If our heart is devoid of an inner cry, we cannot pretend we are leading a spiritual life. The inner cry is the beating heart of spirituality: arising from the Infinite and the Eternal, and reaching ever towards the Infinite and the Eternal. The inner cry is at once our most sacred gift from God, our most precious offering to God.
Our inner cry will bring us faster to God than any spiritual book, religious observance, good deed, sacrifice, offering or spiritual discipline.
Sri Chinmoy was unequivocal that the inner cry of aspiration is the single indispensable prerequisite and qualification for the spiritual life:
“If you ask whether there is anything that is most important in our spiritual life, then I wish to say, ‘Yes, there is, and that is aspiration.’ Today’s aspiration is bound to bring down God tomorrow or in the near future. It is in aspiration that God manifests Himself through us. The human aspiration and the divine Compassion go together. Divine Compassion is the flame of human aspiration. There is no end to our aspiration. There is no end to our realisation, no end. The goal is ever transcending its own limits. Today’s goal will be tomorrow’s starting point. There is no end to our goal; therefore there is no end to our ultimate realisation. There is no end to our aspiration. We aspire for the Highest, for the Infinite, for the Eternal. The Infinite cannot be measured. As we enter into Infinity, the finite and the Infinite become inseparably one. Our Vedic seers voiced forth:
‘Infinity is that. Infinity is this.
From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence.
From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away,
Infinity remains the same.’
That is the message we can get from our aspiration.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Essential in our inner cry are sincerity, purity and intensity. A half-hearted inner cry is a slap with a feather. Our cry must needs be wholehearted and resolute – at once helpless yet determined, piteous yet adamant, imploring yet commanding.
We cannot know how good a mango tastes by hearing others’ descriptions of it, no matter how vivid and evocative their words: we have to take the mango and eat it for ourselves. So, we cannot know or experience the inner cry by reading or theorising about it. The inner cry has to be invoked, lived, breathed, felt and suffered in every cell and sinew of our being. Our inner cry works only when we give ourselves utterly to it, allowing our aspiration-flame to subsume us, when we grow and flow into, merge with, surrender and become our inner cry.
Sri Chinmoy minces no words in his assessment of the role of aspiration, the inner cry, in our spiritual journey to God:
“Aspiration is the mounting flame within us. If there is no aspiration, then one can never, never realise God. Aspiration has the key to unlock the door of God. Aspiration in concentration, meditation and contemplation is of paramount importance. No aspiration, no realisation. Now this aspiration has to come from the inmost recesses of our hearts. Very often we have mental curiosity and we take it for aspiration. This is absolutely wrong. Aspiration is a burning cry within us. A child is crying for milk. No matter where he is, the mother comes running because the child is crying for milk or something else. The mother comes and feeds the child. In the spiritual life also, when an individual seeker cries ardently, soulfully and devotedly, God comes and stands in front of him.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“It is the inner cry that can and will solve all our problems. Like a runner – a runner has to run the fastest; if he wants to run the fastest, then he will not wear Winter boots or a heavy coat. So, here also, if one is a sincere seeker, he will not be loaded with thoughts and ideas, worries, anxieties.”
– Sri Chinmoy
How does the inner cry solve all our problems?
Problems are inextricably linked with our thought process; our thinking mind is a problem factory. Problems arise from, are nourished and perpetuated by thoughts. When we are successful in clearing our mind of thoughts, so-called problems magically evaporate.
We know that to clear our mind of thoughts, worries and distractions requires an intense effort of will, summoned by a sincere inner cry. One notion of how prayer works, is that our problems are solved on our behalf by God or a higher power responding to our prayer. Our inner cry is seen as an advocate or agent, acting on our behalf.
Yet in a real sense, the inner cry itself obliterates our problems by eclipsing our thought process.
We cannot look in two opposing directions at once; thinking and the inner cry are incompatible. To summon and engage our inner cry, demands our full attention and immersion. An active inner cry subsumes our conscious awareness, sealing our mind’s doors from within and blocking all other claims on our attention. The thoughts and distractions flocking at our mind’s door, find no admittance. With nowhere to settle, thoughts, worries and their extended family of problems, are forced to turn away.
The inner cry not only solves all existing problems: as long as our inner cry stays fresh, it will protect us from future problems as well.
The inner cry cannot be seen, touched, measured or analysed. Therefore, it is very difficult for our mind to grasp or acknowledge. The inner cry can only be felt, treasured and nurtured in our hearts.
In a scientific and economic world of facts, figures and statistics, there is no place or role for the inner cry, for there is no instrument to measure or quantify it. The inner cry flies under the radar of the desire-bound material consciousness, directly into the core of truth.
