If you give from your heart,
Then your offering will be
Not only unimaginable
But also indisputable.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 51, Agni Press, 1984
Dear seekers, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to give a short talk on transformation, liberation, revelation and manifestation-four sublime realities in our life of aspiration.
The animal in us needs immediate transformation. The human in us needs conscious liberation. The divine in us needs perfect revelation. The Supreme in us needs complete manifestation. To see God we need transformation. To be invited by God we need liberation. To be loved by God we need revelation. To be immortalised by God we need manifestation.
Transformation of the body shows us how pure we can be. Liberation of the vital shows us how dynamic we can be. Revelation of the mind shows us how vast we can he. Manifestation of the heart shows us how divine we can be. We can be as pure as the dawn. We can be as dynamic as a divine warrior. We can be as vast as the sky. We can be as divine as the soul. Transformation is walking along the road of Infinity. Liberation is marching along the road of Immortality. Revelation is running along the road of Eternity. Manifestation is flying the fastest toward the ever transcending Reality.
When we are freed from the binding past and transformed, we do not remain in the body cage; we start living in the soul palace. When we are transformed we change our friendships. Ignorance night no longer remains our friend. Instead, knowledge light becomes our true and dear friend. When we are transformed we sing a different song. We cease to sing the song of the finite. We sing the song of the Eternal in order to become the Infinite.
When we are liberated from the meshes of ignorance, we come to realise what we eternally are: God the dreamer, God the lover and God the fulfiller. At that time, we want to reveal ourselves. Unless and until we have revealed our divinity, we cannot prove God's existence on earth. The world may think that all our sublime experiences are mental hallucinations, chimerical mists and acts of self deception unless we can reveal God's Divinity within ourselves. But when we can reveal our inner divinity to others, they will see that our dream boat has touched the Reality Shore. And when we manifest our inner divinity, at that time the Golden Shore of the Beyond becomes firmly established in the here and now.
Transformation. In the hoary past, the seekers of the Highest did not care so much for nature's transformation, for physical, vital, emotional transformation. They cared only for their own realisation. They realised the Highest, but in spite of that, their physical nature remained unlit, obscure, imperfect.
Liberation. In the hoary past, many liberated souls cared only for their own liberation. They did not care for the liberation of the world at large. They felt that because it was so hard for them to get liberation, everybody else should also have to work hard. Also, they felt that everybody would realise God, everybody would be liberated at God's choice Hour, and that it was not their business to expedite this Hour.
Revelation. In the hoary past, the seekers of the highest magnitude did not care for revelation. They thought that if they revealed what they had realised, then there was every possibility that the world's ignorance would capture their knowledge light and wisdom height. They were afraid of revealing their inner divinity. They realised the highest Truth, but they did not want to share it with the rest of the world because fear, fear of the unknown, tortured their inner existence.
Manifestation. In the hoary past, seekers of the highest magnitude, liberated souls, great Yogis, did not care for manifestation. They felt that here on earth nothing is worth manifesting, because nothing can last for good. They felt that this planet is the abode of sorrow, of suffering, so why try to establish something divine here permanently? They felt that there was no assurance, no guarantee that this world would be transformed into divinity's flood; therefore, they did not care for manifestation.
But the present day seeker wants perfection within, perfection without. Unless and until the body is perfect, the vital is perfect, the mind is perfect and the heart is perfect, we feel that perfect Perfection is a far cry. The process is long and arduous, but once we succeed in this sublimely significant task, we reach the Golden Shore of the Beyond.
The motto of the state of Oregon is "The Union." Here we are all seekers. A seeker is he who practices spirituality. Now, spirituality has a secret and sacred word to offer: the word is Yoga. Yoga means conscious union with God. I am truly happy that the motto of this state encompasses the same ideal as the breath of spirituality, which is Yoga. Union has to be established between the finite and the Infinite, between today's imperfect man and tomorrow's perfect God.
How do we establish our conscious union with God? There are various ways to do this. First, we can minimise our earthly needs and thus establish ourselves to increase our heavenly needs. Then, we have to cry for God inwardly, as a child cries for his mother. The Lord Supreme will fulfil our inner cry of aspiration. Two concepts govern the length and breadth of the world: desire and aspiration. Desire binds us; aspiration liberates us. Desire makes us feel that we are of the finite and we are compelled to be for the finite. Aspiration tells us that we are of the Eternal and for the Infinite. Infinity, Eternity and Immortality are not vague terms, but divine realities that are trying to come to the fore so that we can become tomorrow's God.
Besides crying inwardly, we also have to feel consciously that God needs us as much as we need God. As ordinary human beings we need God to fulfil our teeming desires. When we become spiritual seekers, we need God for only one thing: to discover our highest transcendental Height, our deepest transcendental Depth. And we do discover these when we realise God. Now, just as we need God for our realisation, so God needs us for His own Manifestation. He has to manifest Himself in and through us. He was one; that was His Silence realisation. He wanted to become many; that was His Sound manifestation. When we achieve His Realisation and He achieves in and through us His Manifestation, perfect Perfection dawns. When we feel that we are of God and for God, we see that we are of the all pervading Silence and for the all fulfilling cosmic Sound. At that time we are totally liberated, revealed and transformed.
Each seeker represents a promise to God. The promise is his own physical transformation. He wants to free his earth bound life and he does free his earthbound life on the strength of the boundless Compassion of the highest Absolute Supreme. Each seeker's promise to God is to manifest God on earth in God's own way. The seeker fulfils his promise only when he gladly, cheerfully and unconditionally gives to God what he has and what he is. What he has is inner cry, and what he is is ignorance. When he gives to God devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally his achievement: Inner cry, and his present reality: Ignorance, then the seeker is transformed, liberated, revealed and manifested in God's own way.
April 22nd, 1974
10:00 a.m.
Portland State University
Portland, Oregon