this is true, he just will not let himself think of not doing something that he’s made up his mind to do. He just won’t let that enter his mind.

Mahasamrat: Thank you, thank you.

Sri Chinmoy: I’m so grateful to you, my dearest Sister. His modesty prevented him from telling this, so I can add just a few words. Self-giving with no expectation – this is what Mahasamrat is. This is what Mahasamrat is – self-giving, constant self-giving with no expectation. You give, give, give, and it is up to others to give you in return. Their souls, their hearts are accountable, and God is the Judge. When one of His children can give himself without any expectation, then God is bound to be proud, extremely, extremely proud of that person.

You have given advice to so many people. I am the right person to speak about this. So much advice I have received from you, without giving you a penny! It is your heart that gave, and my heart offered you gratitude, gratitude. You gave advice even to people who were going to be one day world famous, like Chris Dickerson,¹ For months he stayed at your place. You charged him nothing, gave him food, accommodations – everything. Is there anybody else among the world champions who would do that kind of favour? If a world champion is already well established, and if somebody else wants to stand on the same footing, then the well-established one will be the first person to discourage him or have nothing to do with him. I know hundreds of incidents where people are already established, but they do not want others to stand on the same footing. This is human insecurity.

I am saying, here is the difference between you and many others. You got the highest recognition, Mr. Universe. Then when somebody was trying to become Mr. Universe or Mr. Olympia, you gave him advice and training free, free, free. So here is the proof of your heart. If you had a heart like many others, it would have been all discouragement, and you would have remained farther than the farthest from him. But you did encourage him.

In your case, you offered encouragement. So here is the proof what your heart can do.

Mahasamrat (after a disciple commented on his positive energy): I’ve learned something a long time ago. If I can walk up to a group of people, 5 or 10 people, and smile, if 10 people smile back, who won? I won. One smile, ten returns. I won. It just may be that there’s a lot of this ego still involved, and I haven’t changed. But I’ve learned over time, some things sell in life and other things don’t. And being nice always sells.

Sri Chinmoy: And why do these 10 people smile at you in return? Why do they give you more? Here they inwardly receive something sooner than the soonest. When they see you, they receive something from you before you can see and feel it. Their hearts are like magnets, with a magnetic pull. So they get something from you, and then they give you in return.

Question: Mahasamrat, I was wondering if your spiritual awareness existed prior to your going into body-building, or did bodybuilding have something to do with opening up that area of your life?

Mahasamrat: To be honest with you, probably Guru has done more to open up my spiritual career than anybody or anything. It hasn’t been my bodybuilding. It’s my association with Guru. I’ve made the comment that of all the positive things that have happened to Judy and me in the last 20 years, the most positive thing of all has been my association with Guru and all of you. And that’s it. I mean, it wasn’t something I was born with, but if I hadn’t been around people such as you, I wouldn’t be like what I am today.

Question: Mahasamrat, I was wondering if you ever wanted to give up bodybuilding?

Mahasamrat: No, because bodybuilding has given me everything I have today that I think is worthwhile. If I hadn’t been a bodybuilder, I would have never heard from Guru. If I hadn’t been a bodybuilder, I would not be here today. Most of the positive things that have happened in my life are because of my back-ground in weight training. I find it very interesting because I’ve only entered about 11 contests in my entire life, so I am where I am today because of 11 days of my life. I’ve been very, very lucky, very, very fortunate, but I wouldn’t have met people like you if it hadn’t been for my bodybuilding career.

Sri Chinmoy: Mahasamrat, I am so grateful, so grateful to you, as usual. All your answers I take as blessings, as divine blessings. As soon as I see you, you inundate me with boundless, boundless inspiration and aspiration. The message of self-giving every day I learn from you.

Commentaries, Talks and Questions and Answers

The Inner World and the Outer World

There is a yawning gulf between the inner world and the outer world. In the inner world something may take place, but in the outer world, it may take hundreds of years for it to manifest, or it may not take place at all. It is like a mango or some ripe fruits on a tree. The mango is so ripe that it is going to fall down. Naturally it will fall at the foot of the tree.

Alas, at that very moment a storm may take place. God knows where the mango may fall. Everybody expected that the fruit would drop right at the foot of the tree. Or what happens, when the fruit falls right at the foot of the tree, some animals may come and eat the fruit right there at the tree and then go away. We will say, “O my God, how could these destructive forces come?” The destructive forces may take away the fruit. The fruit means good, divine thoughts, divine ideas, divine harmony that are descending. Nothing can be predicted when it comes to the world situation. The divine forces are working very hard. The divine forces on the inner plane, in the inner world, have absolutely won. But in the outer world, as I said, we can only hope. We expect the mango will fall right at the foot of the tree. But then there may be a storm or some animals may take it.

If we can bring the divine forces to the fore and they become victorious, triumphant, then there is a great possibility the whole world will see a new light. And this year [2004] has that possibility – not inevitability. Inevitability we can never say about anything – never, never. But there is a great possibility for this year to show the world that there is a higher force. There is something called divine light. Sometimes even in the inner world, victory is not certain. But in the inner world victory has taken place, yet, what is going to happen in the outer world, nobody can be sure. Let us hope, hope for the best.

You all can predict, as you wish. Nobody will catch you if your prediction does not take place. My brother Chitta used to tell me, “Do anything you want to, but never predict, never predict. You know the hostile forces will always remain alive, so do not predict.” If you predict, then you have to keep so many of your inner beings around you, and they have to be fully alert. If you say something in the outer world, in the inner world you have to keep so many bodyguards 24 hours a day.

When I predicted the outcome of Sudhahota Carl Lewis’ 200-metre race at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the race was the following day. How many inner guards I had to keep on alert so I could keep my promise. My prediction was taped, and the following day it came true. But it is not as if some-thing has come out of your mouth and then it will happen. No, in the meantime how many forces can attack you to make fun of you. And then to stop their ridicule, we have to be extra alert. So never make predictions about world events. You can make predictions about your own running. Then if it does not come true, who cares?

For spiritual seekers, on the one hand it is a very painful experience that what has taken place in the inner world is not being manifested in the outer world. But again, because we have been praying and meditating for God knows how many years, we have a way to enter into that inner world and derive peace or bliss. We have a resting place. But ordinary people cannot go and enter into that world.

Here you are suffering like anything. I am one with you. But again, I can go into another world where it is all peace and bliss, like a totally separate compartment. This world is full of suffering. The other world is not. Spiritual people, spiritual Masters, can go into that world where they are cut off completely from suffering, like going into another room. That room is peaceful. This room is full of turmoil.

Again, if one has a good heart, a big heart, then he prefers to stay in the room where all are suffering. But if he wants to take rest, he can easily enter into that room where he can enjoy rest. Some good people, some spiritual Masters, say, “No, we have suffered enough for centuries and centuries, so let us keep no connection with the suffering world.” Again, some people say, “We suffered, it is true, for realisation and for manifestation. But we are seeing that these people, our brothers and sisters, are suffering. Let us stay with them as long as we can.”

Some spiritual Masters definitely did not come into the room full of suffering. They stayed in the room where it is peaceful. Even now they do not keep a connection with this world, while others do keep a connection. Not only here, in Heaven also they suffer. We cannot blame those who are not participating in this Cosmic Lila because they know how they have suffered. They need rest. They enjoy rest. But again, there are some spiritual Masters who have big hearts. They get blow after blow, but still they stay in the room where all are suffering.

Thomas Jefferson’s Vision

On 28 January 2004, at a function held at the Bali Beach Hotel, Sri Chinmoy offered the following comments and answered a question about the vision of Thomas Jefferson.

America is my dreamland. It will always remain my dreamland – America, as such, the country, the soul, the heart, but not necessarily the mind. America will forever remain my dreamland. I had the highest hope, and still I maintain the highest hope, all in the inner world. The outer world is frustration. The inner world is the highest hope. When I came to America, a new country, I came with such high hopes, and I shall still maintain my love for America, admiration for America, adoration for America. At that time I hoped for many divine things to be manifested in the outer world. They have not yet been manifested, but the vision that we have in the inner world, that I shall never give up, never.

One man, Thomas Jefferson, showed the light not only to the country, but to the whole world. His vision touched the very length and breadth of the world. It started manifesting here, there, everywhere. Jefferson’s vision, for about 200 years, blossomed in many countries, not only in America. We sow the seeds here; somehow the same seeds go to some other places, far, very far. They enter into Mother Earth and germinate. There are quite a few countries that may be unaware that this vision came from Jefferson.

God-Efficiency, Not Self-Sufficiency

Question asked by Nripal Eric Petersen, editor of Light and Liberty, Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness, a collection of Thomas Jefferson’s writings, printed in 2004: What do you think caused Americans to lose Jefferson’s vision? When I was growing up, I believe the country had it, and I think we lost it in the ’60s. After that it dissipated – both politically and culturally.

Sri Chinmoy: It was after the Bicentennial. Jefferson’s vision should have gone up high, higher, highest. Many things caused it to descend, starting with complacency. When we are complacent about our achievement, that is our downfall. For years and years, we became so complacent about our achievement: we have this, we have that. Here we look, we are most powerful. There we look, we do not need anybody. The feeling that came to the American mind was, “We do not need anybody.”

Now at every moment we see that we need this little country, we need that little country. There was a time after the Bicentennial when Americans said: “We do not need anything. We are doing a favour to the world.” The whole thing started when America felt it was self-sufficient. I always say we are not self-sufficient. No, we are God-efficient. The moment we think of self-sufficiency, we descend! Only our ego ascends.

We had a disciple who left our path. Before she left, she wrote to me that she wanted to be self-sufficient. I said, “Once you accept the spiritual life, if you feel self-sufficient, that is your downfall.” Self-sufficient you cannot be. At every moment you will see that you are weak in some aspect of life. You need somebody else’s help.

We always need somebody’s help, and then we should be grateful to that person. Our first Avatar was Sri Ramachandra. He had to fight to bring back his wife, Sita Mata, from Sri Lanka. There were huge monkeys building a bridge for him. We call them monkeys, but they were not actually monkeys. They were a less evolved form of human beings, building the bridge.

One squirrel, a little squirrel, wanted to help but said, “Ah, what can I do? I am so small and weak. What can I do?”

Then the squirrel said, “No, I want to give more. I want to use the little capacity that God has given me.”

The squirrel entered into the mud and clay and started rubbing his body against the sand. His body became full of sand. Then he came right in front of Sri Ramachandra and shook the sand off of him, in this way adding to the bridge structure.

Sri Ramachandra was so moved, “See, here I have got huge, huge monkeys. Some are working, some are not, some are fooling around. But this little squirrel, how much love he has.”

Then Sri Ram caught the squirrel. With three fingers he put on the squirrel’s back a sign, Rama’s sign. Even now, if you see an Indian squirrel, there is a mark – we say that it is the mark of Rama’s gratitude. This little squirrel gave everything. His capacity was next to nothing, but he gave whole-heartedly, whereas some huge monkeys were fooling around and not helping. Sri Ramachandra could have said, “I am self-sufficient. I do not need your help, you silly squirrel.” But he was grateful for what the squirrel could offer.

Self-sufficiency: that is the problem. One of my disciples wanted to become self-sufficient, to be a greater than the greatest musician. He said, “I will be self-sufficient if I can pursue my music.” I said, “No, no, no,” that his musical talent could go hand and hand with his spiritual life. Finally the decision came that he did not want the spiritual life. He wanted to be a great musician. Some years later, he was found lifeless, collapsed on a piano bench – finished!

Recently another individual said the same thing, “I want to be self-sufficient.”

I begged that person, “What are you going to do?”

They said, “I want to be a poet. I will write poems.”

After praying and meditating for 20 years, they wanted to choose poetry over spirituality. Can you imagine? One wanted to become a poet. One wanted to become a musician. They felt that if they became a poet or musician, they would be self-sufficient. They would not need the spiritual life. Complacency comes when you feel that you are self-sufficient. Pride and ego fool us, but the real in us sees that we need everybody’s help. The little squirrel could only give a few grains of sand, but how grateful Lord Ramachandra was for his little bit of help. To change the world we need everybody’s help.

Inner Education and Outer Education

One problem is the education system, not only in America, but everywhere. Inner education has to come first. If inner education comes first, then the outer education can grow. Inner education is a seed. If there is no proper seed, then what kind of tree do you get? Prayer has to be brought back.

My only hope is that inner education will come first. Outer education we need, but inner education must come first. If the inner education does not come before the outer education, it is not only that we will be dissatisfied with the world, but the world as such will not be satisfied with itself. It will not be truly fulfilled.

We definitely need earthly education, but we have to start with Heavenly education – prayers. Whether it is in pre-school or kindergarten or university, everywhere prayer has to start – first the heart needs be nourished, then the mind prepared. Prayer is for the heart. It has to start with pre-school or kindergarten, and up to the end, at university. Inner education must come first – then outer education can grow properly. The inner education should come first all over the world, not only in America.

Each individual prays in their own way. We say Bhagaban, you say God, somebody else says Allah or another name, but it is the same Person. One person is called Father by his son, and then Chief Justice when he goes to the court, and then another name by his friends. I call water ‘jal’; when you touch it, you call it ‘water’; and somebody else calls it ‘agua’, but it is the same water.

Everywhere, prayer has to come first. Unless and until prayer-life comes back into American soil, I do not see that there will be any way for America to bring back Jefferson’s vision. Right now, there is only fighting. Why do we fight? Because we stay in the mind. If children start praying in school for a minute or two, then they will have a different life.

Mothers and fathers send their children to school, saying they have to study; otherwise, they will be idiots. But what do they learn at home? Education starts at home. Basic knowledge we need, but we have to give more importance to illumination than to information.

We are not discarding outer education, but the seed comes first. If there is no proper seed, then how can there be a tree? The seed is inner education. If you do not have inner education, then how can you have fulfilling outer education? The outer education will remain lacking.

Television, Internet and Computer

So many negative forces have entered, from television, the internet and even the computer.

If you do not know what is happening in some remote part of the world, nothing will happen. But if you know how to kill this one and that one, then all kinds of destructive things can happen. If something is happening in some part of the world and I do not know about it, others may call me an idiot. But if I am watching destructive things, it is ruining all my divine qualities.

Then again, sometimes the newscast is all falsehood. Sometimes good news, real news comes.

Television as such is not bad. If you use a certain channel, you can watch Father Tom’s programme, where they discuss all spiritual things. For months I watched Father Tom’s interviews, often with Jewish teachers and others.

Television absolutely has to be very, very limited for children, more than for older people. The children are our future. Their minds must be fed with constructive content.

The negative forces on television and the internet need oversight by spiritual people – I do not want to say religious people – I mean by good people who love their country more than they love themselves. Now, the problem is that we love ourselves infinitely more than we love our country. Each individual says, “We love our country,” but do we really love our country? We only love ourselves.

