Question: If you are singing one of your Bengali songs that has our name in it, will we receive something at that time?

Sri Chinmoy: If you are in tune with my soul, definitely you will receive benefit. If I am soulfully singing the song Jiban debata daki animesh…, for example, and if your soul [referring to Animesh] is not sleeping at that time, from Australia easily your heart can come and immediately you will get the result. It is a matter of receptivity. Otherwise, I may be singing the same song right in front of you, but if you are thinking of someone else and what he is going to do, that person becomes your Guru. At that time I am not your Guru! Then you have to expect something from that person, not from me.

The day before yesterday, when I came back from the radio station, one of the disciples took me to eat something. Did he not see that I was practising my new song with his name? I was inspired to play my flute there in the restaurant. We were sitting outside, almost in the street.

We were drinking soup and I was playing my flute. Nobody was bothering me; people were eating and I was playing, playing, playing, enjoying that song. They were such nice people that they did not mind.

The song is, Ashar pradip nibe jadi jai… It means, “If ever I allow my hope-dream-flame to be extinguished in my life, then death will immediately use its death-chains to strangle me, while smiling and dancing.”

Hope is absolutely necessary. The moment we give up hope, that is our death. Hope is not expectation. There is a great difference between hope and expectation. I give you one cent and then immediately I want two cents from you: that is expectation. But hope is not like that. When you are hoping, at that time you feel that you are helpless. Hope makes us humble. Expectation does not do that. Expectation is a kind of haughtiness inside confidence. Confidence is good, but expectation is haughty confidence.

When the son feels that he has the right to expect something from the father, that is called expectation. But if he hopes that the father will give him something, then there is some prayerful feeling, some humility inside him. Hope carries more divinity in it, real divinity. Hope is a kind of soulful feeling. We feel, “I am not perfect, but still I have hope. I have not conquered all my weaknesses — jealousy, insecurity and so on — but I do hope that one day I will conquer them. I have not reached my goal yet, but one day I will be able to reach my goal. I have not done it, but I will be able to do it.” Never give up hope! If hope goes away, then we are in trouble — we are spiritually dead.

I composed this song on the flute, but today at the radio station I wanted to play it on the tote-a-tune. The tote-a-tune was inside my bag. I was looking for Savyasachi, but he was not available. He was carrying my bag. I thought that if I looked at him, he would understand what I needed. I was looking to this side and that side, but he was not there. Luckily my harmonium was there to save me.