In the beginning there was only Silence and infinite Light. Then each individual was given a limited amount of freedom, but we misused that limited freedom to such an extent that we created, in some ways, our own world of ignorance, inconscience and undivine forces. We are like a cow tied to a tree with a rope. While using the little freedom that it has, the cow runs around and destroys everything in reach.

Evil is in our mind, not inside our aspiring heart. The mind wants to taste the whole world infinitesimally, piece by piece. The heart wants to embrace the whole world as a unit. The heart feels that the whole world belongs to it. The mind says, “This is mine. That is yours.” The more the mind can separate, the greater joy the mind gets. Evil is a sense of separativity. When there is union, there is no evil. If we have good will, love, a feeling of oneness, then instead of destroying the world, we shall try to embrace the whole world.

It is the same old story: disobedience. If we obey the inner law, then nothing happens. But when we disobey the inner law, evil comes into existence. If we properly use our freedom, then we go towards the Divine, towards the Light. But if we misuse it, then we become anti-divine; we become a hostile force.

It was not God’s intention that there should be undivine forces. But many things happen in this world that are tolerated. It is one thing for something to be fully sanctioned and another thing for it to be just accepted or tolerated. If parents have bad children, what do they do? Disobedient, naughty children they just tolerate. We are all God’s children. Some are good, some are bad. But God did not intend to have a bad creation.

God is omnipresent. He is in good and He is also in so-called evil. If a tiger wants to devour me, I feel that the tiger is an undivine force. But God’s existence is also inside the tiger. Everything is in the process of evolution toward greater God-manifestation. No matter what stage of evolution a person or thing has reached, God is still inside that person or thing.

Right now I am drinking distilled water. It is good water. But water can also be dirty, filthy, impure. God can be found inside impure water as well as inside pure water. But even though God is there, I will not drink impure water because I know it will harm my body.

Spiritual people who are meditating are trying to see God at a particular level of consciousness. God is in bad things also, but we do not want to go back to the animal kingdom and the lower realms of consciousness to look for God.

Are you saying that God is not wholly good, that He is both good and evil?

Yes. God is in both good and evil and, again, He is above them both. It is like a tree. Let us say the roots are evil and the branches are good. But they are one; they are part of the same tree. Evil is a lower manifestation of Truth and good is a higher manifestation of Truth. There is no night without light; even in the blackest night there is always at least an iota of light. But God is in both of these and above them both, as the sky is above the tree.

If you say God is not in evil, then you are saying that God is not omnipresent. And that is like saying that God is not God. God is in both, but He is not bound by them. He is like a boat which is in the water and also above the water.

From the strictly spiritual point of view, there is no such thing as good or evil. Evil only exists in the mental world. What we think of as being evil is actually lesser truth or imperfection growing into greater truth or more perfect reality.

When I dive deep within, I see no imperfection-jungle Or even difficulty-fern, But only the smile of perfection And the dance of satisfaction-delight.

I cannot understand how anything created by God can be imperfect. How can He create a soul that is not perfect at the beginning and then say, “All right, you go ahead in your own way; develop as best you can"?

God does not throw the soul heartlessly into the manifestation. The soul is not alone. God Himself is always inside the soul. We have come from God and we are a part of Him. But where is our realisation? Where is our perfection? We are in the process of consciously attaining this realisation and perfection. Each individual represents God, but each individual has not consciously realised Him.

The Absolute God, who is the Supreme Self, is perfect. The Highest, the One without a second, the God who created the multiplicity, is always perfect. But the God who has entered into the earth-plane for evolution has accepted imperfection because He has taken on the earthly consciousness, which is full of limitations and imperfections.

Do you believe in sin?

What others call ‘sin’, I call ‘imperfection’. We have been created by God, who is all Love, all Delight. When we can remove the veil of ignorance from our consciousness, we will immediately enter into the world of perfection. There, there is no such thing as sin. Sin is in our mind; it can never be in our soul. What is sin? It is something that binds and restricts, like a prison-cell. And what is delight? It is the boundless freedom of perfection.

From the philosophical point of view, what some people call evil or sin, we think of as ignorance—the constant play of Maya or illusion. He who is caught in this play is different from the liberated soul who is freed from this illusion of reality. It is by meditation that we can free ourselves from ignorance, from illusion, and transform our human nature into divine nature.

Your heart’s cheerful willingness To obey God Will wash away Your mind’s ignorance Of millennia.

What do you mean by ignorance?

The definition of ignorance in one short sentence is limited consciousness. When we enter into unlimited consciousness, ignorance disappears.