Speed is not peace. That we have to remember. America is speed, speed, speed, but speed to what? Peace can be speed. Peace has to be valued, not simply speed as such. The more we give value to outer speed, the weaker we are becoming in our heart. We must be conscious of what we are speeding towards. If I think of my brother and do not use the telephone, thinking about his heart and about his soul, that is giving me much more joy. When I speak on the phone, asking “How are you?” – this and that – the speed of the telephone is doing me a favour. But the telephone is like a butcher. It is killing my heart. Outwardly, I make a phone call, and it is over. But I did not have the telephone for a few months when I first came to this country and started working at the Indian Consulate. When I used to think of my brothers and sisters in India, at that time I had so much intensity. Now I speak on the telephone, and then it is finished. Again, speed is needed, but not for everything, not for everything. There are many times when we have developed speed, when that speed is our downfall.

What I am saying will be proved in 100 years or 200 years or 300 years or 400 years.

If a ripe mango is about to fall, it is quite natural that it will fall at the foot of the tree. But if a storm takes place, then the mango will be blown away instead, or if some wild animals happen to be there, they will eat the mango that we were supposed to eat. They eat the mango, and they go away. They are wrong forces. But if it is a natural course, then the mango will drop at the foot of the tree, right under the tree.

The divine forces always fight, fight, fight the undivine forces. Who is going to win? The game is not over. The ultimate victory will always go to the divine. But that ultimate victory can take centuries. At that time, we will not be here. We will be some-where else. The divine forces slept, overslept. Now they are getting up. They want to put up a brave fight. Let us see.

The mind is infinitely stronger than the heart. Peace is the only divine quality that can change the face and fate of the world.

I shall forever and forever cherish the vision that I had and still have in the inner world. We see the outer world much more than the inner world. But then in the inner world also, you have to work very, very hard.

Jefferson’s Unparalleled Contribution to Humanity’s Progress

On 7 November 2004 at Aspiration-Ground medi-tation garden, Sri Chinmoy offered the following comments about Thomas Jefferson’s unparalleled contribution to humanity’s progress.

When we look at the sun, do we see any spots from here? If one brings a telescope, like Galileo and other astronomers, one can see so many spots. But the immediate feeling is so beautiful. Because of the sun, we are still alive. If there is no sun at all for us, the sun is there in some other hemisphere. The whole world exists because of the sun.

Jefferson had weaknesses like any individual, right from creation. We have to know how to judge each individual. Even spiritual Masters of the highest order were criticised, like our avatars, starting with Sri Ramachandra. Sri Ramachandra had many, many enemies, apart from Ravana. Criticism reigned supreme against him. Against Sri Krishna also, there was so much criticism!

From the earthly point of view, from the human point of view, we judge according to our capacities. These great figures – not only the spiritual figures, but those who are highly developed intellectually, morally, scientifically and in other ways – they come and they try to change the world. They try to expedite the process of evolution. When you build a house, you see there are bricks, clay, sand, mud and all kinds of things. When you look at them, you may not be happy. But when the building is made, you take shelter and live inside the building. When you see the dirt and ugliness or uncomeliness before the building is built, you might lose all your interest. Then when you see the huge building – how beautiful, how majestic, how it has given so much joy to countless people – then do you think of its origin, or do you think of what it has become?

We have evolved from mineral life to plant life, from plant life to animal life, then to human life. Now we are trying to enter into the divine life. While we are in the human life, if we think of our animal life, when we quarrelled, fought and killed and all that, do we make any progress if we think of the past? Here also, in the human body the animal life is actually there; even plant life and mineral life still we have inside. Then again, we have the promise to enter into the divine life – this plant is growing and growing.

When we look at a pond where a lotus is growing, at first it is not beautiful to look at. But then when the lotus grows out of the water, blooms and really blossoms, it is so beautiful. Look at the lotus when it is fully blossomed.

Now we see what Jefferson wanted to give. Jefferson’s vision was all embracing. It was not confined to America or anywhere. In every aspect he discovered something new, something noble, unlike any other president.

It is very easy to see a spot on a chalkboard. A huge chalkboard is all white. Then someone takes a black crayon and makes just one dot. The whole thing is white, but we want to see that one dark, black spot. That is our human tendency. Our very nature is to criticise. Criticism means separation. We want to separate ourselves from others.

We do not want to identify ourselves with the beauty, clarity and serenity of an object. If we see that there are one or two insects, we immediately pay all our attention to those two insects, but not to the vast reality that we are seeing with our heart. Our heart is seeing the beauty and divinity of the object, but our mind is getting malicious pleasure by separating itself from the main object, and seeing only one insect. The mind makes a mountain out of a molehill.

Jefferson as a human being was imperfect. Perfection has not yet dawned in any human nature. Again, this perfection can be judged by human standards. People who criticise Jefferson and others may be inferior in hundreds of aspects of life. Again, they become the judge. But Jefferson’s contribution to the world at large will remain unparalleled. Just because a few dogs bark at an elephant when it is on its way to the market, will the elephant stop walking? The elephant will go towards its destination to have mangoes and bananas in the market.

People may see Jefferson’s faults, but if people use their hearts, they will see the bigger picture of what he has given to the world at large. Our whole human nature is division, division, division, not union. Even the smallest drop will criticise the ocean. But if the ocean-lovers pay attention to the drop, then they are fools.

There are those who love Jefferson the ocean, and those who find fault with Jefferson – here one drop, here another drop, there may be 20 drops or 30 drops or 40 drops. But if you can see the vastness, the infinity of the ocean compared to forty drops, do they not pale into insignificance?

Again, for those who accept the spiritual life, it is all oneness, oneness, oneness. Parents take their children as their own, very own. They always hide or claim their children’s faults as their own, very own, on the strength of their implicit oneness. Parents are doing this not only because it is their bounden duty, but also it is their own feeling of oneness with their children.

This world is like that. If we want to make progress, shall we look at the sun and appreciate that it is giving us light, giving us life? When we look at the sun with our heart, then what happens? Then we want to be as bright as the sun, as powerful as the sun, as illumining as the sun.

We have to use our wisdom at every moment. We are ready to be happy, but how can we be happy? By criticising somebody, by criticising the world? That is the wrong way. The world has many, many good qualities. Now we have to see the good qualities. On a tree there are many branches. Some may be bearing fruits or beautiful flowers. Again, some branches may not be doing well – maybe they are about to die, or they are dry wood.

When we look at the tree, will we not be happier if we look at the beauty of the tree, the flowers and the fruits and wherever there are green leaves? By looking at the defective branches, are we making any progress? Or do we make progress by looking at the other parts, which are full of beauty and offering us a sense of peace and luminosity?

If we are wise, we shall go forward. If we are unwise, we shall not only stay where we are, but by thinking of our animal life or plant life, of our low, lower, lowest qualities, then we are going back again to the mineral life. Here there is no progress. We are in the process of evolution. Shall we go back four or five steps, or shall we take one more step and become completely one with our own divine reality?

We have to use our wisdom at every moment to take one forward step and not go back five or six steps, only to be covered by ignorance. It is our heart’s inner cry that, in the process of evolution, has brought us to the human life. Only one more step is needed. Criticism is not the answer. The answer is the feeling of oneness, of love – to see what one person can give for the betterment and improvement of humanity.

Jefferson stood for humanity’s progress throughout the length and breadth of the world. If we take Jefferson for humanity’s absolutely true progress, infallible progress, then Jefferson is the answer. We shall all bask in the sunshine of Jefferson’s glory and not see eye-to-eye or side with those who are born critics not of Jefferson, but of light, the light that illumines us, the light that guides us. They are actually criticising the light, the light that Jefferson embodied. By criticising the light, we do not go forward. Only we become great, greater, greatest friends of ignorance-darkness.

Travelling Occultly

On 11 January 2004, Sri Chinmoy answered the following questions about travelling occultly at a function held at the Hotel Padma Bali.

Question: How do occultists travel from one place to another?

Sri Chinmoy: There are many ways occultists go from one place to another. One way is that they go through the skies. Most people cannot see it. What the occultists do is they go up quite high, and then they fly very fast. That is one way.

Another way is more difficult. What some occultists do is to blow up a huge balloon, like the ones used in the sky where two or three persons can sit. But that balloon is blown up in a human, mechanical way. You can see that someone is pumping, and then it becomes big. But occultists blow occultly, and the balloon becomes huge. Then one or two people can sit there – the Master and the disciple or whomever is travelling.

When occultists fly in the subtle plane, they can fly much higher than airplanes. Sometimes they lower their height and fly right by the side of the airplane. The pilot will not be able to see them, because they are flying in the subtle plane. But very nicely the occultists enjoy this, and sometimes like children they laugh at the plane because they can fly much faster.

When Sudhahota [Carl Lewis] runs with me, he runs at my speed, but whenever he wants to, he can go so fast. Then where am I when I am running with Sudhahota? There also the occultists can go very fast and defeat the plane. It is not actually defeat; they are not comparing themselves with the plane. It is because they have something else to do. They can go much higher than the plane’s altitude.

Question: Can they bring their physical body as well?

Sri Chinmoy: When they come to the destination and stand on the ground, others will not be able to see how they came. Only they will see all of a sudden two human beings. How did they come? Not by train, not by plane, not by car, not by boat – they are just standing there. That is what they do – from where to where? There are so many ways to travel occultly. Astral travel is not the only way; there are many other ways they use.

Bijoy Krishna’s Guru Occultly Brings His Wife to the Himalayas

Some occultists have a way to dissolve the five elements. One spiritual Master was a great occultist. His name was Bijoy Krishna Goswami. He and his wife had many family problems and used to fight. They had two or three daughters who were sad and miserable that the mother and father were fighting. Their Guru was in the Himalayas. The Guru felt miserable that the children were suffering from the parents’ quarrelling.

One day in the evening the wife went to fetch water. All of a sudden she saw her Master. He came in his subtle body and dissolved her five elements. She went to bring water, but she was no longer there. Then from Calcutta she went all the way to the Himalayas. Nobody saw her, nobody. Her material sheath he had dissolved.

When the mother did not come home after going to bring water, the children were crying and crying. The father said, “All right, we were quarrelling, so our Guru came and took your mother.”

The children said, “But how? We didn’t see the Guru. The Guru did not come here.”

The father said, “I saw him,” because he knew this kind of occult power. “He came and took your mother, I tell you. One day he will bring her back.”

The children were thinking that the father was making this up to console them. But he said, “No, I am not telling you lies. You will see in a few months that our Guru will bring her back again. He has taken her away.”

They asked, “How could he take her away?” The father said, “That you will not understand, how occultists do it. I know how they do it.”

The wife was in the Himalayas. This moment she missed her husband and daughters, and the next moment she was very happy that they were not fighting and that the father was taking care of the daughters. The children were consoled, or they accepted the fact that the mother had gone somewhere. The father was right: in three months’ time, one evening, at exactly the same spot, the Guru brought her back, and then he disappeared. Then the mother came home running, and the children were so happy.

Bijoy Krishna was smiling and laughing because he knew what his Guru had done. In this way a great occultist can dissolve the five elements.

Question: Can other people go on these occult travels?

Sri Chinmoy: Occultists can take others. These are authentic stories. They are all in books, including by India’s great writer Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, and I believe them one hundred percent. I have had many such experiences.

Going Beyond Creation

On 14 January 2004, Sri Chinmoy answered the following questions at a function held at the Hotel Padma Bali.

Question: What happens when you stop your heart-beat, as you did once in the Ashram?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, at that time there is no inner world, no outer world. At that time you have the feeling that the world is beyond what you imagine.

Now I am talking to you in this hall, which is so much larger than I am. We are only covering so much of the room – for 500 people. Another 200 people can be accommodated. But when you are in your highest meditation, you transcend the universe. The four corners of the globe have a limit, but the universe is unlimited.

When you realise God, it is a very high experience that does not want to be bound. Right now, you think your world is binding. But when you have access to the universe, then that universe is infinitely larger than that world. God is kind to you and says, “I created the world. I created the universe.” Although God is inside the world, inside the universe, God has the capacity to extend Himself. He is not bound. When we say the universe, it is unimaginable. When you are one with God’s Will, that boundary is a circle, but you go far beyond that.

When you stop your heartbeat, at that time you do not belong to this world, earth, or to Heaven. You belong to an inner creation, which is not manifested – God’s creation. You go beyond creation. When you do something with God’s Will, you have unlimited life-breath. I always laugh at the mind’s imagination or its preconceived terminology. It is a very vast field. You cannot see – it is so vast. The mind is unable to take you any farther. But once you have oneness with God’s Will, always God’s Will has the capacity to go beyond. There is no limit. It always goes beyond, beyond, beyond.

Conversations with the Soul of India

Question (referring to Sri Chinmoy’s recent visit to India to visit his brother Mantu at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram): When you arrive and walk on Indian soil, does the soul of India come to you? Is she delighted to see you?

Sri Chinmoy: That I do not know, but we enjoy our conversation. That much is for sure. On the way between Singapore and India, the flight was three hours, 50 minutes. As far as I remember, after two hours the soul of India came to me full of affection, love, fondness, sweetness and pride. We conversed and conversed.

Then when we started by car from Madras Airport to Pondicherry, my brother Chitta was also there in the inner world. He had so many things to tell me, so many things to ask me. Many times he was asking me not to bargain with the rikshaw wallas, but always to surrender to them, because it was beneath my dignity.

That was my conversation with my brother Chitta. Side by side on the same seat, I was conversing with the Soul of India about the future and all kinds of things. One can do many things. For hours and hours I can converse with them.

Spiritual Masters Becoming Conscious of Who They Are

Question: When a great spiritual Master takes birth, when is it that he is fully conscious of what he is and what he has to do? From very early childhood does he have to play a certain role, or at a certain point does awakening come?

Sri Chinmoy: It is an individual matter. Some know at the very beginning of their lives, while others in the evening of their lives. There are some spiritual Masters, like Lord Krishna, who from the very beginning was conscious. When his mother was trying to punish him as a child because he was stealing curds, he showed her the whole universe inside his mouth. Some take time – 15 or 16 years or even longer. Sri Ramachandra did not show his divinity in the beginning. Sri Ramakrishna started after the age of 35 or 38.

Jesus Christ only showed his 37 miracles during the last three years of his life. Before that we say he was a carpenter, he took up his father’s profession. We are absolutely sure that he went to India and was there, at least for 12 years, if not 16. At that time what was he doing? He was a seeker. In India he was not a spiritual Master. He was studying spirituality and yoga from different people. Again, some, very few, like Sri Krishna, right from the beginning they were conscious of who they were and were doing work.

Again, even if you know who you are, you cannot always start your role immediately. When I was inside my mother, my brother knew who I was. He saw very clearly in his vision that I was a spiritual Master of the highest height. But then my father died when I was young. My brother played the role of the father, and how many times he scolded me! Again, he absolutely knew who I was.

