“Arise! Awake! – and stop not till the goal is reached.”
– Swami Vivekananda (after the Katha Upanishad)
As we progress along our spiritual journey, we each perceive our goal according to our background, spiritual practise and inner proclivity. While some seek liberation, others may aspire for enlightenment or only God-satisfaction.
Just as we must wake up in the morning before we can pursue our daily tasks and activities, common to most paths and traditions is the concept of spiritual awakening, as a necessary precursor to conscious growth and progress. While this awakening may be observed outwardly through a ritual initiation or baptism, the inner awakening arises from a stirring of the soul, whether induced by the inner touch of a spiritual Master or the fortuitous breath of grace.
As a single spark may start a monumental forest fire, or a tremor under the floor of a distant ocean results in a massive tsunami on another continent, so the daybreak of our inner awakening – though we are likely unconscious of it at the time – is the singular moment of destiny in our lives, leading inevitably and inexorably to the complete and radical transformation of our entire consciousness.
We are the same person, whether asleep or awake: only when awake, we are more conscious. Even so, while spiritually asleep amidst the wastelands of ignorance, delusions of desire and errors of ego, all our limitless capacities, soaring realisations and stupendous achievements lie coiled within us, dormant.
We imagine it is necessary first to awake before we arise. Yet Swami Vivekananda’s injunction is first arise, and then awake. Before thinking of enlightenment, liberation or realisation, we must first arise, take up our action stations of prayer, invocation, meditation and self-giving service: only then awakening dawns, and our inevitable God-realisation – petal by petal – blossoms.
Spiritual writings can be read again and again. As we absorb their wisdom, our inner understanding blossoms like a flower and we become more receptive to ever-deeper insights. The same book, poem or passage can be read a hundred times over the course of years, each repetition yielding a new and deeper treasure of beauty, truth and delight. Each reading opens a new doorway into our hearts, each doorway an opening to fresh light from a future reading.
Spiritual writings show the true significance, beauty and power of words as revealed truth. Throughout history, spiritual light has been imparted from Master to disciple primarily in silence, and next through the spoken or chanted word. The Vedas, the world’s oldest known writings, are transcriptions of the Sanskrit mantras and chants through which these seers revealed and imparted their spiritual realisations. As the Vedas originated in the enunciated word of mantra, a truth echoed by the Bible – “In the beginning was the Word” – so all spiritual writings, as living, resonant truth, are best spoken, chanted or sung aloud. Spoken or intoned words vibrate in our physical frame, even as their meaning activates our mind, their beauty resonates in our heart and their truth thrills our soul.
Spiritual writings initiate our inner awakening, activate our inner awareness, tutor and partner us in the steps and cadence of our inner life’s dance. They summon from within, all the qualities needed for the journey – hope, promise, consolation, courage, determination, wonder, faith, patience, devotion, reverence, sweetness, humility and happiness, conveying ways of seeing, feeling and being that resonate in our own depths and convey a thrill of recognition of our own inmost self.
Spiritual writings take us home and reveal ourselves to ourselves: words that transport us to realms beyond words.
To meditate, we need inspiration and aspiration. One of the easiest, most reliable and rewarding ways to awaken, nurture and intensify both our inspiration and aspiration, is to read spiritual writings, especially the works of spiritual Masters.
Most of what we read feeds our mind with information (or misinformation), or stirs our vital with emotion. The writings of spiritual Masters nourish our whole being with illumination, for they are not theories, fantasies or opinions, but revelations of reality. They do not describe a fruit; they are the fruit.
Because Truth is our very essence, our inner depths resonate when words of Truth are spoken, heard or read. Thrilling to this resonance, something within us identifies with and claims these words as our own, even feeling, “I could have written this”. In the presence of spiritual writings, a seeker will feel that he or she is rediscovering or recovering something known all along – but forgotten. We recognise ourselves. Amidst the beauty of spiritual writings, we feel connected, at home, complete. By itself, a gong is mute and still: only when struck by a mallet it becomes a miracle of wondrous reverberation. Such is the power of spiritual writing to rouse from an inert heart and unconscious life, a magical flowering of ever-transcending fulfilment.