In this world there is light, more light, abundant light, boundless light and infinite Light. If we take ignorance as destruction, then we are mistaken. We have to see that what we call ignorance consists of limited light. Even in the darkest night there is some light. Otherwise, we could not exist at all. A child, in comparison to his elder brother, naturally is ignorant; but the child also has some light in him.

So what we call ignorance is light in a different form. I as an individual, you as an individual and she as an individual have limited light—let us say infinitesimal light—compared to God, who is infinite Light. But through our prayer and meditation, we are growing into God’s boundless and infinite Light and becoming all that God has and all that God is.

What we call ignorance is nothing short of an experience which God is having in and through us. If we become conscious of the fact that we are only His instruments, then we are not bound by ignorance. We see that there is someone, the Inner Pilot, who is playing His Cosmic Game in and through us. If we know that we are mere instruments, then there is no ignorance, there is no light; there is only the Supreme, who is everything. He is the Doer, He is the action, He is the result; He is everything. But if we feel or think that we are doing everything, we are making a Himalayan mistake.

There shall come a time When each and every human being Will be flooded with the soul-courage To silence the pride of ignorance-night.

You speak of night and light. Do you believe that parts of life are dark and imperfect?

Life is composed of perfection, but we can say that there is lesser perfection and greater perfection. We cannot say that this side is black and that side is white; we will say that on this side there is comparatively less light. So there is no negative and positive; there is only positive. But the thing that is less positive has less capacity, and sometimes we call it negative.

I once read that if you choose evil, you are not really free. I thought it was an interesting idea. Would you enlighten me?

First of all we have to know what evil is. Anything that limits us, anything that binds us, is evil. Evil will come to us in the form of pleasure, and when we surrender to the pleasure that evil brings, we are caught. The evil that wants to make us its instrument for its own purpose makes us feel that we are helpless and ignorant, and that is the reason we accept it.

Sometimes we may have no freedom in our outer life, but in our inner life we have a considerable amount of freedom. We can pray, we can concentrate, we can meditate even in a prison cell. But when evil possesses us, our inner freedom goes away, and our outer freedom also deserts us. At that time we are bound to seek the fulfilment of our desires or evil impulses.

Everything has a nature of its own. The very nature of evil is to bind; the very nature of divinity is to liberate. The nature of scorpions is to sting. We cannot expect them to behave differently. Therefore, we must not give them the opportunity to sting us. We have to stay away from them at all times. If we stand in front of a scorpion to exert our own freedom, it is foolishness. We have to feel the necessity of staying only with something which constantly liberates and illumines us, and that is light.

How can we prevent the wrong forces from operating in our lives or in the lives of our dear ones?

There are two sensible ways. The first way is through concentration, meditation and contemplation. If one knows how to do these well, then he need not enter into the world of wrong forces. During your soulful meditation, you can ask God for solid strength, spiritual strength. If you can apply this solid strength in your life, then the bad forces are bound to disappear from your life.

The second way is to try to see the ultimate Truth, God, in everything. This we have to do with our soul’s light. Each human being has a soul. The soul is an infinitesimal portion of the infinite Truth. The soul is in direct contact with the Divine, with the Transcendental Being. The problem is that when we speak to a person, we do not approach his soul. We see only the outer body. The physical is full of darkness and imperfections, so it is difficult for us to approach the soul. But let us try to see the soul inside the physical being of the person and commune with the soul and bring to the fore the soul’s light.

When we achieve complete oneness with God, do we still see a polarity between good and evil?

When we are in a state of oneness with God, we cannot say that this is evil and that is good. When we become one with God, everything is a manifestation of the divine Will. But when we are not one with God, then one second we are with God, in God, and for the next hour we are in ourselves—in our own vital, in our own physical consciousness. Then there will always be both undivine and divine forces within and around us. But when we have the highest, most sublime meditation, we do not see the polarities of good and evil. For then we are one with the Transcendental Reality, and this transcends all human notions of good and evil, divine and undivine.

Faith can believe everything That we say. Belief can increase The strength of faith. Belief is pure. Faith is sure. Belief looks around To see the Truth. Faith looks within Not only to feel the Truth But also to become the Truth.

God's Presence

God is constantly taking birth at every moment inside you—in what you say, in what you do and in what you become. God is constantly coming into you in a new form. With each new thought, each new idea, you can feel that a new God has dawned, a new God has taken birth. And what is He doing? He is taking you from lesser knowledge to greater knowledge. At your birth, God was born inside you. God is now at every moment taking birth inside you, making you better, nicer, wiser and more fulfilling. Your best qualities are qualities from God.

Behind my hidden tears God is preparing Himself For a new dawn.

Everybody has God inside, but not everybody is able to see God within. One can see God only when one cries for Him. Those who cry for God and pray to God can realise God. Everybody has hunger, but the one who has the money to buy food can eat. Similarly, everybody has God inside, but only he who has an inner cry can see God.

