Seven Secrets of Meditation

Part 1: Sincerity
Sincerity

The first secret of meditation is sincerity. Without sincerity all our best intentions will come
to nothing. Sincerity is firstly the resolve to commit to our practice, to meditate a little every
day in spite of all other responsibilities. Sincerity makes us feel that our spiritual quest is a
sacred journey at the very heart of our life. Every day our practice of meditation reminds us
of this reality, and is itself a further step on that journey. When you say to yourself 'I am too
busy to meditate today, or too tired, or too many other commitments', you have already
deceived yourself, you have already become the vicim of this wrong attitude. Even the word
'sincerity' will warn you, guard you against this, and remind you that all of your outer life is
determined by your own consciousness, by your minds clarity, poise, strength, peace - and
that ultimately only your spiritual progress really matters.

Sri Chinmoy meditating

Sincerity will give you strength, patience and resolve and finally you will be successful; you
won't be attached to 'good meditation' or ' bad meditation', you just keep moving forward.

Sri Chinmoy comments:

"Sincerity and spirituality are of paramount importance in our day-to-day life. Sincerity
wants to see the Light. Spirituality shows sincerity what the Light is, where the Light is and
how the Light can be seen... Where there is sincerity and opportunity, progress is bound to
grow. Every day, every second, we can make progress if we have sincere aspiration and, at
the same time, if we have opportunity. If one is extremely sincere, either today or
tomorrow he will reach his Goal."

In this age which some call the Kali Yuga – a long age of spiritual darkness – any kind of
regular spiritual practice is difficult and unlikely to survive without this simple first
secret. Sri Ramakrishna, the great spiritual Master from India used to say that in this age all
we can do is chant the name of God, like a drowning man clinging on to a life raft. He
compared the different types of disciples and seekers in a striking analogy with three dolls –
one doll is made of salt, one of cloth, one of stone. If you lower the salt doll into the ocean,
(the ocean of ignorance/the world), it will simply dissolve; the cloth doll will be saturated
with worldliness but yet retain some of it's shape and spirit; the stone doll will remain
untouched and the water will simply run off it. Our hope is that we will all become as stone
dolls.

Sri Ramakrishna (1836 - 1886)

Our modern world is so complex and outwardly focused that it consumes us almost entirely –
very few have the strength of the stone doll or are able to dedicate even a small portion of
each day to meditation or spiritual practice. Sri Chinmoy's recommendations to spiritual
seekers, no matter what path they might follow, offer wonderful insights and remedies to the
problem of developing a strong spiritual life. Having made the long journey to God
realisationhimself, his teachings like those of all the great masters offer a clear and definitive
map of the journey and identify the key steps in navigating our way safely.
Sincerity is the first step - you have to decide that yes, this is something you really want to do.
You have to commit to the practice. This translates to a dedicated time in your daily life and a
dedicated space in your home, your room where you have a focal point to
practice meditation, prayer, cultivating a silent mind. You have topractice every day and
every day your sincerity will be challenged – other commitments will crowd in and test your
resolve.

"Every treasure" says a Chinese proverb "is guarded by dragons – that's how you know it is
precious." The treasure of inner progress is guarded by the dragons of physical lethargy,
(getting out of bed early to meditate on a cold winter morning!), doubts in the mind (will I
lose all my friends, will I go a little crazy?), a wavering resolve (is this really worth the
effort?), the cynicism of friends, worldly commitments and an army of inner and outer
distractions. So you need some warrior spirit because as the Bhagavad Gita puts it so
succinctly, 'the soul is not won by the weakling'.

One of the sub-secrets of sincerity though, is that, like a magnet, sincerity attracts an
invisible Grace. As in the painting on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel where the hands of
man and God are outstretched towards each other, almost touching, the effort of meditation
attracts God's immediate attention. This grace is one of the great secrets of meditation, the
Creator's love for the creation, for sincerity and grace coexist together.

One of the all-time great books on meditation is Sri Chinmoy's classic guide book,Meditation:
Man Perfection in God-Satisfaction. If you immerse yourself in this, practice it's
recommendations ten minutes every day, you will become a stone doll. You only have to
believe that one day, exactly when is up to you and your sincerity – you will be free of
suffering, attachment, unhappiness, you will be enlightened!

Begin with sincerity and make a start! Don't wait until tomorrow. You will see for yourself
how everything will all work out. If you do this one simple thing, make this one right
decision, everything else will fall into place and all obstacles will fall away. You have begun
walking along the right road and the unseen grace of the universe will take care of you.

Next: Seven Secrets of Meditation - Part 2: Effective Technique - the 'Heart Centre'
 Part 2: Effective Technique – The
Spiritual Heart
Effective Technique – The Spiritual Heart

If the first secret of learning meditation correctly is the seekers sincerity – an indispensable
commitment to regular practise and to creating a special place and time for this purpose,
without which no effort to learn meditation is likely to survive – then the second secret is
concerned with the most effective technique.

While most forms of meditation deal with the human mind, Sri Chinmoy's teachings place
great emphasis on the importance of the heart. Secret number two – learn to meditate in
the spiritual heart. This technique bypasses the mind altogether and shifts the focus of our
meditation efforts into the centre of the chest. This is called Anahata, the heart chakra, and
this centre houses many of our most powerful spiritual qualities and meditation capacities.