I became conscious of who I was at the age of 12 ½ or 13, let us say 13 years, with Sri Aurobindo’s grace. I knew who I was; I just had to turn the pages, the pages that I knew so well – that kind of thing. But in terms of working for manifestation, when I came here in 1964, then I had to wait again for two or three years. I knew at the age of 13 who I was, but I did not start manifestation until the age of 34 or 35.

There is no hard and fast rule, at what point a spiritual Master will know. Some know from the beginning. There are some who came to know who they were only a few years before they left the world. Lord Buddha was not at all aware. He was a prince. When Lord Buddha saw the suffering of the world, then he said, “Now I do not want this life. I do not want to have pleasure.” Then Lord Buddha prayed very hard at the foot of a bodhi tree and attained enlightenment.

Mahavira also was a royal figure, and he gave up that life. Both Lord Buddha and Mahavira were princes who stayed as royalty for over twenty years. Then they left their palaces. If they had stayed in the palace, there would have been so many things that would have distracted them – singing, dancing, luxuries, all kinds of things. In my case I entered into a spiritual community and lived a simpler than the simplest life. So God decides if He will allow the person, the spiritual Master, to know what he will be.

Again, Sri Ramakrishna told about Rakhal, Swami Brahmananda. In terms of spirituality, he was higher than Swami Vivekananda. Sri Ramakrishna said, “The moment Rakhal comes to know who he was, he will leave the body. I will not be able to keep him.” He had been a very, very close associate of Sri Krishna in Brindaban. When Sri Krishna came into the world, at that time he was one of his closest. So Sri Ramakrishna said, “If he comes to know who he was, he will leave the body.”

In Swami Vivekananda’s case also, Sri Ramakrishna said, “I have kept it under lock and key. You have to work.” Otherwise, if Swami Vivekananda had the key to open up the box, then he would say, “O my God, I was this, I had this occult power. Who wants to work?”

God gives everything, but it is like parents who have amassed great wealth. They give everything to their children, but they give little by little. If they see that somebody is misusing the money-power, then the parents wait and wait, to give their children some wisdom. It is absolutely like the human world.

Each avatar has a different time. In the case of some spiritual Masters like Sri Chaitanya, in the beginning he did not know. He was a Sanskrit scholar who was teaching. Lord Buddha and Sri Ramakrishna became aware quite late, after the age of 28 or 30, not at the beginning of their lives.

God chooses everything, when He wants to show us who we were. First we have to become. Then we know and we are. First we were monkeys and donkeys. Then we become lions. God says, “You have to become the lion itself.” It is all up to God to tell us, not that you have become a lion, but you were a lion for many, many centuries. For each spiritual Master God chooses the year, the day, the hour.

Soulfulness of Gamelan Music

Question: Can you tell us something about Balinese gamelan music? I feel it is very uplifting.

Sri Chinmoy: When they play the gamelan, usually I like it very much. At the hotels when they play their music, I deeply appreciate it. I feel there is so much soulfulness and spirituality. Usually I get tremendous joy, like in India, at the temple in the evening, when they ring bells and all that. But yesterday’s performance at the University I could not appreciate. Unfortunately, I did not like it at all because the music was wild, absolutely wild.

There was no spirituality or sacredness involved yesterday when they were playing. Of course, there was also Balinese dancing. The music was, for me, not only loud, but something I could not appreciate. Other gamelan music I like very much. It is very charming, and it touches my heart. When they play, I can listen for a long time – I really enjoy it.

Whoever Thought?

First there was the League of Nations. Sri Aurobindo had a very high opinion of the League of Nations. Then starting in 1945 there was the United Nations. When Sri Aurobindo heard about the United Nations, he felt it would be the answer to world peace, world union. Whoever at that time thought that I would come to the UN to lead peace meditations?

Whoever thought I would become so close to Ravi Shankar? He was playing his sitar at the Ashram, and I was a young boy, not even two metres away from him, face to face. I admired him so much. I was right in front of him, facing him. Whoever thought?

Remembering the Source

On 2 May 2004 at a function held at Public School 86, Sri Chinmoy answered the following questions, including about his recent trip to Slovenia. During his visit, at a ceremony on 1 May 2004, mayors from three cities in Slovenia, Austria and Hungary dedicated a plaque to world harmony at a spot in the countryside where the nations’ three borders intersect. Sri Chinmoy’s visit auspiciously coincided with Slovenia and Hungary joining the European Union, along with eight other countries. Austria had already joined in 1995.

Question: It was interesting that at the same time as your visit, Slovenia and Hungary were among the ten new countries joining the European Union.

Sri Chinmoy: My visit coincided so well. The Minister said it was a great moment for them that I went at that time when they joined the European Union. As I said in my song, “One in three, three for one, Supreme Lord’s Victory won.”

I told my disciples never to forget the source. When I refer to Yugoslavia, this includes all my disciples from former Yugoslav republics. You maintain your independence, but I cannot forget the source.

My source is a little village, tinier than the tiniest. Even Briarwood is larger. Now I am in America. When I achieve something, immediately I think of what my source was, and I offer my tearful gratitude to my source, a tiny village. I was a little boy from a tiny, little village, such an obscure village. From there God has thrown me into the wide world to be of service to Him. What God’s Grace can do! Here is the proof in your Guru’s life – from where to where?

European Union, Oneness-Union

Question: Can you say anything about what you see for the future of the European Union?

Sri Chinmoy: Oneness, oneness-union: Europe is awakened. I am so proud of it. Before there were 15 countries. Now 10 more countries have joined, so 25 countries. To my great joy, yesterday Slovenia and Hungary joined the Union. I am so happy it coincided with my visit. More countries will join. It will help Europe to go fast, very fast, in many fields.

During the dedication of the Peace-Blossom at the point where the three countries meet, I lifted three mayors from Slovenia, Hungary and Austria. They were there at the border, at the meeting point. Then a picture was taken. All three were clasping each other’s hands, and I placed my hands on top of the three – a very significant picture!

The Dream of the United Nations

Question: Can you speak about the dream of the United Nations?

Sri Chinmoy: I am a lover of the United Nations. About the soul, the heart and the life of the United Nations, I have only appreciation, admiration, love and adoration. I must say I will always speak very, very highly about the United Nations wherever I go, and it comes directly from my heart. With a sincerity-heart I speak because I know the dream, the vision of the United Nations. It is not what some of the members did or are doing or will be doing. The vision of the United Nations will forever remain unparalleled, unparalleled in my heart, so I will always speak very, very highly of the United Nations. For me, the soul is the reality, the heart is the reality, the life is the reality of the United Nations, and not what some of the members of the UN say and what they do.

About a month ago the soul of the United Nations appeared before me, saying, “When you come, your presence helps me.” I feel so lucky that nowadays we are always getting a UN conference room for our twice-weekly peace meditations.

Interdependence, Not Independence

Question (asked by Sakhshat Flowers, a medical doctor): I was so happy about your New Year’s Message at the beginning of the year that I made it the message for my answering service for a while with music. I just wanted to ask you if you felt like that message was taking root, now that the year is pretty far along.

Sri Chinmoy: The message that I gave for the New Year is this:

“At the end of a very long and uncertain Ignorance-flooded Night-Road, the Beauty of a New Hope and the Ecstasy of a New Promise shall unmistakably blossom.”

My Doctor Flowers, a flower is full of beauty, full of fragrance. We like beautiful and fragrant flowers, but some people are so callous, they do not like flowers. If you value a flower, you enter into your heart-garden. The garden is there. But some people will not go to a garden. They are ready to go to a factory, a gymnasium or to other places.

We can say, “How is it that people do not like flowers? Such a beautiful thing!” Yes, a flower is a beautiful thing, beautiful for me, beautiful for you. Again, someone else will say, “Who cares for flowers?” They will care for something else. So you have to value something.

In my message, what I saw in the inner world, what others also saw, now people have to value. For that, they do not have to think of a flower. They only have to think of God. Early in the morning every human being for one solitary minute should pray to God, “Give us a better world.” There I am included, you are included.

But people do not do that. There are many people who, instead of saying, “Give us a better world; let us have peace,” they still have in their mind supremacy: “How will I become richer than my neighbour; how will I have a better car than my neighbour?” Always people are trying to compete.

Around the whole world, by competing and competing, people are only ruining themselves. Competition is not bad; you can compete with your-self. You know how many lies you told yesterday or ten days ago, so now try to tell fewer lies. Always by competing with myself, I can become a better person.

Everything that I am seeing in the inner world is happening. But outwardly it is not manifesting because people are not valuing it. The life that will give us joy and peace is prayer and meditation.

Children have to be taught. They are the future – not only the future, they are the inspiration. The parents may all be fossilised. But if the children are praying, one day the parents will say, “My children are praying,” and from the children they will get inspiration. When children so sincerely pray to God, they put the parents to shame. The parents ask them to pray, but then when the children pray, their prayers may be infinitely more sincere than the parents’ prayers. Then these parents again get joy and inspiration from their children.

The inner life, spiritual life, must come first, not the outer life. We say the inner and outer must go side by side, but we must do the first thing first. Inwardly, in the inner life, the heart is inside. The life-breath is inside. They are not on the top of my forehead.

If we feed the inner life, then all the things that spiritual Masters say and that I am saying, are true. But unfortunately, people are not paying any attention to the flower, the beauty and fragrance of the flower. They are caring for something else that will give them name and fame or make them feel they are superior.

Until we feel the supreme necessity of interdependence, this world will never become better. The European Union is giving me so much joy. Can you imagine? Twenty-five countries in Europe have joined – and gradually more will join. They believe in union, but there are so many countries that have no union.

What I saw in my message is absolutely true. A ripe mango is there, and I am absolutely sure that the mango will drop here at the foot of the tree. The mango is about to descend, but all of a sudden a hurricane takes place, and the mango is blown far away. Now you are sure, I am sure, everybody is sure that the mango will descend at the foot of the tree, but it does not descend because of a hostile attack.

What we saw is absolutely true about the future. Still we have not given up. We cannot say, “No, the mango is not going to drop at the foot of the tree.” Still there is hope. A fight is going on between the divine forces and the undivine forces. God alone knows which forces are divine, which forces are undivine. If I say you are undivine, you have every right to say I am undivine, so the best thing is to remain silent. I will not call you undivine. You will not call me undivine.

Only let us say ‘happiness’. I want happiness, but not by lording it over you. And if you say you want happiness, then all our prophecies that we are saying will come true. If you sincerely want happiness, if I sincerely want happiness – not by hook or by crook, but the happiness that will be permanent inside our hearts – then this interdependence will come into existence, not independence.

Independence can mean supremacy. One day supremacy will disappear from this world – it will become intimacy, it has to. This little planet, this poor planet – is God going to see the destruction of this planet? Never, never, never! When a little girl has a doll, she clothes it, and then she says nobody can touch it because they will ruin it. The little girl has such affection, sweetness and fondness for the doll! God has created human beings – we are all on this planet. I do not think God will see with His Eyes open that this world is going to be destroyed. It is impossible. He has Concern, He has Love for His own creation.

But again, God wants our service. He wants us to serve Him. You are a doctor. You know how many disciples go to you, and how sincerely you serve your Guru, the Supreme and your soul. How many doctors will serve like you? I am not flattering you. There are some doctors who will do this. Again, there are many doctors, if you go there five minutes after their office hours, you can knock and knock at the door, but they are not going to open it. They have gone home.

There is a joke, that a doctor’s office had a sign that it will be open until 4:00. Then a man was bitten by a dog. When he went to the doctor, the doctor said, “You cannot see that after 4:00 we are closed?” The man said, “But the dog didn’t know.”

I am sure that if somebody comes to your place late at night, your heart will open the door and give the needed treatment, whereas some other doctors will not. They will hear the knock, but they are not going to open the door. If divine qualities like concern, compassion and sympathy are available, then this world will only flower.

Coming back to your question, what I saw is absolutely true. But uncertainty still prevails. The world has to make progress. There shall come a time when it has reached a certain height. From there, there will be only certainty. This is going to happen, that is going to happen. Now we see sometimes an 80 per cent chance that it is going to happen. Then all of a sudden everything goes wrong. It is like the sun – we may be absolutely sure the whole day will be sunny, but alas, rain comes. Then there is rain, rain, rain, when all of a sudden, the sun bursts forth.

Prayers, prayers, prayers, prayers, prayers, prayers and prayers. God does not expect 10 hours’ meditation or 8 hours’ meditation. God knows that we do not have time for 8 or 10 hours of meditation, but perhaps he does expect 10 minutes a day – for 10 minutes we can pray. Among my disciples, there are some who may not meditate even for 10 minutes in the morning. I ask them to get up at 6:00, if possible, to meditate, and also to sing the Invocation, to bring down God’s Blessings. But how many do this?

Those who accept the spiritual life are called chosen children of God. If chosen children of God are not doing the needful, praying in the morning, then how can we expect people who have not accepted the spiritual life to get up in the morning and pray and meditate? If we are chosen to do something specific, and we are not doing the right thing, how do you expect that thing from others who do not believe in the spiritual life, who maybe do not believe in God or in world-progress?

We have a few thousand disciples. If every day all the disciples do the right thing, God will not turn a deaf ear to us. He will only be proud of us. So you pray, I pray, let us all pray. New Year’s Messages I give. They are not whimsical. They come from a very, very high source. Then sometimes the messages are not fulfilled. For that, we should also take some responsibility, some blame.

The Goal Unknowable

On 5 June 2004, Sri Chinmoy answered the following questions at Aspiration-Ground meditation garden.

Question: In the prayer you gave this morning at the race, you said the goal of my soul’s journey is unknowable. Will it ever be knowable?

The prayer that was offered:

My outer running
Is my body’s journey.
The destination is known. My inner running
Is my soul’s journey.
The goal is unknowable.

Sri Chinmoy: I said, “My inner running is my soul’s journey.” God is transcending Himself all the time. This moment if I say I have known God, perhaps I have done it. But the next moment I see He transcends Himself. Then I have to go again and run to see His Self-Transcendence. This never ends. I may have realised God, but I know God’s Mystery is unfathomable. That is why we say, “Let Thy Will be done. If You want me to be satisfied with a drop, I will be satisfied. If You want me to be satisfied with the vast ocean, I will be satisfied.” That is surrender.

The soul’s journey is unknowable, not unknown. The body’s journey is known: as soon as I start, I know I will run one mile or ten miles or 100 miles or 200 miles. That is fixed. But in the soul’s journey, nothing is fixed. The soul flies. It deals with Eternity and Infinity. What do we know about Eternity and Infinity? Only we know how to spell the words, and there are many who cannot even spell them correctly. Because the soul is dealing all the time with Eternity, Infinity and self-transcendence, we cannot know the goal. It is unfathomable, unknowable, absolutely unknown. From my own experience it is like this.

