Question: How can I develop self-control in my life when everyone makes fun of my efforts?
Sri Chinmoy: Self-control requires simplicity, sincerity and humility. We can say that the breakfast of self-control is simplicity, the lunch of self-control is sincerity and the dinner of self-control is humility.
Unfortunately, we are living in an age when self-control is not appreciated; it has become an object of ridicule. A man will be trying hard for self-mastery while his friends, neighbours, relatives, acquaintances and the rest of the world mock at him. They find no reason for his sincere attempt to master his life. They think the uncontrolled way they are living this life is far more worthwhile, and that the man who is trying to control his life is a fool, wasting his time and giving up all his joy.
Who is the fool: he who wants to have control of his life or he who wants to remain a constant victim to fear, doubt and anxieties? Needless to say, he who wants to conquer himself is not only the wisest man, but the greatest divine hero, the divine warrior. He fights against ignorance in the battlefield of life to establish the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
Sri Chinmoy: The Hunger of Darkness and the Feast of Light 2, (33-34); Sri Chinmoy plays vibraphone
My simple request to you is that every day for five minutes you will kindly concentrate on the daily meditation and then, either when you are depressed or when you are in a good mood during the day, you can try to concentrate on the thoughts that you have read in the morning. It will help you in your inner life as well as in your outer life. If you don’t want to memorise it, if you don’t want to sit for that extra examination, no harm; you don’t have to do it. But I wish you to read the daily meditation and concentrate on it and get the utmost from it.
I wish to tell you that one of the most effective ways of entering into my highest consciousness is to read my spiritual writings. You do not have to read about my subway experiences: what kind of difficulties I had to go through and all that. But when you read my spiritual writings, I can assure you that immediately you enter into my consciousness. My spiritual writings are surcharged with my own consciousness. I cannot separate my realisation from my writings. So if you want to grow in your Guru’s realisation, every day read these meditations and also read my writings for half an hour.
If you read my writings every day, I wish to tell you that you will get a deeper knowledge, a deeper vision, a deeper reality. Then you will see how you are progressing in your own inner life. My writings are not like a newspaper that you read in the subway and then throw away. My writings are something most significant for the disciples. Each time you read my writings soulfully and devotedly, I assure you that the next time you read you will be blessed or endowed with something more significant, more fulfilling.
Sri Chinmoy: The Meditation- World, p. 5-6; Every Time You Love: Mountain Silence
Some people feel that God’s Justice is more prominent than His Goodness. But I wish to say that the greater attribute of God is Goodness, not Justice; and this Goodness is His real inner Wisdom. God knows what to do and when to do it, or what role He should play at each stage of our evolving consciousness.
Our soul’s journey proceeded from the mineral kingdom to the plant kingdom and then we entered into the animal kingdom. Now we are human beings; however, we are little better than animals. We have to know that animals are inside God’s very Heart; destructive forces are also inside Him. The human forces and the divine forces are also there. What is happening? The destructive forces are not being punished or destroyed; gradually, gradually they are being transformed into divine forces. If we look at the animal kingdom, we see it is all quarrelling and fighting. We human beings are not fighting so badly, so we are already transformed to some extent.
Again, in God’s creation there is still evil. But what we call evil is in this case something unaspiring. What a spiritual aspirant calls bad may be relatively good compared to what an unaspiring person calls bad. What we call error is a half-truth, a harbinger of truth. Always we have to see it that way. A child is imperfect and he does many things wrong. With our ordinary human understanding, with our justice-power, we may say that he is the devil incarnate. But this child, when he is fifteen or sixteen years old, will continue to develop. He will become nice, sweet, meritorious and wise. So we have to remember that the child is still growing up.
If we separate ourselves from God or say that all His activity is based on Justice, then we will be making a mistake. If He were to act only according to His Justice, then nobody would be able to stay on earth, nobody would or could exist if God stands in front of us and weighs how many good things we have done against how many bad things we have done, then we will see that there will be infinitely more bad things than good things. Nobody would be able to realise God. So what is God actually doing? He is dealing with His Compassion and inside His Compassion is His Wisdom-Light. He is showing Compassion to someone who is now in the process of evolving because He knows that the person will grow spiritually and will eventually do the right thing, the divine thing. Inside His Compassion, Wisdom-Light is operating. Gradually, gradually He will be able to take the person to His infinite Light. If He started with Justice, immediately he would stand before us with an iron rod and strike us. But that He would never do. He gives us only Compassion.