When you find a poem, aphorism or passage that speaks to you, moves and inspires you, welcome it into your heart. Such passages become our unfailing friends, confidants, mentors, teachers and saviours – helping, guiding, reassuring, protecting and illumining our every breathing moment. What we love most, we become: taking our beloved passages to heart and intoning them soulfully, their truth, beauty and power are implanted and grow within our hearts, resonate throughout our being and blossom in our lives: we are transformed.
Today – the 27th of August – is Sri Chinmoy’s birthday.
A birthday is an occasion to appreciate and celebrate a person’s goodness, achievements and inspiration: to savour the flowers, fruits and bounty of their life-tree.
Sri Chinmoy credited all that he became, achieved, created and offered, to his spiritual life of prayer and meditation. Sri Chinmoy taught and wrote that meditation is the key to happiness, creativity, self-discovery, self-transcendence, personal fulfilment and world-transformation: his staggeringly vast, beautiful, powerful, rich and nourishing life-tree is the most compelling proof, witness and advocate of his words.
Sri Chinmoy’s mind-boggling accomplishments, especially in weightlifting and feats of strength, have completely obliterated our conception of the humanly possible.
Composer of 23,000 songs; author of 1,700 published books and over 120,000 poems; creator of 135,000 paintings and 16 million bird drawings – Sri Chinmoy’s creative output towers in jaw-dropping magnitude, and soars in expressive variety, exquisite beauty and breathtaking originality.
Sri Chinmoy’s output dwarfs the life’s work of any individual in each of music, poetry and art – let alone all these fields combined. History has never witnessed such a manifold, incessant, flood of creative force pouring through one individual.
Even to believe Sri Chinmoy’s achievements, we are compelled to abandon our insular minds: to embrace his life’s significance, we are impelled to meditate, to dive into our hearts’ deeper oneness, vaster vision and higher power. Sri Chinmoy is a mirror, reflecting back to us our own potential, our super-human capacity and divine destiny. Sri Chinmoy’s God-glowing life offers us choice and opportunity: we can disbelieve and deny – and remain inwardly impoverished and outwardly diminished; or we can believe, embrace and fly into our own beckoning, unhorizoned liberation-sky.
The inspiration-stage is set, the aspiration-curtain raised…
Step forward, meditate, love and become – our time is now.
There is a passage in the scriptures in which one of the Prophets foretold: “He shall roar with a flaming mane”. While there is some conjecture surrounding the exact word for ‘mane’ in the original ancient Greek manuscript, scholars concur this is clear proof, offered hundreds of years before His birth, that Jesus’ hair and beard were distinctively flame-red…
Another verse of scripture prophesises: “Smiling, his bracelets glistening, he offers camel curd from an earthen pot”. We know from archaeological digs that it was customary among the ancient Chaldeans, for males to wear jewellery. The Chaldeans were renowned for their mastery of clay pottery and their uniformly chestnut-coloured hair. Scholars unanimously agree this verse indicates Jesus’ family was of Chaldean lineage, hence his beard was undoubtedly chestnut-coloured…
Jesus’ father, Joseph, was a carpenter, a specialised trade requiring several years’ apprenticeship under the guidance of a master-tradesman. It was a requirement at the time, that qualified tradesmen and their sons, must dye their hair and beards black, to signify their status. Scholars are adamant on this point: as the son of a Galilean carpenter, Jesus’ beard can only have been black…
The Shroud of Turin is from Jesus’ burial sheet. Recent data analysis of ultra-radio spectrum scans, coupled with DNA and genomic sequencing of a hair-strand fragment from this hallowed fabric, show conclusively that Jesus’ beard, of which this strand stands as definitive physical evidence, was of a straw-blonde hue…
Can you believe the stupidity, the arrogant ignorance of these so-called scholars? There is a sublime portrait of Jesus above the altar in my church. I have gazed upon it, transfixed in loving wonder, since my early childhood: the absolute living likeness of our Lord. Come, come anytime and see for yourself –
“When we please our soul,
Our soul blesses us
With torrential blessing-rain.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Imagine a tropical rainforest: green, dense, buzzing, pulsing, steaming and teeming with infinite intricate, parallel, interconnected leapings and twinings of one magnificent, multi-munificent life-drama.
