Human life often consists of a struggle to try and possess or control material nature for our own perceived gain. We have an urge to dominate other people, animals and the environment so that our egos feel strong and powerful. Yet true satisfaction eludes us.
At the root of all this striving is a simple longing for happiness. We desire to be happy, and expect that this happiness will come from the objects we have or the people we know. Ultimately however, all of these things fail us. Material objects are doomed to perish. Even the richest person can be struck down by disease and death at any moment. By making our happiness dependent on outer circumstances, we doom ourselves to the experience of frustration and suffering.
To be truly fulfilled in this life or any other, we need to discover and bring forward our inner joy, which can never be taken away from us by anything in the outer world. All the great spiritual Masters such as Christ, Buddha and Krishna presented humanity with essentially the same message; that we can only be liberated from pain, ignorance and death when we search deep within ourselves to remember who we really are. To make our journey as fast and smooth as possible, we need help from someone who knows the way. A spiritual Master or Guru (a Sanskrit word meaning "one who illumines") is an invaluable treasure for those who want to run the fastest towards the Goal.
Sri Chinmoy is a spiritual Master from India who has been living in the United States for the last 40 years. He emphasises the importance of both meditation and physical fitness as a way of accelerating spiritual growth. He has written thousands of books, articles and poems. I am fortunate to have become a member of the New Zealand Sri Chinmoy Centre recently. From my own inner experiences, I can say that being on the path of Sri Chinmoy is truly a shortcut towards spiritual illumination and a golden opportunity to reach our full potential as human beings.
Here are a few excerpts from the writings of Sri Chinmoy:
Question: "How do you define God?"
Sri Chinmoy: "God is beyond definition. But according to one's own vision or receptivity, one will define God in one's own way. Some will say that God is all Love. Others will say that God is all Power. Each one will see God according to his own necessity, his own receptivity and, finally, according to the way God wants him to see the ultimate Truth."
Source: God and the Cosmic Game - by Sri Chinmoy.
On the one hand, just as the soul is neither masculine nor feminine, neither is God masculine nor feminine. Masculine and feminine are only seen in the mind. At the highest level there is only God. Again, a seeker can see God and speak to God the way he wants to. If he cares for the qualities of the Mother, then he will approach God the Mother. But Mother and Father are always one. Who is God? God is our own highest reality. He is one, but he is many. When you look at one of your fingers, you can feel immediately that it is part of your body, because the finger cannot be separated from the body. In the same way, a human being can never be separated from God.
Source: God Is - by Sri Chinmoy.
The total process of evolution on earth includes the soul as well as the physical form. In the Hindu tradition, atman and paramatman are the individual soul and the Supreme Self. God comes down into manifestation and takes the form of the individual soul. Then the individual soul in the process of evolution reaches and becomes the Supreme Self. That is why in India we say atmanam viddhi, or "know thyself". If you know yourself, then you know God, because in essence there is no difference between you and God. Self-realisation is God-realisation. In the same vein, all esoteric traditions have maintained that true knowledge is found within. That is why Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you".
Source: The Divine Hero - by Sri Chinmoy.
Some people don't even like to use the term God. The Buddha did not use the term God. He used the term Bliss, or Nirvana. But we have to know that this transcendental Bliss is none other than God Himself. Inside this Bliss is divine perfection and satisfaction. If you want to call it Bliss, you can. And if you want to call it God, you can do that, too. Whatever gives you satisfaction is the right way for you.
Source: God and the Cosmic Game - by Sri Chinmoy.
"As ordinary human beings, we feel that infinite Peace, infinite Light, infinite Bliss and infinite divine Power are all sheer imagination. We are victims to doubt, fear and negative forces which we feel are quite normal and natural. We cannot love anything purely, not even ourselves. We are in the finite, quarrelling and fighting, and there is no such thing as Peace or Light or Bliss in us. But those who practise meditation go deep within and see that there is real Peace, Light and Bliss. They get boundless inner strength and see that doubt and fear can be challenged and conquered. When we achieve God-realisation, our inner existence is flooded with Peace, Poise, Equanimity and Light."
Source: The Summits Of God-Life: Samadhi And Siddhi
- by Sri Chinmoy.
- by Tom McGuire.
This article was also published in an issue of Craccum magazine, 2004.