So if you ask, “What is God?” then I will say that God is all Love. And inside this Love, if you see Justice, you have to know what kind of Justice it is. If a child is only a few months old, then his mother will give him milk or some other liquid. She will not give him a big piece of meat or something very solid and heavy because he will not be able to digest it. Even though these solid foods may be more delicious and may give the child more pleasure, the mother cannot feed them to her child because he is too young. As the child grows, gradually the mother can give him these things.
When we see that someone is not getting enough Peace, Light or Bliss, we have to feel that God is giving to him according to the capacity of his receptivity. God is always doing justice to the inferior one, to the one who is still in a preliminary stage. But at the same time He is all Love for that person. God does not want his inner vessel to burst untimely. So if you ask, “Why is God not playing His Game justly? Why is He giving so much Peace and Power to one person and not to another?” the answer is that one person is not ready. Whatever God is giving to each person is a sign of His Love. He will say, “You are My infant, My child, and I can give you this much. This is what is required.” If God gives him more than that He may ruin the inner progress of that individual. But the one who is given more has the capacity to receive it, to embody it and to fulfil it.
So the most important attribute of God is Love. And when it takes an intimate form, it is called Compassion. This Compassion is the most powerful attribute, the most significant attribute of God, and not His Justice. Justice and all other divine qualities will be found inside Compassion.
Sri Chinmoy: The Vision of God’s Dawn; Om Dyo Shanti; Arthada & Friends
After initiating Shyama Charan, Master Babaji, the Lion Yogi, said to his disciple, “Initiation is of paramount importance; therefore, I have initiated you. But now, in three days’ time, I want you to leave for your home. You have to go back to work. Your family needs you badly.”
Shyama Charan cried and cried. He did not want to go. His Master consoled him and said, “No, you have to do something most special for God while staying with your family and leading the life of a householder. But I assure you, whenever you are in need of me, just invoke me, and I shall come to see you and bless you.”
With a heavy heart, Shyama Charan left for home. On his way, he stayed for two or three days at the home of some of his friends. His friends said to him, “Do you believe in occult power or spiritual power? We don’t believe in it. There was a time when Indian sadhus had occult power, but now those days are gone. People who claim that they have occult powers are all fakes.”
Shyama Charan said, “What do you mean? I have just been initiated by a great spiritual Master. I know how much occult power he has.”
His friends did not believe him, so he said, “If you don’t believe me, I can prove it. You just leave this room, allow me to meditate for a few minutes and I assure you my Master will come here.”
Lahiri’s friends had no faith in occult power, but they were all curious, so they left. When his friends left the room, he invoked his Master most soulfully. In fifteen minutes’ time Babaji came into the room in his subtle body, and then he assumed his physical body.
Shyama Charan was overjoyed to see his Master inside the room, but Babaji scolded and insulted him mercilessly. He said, “Look at your audacity! I came from such a great distance, only to please your curiosity and to challenge your atheist friends. I warn you, I will never, never do this kind of thing again. I told you that whenever you invoke me I shall come, but I am revoking my promise to you. Now I wish to say that whenever I want to see you, only then shall I come to you, wherever you are.”
Shyama Charan cried and cried for forgiveness. Babaji said, “I have forgiven you, but never invoke me any more to display my occult power or to display your devotion. Only when I feel the need shall I come to see you. In the inner world you can invoke me, you can feel my presence, but I don’t want to show my physical presence this way any more.”
Shyama Charan bowed down to Babaji and said, “Now that you have come, O Master, out of your infinite Compassion, please, please give me a boon.”
“What is your boon?” Babaji asked.
“I want my friends to come and see you,” said Shyama Charan, “so that they will believe in your occult power.”
The Master laughed at him, saying, “Yes, and also in your invocation-power. Go and tell them to come.”