The inner cry is an alarm siren from the spiritual realm signifying its neglect, demanding our attention and action. It is the announcement and growing claim of our heart, a piercing ray intruding into our thought-clouded mental consciousness to summon forth our blazing higher self.
The inner cry is the source of all human longing for higher meaning and purpose; the source of all philosophy and theology; the source of self-transcendence. Beyond the divisions of the mental realm, which have plagued every man-made religion – words, thoughts, concepts, dogma, ideals and ideology – the inner cry is one in the depths of every human heart. It is the inner cry which alone holds the hope and promise of a universal religion, as Sri Chinmoy writes:
“The world will have one religion, but that religion is not a religion we can talk about. We cannot say that Christianity will be the only religion, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Judaism. We cannot say that one religion far surpasses another religion and that this particular religion has to be the only religion. No! There can be one religion provided that this religion is nothing short of inner cry, the inner cry to realise the Truth. One religion means one inner cry in all human hearts.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“You can discover your divine qualities by digging deep within. As a miner digs and gets something, you also can dig. Digging here means your inner cry. When you cry, you dive deep within. And you can develop your divine qualities by constantly crying. In order to discover your divine qualities, you have to cry constantly. And then, when you have a constant inner cry, automatically you will develop all your divine inner qualities. Each time you cry you dig deep within; and when you dig deep within you develop your qualities. So, at every moment, please think of the instrument that digs inside you. It is your aspiration. Just as a miner uses an implement to dig in the ground, you also need a constant inner cry to dig in your heart.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Our inner cry instigates all the work of our spiritual growth and transformation: first, by unearthing our divine qualities – which are the tools and agents of our spiritual discovery and progress – and then, by nurturing, encouraging and developing these qualities within us.
To accomplish this work, our inner cry must overcome the greatest obstacle in our journey – our mind; while simultaneously awakening and empowering our greatest ally, our spiritual heart.
Our inner cry does not so much calm our mind, as overwhelm it, flooding extraneous thoughts, distractions, mental and emotional flotsam and jetsam in its sheer imperative urgency. Whatever card the mind plays to hold us captive – its brilliant ideas, its doubts and fears – the compelling authenticity and urgency of the inner cry trumps it every time.
Simultaneously, our inner cry calls forth and mobilises the most potent force of our being, our soul, to inundate us with its infinite love, light, power and delight to accomplish all that is needed.
“Our true satisfaction
Entirely depends
On our own sincere inner cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
In the practice of meditation, as in all of life’s pursuits, it is not what we do that matters as much as how we do it. There are endless books, podcasts and workshops dedicated to theories and techniques of meditation. We can study and practise endlessly, yet all the knowledge in the world about meditation will be of no avail unless we bring the right inner attitude. We may do everything correctly: we might have a dedicated meditation room in our house, get up at 6am without fail, sit with ideal posture and control our breathing perfectly.
But a perfectly shaped plastic flower has no fragrance. To go beyond the techniques and enjoy the fragrance of meditation, Sri Chinmoy shares a simple secret:
“How can you have a successful meditation? Try to cry inwardly, cry for liberation. When this cry comes from deep within, the Inner Pilot, God, will teach you how to meditate. The secret of meditation is aspiration. Aspiration is the inner cry. If you cry from deep within you will get what you need.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Our inner cry is the access key not only to today’s meditation, but to every meditation and all spiritual progress from this moment forward. Our meditation paves the way for our unfolding self-discovery and ultimate Self-realisation. Every step of the journey must be guided and fuelled by the same bright persistent insistence, that great uniting, transforming, transcending force of our being – our heart’s inner cry.
“Everything within us that is good is responsible for Self-realisation. But if you ask what is indispensable, then I will say that only one thing is indispensable and that is our inner cry, our constant, inmost cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“Problems disappear
When the inner cries
Become stronger.”
– Sri Chinmoy
We sometimes feel that we have to enter into a problem in order to solve it. Yet when we focus on a problem and analyse it, we donate to it our precious awareness: strengthening and emboldening the problem, and increasing its hold over us. We have only to dive into our inner cry, and let it do its thing.
Just as light and darkness cannot coexist in the same space, even so the sleep of ignorance cannot persist when we are consumed with an inner cry for illumination. Rather than worry about our ignorance, we need only to treasure and nurture our inner cry.
