Excerpts Chapter 27
THE MEDITATION BOOK:
MEDITATING ON SRI CHINMOY’S PATH
Individual meditation on Sri Chinmoy’s path
Individual meditation
There are quite a few ways to meditate, but no matter whose path you follow, mine or somebody else’s, there is a general rule: you cannot allow your mind to be restless or agitated. You have to try to make the mind calm and quiet, like the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. This advice all the spiritual Masters will give.
How will you make the mind calm and quiet? The mind has its own power, but right now your determination does not have the same degree of power. The mind’s power is now stronger than your present eagerness to meditate. But if you can get help from your heart, then easily you will be able to control the mind. The heart gets constant assistance from the soul; and the soul has all light and all power. If you take help from the heart, then you won’t allow all kinds of silly rubbish – unlit, undivine thoughts – to enter into your mind. I always tell my disciples to begin their meditation by repeating the word “Supreme” a few times. The Supreme is our eternal Guru: my Guru, your Guru, everybody’s Guru. I am representing the Supreme only for my disciples, who think that I can be of service to them. There are other Masters who are representing the Supreme for their disciples. So think of the Supreme and repeat the word “Supreme” a few times early in the morning. If you can chant “Aum” soulfully, it will also help you during your meditation.
You people may say, “I don’t know how to meditate.” But I wish to say that once you become a disciple and enter into my Boat, then it is the problem of the Boatman to take you to the Golden Shore. After you are safely seated in the Boat, you can lie down, you can sing, you can dance, you can do anything. But first you have to enter into the Boat. Occasionally I have given instruction outwardly to some of my disciples who needed it. But to most I don’t give individual meditations: each one is allowed to meditate in his own way. When I accept a disciple, I concentrate on his soul and bring the soul forward. Then I give some inner meditation to the soul. At that time, the disciple is bound to receive my inner instruction. But if the disciple can consciously create a pure vibration and keep a sincere attitude, then it is easier for his soul to remain at the fore and to receive everything from me.
The transcendental picture
Meditating on Sri Chinmoy’s transcendental picture
If you feel that you are inwardly drawn towards me but you have not got an individual meditation, do not worry. The best type of meditation comes when you enter into my consciousness by looking at my transcendental picture and throwing yourself into me. Just concentrate on this picture of me when I am at one with the Supreme and enter into me through the forehead, where my eye of vision is located – the Eye which sees the present, past and future. You also have this third eye, but in your case it is still veiled. If you find it difficult to enter into my third eye, then try to breathe in slowly and steadily and imagine that I am also breathing rhythmically with you. You can be a few feet away or as close as possible to my picture, but try to feel that we are breathing at the same time.
When you meditate on my picture, you have to try to throw yourself into me with your utmost aspiration. Then I can take full responsibility for your meditation. When you enter into me, you should not feel that you are entering into a foreign element or a foreign person, but that you are entering into something which is your true self, your own highest part. But sometimes you may look at the ocean of Light inside me and feel, “Oh my God, if I enter into the ocean, then I will be drowned. I will be overpowered, destroyed.” Here the Light is trying to enter into you in abundant measure and you are trying to hide. But what have you done? Have you committed any crime? Only if you have done something wrong will you try to hide. You have to know that the light will not expose you: it only wants to illumine you. The more light that comes, the sooner you will be illumined. But if you feel fear, then it is better for you not to enter into me. Instead, you should allow me to enter into you. You will say, “Let the ocean come into me in one very, very small drop, or let just a few drops of its water and Light enter into me.” This is another way. It all depends on your strength and receptivity and how much of my spiritual food you can eat. If you feel that you are strong enough to swim in my sea of Light and Bliss, then enter into me. If you have great inner strength, then enter into me. Otherwise, let me enter into you.
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When you meditate on me or on my transcendental picture, you are becoming one with me. If you look at a tree, you become one with the consciousness of the tree. If you look at a flower, you become one with the fragrance of the flower. Similarly, if you look at my transcendental picture, you become one with my inner divinity and reality. If you are sincere, at that time you get Peace, Light and Bliss in boundless measure. That is real meditation. But this is only for seekers who want to follow my path.
Those present here who are not my disciples may be thinking that it is the height of folly for my disciples to meditate on my picture. Perhaps they feel that I am proud, conceited and shameless because I allow them to admire that picture. But I can assure you – as my devoted disciples who have faith in me know – that my transcendental picture does not represent my physical body. It does not represent me, Chinmoy Kumar Ghose. The picture was taken when I was in my highest consciousness; and in that consciousness I am totally one with the Supreme. So that picture represents the Supreme for each seeker who has accepted me as his Guru. When my disciples concentrate, when they meditate in front of that picture, they feel that they are meditating in front of the Supreme.
The path of the heart
Joel Martin: Let us talk about your spiritual path. Perhaps you can explain to us exactly what your path is?
Sri Chinmoy: Mine is the path of the heart. It is founded upon divine love, divine devotion and divine surrender. Here I am using the word “divine”. In the case of human love, we finally come to realise that it eventually ends in total frustration. Human devotion is nothing short of attachment. And human surrender is done under compulsion. We are compelled to offer our surrender to our superiors.
But divine love is something totally different. It grows within us like a flower; petal by petal it blossoms. It is like a river that is flowing into the sea. Divine devotion is our inner urge to do something with utmost sincerity, purity and divinity. There is a supreme cause, and we have to fulfil it on the strength of our divine devotion towards the cause itself. Then, divine surrender is the surrender that we make to our own highest part. Each individual has two realities: the higher reality and the lower reality. The lower reality is still unlit, obscure, impure; whereas the higher reality is all divine, all perfection. So we consciously try to bring our lower reality into the higher one for its illumination. This surrender is not made to somebody else, to a third person. No, this surrender is made to one’s own highest self.