There are people who may have different opinions – that if you know God, then you know everything. It is true that on the strength of your oneness, if the soul wants to show you an aspect of God, you can see it. But from my own experience, I know that the goal of the journey itself is unknowable. Do I Really Love God?

Question: Guru, I was wondering if negative forces attack more when you are aspiring or when you are not aspiring?

Sri Chinmoy: When you do not aspire, when you are fast asleep, then the negative forces say, “Let the baby sleep.” Then when the baby gets up and tries to pinch or kick the negative forces, they say, “What are you doing? We are infinitely stronger.”

Sometimes God examines us: how much we love Him, how much we need Him. There are many disciples who sometimes make complaints to me, and other Masters also have the same problem. They say, “Today I prayed intensely to God for purity. Alas, all the impure thoughts are coming today. Today I prayed to God for hours to give me joy, and the whole day is miserable. The news that is coming is full of misery. What is this? I prayed so sincerely, more than other days. Other days perhaps I prayed for five minutes, and today I have prayed for five hours. But today so many calamities are taking place in my life, so what is the use of prayer?”

It is a question of unconditional surrender. We say to God, “O God, I pray to You for purity, for sincerity, for compassion and all good qualities. Today it is the diametrically opposite reality that I am feeling. I prayed for peace for three hours. Alas, I see that today my mind is full of unrest, worries and anxieties.”

Then God will say, “Show Me how much you love Me.” Knowing well that today you are suffering much more than other days, although you have prayed more sincerely for a particular thing from God, at that time you can say, “All right, I prayed sincerely. If it is Your Will that I will suffer today more than other days, I am fully prepared. On my part I will continue to pray for peace, light and bliss from You.”

At that time the question comes, “Do I really love God?” If I really love Him, who cares? I know my God has His Ears wide open. My God has His Eyes wide open. Then the philosophy comes: God is having this experience in and through me. He is having the experience. If that kind of feeling we can have, then we are safe – otherwise, no. Some days when we pray more sincerely, on that day hostile forces may attack us more vehemently. Then God examines our love, if our love for God is stronger than the hostile attacks. If you can prove that your love for God is infinitely stronger, then God will take away these problems and give you peace of mind.

Consciousness Lasts for Centuries

Question: On the last page of The Master and the Disciple, you wrote that you will try to stay on earth until the earth’s consciousness is realised.

Sri Chinmoy: I said, “As long as the earth-consciousness is not fully realised, I will try to remain on earth to be of service to mankind with my inner conscious-ness.”

I did not mean on the physical plane – only my consciousness will remain. God knows how many centuries it will take for the earth-consciousness to be fully realised. Sometimes spiritual Masters, after they have left the body, keep a connection for 200, 300 or 400 years. Then they completely cut off their connection because they feel that they have played their role. Here on the physical plane, I am trying my very best. Then in the soul’s world also I will try my best.

If it is God’s Will, if after a few centuries God wants me to deal with other planets, I will be very happy. Earth is only one planet. There are many, many planets. He may give me a job to work on other planets. It is like today my boss is asking me to work for this earth. Tomorrow God will ask me, “No, work for some other world.” Here my consciousness will last for centuries. But if God wants to change and give me the job to work on another planet, I will be very happy.

Surrendering Victory and Defeat

Question: We pray for many things. In a day we may pray for all sorts of things. But is there one prayer that will take care of everything, for instance, if we pray only for your constant victory in ourselves and others?

Sri Chinmoy: If somebody prays for God’s constant Victory, then if calamities take place, you can say, “I am doing my best. I have surrendered.” Everything is victory and defeat, victory and defeat. I will do my very best, and while I am doing my very best, I will feel it is God’s Grace that is acting in and through me. Otherwise, why is somebody else sleeping? Why is another person snoring? You have to place the result at the Feet of God all the time. It comes either in the form of victory or in the form of defeat, so you have to place it at His Feet.

We will always try to do the right thing. Prayer is very good. meditation is very good, then concentration and all that. One thing we have to know: purity, purity of the mind, purity in the mind, is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, when you are doing something very special, at that time wrong thoughts can come. They may not be lower vital thoughts. They can be jealousy, insecurity, frustration and other negative thoughts. If there is purity in the mind, then jealousy does not come, then insecurity does not come, then loneliness does not come.

Purity has to be established first in the mind. If purity is established in the mind, then one can see light, one can be light. The problem is if the mind is impure. Impurity does not have to be always vital thoughts or lower thoughts. The mind can have wrong feelings. If somebody has done something great, if somebody has become famous, I may be jealous. This impurity of the mind covers the length and breadth of human existence.

Purity we get on the strength of our surrender to God’s Will. If we can surrender every moment in our life, then God gives us the capacity to remain pure in our mind. We have to know that the vital, the lower vital, always plays a trick on us. We feel that it is the heart that is doing this. But unless we are spiritually advanced, quite often the lower vital plays a trick on us. We say, “Oh, this is the heart,” but the heart has nothing to do with it. The vital and the heart are very close. They are like neighbours. You have to know if your consciousness is inside your own heart or inside its neighbour.

Then the time comes when the purity of the heart covers the mind, vital and physical. When it can cover them all, when it can transform them, then we are all safe. So purity plays its role. The significance of purity can only be felt. Impurity means not only undivine thoughts. It can be jealousy, insecurity and all kinds of negative forces, negative thoughts. The best thing is to surrender, if God at this moment gives us this experience. Pray, pray, pray. You have to pray to God for purity, for sympathy, for oneness, oneness. When we establish oneness with God’s Will, no matter what happens in our outer life and inner life, if we can surrender our will to God’s Will, then God is bound to give us a pure mind, pure heart and pure life.

But we do not surrender. If we can feel that God is the Doer and we are the action, then all these problems are solved. But we say, “I did it, I did it,” if it is a good thing – and not if it is a bad thing. Always keep God as the Doer, and we are the action. Then when something is achieved, we have to place it at God’s Feet happily and proudly. It can come either in the form of victory or in the form of defeat.

Oneness with God’s Will: if we pray to God to establish our oneness with God’s Will, sincerely, unconditionally and self-givingly, then there is no problem that cannot be solved. Even inside the problem we see light. Light illumines the problems, and they do not remain problems as such.

Have You Seen God?

Question: If a seeker asks if you have seen God, what is the best way to answer?

Sri Chinmoy: I have studied for centuries. It is like being a nurse. One has to be at least a nurse to know the capacities of the doctor. If you are not at least a nurse, then what do you know about medicine?

If you aspire, if you pray and meditate, then if you meditate with me, you will know who I am, what I stand for. People who are curious and who are asking this question only out of sheer curiosity, will never be satisfied, and will always ask for more and more proof.

5 June 2004 Aspiration-Ground

Jesse Owens Humanitarian Award Dinner

On 15 November 2002, Sri Chinmoy received the prestigious Jesse Owens Humanitarian Award in Chicago at the twelfth annual awards dinner of the Jesse Owens Foundation, held at the Hyatt Regency. The President of the Board of Directors, Michael Fisher, presented the award on behalf of the Foundation, which included Jesse Owens’ three living daughters and other family members. Among the audience of about 500 preeminent community leaders and athletes from all different fields was Sri Chinmoy’s dear friend, 9-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis. Following are excerpts from the occasion.

Michael Fisher, President of the Board of Directors, Jesse Owens Foundation (presenting the award after a video about Sri Chinmoy’s work was shown): As you can see, Sri Chinmoy has inspired and touched the lives of many in his quest for global peace and harmony. He has received many awards of recognition, including the Mother Teresa Award from Macedonia, the Pilgrim of Peace Award from Italy and the Gandhi Peace Award. He is also known for his biennial Sri Chinmoy Oneness-Home Peace Run, which is the world’s largest and longest relay for peace, spanning 120 nations across 7 continents. His contributions in the arts promote his message of peace through worldwide free peace concerts in venues such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. Since 1970 he has led twice-weekly prayer and meditation sessions at the United Nations Head-quarters. His peace movement has been invaluable to many nations struggling for democracy and the betterment of mankind. Sri Chinmoy literally lifts our spirits. The Jesse Owens Foundation is honoured to award its 2002 Humanitarian Award to Sri Chinmoy.

Sri Chinmoy (accepting the award): My highly esteemed Sister Marlene, highly esteemed Brother Stewart, members of the Jesse Owens family, and distinguished members of the Jesse Owens Foundation, I wish to offer you infinite gratitude from the inmost recesses of my heart for bestowing upon me this signal honour. Jesse Owens was, is and forever shall remain my life’s champion supreme and my heart’s hero supreme for his deathless jumps, his breathless speed and his ceaseless self-offering.

To Jesse Owens, the outer man of indomitable courage, I bow and bow. To Jesse Owens, the inner man of infinite compassion, I bow and bow and bow and bow.

I was a budding 100-metre champion in a spiritual community in Pondicherry, South India. My idol absolute was Jesse Owens. Generation after generation, his Olympian voice will reverberate in the hearts of aspiring athletes throughout the length and breadth of the world.

Jesse Owens is a unique inspiration-sun, beckoning us all to conquer impossibility and leap forward, dive inward and fly upward in the realms of greatness and goodness.

The Jesse Owens Humanitarian Award is a most significant gift in my life. I shall forever and forever treasure this supreme honour, specially because it has been presented to me by his beloved family members.

No hyperbole, Jesse Owens’ name is synonymous with the green Eternity’s Light, the blue Infinity’s Delight and the gold Immortality’s Pride.

Here I wish to quote a few immortal utterances of the immortal Jesse Owens:

“I found God. That does not mean I cannot lose Him.”

“I never tried to cheat anyone in my life, your Honour, except possibly Jesse Owens, so help me God.” God did help him, and he won the case.

“Two unmatchable teammates: my wife of almost 50 years, Ruth, and the Nazi who fought Hitler with me, Luz Long.² Three unique leaders: my mother, my father and Charles Riley.³ But most and most humbly, the great Referee.”

I am extremely happy and delighted to have with us here Carl Lewis, 9-time Olympic gold medallist. He was, is and shall forever remain a supremely great admirer of the pioneer supreme champion Jesse Owens.⁴

Once more, I wish to offer gratitude from the very depths of my heart to all the members of the Jesse Owens family and to the members of the Jesse Owens Foundation.

Faith, the Miracle of Miracles

If you have faith in your Master, and your Master says something will cure you, to the end you will say, “My Master says it will cure me, it will cure me.” Maintain that strong faith. If you have real faith in your Master, then again and again the problem will subside and you will be cured.

Like that, millions of stories we have, millions of stories – everywhere, everywhere. Faith cures. But our faith is a very short breath. As soon as we suffer, we pray, “Save me, save me, save me.” But when we are not cured immediately, then we give up. The spiritual life means the constant increase of our faith in God, in the Master and in ourselves. Then faith itself is the miracle of miracles.

Esraj, My Dearest Instrument

Today we are observing the 27th anniversary of my playing the esraj. I started my musical career with the esraj. Then I started playing all my other instruments. My dear, dearer, dearest instrument shall forever remain my esraj. My esraj will have no equal. My dearest and fondest instrument is the esraj. If I am a musician, I owe everything to the heart and the soul of my esraj.

Anniversary of Newness-Brightness-Happiness Laundromat — Inner and Outer Purity

On 17 November 2003, Sri Chinmoy celebrated the anniversary of Newness-Brightness-Happiness Laundromat in Queens, owned by his student Maral Siegel. Following are excerpts from the occasion.

The freshness of our clothes gives us tremendous joy. When we wear clean, fresh clothes, we get tremendous joy, and this joy is absolutely real – not unreal. In exactly the same way, a little purity is needed in the mind to clean the body, the vital and even the heart, when they become impure. When we can maintain purity in the mind, we get new satisfaction, illumining satisfaction and fulfilling satisfaction in life. Our hope for a better life, a higher life, starts blossoming.

From clean clothes, the outer body gets satisfaction. When the outer body gets satisfaction, in the inner life it becomes easier to please God. This Divine Enterprise of ours, of our Lord Supreme, is constantly reminding us of our inner existence. In our outer life we get tremendous help from clean clothes to derive joy. Similarly, tremendous and more significant joy we get from the cleanliness of the mind.

I am very, very pleased with this Divine Enterprise. Every morning I leave my house after eight, and I pass by here. Maral, yours is the only Divine Enterprise that gets daily blessings from me. As soon as I look at this side of the street, my divine blessings enter into this Divine Enterprise, so you can be very happy and very proud. But you have to be divinely proud, not undivinely proud. To be undivinely proud is the dance of ego – then finished! All my joy will go away.

Yesterday I entered into the Greek deli which is next door to here. The owner was so happy to see me in his shop. Every time I enter into his shop, he gets tremendous joy. This joy he gets because next door is our Divine Enterprise. I am sure every day he gets good business from your customers. But he has been nice to me for a very, very, very long time – very, very nice.

Again, to come back to the inner and outer purity, from inside you go outside, and again, from outside you go inside. With our inner aspiration, we go outside. Similarly, from outer cleanliness we enter into inner purity, and vice versa, from inner purity we enter into outer cleanliness. They go side by side. We cannot neglect one while accepting the other. No, both we have to accept with equal joy and equal love. Then we can become perfect human beings, both in the inner world and in the outer world.

Comments about the Transcendental Photograph

Always keep my Transcendental at a place where nothing will be above it. I am implicitly, eternally and immortally one with God in the Transcendental photograph. For my disciples, if you have an iota of devotion, every second you should value my Transcendental. Not every day or every hour, but every second your life-breath should value this photograph. There I am not a human being. There I am inseparable with God-Consciousness and even God, you can say – inseparably one.

The Transcendental has to be at every moment in your life-breath. If you have a life, then you have a heart. If you have a heart, that means you have breath. You have to feel the Transcendental inside your life-breath.

And I have gone beyond the Transcendental. About 15 years ago, when I went beyond it, the Transcendental fell down right in front of me. There was no wind, nothing, nothing.

Please remember, the Transcendental always should be the highest, highest, highest.

Becoming Rich in the Inner World

When you come for our annual Christmas and New Year’s retreat, please think of your own spiritual progress. Inner money you have to make, all of you. You did not come here to become the richest businessmen, multimillionaires. I want you all to become rich in the inner world, not in the outer world. If you feel that your business will fail if you are here for two weeks or three weeks, then that is no business.

You have to take care of your inner business. Some businessmen say they have to leave the trip early because of their business. Businessmen should think of their inner business first, specially when they come here. When they are in their own country, they work so hard, so hard. Sometimes the outer business prevents them from meditating. Here they are getting the golden opportunity. They joined the path for inner business. Otherwise, they could have remained in their outer business and become multi-millionaires.