Sri Chinmoy gave many illumining answers to the challenge of overcoming ignorance. Here are two of them:
“The only way for you to break your ties with ignorance is through your constant, conscious inner cry. When you pray, meditate and aspire, sometimes you do it consciously and sometimes you do it unconsciously. It is your obligation to be conscious all the time. When you pray and meditate you have to do it consciously. Your constant and conscious inner cry can alone free you from ignorance. It is the only answer.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“How can you overcome ignorance? It is through your aspiration that you can conquer ignorance. When you cry, you can’t sleep. Again, when you sleep, you don’t cry. When a child is really sleeping, he cannot cry. He has to awaken first. Similarly, if you can cry, then you cannot sleep. Always try to cry inwardly. The outer cry is for name and fame; the inner cry is for light, peace and bliss. If you can cry for peace, light and bliss, then ignorance-sleep will automatically leave you.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“The inner cry creates receptivity.
Inside receptivity, gratitude flows.
Nothing else can produce it.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Gratitude is the most precious attainment in our spiritual life. Gratitude keeps our spiritual heart open, fresh and pure, a natural home for our higher self to grow, play and flourish.
Gratitude is a rare dazzling butterfly that flits around the periphery of our imagination, mostly eluding our grasp. It is we who must make of ourselves a fit receptacle to receive and hold gratitude. How?
“It is through the constant inner cry. We cry outwardly when we desperately need name, fame, outer capacity, prosperity and so forth. But when we cry inwardly, we have to feel that we are crying only to please and fulfil God in His own Way. The outer cry is for our own fulfilment, in our own way. The inner cry is for God-fulfilment in God’s own Way. If there is a constant inner cry, that means we are trying to please God, satisfy God and fulfil God in God’s own Way. If we can cry inwardly, in silence, then our gratitude increases, because inside the inner cry is the abode of gratitude, and inside the abode of gratitude is God.”
– Sri Chinmoy
How then, to keep our inner cry, so gratitude can grow in us?
“When you aspire for the inner cry, you should know that that very cry comes from God’s Concern and Compassion. So the most important thing is to offer your gratitude. If you offer gratitude, then immediately your inner cry increases. It becomes continuous and constant. When you offer gratitude, your inner cry mounts to the highest.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Our inner cry creates receptivity, which ushers in gratitude, which enhances our inner cry – parent and child of our spiritual growth.
In the spiritual life, no matter what our question, purpose or goal, the answer will always be revealed by our inner cry. And if we do not consciously have any question, purpose or goal, they too will be revealed by our inner cry.
Sri Chinmoy was once asked a question that goes to the very function of the spiritual life: what is the best way to raise one’s consciousness and maintain that level?
“The best way to raise your consciousness is through inner cry. Then, in order to maintain your consciousness there on the highest level, you have to establish considerable purity in the vital. First, with your inner cry, your aspiration, you go up; then, through purity in the vital you will be able to stay there for good.”
– Sri Chinmoy
The inner cry is the seed that germinates and enlivens, the clue that solves, the key that opens, the spark that ignites our consciousness’ growth and upward trajectory. Yet, Sri Chinmoy says that to maintain this higher consciousness, to avoid descending again, another essential quality is required: purity.
So, to raise one’s consciousness, an inner cry is needed, and then to maintain our higher consciousness, we need purity. How then, can we obtain purity? We return to where we began: the same inner cry both starts and completes the circle…
“It is through our constant inner cry that we achieve purity and increase purity. When our inner cry climbs up, we gradually illumine our whole being, and when illumination takes place, all purity enters into us. There are a few spiritual exercises that help the seeker in acquiring purity. But the purity that lasts forever, the purity of the highest order, we get only from our inner cry for the highest Supreme.”
– Sri Chinmoy
We know that to progress in the spiritual life, we need self-discipline. How and where can we find this self-discipline? Sri Chinmoy writes:
“A disciplined life can come from only one thing, and that is aspiration, our inner cry. At any hour, that inner cry reaches God, and God is bound to fulfil that inner cry. If one wants to discipline himself, if one is dissatisfied with his loose life, and if he feels that from a disciplined life he can have realisation, he can have real fulfilment, perfection and satisfaction, then God is bound to help that particular sincere seeker. If there is an inner cry, then nothing on earth can be denied. No fulfilment can be denied to an individual who has an inner cry.”
“We cry as human beings for name and fame, for many things. But we do not cry for the one thing which is of paramount importance, and that is God’s inner Wealth. What is that inner Wealth? His inner Wealth is Divine Fulfilment, Divine Perfection. We are all imperfect. No human being is perfect. No. But again, our aim is to be perfectly perfect. This perfect perfection can only come from self-discipline. God is all ready. He is more than eager to offer His perfect Perfection. But for that perfect Perfection, we have to grow into a mounting cry which we call aspiration, constant aspiration. When this flame of aspiration rises towards the Highest, it illumines everything around it which is dark. Then, the higher it goes, the greater and more fulfilling is our manifestation.”