Our earth is abundantly rich, diverse and fruitful, offering everything we need and more – as long as one essential ingredient is present: rain from above.
Without rain, earth is a dry, lifeless desert incapable of sustaining, nourishing or satisfying anything or anyone.
In the spiritual realm, rain symbolises blessings and divine grace, descending unconditionally from ‘above’. Like the earth without rain, without grace we are useless and helpless; with grace we can be anything and everything.
Like earth, we already have everything needed for a rich, nourishing and fulfilling life within us: peace, love, light and bliss in infinite measure. Just as rain must fall on the ground for seeds to germinate and flowers to bloom, so to activate these spiritual qualities and manifest them in our lives, the descent of divine grace is indispensable.
How to attract these blessings into our lives?
“A silence-flooded mind I need
To receive the Compassion-Rain
Of my Lord Supreme.”
– Sri Chinmoy
In meditation, we are the earth, crying and longing for the descent of rain from above. We have within us all the seeds of future success and progress, and all the minerals and nutrients needed to nourish and nurture our blossoming growth. As the earth yearns in helpless silence for the blessings of rain, so we, with a silent, thoughtless mind, open our hearts in prayer for the magic touch of divine grace for our completion and fulfilment.
The farmer ploughs and sows the field: we pray and meditate.
The rest is done by the grace of rain, and the rain of grace.
This is a creative visualisation exercise. Sit comfortably, with your spine straight. Focus on your breath for a while, bringing the flow under your conscious and careful control. Either close, or let your eyes rest on something simple, pure, beautiful and inspiring.
Gradually uplift your conscious awareness from your body. Feel that ‘you’ are not the body: rather you are floating above, filling the room. Just as you separated from your body, detach also from your desires and emotions, and then from all thoughts, concepts, notions and beliefs. Leave them all there in your body for now, as you float beyond and above the room, this building, your city, the whole planet…
Without a mind, thoughts, words, ideas, desires or physical needs, all you have and all you are is love; unconditional, pure, spontaneous, absolute, radiant, universal love. You are in all as every pulsing, longing, loving heart. You see and feel the entire wondrous world within you, all beautiful, all blissful, all perfection. Though floating high above, you perceive every tiniest movement and finest detail of each person, animal, plant and particle; you hear, feel and know all from within as an intricate, inter-connected, ecstatic symphony of microscopic and supra-cosmic dance. Your very core thrills with the secret, inmost, oneness-yearning heartthrob of all being. You are at once above, around and all-where within, all-embracing, all-encompassing, all-flowing, all-glowing, all-fulfilling oneness-love.
The more love you feel, the more love you become; the more love you see and feel everywhere, in everything and everyone, the more you see and feel everyone and everything as love – ever deepening, ever-expanding, ever-sweetening, ever-purifying, ever-blossoming, ever-transcending and ever-perfecting oneness-love.
Your universe is a sphere of love, one, myriad and whole: only love breathes, moves, shines, smiles, initiates, completes and is, eternally is.
“There is no difference
Between collecting and storing garbage
And identifying with the impure thoughts
Of the human mind.”
– Sri Chinmoy
In meditation, we are like a swan gliding gracefully across the lake’s placid façade: all blissful serenity, while below the surface, out of sight, its legs are pumping frantically to propel its forward momentum.
The real work, the heavy lifting of meditation, is done in secret, out of sight and out of mind, by a consortium of our higher self – our soul, our Guru and God.