Some are saying they have to go back to work, they have to disappear. If after two or three weeks your business collapses, then that is no business. Look at this Iceland businessman. His whole family is here, and he does not worry. He says he will definitely get back his customers. That is the theory of Suren’s parents, and I fully agree with them.

And once you are here, forget about your outer business. Once you have joined the spiritual path, think of your inner business most of the time, if not all the time. Otherwise, outer business you are doing throughout the year. When you are there in your home countries, there is so much strain. You make progress, but here you can make more progress with your happy hearts. There your mind suffers a lot, your heart suffers, everything suffers to make money. And inner progress, which is inner money, becomes very difficult. Here you can amass inner wealth with very little difficulty or practically no difficulty.

No Retirement!

Retirement is the worst possible thing in God’s creation. God does not like retirement at all. He does not believe in retirement. If God retires, the whole world will collapse. God believes in everything except retirement. I tell you, no retirement! If we are spiritual, if we want to please God, then no retirement. If we want to please ourselves, then we can enjoy retirement every second of our life.

Progress on the Christmas and New Year’s Retreat

Many, many disciples could have stayed longer on our Christmas and New Year’s retreat. They do not have serious financial problems. So many disciples who have money will not come at all because their mind is not permitting them. There are again some who do not have much money, but who are dying, dying to stay even one solitary day more. We use the term holiday, but I am not taking this as a holiday – never.

Here the progress that I make, that you people make, you have no idea – in two months how much progress we make! In my outer life I write so many poems, songs, this and that. In my inner life also, I get tremendous joy because I work much harder. You see that I am meditating and meditating. Apart from that, I do many, many things. Here tension is comparatively much less – for you people also, for everybody. As soon as you go back to America or your country, there are problems – tension in the streets, tension in the subways, tension in the mind.

God gives us the opportunity for practically three months to make tremendous progress. There are some disciples who make such progress in two or three months. It is like depositing money in the bank. Then you start withdrawing, withdrawing, with-drawing. The time comes when you say, “Again I have to work very hard. Otherwise, there will be nothing left in the bank.”

There are quite a few disciples who make such progress during these three months, and the rest of the year their progress is almost next to nothing. Little by little, here they become relaxed, and then so much progress they make. One main reason is my availability. How many hours I spend with you all! I doubt very much if other Masters spend that much time with their disciples.

You can learn by heart some of this year’s prayers, 50 or 60 prayers out of 500. If you repeat those prayers inwardly or outwardly, you are bound to make tremendous progress. You can select 50 prayers that you like, and others will have a different selection. I get tremendous joy, not pride, tremendous joy that my Supreme, Beloved Supreme, used me to offer those prayers.

Here again, the way you are spending time with me, I am reciting the prayers, and you recite them with me. In New York when do you get this kind of opportunity? In terms of opportunity, again it is mutual. You get the opportunity to receive something from me, and I get the opportunity to open up your hearts wider.

This year if you will be in serious trouble with your work, please do go home. From next year, please try to make your stay more flexible. If you ask your bosses, then you may be successful. Again, there are some who take a leave of absence, with no salary. Then their boss says, all right, go, go, since it is so important for you.

Where there is a will, there will always be a way. But some people, as soon as they get a little resistance from their bosses, they surrender. Next year please value this retreat. This is not recreation. This is the easiest way, most effective way to illumine us, to give us joy. Here innocent joy we get – the disciples get innocent joy by spending so much time with the Master, and the Master gets so much joy by being with the disciples. We have to value our close association.

Spiritually we make progress not through austerity, and again not through indulgence, but through inner happiness, when the body, vital, mind and heart – everything – feel light, light, light. This is not physical weight, but the inner weight – when you feel very light, then you make absolutely the fastest progress.

Otherwise, the mind puts tremendous pressure on our lives. We cannot lift 10 pounds on our head, but our mind will place 200 pounds on our head. When you go back to New York, to your respective countries, I can see that there is a very heavy load on your shoulders, on your head. But when I come here, I see that, even in my own case, the heavy pressure that I feel in America, I do not feel the same kind of heavy pressure here.

That is why here I can write 6,000 poems, and throughout the year, in the other nine months, I do not write even 1,000. Like you, I am depositing money in the bank. Here, in three months, I write and write and write, with the grace of all of you – all of you inspire me. When you are back in your respective countries, where do you get this kind of opportunity? How can you be together with your spiritual family every day for hours?

For three months I write. Once I accomplish this, my problem is over. Then the editors, typists and printers work so hard. It becomes their problem. Here also, those who help me are so kind, and I am so grateful to them. Alone I could have done nothing – in all sincerity, I say I am nothing, nothing alone. But with continuous help, I am able to create.

Songs on the Tablet of Your Heart

Those who are learning the songs I have composed on this trip, each time a group learns any song, at least for three months, if not six months, please remember the song. If you cannot remember a song for three consecutive months, then you are learning like a parrot. Today you learn ten songs. Then when you learn another ten, you completely forget the previous ones. That is of no use.

For a minimum of three months if you can remember the songs that you have learned, then it will make me happy. Otherwise, you will study 20 or 30 songs at a time, practise and practise, and then the following week you will have completely forgotten them. Then it is of no use. That will not give me any joy.

Some special songs like Jiban Debata and others that you like very much have to be inside your heart, on the tablet of your heart forever. Other excellent songs, at least for five or six years you can remember them. Then at any moment, if you read the music, you can revive it. But the songs that you are learning here, 50 or 60 songs, each group please, please try to remember them for three months at least. Otherwise, I compose the songs and you learn them; you make me happy, and you become happy and proud that you have learned them. But then if you forget the previous ones, it is not a happy experience for me.

All those who learn my songs – 50, 60 or 200 songs, like Kailash’s group – please learn those songs with the idea that you will remember most of the songs for a long time. It is impossible to remember 200 or 400 songs, but there should be quite a few songs that you keep in your memory for a long time. I am very happy that many of the groups are singing very, very soulfully and perfectly.

Cheerful Progress

It gives me joy when I make progress in the poetry-world, prayer-world, song-world and art-world. Our philosophy is progress. All of you try to do the same, to make progress in your inner life and in your outer life. But keep in mind, it is not by hook or by crook – no, no, no. Cheerfully make progress, not by killing yourself. If you can do it cheerfully, I will be very happy if you make progress.

Unconditional Compassion Versus the Cosmic Law

They say that if you go high, higher, highest in consciousness, the first qualities that manifest are compassion, forgiveness and kindness. On the one hand, I have attained certain heights. On the other hand, is there a single day that I do not scold you if you are doing something wrong?

Transformation is like that. I could have easily ignored the fact when you were doing something wrong, under the pretext of compassion or forgiveness. Under that pretext of compassion or forgiveness, I can very cleverly ignore what you are doing wrong: “Go your own way. If you are doing something wrong, the cosmic law is there to take care of you, so I do not have to worry about it.”

But I know that the cosmic law can be so severe when you do something wrong. The results can come after 20 years, 30 years. At that time we totally forget all the crimes that we committed 30 years earlier: “I am so innocent, I am so innocent. I have done nothing, nothing.” But 30 years ago, 40 years ago, or in a previous incarnation, I did something wrong. It may be all obliterated on the outer plane. But cosmic law does not forget or ignore anything, so retribution is there.

Again, if unconditional compassion or forgiveness descends from Above, then the cosmic law cannot do anything because the higher forces, highest forces can easily stop the cosmic law. I always tell the story, if a little boy, 6 or 7 years old, goes and beats another boy black and blue, and then that boy brings his brothers and others to beat the first one, who comes now to the rescue? The father – the father is so strong. The father does not allow his son to be beaten, although the father knows that his son was the culprit. The father is much stronger physically than those little boys, so they go away.

Here the father is the Supreme or the Divine Force, knowing well that the son has done something wrong. But again, you have to know why. Outwardly, you may say the father is doing something wrong. If his son started the problem with a wrong action, then his son should have been punished by the opponents. But the father says, “My son has done many, many good things for me, and he saved me from doing many, many things that I was going to do wrong. I looked at his face, and I did not do the wrong things. I owe a great deal to my son, so it is obligatory on my part to save my son.”

Now look how the cosmic law does not hold. Here the father is protecting the son because the father knows that in so many ways he was helped consciously and unconsciously by his own son.

My Last Incarnation

Absolutely this is my last incarnation. That promise God made, the Supreme made. Many, many, many years ago He said this is absolutely my last incarnation – no more. In this one incarnation, I have worked hard; I have done many incarnations’ work. They say spiritual Masters will take birth here and there. I am absolutely sure that spiritual Masters of the highest order have not taken any more human incarnations – finished!

Saints come back. Some yogis come back. But the highest yogis do not come back. One went so far as to say that until even a dog remains unrealised, he would come back – not only human beings, but dogs. There are countless dogs on earth. They have no chance of getting realisation. The spiritual Master who promised this is in Heaven, not coming down to take care of even one dog.

Another spiritual Master pointed out on the map that he would take incarnation in Russia, the Soviet Union. He is in Heaven still. Right on the map he showed the place he would come, in the Soviet Union. He has no intention of coming. Like us, he made promises: we will do this, we will not do that. Then we have every right to change our mind.

Highest yogis do not come back. Avatars never come. But saints and seekers of the highest order have to come back, and for ordinary human beings, ordinary seekers, there is no end. How many times you have to come back!

English Songs as Mantras in the Future

Two hundred or three hundred or five hundred years from now, I predict that quite a few of my songs given to Parvati’s Enthusiasm-Awakeners singing group, simple English songs, will be taken as mantras. Of course, you may not remember my prediction. Today we are laughing and smiling as we sing these songs. But after 300 or 400 years, these songs will be taken as mantras. If English-speaking people do not accept them, no harm. Then Indian-language-speaking people, in India and elsewhere, will accept these. And these songs will be sung again and again. On the one hand, these songs are childish or childlike, but they touch the very depths of the devotion-heart. If people have an iota of devotion, these songs will touch the very depths of their devotion-heart.

There will come a time when the whole world will run towards devotion, not only India. Salvation will come from devotion. If the world has to raise its consciousness, then it is through devotion, the magnet. Now millions of people are of the opinion that devotion is feminine. So many people, specially atheists and agnostics, when they hear the word ‘devotion’, either they sneer at the word, or they say they have nothing to do with it. Devotion is all from human weakness. Might is right.

But those people do not realise devotion has the magnetic pull. Devotion can bring the infinite Power, wherever it is, into the heart and life of the seeker. A day will come when this secret will be well known all over the world. Not only my songs, far from it – there will be many, many who have already written and who will be writing devotional songs, simpler than the simplest. They will touch the very breath of the seekers.

This world will be inundated with seekers. It is far beyond our imagination to think that this world – the half-animal life, half-human life world – will be inundated with seekers. The boat perhaps will reach the rock bottom. After we go down, then we have to go up, up, up, up. Since God created this earth planet, God will never accept defeat from His creation.

I am sure that on the physical plane you may not see it, but if you remain in the soul’s world, you will see that this prediction will come true. Devotion is absolutely simpler than the simplest. At that time, as I said today, pride and the mind will not work. A little child is running towards his parents, and the parents will give the little child everything: infinite affection, compassion, sweetness and fondness. The older one will come with self-importance, pride and haughtiness. Parents will condescend to give him not a full smile, not a half smile, but perhaps one-eighth of a real smile.

It we really want to make progress, we have to consciously feel – make ourselves feel – that we are little children. The mind has to be smashed into pieces. A little child gets joy from everything – a little flower, a little leaf. Sri Aurobindo wrote that God is an eternal Child playing in His eternal Garden. Like that, we are not 60, 70, 80 or 90 years old. We have to feel that we are all under seven years and our progress will be the fastest.

It is not fooling the mind. It is only illumining the heart, to say that we are not older than seven years, and it can be done. It has happened in the case of many, many spiritual seekers and spiritual Masters. Unlearning and learning must go together. What is today’s prayer?

All recite:

My mind-unlearning desire
And my heart-climbing aspiration
Must go together.

²

Anger and Inner Attacks

If someone gets angry, it can happen that mentally they curse someone or break somebody’s head – they are doing it all with their mind. Then what happens? The anger turns into action. While walking in your room, you may get hurt. You cannot imagine: “What is the matter? I did nothing wrong.” You are just standing there, and then you get a shooting pain in your leg. Or in your own room, you walk into your door and hurt yourself. How can it be? This door you have seen all your life. Perhaps you think it is your carelessness.

It is not your carelessness. Somebody who is so hostile to you at that time is throwing all their anger at you, and then you are getting the result. You may say, “I have done nothing wrong,” but somebody has turned against you to such an extent, all of his or her destructive forces have attacked you. You may not know where the attack is coming from, but you get this experience all of a sudden in your room.

If your consciousness is good, you may say, “I have done nothing wrong. Why did I all of a sudden get serious muscle cramps? Why are my legs shaking? What have I done?” It can happen for various reasons, but somebody is thinking ill of you or sending destructive forces.

Sometimes I get a letter from a person who is angry at someone. When I get a very serious angry letter, when people curse me, I laugh. At that time my anger does not rise up, believe me. Most of the time when I get angry letters, I start laughing – I do not get angry.

These are really heart-opening and eye-opening experiences.

Cute Musical Instruments

These new musical instruments, in comparison to some of my other instruments, are like little, little cute toys. But everything has its own value, even toys. In a garden there are many big flowers, very, very big flowers, which have their own beauty. Again, there are tiny flowers, and tiny flowers have their own beauty.

When we offer everything to God, He asks us to give everything soulfully. So sometimes we give things that are very charming, beautiful, expensive, and again sometimes they are cute. In a garden there are little, little flowers and big flowers. Little flowers emit their beauty in a specific way. We may not understand with our mind, but our heart can feel the beauty and fragrance of the little ones.

Christmas Trip Progress

I would like to say something about our Christmas Trip. Tomorrow we shall be leaving for America or going to our own destinations. Before that, I would like to say that Bali is Heaven, Heaven’s sister, Heaven’s daughter, Heaven’s dearest child.

Every year we go to different parts of the world, and we get tremendous joy, to say the least. It helps us. It elevates our consciousness. It expedites our spiritual progress in every way. It is more than a vacation. To me, it is illumination.

Everything we have mentioned, all our achievements on the Christmas and New Year’s retreat, to say that I have achieved everything is the height of absurdity. It is a joint effort. The father of the family and the children offer a joint effort. So I give you also full credit. I am not an Indian god or goddess. I am an Indian soul. Indian gods and goddesses have so many hands. In my case I have only two hands and two legs. I need your help in every aspect of my life very badly, and you came with your wholehearted support, lovingly, self-givingly. For that I am all gratitude, all gratitude to you.

In three months we achieve things unimaginable. Then the rest of the year, for nine months, we just make withdrawals from our heart-bank. Some of the disciples in three months make such progress. Then they start withdrawing their inner wealth from the heart-bank. The progress they make in three months far, far surpasses the progress they make during the year.