If your whole heart Cries for God, Then God’s whole Heart Will come to you.

Why is it that I feel more divinity in a flower than in a piece of wood? Isn’t divinity in everything? Divinity is in everything. God is manifesting in and through me, in and through you, in and through everyone and everything. But in some things or in some individuals we see that this divinity is more fully manifested. What you call darkness has inside it infinitesimal light. In this room you are seeing light, but this light can be immediately increased. There is no end to light. There is effulgent light, boundless light, infinite Light. In the flower-consciousness God wanted to establish a certain amount of beauty. God did not feel it necessary to make this wall or a piece of wood as beautiful as a flower. But that does not mean that God is unkind to the wood or to the wall. In a play there may be a king and a slave. Also, there may be ordinary subjects. All these different roles are necessary. You cannot have a play with nothing but kings. No, you will need kings, ministers, subjects and so forth in order to have a good play. In God’s creation, also, many different things are necessary. If God wants you to appreciate His Beauty aspect, then He will put a flower, or the stars, or a most beautiful child in front of you. If He wants you to appreciate His Power aspect, then immediately God will bring an elephant or a lion in front of you. If He wants you to appreciate His Vastness, then immediately He will bring the vast sky or sea in front of you. Again, if God wants you to appreciate His infinitesimal, tiniest part, then He will make you think of the atom. So it is up to God what aspect of His He wants you to appreciate. God has all aspects; He has all attributes. But He may decide that He wants you to appreciate one particular aspect of His more than other aspects. Today God may want you to appreciate His Beauty aspect, tomorrow He may want you to appreciate His Peace aspect, and the day after tomorrow He may want you to appreciate His Power aspect. Whatever aspect you are meant to appreciate, God will put that particular aspect inside your consciousness.

God’s Presence In my mind-cave, In my heart-room, In my life-street I see, I clearly see! Therefore, I feel that My God-realisation-days Are fast approaching.

I have found in my search for God that He is all around me and within me. The unity with Him is becoming very understandable. What is puzzling me is the separation. What is the sense of separation? If you see and feel God around you and within you, then how can you have a sense of separation? Inside me is the heart; inside me is the soul. If something is outside my body, then I can have a feeling of separation. But I cannot separate my heart from my body or from myself because my body and my heart are part and parcel of each other and of my life. If I separate one from the other, then I do not exist at all. If you really feel God within you, then there can be no sense of separation. What actually happens is that at this moment you are living in your heart and you feel God’s Presence within you, but the next moment you are living in the physical mind. At that time you doubt your own existence and you doubt the reality that you have just experienced. When you start doubting, the sense of separativity comes into existence. At that time you feel that you are losing something, that you are separated from something. But you do not lose anything. Once you have got something, it is there within you. But if you do not know how to utilise it all the time at your sweet will, then you feel that you have lost it. When you pray early in the morning, at that time you feel God’s Presence within you and around you. Then, when you enter into the hustle and bustle of life, perhaps you forget God’s existence. The moment you forget, you feel a sense of separation. But that sense of separation is not actually caused by the absence of God within you. His Presence is there, but ignorance enters into you and veils your consciousness, which a few hours ago early in the morning helped you identify with God and feel your inseparable oneness with Him. That is why inwardly we try to remain in constant prayer or meditation. Outwardly it is impossible. We have to stay on earth. We have to go to the office; we have to go to school; we have to enter into multifarious activities. But inside our mind, inside our heart, we can do whatever we want. Outwardly we may talk to our friends and do everything that is necessary in our day-to-day life, but inside we can keep the living Presence of God. Since we have the soul within us, we feel we are divine; since we have the aspiring heart within us, we feel we are divine. So also, when we go outside and mix with our friends, we have to remember—not out of pride or vanity, but out of sheer necessity—that we are of the Divine and we are for the Divine.

God’s Compassion exists In every life-experience of yours, Whether you believe it or not.

We have to feel not only the divinity in ourselves, but also the divinity in others. For in this way we can feel our oneness with the Supreme in mankind. One way to feel our oneness with others is to feel that we are everything. But then we may come to think that we are superior to everyone, and that will only defeat our purpose. If we feel that only we are divine, that only we possess divinity whereas others possess undivine forces, then immediately there will be a clash. But if we feel that we are of the Source, then we shall try also to see the Divine in others. If we feel that we are divine, and while talking and mixing with others, if we can see the Divine in them, then our divinity and their divinity will not quarrel or clash. When we feel that we are divine, it is absolutely true. But at the same time we have to feel that others are also equally divine. Our difficulty is that most of the time we do not have that kind of feeling. While we are praying at home, we see and feel that God is ours. But the moment we come out of our house and look around at others, we do not try to see God inside them. What we try to see in them is imperfection, something unlike ourselves. After our meditation, we come out of the heart and enter into the mind, or we enter into the vital. Then we try to separate ourselves from others and we see others as undivine. But when we come out into the world, if we can bring with us the divinity we saw and felt during our meditation at home, and if we try to see the same divinity in others, then there is no feeling of separation. And if we see the same thing in others which we feel inside ourselves, then we shall never miss God’s Presence. We shall never lose our feeling of oneness with God.

