No matter who houses a bad thought —
A desire-man or an aspiration-man —
A bad thought is a dire challenge
To humanity’s progress-life.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 24, Agni Press, 1984
Dear seekers, dear sisters and brothers, dear aspirants for the highest ultimate Goal, I wish to give a talk on the subject of choice. Who has made the first choice: God or I? My mind thinks that it is I who have chosen God. My heart feels God and I have chosen each other simultaneously. My soul knows that it was God who chose me first, long before I even dreamt of choosing Him.
Each human being is a chooser. He chooses mankind to obey his express orders. He chooses God to listen to his soulful prayers. The animal in man chooses life destruction. The human in man chooses world admiration. The divine in man chooses God realisation. The Supreme in man chooses perfect Perfection.
We choose God when we come to realise that the world does not need us, that the world does not care for our wisdom light. Only when the outer world has disappointed us and our immediate world has deserted us do we think of choosing God. God chooses us because He does not want to drink the nectar of Immortality alone. God chooses us because He does not want to reveal His transcendental Reality alone. God chooses us because He does not want to manifest His universal Oneness alone.
Our body chooses rest, pleasure loving rest. Our vital chooses aggression, titanic aggression. Our mind chooses information, encyclopaedic information. Our heart chooses love, all fulfilling love. And God chooses perfection within and perfection without-perfection in our inner life of realisation and perfection in our outer life of manifestation.
Before we enter into the spiritual life we choose the might of the outer world. But once we enter into the spiritual life we choose only the light of the inner world. Before we enter into the spiritual life we choose the name and fame of the outer world. But once we enter into the spiritual life we choose to participate most soulfully and devotedly in God's cosmic Game in order to please Him and fulfil Him in His own way.
Now what is the spiritual life? The spiritual life is the life of our conscious God awareness. What else is the spiritual life? The spiritual life is the life of our constant God loving and our ultimate God becoming. I choose God, not because He is all Power, not because He is all Wisdom, not because He is all Light and all Peace, not even because He is all Love, but because He and I are one, eternally one. God and I are eternally one. You and God are eternally one. We are all eternally and inseparably one with God.
I am the Dream Boat of God's Heart and God is the Reality Shore of my life. This is the realisation each individual seeker here and everywhere is bound to achieve sooner or later. We are all inseparably one with God. It is for this reason and no other reason that we choose God. As long as we are unconscious of the fact that we are one with God, we wallow contentedly in the pleasures of ignorance. But once our inner being is awakened, our soul comes to the fore and convinces our outer physical mind of the fact that we are not only God's chosen instruments but also God's eternal comrades. He needs us, as we need Him. He is the Tree and we are the branches and leaves. The Tree trunk and the branches and leaves need each other. We choose Him for our realisation, as He chooses us for His manifestation. Without Him we cannot realise our highest absolute Height. Again, without us He cannot manifest His Vision in Reality, His Reality in Vision.
Each human being on earth represents God according to his own capacity and receptivity. In and through each human being God manifests Himself in a specific way. Each individual is of paramount importance to Him, for He Himself has chosen each individual to play a significant role in His cosmic Drama. But we have to know that it is God who chooses us first, and not we who choose God. The Creator creates the creation, and then the creation admires the Creator. The creation is the choice of the Creator and admiration is the choice of the creation. It is through our heart's admiration and adoration that we become consciously one with the Supreme Pilot, and it is through His conscious, compassionate choice that He has established His inseparable oneness with each human being, each child of His on earth.
Duty is the supreme choice of God. He feels there can be nothing more important than duty. He discharges His Duty at every moment, for He feels that in performing His Duty He is not only awakening the earth consciousness but also bringing down the Heaven Delight into the very heart of earth.
We are at once the representatives of both Mother Earth and Father Heaven. As the representatives of Father Heaven, our first and foremost choice should be self giving to the Supreme Beloved. It is in our self giving that we can manifest the transcendental Reality on earth. As the representatives of Mother Earth, we feel that it is our bounden duty to spread our wings like a bird-not to cover the length and breadth of the world, but to expand our earthbound consciousness, to transcend the limits of our earthly existence. Here on earth we have to go deep within and try to spread our wings of Light and Delight so that we can consciously grow into the ever transcending and ever widening Universal Consciousness.
God made His choice in choosing us; now let us make our choice in choosing Him. His choice is the song of manifestation. Our choice is the song of realisation. And today's realisation is tomorrow's manifestation. Again, tomorrow's manifestation is only the beginning of a forward and upward and inward journey. Today, on the strength of our inner choice, we move forward, upward and inward and reach our chosen destination. But today's destination will only be the starting point for our farther, higher and more fulfilling goal of tomorrow. There is no fixed Goal, for we are all evolving. In the process of evolution we are running, flying and diving toward an ever transcending, deepening and widening Goal. To run farther, fly higher and dive deeper is the only choice that each individual seeker on earth should consciously, devotedly, unmistakably and unconditionally make.
January 16th, 1974
2:00 p.m.
West Chapel
University of Maryland College Park,
Maryland