Yesterday I hired a cleaning service to clean my room. Today I noticed something interesting: usually I don't spend time at home, but today I feel comfortable staying at home, reading books and writing. Typically, on my days off I go to the gym, to the art museum and then I practise violin haphazardly at the restaurant (no customers, I go after hours) and come home late, and just sleep. I don't do anything at home.

But today my room is clean, and I feel like staying home. I thought that, being a guy, the state of my apartment does not affect me. I'm beyond all that. I guess it does affect me in subtle ways, so I will continue to shell out money to keep my place clean, and who knows, may one day learn how to clean my own space and thereby save a dime.

Guru has an aphorism that I like: "It takes a lifetime to be truly humble." That's an interesting statement. I wonder what that means. It takes a lifetime to be truly humble. I wonder if I substituted the word "spiritual" for humble, then the meaning of this poem might become more apparent. "It takes a lifetime to be truly spiritual." If that was what Guru said, I would immediately understand and agree. I would say, why, yes, it does take a whole lifetime to absorb all the spiritual lessons we have to absorb, to fully understand why we're here, and to apply that conscious knowledge in a mature way. I know spirituality is a vast subject, and maybe I may even have to devote many lifetimes to learn the spirituality lesson.

But Guru doesn't say "spiritual". He says "humble". It takes a lifetime to be truly humble. Maybe this aphorism is in some way connected with my hiring a cleaning service. I mean, I didn't make a clean room a priority, because deep down I didn't think it was terribly important. One day I hired some people to give it a nice deep clean, and lo and behold, today I feel like staying home instead of scurrying around between spots of interest!

I like this aphorism of the Master:

"To feel oneself helpless is good.
Better to cultivate the spirit of self-surrender.
Best to be the conscious instrument of God."

(http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/book/export/html/1286023)

Humility means evaluating your life honestly and precisely, and seeing what things you can do for yourself, and what things you may need some help with. Nobody is self-sufficient. Guru has an aphorism,

"Self-sufficient people
Are at times
Worse than street beggars."

(Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 22, Agni Press, 2001)

And I also like this poem:

"If you take pride
In being humble,
Then you are a humility-clown."

(Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 6, Agni Press, 1998)

Humility often requires a sense of humor!

A friend of mine told me many years ago that his Guru once told him in private conversation that "nine-tenths of spirtuality is humility."

Recently I told a friend of mine, who is not a disciple, that I have been working in spiritual businesses, Sri Chinmoy's restaurants, for twenty years. He asked me, not unkindly, what I have to show for my twenty years of work?

I told him that I've learned two things from working in spiritual businesses. The first thing is that I've learned how to work. I come from a rich family, never worked in high school or college, and so when I was about to graduate college I asked Guru whether I should go to graduate school or just work. He suggested that I not get any further degrees, but just get a job, any job with a relatively pleasant atmosphere (he did not say I needed to work in businesses associated with his philosophy). So, I've spent the past twenty years working, and I've learned slowly, painstakingly but thoroughly the ins and outs of business: customer service, professionalism, timeliness, attention to detail. These are skills I would not have learned if I had just stayed in school collecting degrees.

The second thing I've learned is how to be spiritual. By doing simple jobs in a nice atmosphere, I've had lots of time to cultivate my spiritual life. These days I spend three or four hours a day on spiritual activities, like japa, reading, prayer and spiritual singing. If I had a better-paying, but more stressful position, perhaps I would not have had much time to pray and meditate. I think I have more poise than I would have if I had not come to the spiritual life. I believe in a guiding Hand. I do know some disciples who have some real inner wealth. I know one older man who has cut vegetables for the last forty-five years, but you look at his eyes, and you see he's in communion with distant galaxies. He's in the world, but not of it. I don't want to say his name, but he's glimpsed some very profound truths, and has assimilated them. When your very presence teaches people, then you are of great service to the world. If that's not practical, what is?

I like what Guru said as part of an answer to a disciple's question:

"If you have developed an immortal consciousness, only then are you serving the Supreme all over the world."

(Sri Chinmoy, Illumination-world, Agni Press, 1977)

I've received intensive, excellent spiritual training from my twenty years in the Sri Chinmoy Centre. I'm not sure how visible that training is, or if people can immediately feel from me that I pray and meditate. But the fact is I do have a base level of cheerfulness and equanimity, and that serves me well. Sometimes I swim and lift weights at a University close to my house. The kids there learn mental knowledge, but the inner development, spiritual knowledge, they do not learn. That's a shame. I think Michael pointed out that Universities originally were founded by monks and had the function of educating people both mentally and spiritually. That does not happen these days. The kids with the best grades and test scores go to the best colleges, but they usually graduate with just mental training.

Here's a funny but poignant aphorism from "Transcendence-Perfection" that I like:

"The curtains of her peace-room
Are drawn.
Her life is now beyond
Peace-experience.
She now tries to be wise
By becoming a learned fool."

(Sri Chinmoy, Transcendence-Perfection, Agni Press, 1977)

(I've been enjoying Guru's University talks from the 1970's, incidentally. They are an untapped gold mine of extraordinary beauty).

Here's a final aphorism:

"Even an iota of progress
In the inner life
Is much more important
Than the so-called success-life."

(Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 50, Agni Press, 2009)

--Mahiruha