We meditate to rid ourselves of the mind’s endlessly compounding and confounding convictions, conniptions, connivings and contrivings. The problem is we are so attached to these phantasms, that they have subsumed our very identity. Like a miser who will not let his treasures out of his sight, we obsess constantly over our worries, fears and vanities and won’t let them out of our awareness.
Meditation acts like a magic trick, where the magician’s sleight of hand, the distraction, is the peace, light and bliss of our meditation experience. We are entranced by the allure of this all-encompassing, all-fulfilling, all-nourishing state.
Enraptured, we fall into the embrace of meditation eagerly and gratefully.
While thus engaged, and distracted from our problems, our soul works behind the scenes in silence, to remove the garbage – the pride, insecurity, stress, doubt, error, trepidation and confusion of our mind.
Why then, do these same problems reappear, time and again?
We might as well ask why dust settles on surfaces recently cleaned, or rubbish accumulates in the bin. As long as we inhabit and identify with our minds, the garbage of ignorance will continue to accrue – and will always need removing.
Under the cover of meditation, our soul is ever eager for the task.
“I shall no more allow
World-criticism
To destroy the beauty
Of my flower-heart-home.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Look at the moon. Do you notice its blemishes? Or do you feel its softness, sweetness, beauty, purity and luminosity?
Our world is a projection and reflection of our own consciousness. When we are sad, the world is ugly; when we are happy, the world is beautiful. So to see and feel peace, love and joy around us, we must first find peace, love and joy in our own hearts.
The world is comprised of human beings, like you and me. We are the world. Like each of us, the world is a dynamic mixture of strengths and weaknesses, positives and negatives, inspiring and disheartening qualities. We see ourselves reflected in the world we perceive: if we are conflicted we see a world of conflict; while we are aggrieved we perceive injustice everywhere; when flooded with love, we feel the goodness in every heart.
Just as dwelling on the negative in ourselves increases the negative we see all around us; so focussing on the negative around us, brings forth and empowers the negative within us. This is why criticism – of others and the world in general – is such a self-harmful and destructive habit, the ultimate own-goal.
The solution? To protect yourself and the world, avoid the company of critics and eschew the easy indulgence of criticism. To achieve permanent immunity, love and focus always and only on the good, the beautiful, the inspiring.
“May my love of divinity
Take away once and for all
The breath of my world-criticism.”
– Sri Chinmoy
The lover of the moon is oblivious to its imperfections: they dissolve in its beauty. Thus, in silence, the destructive power of criticism melts in the oneness-sunshine of meditation…
“A theory must be tested.
A fact must be honoured.
A truth must be lived.”
– Sri Chinmoy
The following is a story told by Sri Ramakrishna.
A community of salt dolls lived nearby the sea. They all felt an affinity with the sea; they loved being close to the sea; all their stories and fables revolved around the sea; they would keep their windows open at night so they could fall asleep to the comforting roar of the sea and most nights they even dreamed of the sea.
Yet they were also afraid of the sea, and forbade their little ones from going too close. There were legends of children being swallowed up; whole families had disappeared without trace. Their attitude to the sea combined reverence, love and awe with utter dread. Constantly, the sea beckoned them with one hand and repelled them with the other.
The dolls’ favourite pastime was to ponder the vast ocean, for they knew that what they could see was only the mere surface; that the sea’s reality, beauty and power all lay in its fathomless depths.
If only they could know how deep the ocean really was – so many questions would be answered, longings assuaged, so much mystery unravelled…
One fearless doll resolved to plumb the ocean’s very depths and return with the answers. It marched forth and upon entering the water, melted and merged with the sea. Having fathomed the ocean’s depths, this doll had no language to communicate to its friends, all huddled around the ocean’s edge, perpetually pondering…
We can each be a ponderer, or a knower. Never by pondering: only by entering and merging with, can we become, and know the Infinite.
To know God, don’t speculate, extrapolate or postulate – just meditate!
“In atom and in pollen
And in human frames
My life abides.
All beauty am I,
Immutable am I.
I drink my ambrosia all alone.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Truth is one. Light is one. Love is one.
You are one. I am one. We are all one.