Once they go back home, quite a few people do not maintain their height, not to speak of going higher. They descend and descend and descend. Very few people maintain their height. Again, there are a few who go higher – I can count them on my finger-tips. My feeling is, at least stay with your height that you have achieved here.

India’s Classical Music

India’s classical music is so high in consciousness. There is no comparison between India’s classical music and the Western world’s jazz and rock and roll. If you study a very serious subject, naturally others may not even understand it. Appreciation is limited. In the Western world, India’s classical music is limited, very limited, in how it is appreciated. What is more painful, the Western world’s jazz and rock and roll, the music of the vital world, has covered the length and breadth of India.

Even in India, I think our classical music is not as popular as Western jazz and rock and roll. In terms of depth and height, Western music is no match for India’s classical music. If one wants to get inner experiences, higher experiences, if one wants to be at God’s Feet, India’s classical music will stand far above, absolutely first. About other music, what can I say? One is a rainbow. The other is thunder, thunder, thunder. We know how many people like thunderbolts. But the rainbow gives hope, promise, new life, while thunder smashes the life that we already have.

This is my personal opinion. When I am gone, long after I am gone, then you can share my opinion. We deal with this side, that side. On one side it is all thunder, absolutely thunder-friends. Flute-friends, rainbow-friends, how many do we have? How many Ravi Shankars do we have with us, in our spiritual family?

Claiming Achievements as Our Own

Sri Chinmoy commenting about his 1200-pound lift: When your spiritual father does something, I want you to participate in all my activities. When I do something, I want you to identify yourself with my achievement. My achievement is your achievement. Your achievement is my achievement. I feel it and I know it. When you do something good, great, I claim it as my own, very own. Similarly, I want you also to claim my achievements – I am your spiritual father – as your own, very own.

To lift 1200 pounds is not a joke. I will not advise you to try to lift 1200 pounds. Your oneness with my achievement I always need, the way I identify myself with your achievements, all your achievements, good and great. At that time I get implicit joy. Please feel that you have done some-thing in and through me, according to your desire to identify yourself with me.

The Real Impossibility-Challengers

I go to the 3100-mile race every morning to give prasad. Some days some runners are miserable, while other days the same runners are dancing with joy. Life is like that. These are the real impossibility-challengers. Sometimes it simply breaks my heart when I see them suffering, but they have a dauntless spirit. They are indomitable in every sense of the term.

Presidential Promises

Everybody promises before they become President. Then afterwards all their promises go to the moon and the moon keeps them safe.

Worshipping Avatar and Village Gurus

In India, each day of the week has a special meaning. Thursday is Gurubar. On that day all Gurus are worshipped, Avatar Gurus and village Gurus. Village Gurus go to visit their disciples once a year. We had also a village Guru who used to come from a very far-off village. He was tall, thin, and we gave him dakshina, quite a few things – ghee, rice, this, that, plus money. Once a year the Guru would come from his village, which was very, very far, to bless us.

The Exact Hour Sri Chinmoy Was Born

I was born in the late afternoon. I have told a few times the exact hour, my birthday hour, at what time I was born. Let it be recorded: 5:23 in the late afternoon. Keep it as a record. My soul told me once. I asked my soul, and it told me 5:23. God alone knows what the astrologers will say. Definitely it was a Thursday.

Offering Good and Bad Thoughts

I always say that when a child is besmeared with sand, dirt and filth, he can hide from his mother. Then the kind-hearted mother may go and fetch the child. Again, if the same child goes running to the mother for cleansing, then the mother gets so happy. At first the mother says, “Oh, you are so dirty.” Then the mother is so happy the child did the right thing and came to the mother. The mother immediately washes him, and he becomes so pure.

Once somebody went to the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and said, “The whole day I have been flying in the sky of pure, pure, pure thoughts. When I came to you, all evil thoughts entered into me. How can it be?”

The Mother said, “You fool, this is the time to give me your wrong thoughts.”

When wrong thoughts come, never hide. They try at that time to separate you from me. Wrong thoughts mean separation. This is the golden opportunity for you to come to me. When a wrong thought comes, do not run away. If good thoughts come, then at that time also you have to offer them. Good thoughts you give; bad thoughts also. Good and bad, it is all in the mental world.

If a bad thought comes, do not hide. If you do not enter into the water, the water is not going to come to you. If you are wise, then you jump into the water. And until you enter into the water, you suffer. For a few minutes you enjoy bad thoughts. Then afterwards you want to get rid of them, but you do not go to the right person, to the water, to the one who can cure you. If you have a disease, you go to the doctor. You do not say, “Oh, the doctor will say that I have got cancer, that I have got all kinds of diseases.” If you hide from the doctor because he will say that you have cancer, then you will die of cancer.

But if you go to the doctor, the doctor will try to at least keep you for a few years more on earth. Like that, if you allow bad thoughts to increase and increase and increase, yours will become a terminal case. Then afterwards you will leave the path. You will say, “I have stayed on the path for 40 years, and I still have to struggle with bad thoughts. That means I have made no progress, and the Master has no compassion. He is useless, useless. If he had an iota of compassion for me, then how is it that he is not curing me of this?”

That would be a wonderful way of misjudging the Master, whereas the Master is ready, always ready, to fight for you, to fight for you against the hostile forces. Always have wisdom, wisdom, wisdom.

Two Lion Statues

On 28 October 2004, Sri Chinmoy commented on the two lion statues at the entrance of Aspiration-Ground. He later lifted the statues as part of his weightlifting extravaganza at York College on 13 November 2004.

To the first one: Your name is Raja. To the second one: Your name is Rajasha, the King of Kings!

You two add so much to our Aspiration-Ground, and I shall have to lift you. Do not be heavy for me. Do not be heavy – about a thousand pounds, each one!

Birthday Prayers

(After reading the prasad list, with much prasad offered by those who had birthdays): The Supreme will observe our birthday if we pray and meditate well on our birthday to revive our promise. Our birthday is the day for us to remind ourselves why we came into the world, what we stand for, how far or how near we are to our destination. Needless to say, birthday prayers, if they are sincere, God more readily and quickly answers than on other days. On other days also He answers prayers if there is sincerity involved. Of course, everything is done in His own Way.

At the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, I happened to be in a line for the Mother’s blessings. A disciple wrote a note to the Mother, asking her, for his birthday, to allow him to have some butter, which was limited in the Ashram. Mother looked at the person and was so sad and upset. On his birthday, his prayer was to have a small quantity of butter. The Mother threw the paper away, disgusted by his birthday prayer.

If our birthday prayers are like that, God will be displeased. Birthday prayers for spiritual people should be to intensify our God-hunger. I have ruined 365 days. Now this day at least let me intensify my God-hunger. Then that is the real birthday. Other-wise, if our birthday becomes the fulfillment of earthly, silly desires, then we displease God more than anything else, more than other days.

Again, any day we pray and meditate well surely is our birthday. Every day we should pray and meditate well. Then God will observe our birthday every day.

In Pondicherry, when I was 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, every time my birthday came, I used to get an attack: “I have so much to do, so much to do. I am 15 years old, 16 years old. What have I done?” Where did I get the idea that I had so much to do, so much to do?

Then the attack disappeared when I went to see the Mother the first thing in the morning. It was all gone.

A Tree’s Sacrifice

(About lifting a tree that morning, along with other lifts): When it is a matter of sacrifice, nobody can come near a tree. There is not a single part of the tree that cannot be utilised. Everything – leaves, flowers, fruits, branches – everything that a tree has, is for mankind. You can say a tree gives protection. A tree gives nourishment. A tree reminds us of reaching for Heaven from earth – that is to remain firm on earth and reach for the skies. Our philosophy is aspiration. The tree shows what aspiration is: remaining firm, remaining a child of Mother Earth, and wanting to climb up high, higher, highest. A tree shows us the real aspiration. A tree is sacrifice. Everything that a tree has and is, is all for human beings.

We use the term self-giving. Nothing, nobody can come near a tree in terms of self-giving. We human beings, when we have something, we are bloated with pride, but the tree is just the opposite. When it bears fruits and flowers, it bends down so that we can take full benefit from the tree. When it has something, it shows its humility. The more it has, the more it shows its humility, whereas when we have something, we do not bend. Our pride, exorbitant pride, enters into us. But the tree is just the opposite.

Jharna-Kala Anniversary

On 19 November 2004, Sri Chinmoy offered the following comments as he was painting to mark the 30th anniversary of his Jharna-Kala artwork, while being assisted by Ranjana Ghose, his personal assistant and curator of his artwork.

Today we are observing, celebrating, the 30th anniversary of my painting. It started in a hotel in Canada. Long live Canada! Right from the begin-ning, the one who inspired me immensely and totally is Ranjana the Great. (Applause) If she had not inspired me so wholeheartedly and worked for hours on the paintings every day in my house, then I would have given up then and there. I never thought I had the capacity to become an artist. For the sake of fun in India, I drew a few paintings. That was what you could say was a compulsory class.

Our family is for poetry. Our father wrote, they say, about 30 or 40 poems. Then my eldest brother Hriday wrote a few hundred or even a thousand. My brother Chitta wrote also quite a few hundred. My sister Lily wrote about 200, and Ahana wrote about 100 excellent, super-excellent poems. Then my brother Mantu wrote about 20. Only my eldest sister Arpita did not write poetry. But she has written me hundreds of letters, so it is my wish one day, from her ceaseless advice – on what I should do, what I should not do, and all her worries and anxieties – I will make a selection and set them to music.

So our family was born as a poetry-family, and I started writing poems when I had been in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for perhaps three months. My brother Chitta taught me Bengali metres and encouraged me like anything. Then my Bengali teacher, Prabhakar Mukerjee, encouraged me unimaginably. Biren Palit, whose song we sing, Tomari Hok Joy, also encouraged me, and many more. Then I became a poet at the Ashram when I was 13 or 14 years old.

Only One Reality: Our Beloved Supreme

In June 1981, Sri Chinmoy offered the following remarks after an elaborate and spectacular production – full of laughter and tears – of a play he had requested his student Chetana Hein to write about the trials and tribulations of her life.

Such a beautiful, soulful and powerful play! It is heart-breaking and at the same time life-illumining. When the heart breaks, life gets illumination. And when life gets illumination, there is but only one reality, one reality, one reality – and that is our Beloved Supreme.

I am sure from this play everybody, everybody without exception, has learned what the outer life is, and everybody without exception has learned what the inner life can be. Everything in life fails us, everybody is bound to fail us. Only our Beloved Supreme will not fail us, for we have our cry for Him, for Him alone. He is not only our Eternity’s All. We are also His Eternity’s all. When we cry and pray sleeplessly and tell Him that we would like Him to be our Eternity’s All, He comes. Something else, He makes us His own, very own – His own Eternity’s very own.

All of us should cry for Him alone, with a soulful heart and self-giving life. We have the capacity; we can do it if we want to. And if we do not want to do it now, He will wait and wait and wait. Then there shall come a time when we will have to do it. The day will come when He will cry in and through us. If we cannot do it today, then tomorrow we all can cry for our Beloved Supreme only. Then tomorrow will bring the dawn of a new creation.

Real love is oneness-power. False love is not only division-power but destruction-power. Either one we can have. If we love the Supreme only, then we will see He has real Love for us, always.

Peace Concert at Niagara Falls

On 17 October 2004, Sri Chinmoy and his disciples took a bus trip to Niagara Falls on the US-Canadian border. Sri Chinmoy offered a Peace Concert at Prospect Point, on the New York side of the Falls. The concert was the first in a new series to be held at natural and manmade wonders around the world.

This was followed by a function at a local hotel, attended by many Canadian disciples as well, before the bus returned to New York. During the bus rides and the function, Sri Chinmoy composed songs, wrote poems, answered questions and told stories.

On the bus ride to Niagara Falls, Sri Chinmoy composed 13 songs, which he taught to the disciples at the function, along with 7 songs he had composed on 16 October. These 20 songs appear at the end of this section.

On the bus ride back to New York, Sri Chinmoy offered comments and personal anecdotes about pride. He then answered some questions, after the disciples told stories about incidents of pride in their lives.

Function after the Peace Concert

Sri Chinmoy offered the following comments at a function held at the Quality Inn, Niagara Falls, on 17 October 2004, following his Peace Concert at Prospect Point, on the New York side of the Falls.

This is something special I am telling, very special. We always say that imagination is infinitely more beautiful than reality itself. If we live in India, we imagine something about America – what it looks like, how much power, and all kinds of things. Then when it comes to the reality-world, our experience can be totally different. Anything we can imagine, anywhere in the world. Our imagination-world is so beautiful. Then when we face the reality – alas, alas, alas! There is a yawning gap between the reality and our imagination. Our imagination is so beautiful, so sweet, so thrilling.

But when we dive deep, very deep, we feel the reality and we see the reality is definitely more beautiful than imagination, which is difficult to believe. Again, go beyond the mind. Otherwise, you are not going to believe it. Go beyond, beyond. Now I am here. I think of, let us say, Lord Buddha’s statue at Kamakura, Borobudur, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, and all kinds of places. In a book you can read and hear from people about these manmade wonders, and now this one, Niagara Falls, is called a natural wonder. When I see them, I do not know why it happens but imagination gladly surrenders to the reality.

Today you are seeing this water, Niagara Falls. By virtue of my imagination, by exercising my imagination-power, I saw it in my imagination. But then when I see Niagara Falls, and when I see the Kamakura Buddha and other places, my imagination gladly surrenders to the divinity or infinite power or infinite peace. When you imagine them or when you hear about them – Borobudur, the Kamakura Buddha and other places – you feel some-thing. You are thrilled that they are world wonders.

When you are in front of them face to face, what you see is not something manmade or nature-made. It is something that embodies and reveals and manifests. Embodiment, revelation and manifestation – all three go together. When you imagine something, at that time you cannot get all three – embodiment, revelation and manifestation. But when you face them, when you are in front of them, you see the three aspects all at once. Then naturally imagination is no match for the reality itself.

This is my philosophy, how imagination surrenders to the reality, which is so unusual. You think of something, and it is so beautiful. Then you face it, and it is so ugly, ugly, ugly. Why did I think of it? Here my imagination played its role. But when I am facing the reality, I see the embodiment, revelation and manifestation – all three at once. This far surpasses my imagination.

If you use your minds, you will sadly disagree with me. Use your hearts. Be one with my heart. Then you will see that what I am saying is absolutely true and authentic.

Maestro Yehudi Menuhin’s Encouragement

For the last 25 years I have been trying to play the violin, but sometimes for years I do not practise. Recently I said I will play twice a day to develop confidence, and God knows how many days it will last. Yesterday morning I was practising. It was 9:20 earthly time. Maestro Yehudi Menuhin* stood right in front of me in the subtle body. I said, “Maestro is here, and I am worse than a beginner.” He was full of kindness, affection and encouragement. I was very, very happy, delighted, to see his subtle body, or you can say the soul inside the subtle body.