“With our inner cry we can have a self-disciplined life. With self-discipline we can get the inner wealth of self-discovery. Self-discipline is the precursor of self-discovery. Self-discovery is the harbinger of God-Manifestation.”
“If your inner cries are deep,
Then your outer smiles
Will be most powerful.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“What gives life its value,
If not its inner cry
For self-transcendence?”
– Sri Chinmoy
Our inner cry is God’s assurance, God’s voice, God’s guidance and God’s action within us. It is God calling us home.
Our inner cry is the agency of peace, light and bliss; the gateway to happiness, guardian of truth and guarantor of perfection. It at once fills and fulfills, uplifts and enlightens, justifies and glorifies our existence.
The inner cry replaces instinct and transcends evolution as we consciously embrace and actively join in the inward dive, forward march and upward flight of our spiritual life-journey. The inner cry is at once the current propelling our life-river forward toward its ocean-destination; and the gravity-pull beckoning and compelling our life-river to reunite with its ocean-source.
The inner cry recognises that we have somehow drifted far from our natural state, and we need to rediscover who we are and why we are here; that we have become lost and need to find our way back home; that we are carrying a heavy weight of imperfection which we need to lose to fly into the perfection-sky; that we have turned our backs on our souls, and needs must reclaim our inherent divinity which is our birthright.
The inner cry is absolutely for all. The inner cry requires no qualifications, learning or skill; no capacity; no fee; no passport or visa. It cares not what we look like; how we sound; what our income, address, profession or status; what our beliefs or religion; how we dress or behave; what we like or dislike.
Tucked away in every heart, forever at our beck and call, our only indispensable necessity – our inner cry.
We are used to approaching life and its many questions, mysteries and challenges from a scientific viewpoint. We have come to assume that science either already has, or will be able to find the answer to every question and the solution to every problem.
Yet science can only go so far: faced with the inner realms of the Self, the scientific method must give way to more direct means of perceiving the truth. Sri Chinmoy writes:
“Ours is not a scientific path; we approach God psychically, from the heart. We notice inside our hearts a mounting flame that is climbing high, higher, highest. This flame is our inner cry for God. When we cry, when the inner flame mounts up, it illumines all our darkness, ignorance and bondage. When we pray and meditate, we intensify this cry and our consciousness rises towards the highest. Since this cry comes from the heart, we call our path psychic discovery and not scientific discovery.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy speaks of the inner cry as a mounting flame. This same flame, as it rises and expands, raises our consciousness and illumines all our darkness. The inner cry is not only the spark which ignites our aspiration, stirs our inner yearning and prompts our self-search; it is the very flaming of aspiration itself; and the spreading, all-illumining light which answers the very questions it posed, and fulfills the very longing it voiced forth.
Born as a helpless yearning, our inner cry morphs into a daring, transforming journey – and ultimately reveals itself as the fulfillment of that yearning and destination of that journey.
Our inner cry is the Goal itself, come to us disguised as a question, a puzzle, a mystery; a self-completing circle of fulfillment; God’s game of hide-and-seek within us.
“Now that sincerity
Is your real name,
Your heart’s inner cry
Shall be able to answer
All your life’s questions.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Sincerity and the inner cry are interdependent. Each has the other’s back: they protect, nurture and depend on each other. An inner cry is sincerity’s choice; sincerity, the inner cry’s voice.
An inner cry devoid of sincerity is meaningless. Sincerity bereft of an inner cry, pointless. Sincerity focuses the inner cry, which gives purpose to sincerity.
Sri Chinmoy was once asked, how we can increase the power of our spiritual heart:
“How do we increase our heart-power? By being sincere in our inner cry. The more sincere we are in our inner cry, the sooner our heart-power increases. Sincerity is the living force, the quintessence of everything divine in us. It is the motivating force that increases the heart-power or the real in us. When we cry sincerely and soulfully, the right cause will present itself. Then, we will throw our entire existence into this cause. We will give it all our aspiration-power and dedication-power. At that time, we will find that the power of the heart increases immensely.”
– Sri Chinmoy
All our success and progress, happiness, self-transcendence and personal fulfillment flow from the union of sincerity with inner cry. It is sincerity which shows us we are ignorant and helpless, injecting intensity and urgency into our inner cry. It is sincerity which insists on a sanctum of inner silence, wherein our inner cry is established and finds its voice. It is sincerity which reveals to us the necessity of inner and outer purity, to nourish and liberate our inner cry; sincerity which demands our inner cry stays on its toes; sincerity which rallies us always to heed and follow our heart’s inner cry.