Our world is one. Our universe is one. God is one.
All that is outside and around me, is within me.
From time to time, our lakes in Canberra are closed to swimming due to elevated levels of bacteria or blue-green algae. In order to know how much bacteria or algae is present in the lake at any time, the water must be tested and analysed in a laboratory. Of course all of the water in the lake cannot fit into a laboratory, so for each particular area, only a small sample of lake water is drawn. Assuming that this sample is representative of all the water in its area, decisions are made on lake closure based on the test results of just this small sample. The sample stands for the whole.
And so do we each.
If we want to know and understand mankind, our world, our universe, absolute Truth, Light, Love and God, then we have only to know and understand one small representative sample of the Whole. The one and only sample of the Infinite for which we are responsible, and to which we have full access – is our self.
So to know the whole God-lake, let us test and know the substance of this little sample. The deeper we go within, the vaster grows our awareness. The microcosm embodies the macrocosm.
This infallible process to discover Eternal Truth and know God has a name: meditation.
There is a story from the Puranas, of a king who was especially fond of his pet deer. Always he thought of this deer, to such an extent that in his next lifetime, he was born as a deer.
The moral of this story is simple: what we focus on, we become. Our concentration and meditation are magnetic forces drawing the object of our focus towards us. When we look at someone smiling, we smile and glow with happiness; dwelling on a sad face, gloom descends and we sadden.
We are in Florence and our destination is Rome. There are two trains on the platform – one is heading south to Rome and the other, north to Milan. It seems an obvious choice – of course we will get on the train to Rome … yet how often, we deliberately board the train heading in the opposite direction to our professed destination!
We meditate for peace, love, light, oneness, simplicity, purity and humility. Yet our meditation can be completely undone if afterwards, we engage with anything that arouses fear, doubt, confusion, insecurity, pride, resentment, jealousy or anger. We have to be careful at every moment of what we do, what we read and watch, who we speak with and especially of what and how we think, for at every moment we are on a train to Rome, or to Milan – we cannot be heading in both directions at once.
If we are going to invite or indulge in negative thoughts, emotions or activities, then our meditation is simply a waste of time. Our spiritual journey does not stop when we end our meditation; it continues at every moment with every choice we make.
Like a sprinter, do not glance sideways and never look back. Always face your goal!
“Gratitude is the master-key To open up all earth-doors And Heaven-doors.”
– Sri Chinmoy
No matter how bright the sun; how glorious the day; how thrilling the sky – we cannot appreciate or benefit from their light, beauty, joy and inspiration if we keep our curtains closed.
No matter how much good fortune we encounter; wealth we are bestowed with; wisdom is revealed to us; love, kindness and compassion are showered upon us; no matter how powerful the flow of grace in our lives – we cannot benefit in the least if we keep our heart-door closed.
To keep our heart-door always open is the single imperative to attain and maintain happiness, self-transcendence and spiritual progress.
Our heart-door is the gateway to the spiritual realms, the goal of our quest, source of all fulfilment and home of our true self.
What closes our heart-door? Everything that lowers our consciousness and diminishes our self-awareness: doubt, fear, worry, insecurity, pride, jealousy, suspicion, negativity, greed, desire, confusion – most of the mental activity that engages us night and day.
What opens our heart-door? Everything that elevates our consciousness and expands and liberates our self-awareness: love, purity, simplicity, humility, beauty, joy, sweetness, wisdom, kindness, compassion, self-giving – all that flows from meditation and a silent mind.
How can we invoke these qualities to keep our heart-door always open?
There are three keys to our heart-door – discipline, aspiration and gratitude.
Spiritual discipline – our regular, punctual meditation practise – maintains our heart-door the same way as exercising keeps our muscles in shape.
Aspiration – our intense inner cry and yearning for silence, peace, truth, love and light – creates an irresistible upward flow which forces and keeps our heart-door open from within.
Gratitude – the master key – obliterates our heart-door, elevating, transforming and blending our little heart into our universal heart-home.