He gave me some instructions, how to use the bow to produce the scale: “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” In Indian classical music, the first five notes are called “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.” In Western music, it is “Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do.” He was showing me how to use the bow, and a few other things. He was very charming. He was telling me when some songs are slow, then I must go to the very end of the bow. If I cannot go to the very end, it should not be more than an inch either side.

I played for him a few times slowly, going near the end of the bow. He said, “That is good.” Sometimes my hand was two or three inches from the end. He said, “No, no, no, no.” Then he took my hand to the end and said, “That is good.”

He said to me, “How many years have you been playing?”

I said, “Twenty-five years ago I started, and this is my standard even after 25 years. I gave up many times because I was not making any progress.”

He said, “Twenty-five years ago? From now on you must forget that you gave up many, many times. You have to remember only that you have been practising for 25 years.”

I said, “How many times I gave up!”

He said, “No, no, you have to convince your mind that you have not given up even once. You have to feel that you have been practising for 25 years.”

I said, “All right. It is so easy to convince the mind or to fool the mind. It is the same thing, so I can do it.”

Then he flattered me. He said, “A musician of your calibre can play any musical instrument.”

He placed his two hands on my shoulders with such affection. Of course he was in the subtle body. He said, “I say you can do it, you can do it. Just have some confidence.”

I said, “But I am not going to perform next time.

Soon I shall be playing for your dearest friend Ravi Shankar. I am going to San Diego, and I have invited him. He is so kind to accept my invitation, and I will play the esraj for him. I am not confident to play violin in a week’s time.”

He said, “All right. This time you do not have to play violin. But from next time on, you must play. Just feel that you have been practising for the last 25 years. You may not be aware, but from time to time I shall come and help you.”

I said, “My soul is omnipresent. So if you help me, I will always be aware of it. My soul can go anywhere. If you really help me, then my soul will be able to know and tell me. I will always be aware of your presence whenever you come to teach me inwardly.”

Then he parted, full of affection and love. This is my juicy story. It was just yesterday, so it is still fresh in my memory. I always try to watch the earthly time. It was 9:20 in the morning. All right, my story is over.

Mother Saraswati’s Blessings

A few months ago, I was in deep meditation. At that time I was not playing the sitar. Mother Saraswati came and gave me her inner advice and inner blessings. As an audience, with such joy and delight Ravi Shankar was watching when Mother Saraswati was giving me blessings.

With such compassion Saraswati came in the inner world, when I was in deep meditation. At that time I was not practising the sitar. I was in deep meditation, and she came to me, telling me what to do when I play the sitar. I get tremendous joy by telling you people my juicy stories, and whether you think they are mental hallucinations or not, I do hope you also get the same kind of joy.

Comments about Pride

Sri Chinmoy offered the following comments and personal anecdotes about pride, as well as answering some questions, on the bus ride from Niagara Falls back to New York on 17 October 2004.

Whoever has the temerity, or American slang is “guts,” to speak about pride, if you have ever suffered from pride, please come. If you have at any time suffered from exorbitant pride, unthinkable pride, unspeakable pride, then come. And now for that, perhaps your sincerity is telling you to feel sorry. Only the brave, braver, bravest soldiers come!

(After disciples speak about their experiences with pride, Sri Chinmoy shares a few anecdotes.) My pride started, as far as I am conscious of it, when I was about six years old. My brother Mantu was nine or nine and a half. He was quite tall. I was very short, even at that time. So my father decided to give us cycles. For Mantu it would be a real bicycle. For me, it would be with three wheels. My pride was so badly hurt.

My father had the capacity to cure people in various ways. If any meat or fish bone got stuck inside a person’s throat, by just rubbing the throat my father could cure the person. Medical science needed an operation. He could also take away any kind of headache. My father used to use a very small, tiny stick. Then he would touch the forehead of the sufferer, and very gently move the stick from one side to another. In this way my father used to cure the patients, and it was absolutely true.

In my case, when I was seven or eight years old, I said that my father taught me how to cure headaches. I knew nothing, only I remained very serious and used the same kind of tiny stick, moving it the same way. My aunts were really suffering from headaches, but out of sheer compassion, they used to say their headache was gone. So I developed real pride! There can be compassionate human beings who will support your pride. Sometimes these people, out of their sheer compassion and affection for me, would invite me to cure their headache. Then always they used to say they were cured. Afterwards I realised that alas, alas, it was not true, and I had only developed pride. This was in my Chittagong life.

In my Ashram life, I had many, many stories about pride. My English and Bengali handwriting were quite good. My Bengali teacher used to give marks for handwriting. I used to get four out of four. For handwriting and for writing essays and all kinds of things, I used to stand by far the best, and my teacher appreciated me.

Once on my birthday, the poet who wrote Tomari Hok Joy [Sri Biren Palit] came to my house early in the morning with a poem for my birthday. Such a blessingful poem he wrote, but his handwriting was far, far better than mine, so my pride was smashed. In my English handwriting, I also took tremendous pride. Everybody said my handwriting was excellent, excellent. Alas, when I first saw the English handwriting of Shantiniketan’s Sisir-da – Mahatapa’s maternal uncle and Vidagdha’s professor – my pride was smashed into pieces.

There are many, many stories that I have told about the Ashram. I am just telling a few that show how my pride was smashed. Again, there were times when I wanted to smash my pride. Over the years I worked at various places. I was so happy when I was working washing dishes, although my friends did not like it. I said, “This is the golden chance for me not to be bothered by the mind, to obliterate the mind, and to conquer all my pride.”

But after that, in a very clever way, Nolini, the Ashram Secretary, chose me to work for him, translating his writings and assisting in other ways. Many people had tried translating for him, but he rejected and rejected them, and he chose me. When you want to conquer pride, this is what may happen. God may beckon you in the form of Grace.

Another story I have told many times. For 12 or 13 years consecutively, I won the 100 metres, always standing first. One year I felt sorry for the second and third sprinters. I had such sympathy. I said, “Now this year let me be very spiritual. Let me suffer the pain of the second and third person or those who fall far behind – how they suffer. I have enjoyed running. I have come first, first, first. Let me conquer my pride and enjoy suffering.”

I was so sincere. In those days, I had the power or capacity to give a fever to myself, so I gave myself a fever. I did not eat anything. Five o’clock was the race. I became so weak, and then I did not warm up at all. I said, “Ah, today will be the day. Today I will be last. I will fall down, and then I will be last. Then I will be able to sympathise adequately with those poor runners.” I had no warm-up, no food, I was weaker than the weakest. With great difficulty I rode my cycle to the sports ground. Again, if I did not join, people might say unkind things. They might say, “This year perhaps he thought that he would lose. That is why he is not participating.”

The starter for the race was Pranab. He said, “Get on your mark, set, go!” I was absolutely sure that I would stumble, I would fall down. Alas, as soon as he gave the start, I ran faster than the fastest, and again I came first. Here I wanted to conquer my pride by becoming last and suffering the loss – to experience the sufferings of the second, third, fourth and last-place runners. But God did not want that. God wanted to make me first. Sometimes God somehow keeps our pride. That God has done many times.

Once there was a relay race. I was the captain of our team, with four runners. The captain has the choice to take excellent runners according to their timing. Nolini’s son, Rabi, was nowhere near the good runners; his timing was quite poor. I said, “I will take him on my team because Nolini is so kind to me, so affectionate to me.” Everybody was shocked and said, “How can you take him?” Immediately they said that it was just to get appreciation from Nolini. I said, “Who cares? Even if I lose, at least Nolini will be happy.” His son Rabi was three years older than me. I said, “At least I will be able to make my boss happy, and also his son and his dear ones and relatives.”

I knew well there was no chance for our team to win. Then again pride started entering and I thought: “I am the fastest runner. I am sure that somehow I will manage to defeat the rest of the teams.” There were three other teams. Reality could have been most ruthless. I was the fourth runner, and usually the weakest runner goes third. The first runner is usually the second best on the team, and the second runner will also be very good, but nowhere near the first and last. Then the third runner will be the weakest, because they say that, even if the third runner is late in handing off the baton to the last runner, the last runner will somehow run very fast and try to defeat others who are ahead.

Can you imagine? The third runner on my team, Nolini’s son Rabi, was eight metres behind the other runners when he gave me the baton. The runner who was second best after me, was already six or seven metres ahead of me. Even now I cannot imagine how I raced that fast. I passed the second-best runner, even though he had been six or seven metres ahead. Pride entered into me that I would be able to defeat the other teams, which were of a good standard. In this case also, God allowed me to keep my pride. Usually on Sports Days, Nolini would give me one rasgulla sweet in the evening after I performed. On that day I got two rasgullas from my boss.

There are many, many stories in my life when pride entered, but unfortunately or fortunately, God sometimes allowed the pride. Then again pride can come in a divine way also. I may feel that it is beneath my dignity to stoop to jealousy, insecurity and all weaknesses. That kind of divine pride is good, but sometimes it is very difficult to differentiate between human pride and divine pride.

Sri Ramakrishna’s dearest disciple, his darling, was Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda exercised mostly divine pride, but this is one incident of human pride. When he was in South India, a young Muslim man came to him to be his disciple. This particular seeker had a spiritual Master, but that spiritual Master was far, far, far inferior to Swami-ji. There was no comparison. Swami-ji’s realisation was much higher than this fellow’s. But this fellow had some kind of occult powers. The seeker who came to Swami Vivekananda was very sincere. When he heard that Swami Vivekananda was world famous, a great orator, a world shaker, he wanted to become Swami-ji’s disciple.

In my case, when I hear that a seeker is already someone’s disciple, I usually discourage them from following our path. Yesterday also I did not accept someone as my disciple for that reason. I said, “No, you should stay with your Guru.” Again, on rare occasions under some circumstances, I have accepted one or two disciples because their Master from the inner world would beg and plead with them to come and be my disciples. In such a case I have accepted one or two disciples, when their Master was not in the physical.

To come back to Swami Vivekananda, when this particular seeker became Swami Vivekananda’s disciple, his Guru became furious and gave only two weeks’ time. He said to his disciple, “In two weeks’ time he has to tell you, since you are my disciple, that he will not accept you as his disciple. Otherwise, I will punish him.” Vivekananda’s pride, human or divine, said, “He is a silly fellow. What kind of punishment will I get from him?” He told the seeker, “Now you can become my full-fledged disciple.” So Swami-ji accepted him.

Alas, at the end of 15 days, Vivekananda started vomiting blood, and his pride was deeply hurt. Then the fellow who had become Vivekananda’s new disciple went back to his former Master, either because he did not want Swami-ji to suffer – we do not know – or because he felt that his Master had more spiritual power, occult power. God alone knows why he went back to his Master.

Then Swami-ji was sulking and sulking. His pride was hurt. At that time Mother Sarada Devi was alive in the physical. He went to her, saying, “Thakur is a liar. He told me that I was his dearest disciple. How can I be so badly humiliated by a silly fellow?”

Sarada Devi had such wisdom and presence of mind. She said, “Look, sometimes it hurts the father, even if the father is a spiritual person. In the ordinary life also, it hurts the father if the father sees he has the capacity to teach the son, but the son goes to somebody else to get instruction. You should not have accepted that person as your disciple. If somebody is very dear to you, and if that person for some reason is displeased with you and wants to go to some other Master, if you have wisdom, you will say, ‘All right, go, go, go, as long as you follow the right path.’ But again, if you do not have wisdom, then you will be hurt that your son has gone to somebody else.

This man’s Guru had occult power, spiritual power. In terms of the real spiritual life, your spiritually far, far surpasses his spirituality. But it is not advisable to accept someone who has already found his Master. You made the mistake.” In this way, very compassionately Sarada Devi consoled Vivekananda.

Pride can be human or divine. If it is divine pride, you say, “It is beneath my dignity to remain in ignorance-night.” If you can say, “I am for all, I am for all,” from the divine point of view, that pride is good. But if you say, “I am only for myself,” that pride is destructive.

Questions and Answers Overcoming Pride

Question: Is there a prayer to help us overcome pride?

Sri Chinmoy: Pride can be conquered in various ways. The easiest way is to have some wisdom and say, “I am not the only one who knows everything. I am not the only one to lead or guide the whole world. I am not the one who will lord it over others. No, no, God is also inside others. Their point of view, their advice, we have to accept. Then afterwards we shall weigh the pros and cons together with others.”

To conquer pride, the easiest way is always to feel sincerely that others can also be correct. You can feel, “I am not the one to be always correct. Others can also be correct from time to time, or even all the time. I am one of those who can make decisions, I am not the only one to make decisions.” In this way we can conquer our pride, by feeling, “I am in a group, I am in a committee, I am one of many.”

But if you think that you are the one who will make decisions right from the beginning to the end, then pride comes. Pride can be conquered only with wisdom. There is no other way. Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom – why should God always speak in and through you? Others are also God’s creation. What is wrong for God to use others also as His instruments to illumine us?

If we can establish cheerful oneness with others, with the rest of the world, then pride goes away. When there is no oneness, there will always be pride. Even in one’s own life, the heart wants to see what others have to say, but the mind does not allow the heart to listen to others. The heart is eager to know others’ point of view, what others have to offer us, share with us. Here the mind is undivine, and the heart is divine. We know the mind enjoys supremacy and the heart enjoys oneness.

Again, by becoming one with others, the joy that we get far surpasses the joy that we get by exercising the authority or the pride of the mind. If we know something gives us infinitely more joy, satisfaction and fulfilment, we shall turn to that, to the heart, and not to the mind, to make any decision, to accomplish anything special in one’s life.

Life-Threatening Disasters

Question: Guru, in the past few years there have been so many serious earthquakes, storms, hurricanes and life-threatening disasters around the world. My question is, has man created these disasters or somehow is it karma for that country?

Sri Chinmoy: I do not think it is the karma of Florida — no, it is not the karma of the soul or the heart or life, but there are some very strong undivine forces which play their role in different fields. We have to know, God sometimes is proud of our actions. Sometimes He approves of or sanctions our actions. Sometimes He accepts what happens, and sometimes He tolerates it with infinite Compassion. Sometimes He totally ignores what happens.

You may say, if God is all Compassion, infinite Compassion, how can He ignore such unthinkable happenings in Florida, Puerto Rico and other places? The only answer is: a potter, when he makes statues and other things, breaks and then moulds and shapes all his creations. God knows ultimately what is good for His creation, specially at particular places. As I said before, He can be proud of something we do. Again, sometimes He can only tolerate the situation. But sometimes even He avoids the issue.

Here I cannot say for sure outwardly why some countries, like Japan, suffer from earthquakes, cyclones and other forms of nature’s destructive power. Kind-hearted people like President Gorbachev want to protect the environment, nature, trees, forests and beauty. But when nature revolts and disasters happen, we wonder how this could happen. We are trying to protect nature, save nature, but sometimes nature attacks us ruthlessly. If you use the mind, there can be no satisfactory answer.