Shyama Charan opened the door and his friends came in. They were so surprised to see a sadhu with long hair and a long beard seated in a lotus position. Babaji did not talk to them, but he smiled at everyone and everybody bowed down to him. Shyama Charan brought some food for the Master and the Master ate in front of them. Then Babaji asked everyone to leave for a few minutes. When they returned, he had disappeared.
Commentary: The display of occult power or spiritual power in order to create aspiration is an indication of a lack of wisdom. Miracle-power does not and cannot change humanity’s face. Humanity’s face can be transformed only by inner awakening, inner cry, inner dedication and inner surrender to God. Curiosity is not spirituality. An inner cry is the only true spirituality which God appreciates lovingly, compassionately and unreservedly. For God’s universal Oneness, universal Love, universal Light and universal Delight can be made manifest only in our heart’s inner cry.
Sri Chinmoy: India and Her Miracle-Feast; Pran Gabhire: Ananda
In the beginning perhaps some of you thought that this Indian rascal had taken away your children. You felt sorry and thought ill of me. But I wish to say that I have not taken your daughters away from you. The Supreme in you and the Supreme in me wanted me to become the instrument to elevate the consciousness of your dear children. There are many things which your souls wanted me to do, and which your inner beings wanted me to do, but unfortunately you were not and are not aware of them. When the soul does not come to the fore, when the physical mind is not totally conscious of or convinced of the soul’s light and reality, the physical mind quite often doubts the inner voice. It is the inner voice, which all of you have, that wanted these children of yours to accept a spiritual path, to lead a better life and feel God as their very own at every moment of their existence.
You may ask, “Why is it or how is it that our children did not find satisfaction in our churches and in our way of worshipping God? Why did they have to accept an Indian way of realising the Truth?” I wish to say that this is not an Indian way; it is not an Oriental way or an Occidental way. This is a universal way of awakening humanity through inner experience.
I am sure that when you yourselves pray or meditate, you feel that your children are doing absolutely the right thing. They are praying, they are meditating — what for? To share with you their inner achievements. You are their mothers. You have given them love, affection, concern, compassion, earthly attainments and achievements for many years. You have given them everything that you have and everything that you are. Now the gratitude-flower in your daughters is blossoming petal by petal, and they are offering you inwardly what they have and what they are. What they have and what they are is a golden flame, a climbing flame, which we call aspiration. This aspiration is their inner cry. It climbs up high, higher, highest and from the highest absolute transcendental plane of consciousness it brings down Peace, Light and Bliss according to their power of receptivity. These blessing-gifts from the Supreme they share with their dear ones.
Undoubtedly you are the dear, dearer, dearest ones to your loving daughters. You have played your role in their formative years. What you have, you have given them unreservedly and unconditionally. Now, what they are getting from their prayers and meditation they are offering to you inwardly. God within you has played a most significant role and now God within them is also playing a most significant role. God never wants to remain indebted to anybody. God within you gave them what He had to offer to them through you. Now, God within your children is offering each of you what He has to offer you in and through them. You are bound to see and feel and grow into this at the time of your own prayer and meditation if you can remember what I am saying.
In conclusion, dear mothers, I wish to tell you again that this Indian has not taken your daughters away from you. They do not belong to me or to you or to anybody else. They belong only to the Supreme, who created you and who created your children. The Supreme in you wanted the Supreme in me to be a humble instrument to serve Him in your dear ones. What I am doing, I assure you, all of you inwardly wanted to do for your children. Earthly attainments, earthly riches, earthly prosperity you have given to your children as much as you could. Your souls, your inner beings, your loving hearts wanted to give them Heaven’s Peace, Light and Bliss as well. The Supreme in you knows that He has chosen someone with more capacity to do the thing that you wanted to do. Your daughters have not left you. On the contrary, the deeper they go, the higher they go, the more their gratitude to their mothers increases in boundless measure.
Fourteen American Mothers and Fourteen Amerícan Dauehters with Sri Chinmoy, p. 4-10; Sri Chinmoy plays synthesiser
The Supreme is taking care Of each of His children In a very special way. Surrender your dear ones to the Supreme In the same way you have surrendered Your own life to Him.
Sri Chinmoy: Ten Thousand Flower-Flames (9083); He Param Pita: Mountain Silence
Sunlit path 