Each time I soulfully pray And self-givingly meditate, I see my Lord Supreme blossoming Beautifully and radiantly Inside my heart.

What is the cause of this separation between man and God? The cause of this separation is ignorance. We feel that ‘I’ and ‘my’ will give us real joy. It is like a child. If he is very energetic, dynamic or aggressive, he feels satisfaction only when he strikes someone or breaks something. That is his satisfaction; that is his peace. But a grown-up gets joy only by remaining calm, quiet and tranquil. Unfortunately, individuals feel that by maintaining their individuality and personality they can be happy. But that is wrong. Only by entering into universality can we be happy. Individuality and personality will derive satisfaction only from universality. A tiny drop, when it enters into the ocean and loses its individuality and personality, becomes what the infinite ocean is. But before that, if it fights for its own individual existence, what can it do as just a tiny drop? So it is the ignorance in the drop that makes the drop feel that it can be satisfied by maintaining a sense of separativity, which is absurd.

My Lord, is there any time When You do not love me? “Yes, My child, there is a time.” When, my Lord, when? “When you think that you are not A budding God.”

What about the fact that we all live in individual homes and do different tasks and things like that? Isn’t that separation right there? Yes, but this is not individuality; it is only the necessity that comes from having respective tasks. With my hand I write, with my mouth I eat, with my eyes I see. Even though they do different things, these are all parts of my body. Each individual also will do what he is supposed to do, but not with a sense of ego. He will do it with a sense of oneness. God has given me the capacity to do a particular thing. He has given you the capacity to do something else. Let us combine our capacities. I will not say that my capacity is superior to yours, and you will not say that your capacity is the only capacity worth having. The difficulty with the world is that everyone feels that he is infinitely more important than everyone else. The problem starts when you stay with your capacities, I stay with mine, and we do not unite our capacities.

Sri Chinmoy considers his spiritual path to be a merging of the best qualities of East and West - the poise and vastness of the East combined with the dynamism and forward movement of the West. As such, Sri Chinmoy's path has quite a few aspects which, while familiar to people with knowledge of Eastern spirituality, might be unfamiliar to some readers.

Vegetarian Diet

Sri Chinmoy's students abstain from eating meat or fish as part of their spiritual discipline.

Question: You are a vegetarian. Is being a vegetarian essential in the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: If we eat meat and fish, then the restless and aggressive qualities of the animal kingdom will enter into us. If our minds or other parts of our being are restless and aggressive, then we cannot have powerful and peaceful meditations. But if we eat only vegetables, then the mild qualities of the vegetable kingdom will enter into us and we will find it easier to have high and deep meditations. Therefore, being a vegetarian can be of considerable benefit to a seeker.

But I cannot say that if someone is not a strict vegetarian, he will not have high experiences or that God-realisation will always remain a far cry. No, it is not true. In the past there were great spiritual figures who ate meat and fish; even now there are spiritual figures who do so, and their lofty experiences and sublime realisations cannot be questioned. But I feel that it is good for people to adopt in their lives anything that can help them make fast, faster, fastest progress.

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Spiritual names

Sri Chinmoy gave many of his students names that stem from words in Bengali (his native language) or Sanskrit.

Saris and white clothes

During meditation, Sri Chinmoy's male students wear white clothes and their female students wear saris.

Question: Why do your female students wear saris during meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: As soon as someone puts on a policeman's uniform or a doctor's uniform, that person immediately thinks of his role. A uniform reminds you of what you are. On our path, a sari is like a uniform for the women. It reminds them of their spiritual life.

Everything you wear affects your consciousness. If you come to meditation in your running clothes and think that you will be able to reach your highest sooner than the soonest, you are only fooling yourself. In terms of consciousness, there is definitely a great difference between a sari and a punjabi, and between a sari and Western clothes. You can wear a sari and be unspiritual, true; but wearing a sari will definitely remind you of your spiritual life and help you to bring forward your aspiring consciousness.

Of course, aspiration is the most important thing. But there are a few things that will add to your aspiration, and wearing a sari is one of them. If something adds to our aspiration, we should avail ourselves of it.

Prasad

At the end of meditations, we partake of food which has been offered at the meditation shrine, called prasad.