But if you use the heart and have oneness with God’s Will, you feel that the Creator always knows what is best for His own creation.

The Soul of China

Question: Are you feeling any special pull from the soul of China, and if so, what qualities is it invoking from you?

Sri Chinmoy: The soul of China has come to me quite a few times. At the end of our last Christmas Trip, the soul of China came to me and said a few things about China. The soul made a very special request to me to come to China, and made a few promises. Let us hope the soul fulfils all its promises. Let us hope, let us hope, let us hope.

One wish of the soul was to have a large number of disciples to enjoy the Christmas vacation in China, and that particular wish we were able to fulfil by the grace of all those who are organising the trip.*

Nature’s Transformation

Question: You said that our nature’s transformation is the most difficult thing. What you call the most difficult thing in creation, does it always have to be painful as well, or is it just sometimes painful?

Sri Chinmoy: Human nature, human life, is ruled by the mind, by the vital, by the physical. God wants to inject light into the unaspiring body, vital, mind and so forth. Sometimes it happens that when parents ask their children to take a bath and clean themselves, some are willing, while others are unwilling and protest vehemently.

It is a painful experience for those who are disobeying, those who are not listening. One of India’s greatest leaders was Vidyasagar, the ocean of wisdom and compassion. As a child, he was so disobedient. When his parents would beg him to jump into the pond and take a bath, he would not listen. Absolutely deliberately he would not listen. It was a painful experience he was giving to his parents. Also, he was getting the painful experience that he was not happy. When he was inside the water, he was not happy. He did not make his parents happy, and he did not make himself happy.

When our nature revolts, it is very painful for the individual, and also painful for the Author of all good, for God, when we are not doing something willingly, happily and proudly. When there is a revolt, an unwillingness, let us say, then it is a painful experience. But if someone listens to their parents, if the parents say, “Go and take a shower,” and the child immediately listens to their parents, when there is willingness, there is no problem. When there is willingness, there is no pain right from the beginning. Obedience is of paramount importance. When human nature listens, when the body listens, when the vital listens, when the mind listens to the heart or to the soul or to God, then it is a very sweet experience.

Something else happens at that time. If the body, the vital and the mind are aware of something and want to do it, they feel that this very thing is not coming as advice from God or from the soul. They are aware of this very thing, and they are going to do it. It is not a request that is coming. It is not a command that is coming from somebody else. No, they have the inner light to know and to feel that they are going to do the right thing. They are going to listen to the Dictates of God, the inner Dictates, or to the soul.

When there is willingness, our nature’s transformation is not difficult. When there is unwillingness, it is extremely painful. The person who is telling the right thing, the good thing to do, also feels very sad that their advice is untimely. At God’s choice Hour, our nature is bound to listen to our inner beings, to the inner guidance. But until then, if our nature is unwilling and revolts, then it will be a very painful experience for our nature itself and for its members: the body, vital and mind. Those who are giving the good advice will also have a painful experience. Although they are telling the right thing, they will feel that perhaps this is not the time, that God’s choice Hour has not come.

If there is willingness and eagerness to listen to the inner dictates, then our nature’s transformation is not at all difficult. But if there is unwillingness and revolt, and disobedience looms large, then definitely our nature’s transformation is a most, most difficult experience.

Everything has a nature, and this nature is made of love. What else is our nature? God the creation and God the Creator. Our nature is God the creation. If God the creation is going to listen to God the Creator, then there is no problem.

I remember once I asked you, “Will you do this?” You said, “Yes, yes, yes.” I asked, “Will you not do this?” You said, “Yes, yes, yes.” So you can see how your nature, on the strength of your love, agreed. I said, “Do this.” You said, “Yes.” I said, “Don’t do this.” You said, “Yes.”

Your mind, vital, body and everything at that time cheerfully accepted my advice. Your vital could have stood against my suggestion. Your mind could have stood against it. But no, body, vital, mind, heart – everything – surrendered to my will. When our nature willingly accepts the request or wisdom of somebody whom we have taken as our Master, then it is all happiness. After-wards, over the years, we will see whatever happens. But willingness and eagerness can always easily change the problem of our nature’s transformation.

Increasing Gratitude

Question: Guru, I only want to know how to increase my gratitude and my devotion to you.

Sri Chinmoy: How can you increase your gratitude and your devotion towards me? I always say that imagination is a reality in its own world. The imagination-world is as real as the reality-world. Think of sincere devotion, not insincere. Sometimes people show devotion with folded hands. They are just folding their palms or hands, with no sincere inner devotion. But when you are feeling true devotion, it is something sweet, sweeter, sweetest you are tasting. You can never imagine how such a sweet thing can exist here on earth. That sweetness is your devotion. Nothing can be as sweet as devotion in the spiritual life.

So you can try to remember how many times you have experienced that sweetness inside your heart. Not only inside your heart — after some time it permeates the whole being. Remember the sweetness. It is not like the taste of sugar or honey. It is a sweet feeling of devotion experienced by all your subtle nerves – you have thou-sands of spiritual nerves – and by your muscles, tendons and everything that you have and you are. Just think of how on that particular day you had that experience, the sweet feeling of devotion. While thinking of it soulfully, I assure you, your devotion will increase. It is bound to increase, of course, with purity in the mind, purity in the vital. Purity is of tremendous importance, paramount importance. If purity is not there in anything, then the results will be next to nothing. If purity is there while you are having this experience in your mind, in your vital, then you are bound to increase your devotion.

To increase your gratitude, take gratitude as a flower. First take gratitude as if you have sown the seed. You have sown the seed of so many flowers, all the flowers. You have sown the seed of gratitude. Then it is blooming and blossoming. After a few days, a few weeks or a few months, the gratitude-flower will be fully blossomed. You can enjoy the beauty and fragrance of that gratitude-flower.

This gratitude-flower is not a flower produced by nature, from some plants, which you can see with your human eyes. This gratitude-flower you will see only inside your heart. Every day it is blooming and blossoming. You have to feel every day that the gratitude-flower is blooming in the morning, and then in the evening it has blossomed.

Each and every flower you see blooms and blossoms, then it fades away, it becomes dry, and it dies. The beauty and the fragrance are all gone. But inside your heart you have to feel there is a gratitude-flower, and this flower does not die. Unlike the flowers that you see in front of your eyes, this gratitude-flower of the heart only blossoms and blossoms. It has already bloomed, and it is blossoming and blossoming and radiating its beauty. When you look at it, you can feel something is expanding in your inner life and outer life. It is expanding and expanding, spreading and covering the length and the breadth of the world.

This is one way you can increase your gratitude, by seeing a gratitude-flower inside your heart. Every day the petals of that flower are becoming larger and larger, and radiating more and more beauty, trying to cover the length and the breadth of the world. And when that flower covers the whole world or the universe, you become at that time part and parcel of the universe. Your gratitude and the blessings and joy of the universe go together – the blessings that you have got from Above so that you can increase your gratitude. It is an expansion. If a muscle can be stronger, then the gratitude-flower which the heart has can be more beautiful, brighter, brightest.

Always feel that the gratitude-flower inside the heart does not die, unlike the flowers that you see. You get this flower from the gratitude-plant, from your aspiration, from your heart’s cry. The gratitude-flower that takes birth from your aspiration, from your heart’s cry, never fades away, never dies. It only increases. The more you can see the gratitude-flower inside your heart, the more its beauty and its divinity will expand. And you become one, part and parcel of its expansion, which covers the length and the breadth of the world.

Comments about Good and Bad Singers

When good singers sing, my heart runs towards them. When bad singers sing, the divine in me is full of compassion and sympathy. I say, “O God, how I wish You to give them a singing voice so that they can be on the same footing as the good singers.” And I am lucky – most of the bad singers sing under their breath.

But again, there are some who are not at all good singers, but they think they are super-excellent singers. They are like my Brother Mantu. He always thinks he has a good singing voice. In those days at the Ashram, there was an excellent singer from whom I learned a few songs. He had a group of singers, and he was so kind-hearted – he used to take anybody with no discrimination. My brother Mantu wanted to join that group, but alas, when they used to perform, Mantu used to ruin everything. My sister Lily used to run away from there, saying that Mantu was ruining the whole thing. But he never recognised, he never realised that he was such a poor singer.

For a few years Mantu used to sing for me Tagore’s songs in his own way. He did not learn even one song of Tagore correctly. But out of my compassion, my affection, I used to listen to his singing. I used to appreciate his singing most sincerely, and he used to get tremendous joy from my appreciation.

When my eldest brother Hriday joined the Ashram, a brilliant idea flashed across his forehead. He wanted to become a great singer, so he wrote to Sri Aurobindo for permission, saying that he would like to learn songs from a good singer who happened to be his very close friend. His name was Sanjivan. Again, the teacher also wrote to Sri Aurobindo to get permission for my brother Hriday. Sri Aurobindo wrote very nicely to my brother, “Singing, music? It is all vital, vital, vital. You do not need it.” Then to the teacher Sri Aurobindo wrote, “He is useless. He will not be able to carry a single note.”

My brother was so proud. He went to his friend, his would-be music teacher, to show him, “Look, singing is vital.” Then Sanjivan showed him what Sri Aurobindo had written about my brother’s capacity. This is how Sri Aurobindo used to play the role of a grandfather.

When Hriday joined the Ashram, my brother Chitta also had the strong desire to come and join. Hriday had already broken the hearts of our family, specially my father. He wanted Chitta to take care of the family. But then Chitta wrote a letter to Hriday, “I also would like to join the Ashram.” Hriday forwarded Chitta’s letter to Sri Aurobindo, with Hriday’s opinion. He said, “I would like to tell you that Chitta is useless, useless. Do not allow him to come.”

Then my brother was absolutely sure that Sri Aurobindo would not allow Chitta to come to the Ashram. Alas, Sri Aurobindo said, “No, I have so many useful disciples. Let me have a few useless disciples. Since I have so many useful disciples, now I would like to have a few useless disciples.” So my brother Chitta spent some time at the Ashram, long before we all went to live there.

Prayers Recited at the Function after the Peace Concert

Sri Chinmoy recited the following 33 prayers at the function after the Peace Concert at Niagara Falls, on 17 October 2004.

1.

Not what I am now,
But what I am eventually
Supposed to be –
An unconditionally surrendered
Devotee of God.

2.

Not what I am now,
But what I am eventually
Supposed to be –
A perfect child of God
In every way.

3.

Not what I am now,
But what I am eventually
Supposed to be –
Not an added burden
To the Mother Earth,
But a sleepless server
Of the Mother Earth.

4.

My heart has already reached
The Golden Shore,
But alas,
My mind is still fast asleep.

5.

Each earthly thought
Is a bondage-world-builder.

6.

Each Heavenly thought
Is a freedom-sky-discoverer.

7.

Because we do not keep
Our God-appointments,
Our lives have become
Frustration-disappointment-failure-tears.

8.

Meditation
And mind-confusion
Are two perfect strangers
To each other.

9.

My meditation,
My heart-eagerness for God
And my oneness with God’s Will
Are always found together.

10.

In my God-manifestation-life
Austerity is useless indulgence.

11.

Each heart-song
Is produced
From the beauty of an angel.

12.

Be sleepless
In your God-quest.
Breathless silence
Will come and embrace you.

13.

When I am in quest of God,
The world ridicules me.

14.

When God is in quest of me,
The world questions God
Ruthlessly and shamelessly.

15.

My smiling eyes,
My smiling heart
And my smiling life –
These are the only gifts
That my Lord Supreme
Accepts from me.

16.

The inner freedom
Beckons me
To the Light infinite.

17.

The outer freedom
Entangles me,
My life and my all.

18.

The real friendship
Shelters us
All the time.

19.

The false friendship
Not only disappointments us,
But deserts us
To our great astonishment.

20.

When I am in my confusion-mind,
I simply crawl.

21.

When I am in my blossoming heart,
I dive deep within.

22.

When I am in my fulfilling soul,
I fly in Infinity’s sky.

23.

Desire binds us
When we breathe in.

24.

Desire blinds us
When we breathe out.

25.

Aspiration sings with us
When we breathe in.

26.

Aspiration dances with us
When we breathe out.

27.

Realisation is God-oneness-delight
When we breathe in.

28.

Realisation is God-manifestation-satisfaction
When we breathe out.

29.

Each new God-manifestation-promise
Of my heart
Gives a new thrill
To my Lord Supreme.

30.

My mind-inaction
Leads me nowhere.

31.

My heart-action
Leads me everywhere,
Finally placing me at the Feet
Of my Absolute Lord Supreme.

32.

When I use my own alarm clock,
Anxieties and worries
Torture me.

33.

When I use my Lord’s Alarm Clock,
I enjoy my fastest speed
On the fastest road
At the most God-ordained
Appropriate hour.

Songs Taught on the Niagara Falls Trip

On 17 October 2004, Sri Chinmoy taught the following 20 songs at the function following his Peace Concert at Prospect Point, on the New York side of Niagara Falls. He had composed 7 of the songs on 16 October, and the other 13 on the bus ride to Niagara Falls.

1. Swapan Amar Purna Habe

2. Kemane Bhulite Pari Mayer Charan

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12. Kemane Bhulite Pari Mayer Charan

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Poems from 2004

Sri Chinmoy wrote the following 16 poems during four meditation sessions held at the Sri Chinmoy Centre in Queens in March 2004. 1-4 1 March 2004 5-8 4 March 2004 9-12 8 March 2004 13-16 12 March 2004

1

Soul-inspiration
Is indomitable.

2

Alas, the stupidity-mind
Treasures itself.

3

Self-deception
Is an inescapable snare.

4

God wants us
To appreciate our lives
And never wants us
To belittle ourselves.

5

The mind-tension I was.
The heart-intensity I now am.
The life-receptivity I shall become.

6

The surrender-key opens up
God’s Heart-Door
Much faster than any other key.

7

My God-realisation-hope
My Lord has fulfilled.

8

My God-manifestation-promise
My Lord is compassionately,
Slowly, steadily and blessingfully fulfilling.

9

Mind-enthusiasm
And heart-bliss
Together blossom.

10

Beauty, sincerity and purity
Are the three fondest
Children of God.

11

O seeker,
Even if you falter and stumble,
   Continue moving forward
Until you regain your fastest speed
To reach your destination.

12

God’s Compassion-Eye
Is the Source
Of my self-transcendence-smile.

13

To lose your child-heart
Is to foolishly terminate
Your long-standing God-friendship.

14

God comes to me
When I sincerely think of Him.

15

God comes faster to me
When I invoke Him
Prayerfully and soulfully.

16

Faster than the fastest God comes to me
When I surrender my life to His Will
Cheerfully and unconditionally.