This from Sri Chinmoy's Meditation: Man Perfection in God-Satisfaction:

There is a specific place where the soul resides most of the time and that is in the heart. If you
want illumination you have to get if from the soul, which is inside the heart... Suppose you have
the opportunity to work at two places. At one place (mind) you will earn two hundred dollars
and at the other place (heart) five hundred dollars. If you are wise, you will not waste your time
at the first place.
While the mind by it's very nature is restless, untranquil and usually uncooperative during
attempts to bring stillness into our being (like the waves on the surface of the ocean) the
heart is inherently peaceful and calm – the bottom of the ocean. The heart is an egoless,
unhorizoned consciousness – Sri Chinmoy's description of just how vast it is, is absolutely
startling, for the heart embodies the entire universe. His book Samadhi and Siddhi gives a
tantalising and fascinating glimpse into these realms of consciousness that will unfold at
some point in our development – within us extraordinary worlds lie waiting to be discovered!

Sri Chinmoy's vast literary legacy is filled with writings and reflections about the spiritual
heart and it's capacity to solve all of the world's problems – for one of it's major qualities is
oneness. If you can live 'in the heart' you are a part of all life and all life is a part of you –
there is no separation between self and other. Out of this, oneness, concern, compassion, love
and sympathy flower - the sufferings of others are your sufferings, their joys and triumphs
are your own.

In Kundalini: The Mother Power, Sri Chinmoy writes: "The power of the heart centre is
unbelievable. A seeker with mastery over the anahata centre has free access to both the
visible and the invisible worlds. Time surrenders to him; space surrenders to him. In the
anahata centre, one can enjoy the deepest bliss of oneness; one can have pure joy... The
spiritual heart is larger than the largest. We always say that there cannot be anything
superior to the Universal Consciousness, but this is a mistake. The spiritual heart houses
the Universal Consciousness."

The ancient Greeks described four types of love and these include eros (physical
love), agape (self-sacrificing love), caritas (charitable love) and divinitas. This last is the
soul's love of God, and from our heart meditation practise, this wonderful gift with it's
intuitive wisdom; it's expanding, unconditional and pure love; it's sweetness-delight; it's
devotion to God will blossom. God love, eternal in the soul, flowering into a conscious feeling
through the heart, becomes a personal experience.

"We have to start our journey in the heart. Inside the heart is the soul. The consciousness of the
soul permeates the entire body, but the special dwelling place of the soul is inside the spiritual
heart. If pure love, heart's love, soul's love, can permeate your entire being, it can purify and
divinise your whole existence... All the centres have love, but the heart centre has more than any
other centre. Love is the special province of the heart centre; other centres are for other spiritual
and occult powers."
Speaking of divine love, the highest flowering of pure love, Sri Chinmoy comments:

"You can keep your heart's door wide open all the time if you can value the presence of God. You
have to feel that without the conscious presence of God you cannot exist, not even for a fleeting
moment... Cry for your Beloved Supreme the way a child cries for a doll, then you are bound to
open your heart's door."

Sri Chinmoy's principle meditation guidebook, Meditation: Man Perfection in God-

Satisfaction, contains innumerable guided heart meditations and commentaries on the
significance of the heart centre and fast-tracking our progress. It describes the aspects of our
humanity - body/vital/mind/heart/soul - as resembling sisters or brothers in a family. Each
has it's role, with ascending levels of illumination and wisdom, the soul being pre-eminent.
The soul and the spiritual heart must guide our self-discovery and the evolution of our planet
- they hold the keys to both personal and world transformation.
"World peace, world harmony, world perfection will take place only when all the parts of the
being accept the soul's light that flows through the heart... But mind-power and heart-power
also need one another. Manifestation has to take place through mind-power. If the mind does
not accept the light of the heart, the heart itself cannot reach fulfilment and will not be able to
manifest the Consciousness of the Supreme on earth."
Sri Chinmoy describes his own path as 'the path of the heart' - a path of divine love, devotion
and surrender to God.

"Human love means to bind and be bound. But divine love means to love God in the way God
wants to be loved. When we love God, devote ourselves to God and surrender to Him
unconditionally, our finite self grows into the Infinite in exactly the same way that a drop enters
the ocean and becomes the ocean itself. When we become one with the infinite, and claim it as
our very own, then we can truthfully say that we ourselves are infinite."

Related Links:
Meditation Course - Learn to Meditate Online

Part 3: Aspiration
Aspiration

"Aspiration is the endless road that leads eternally towards the ever-transcending
Beyond." – Sri Chinmoy.
Sri Chinmoy meditating...

If sincerity is the impulse and commitment to practising meditation, and the spiritual heart
is the place where our practice will be most fruitful, then the third secret key is embodied in a
single word – aspiration. Aspiration is one of the principle dynamics of the heart and one of
the great secrets of the spiritual life – it is an inner cry, a longing forGod, a hunger to be free
of everything in our nature that prevents our happiness, our self-discovery, our freedom.
Aspiration is a current of longing that carries us forward, an evolutionary impulse towards
perfection and self-blossoming - Sri Chinmoy's vast anthology of teachings and writings is
filled with this recurring theme.

In our normal human life we seek happiness generally in outer ways – in relationships with
people, in careers, in possessions, through immersion in all of the pleasures and
enchantments of the world. This outer search occupies many lifetimes. When it becomes
evident that all of this is not enough to finally satisfy, we begin to look for happiness within,
in the still repose of meditation, in self-sufficiency, in a desireless inner world of pure being.
A new breeze is flowing in our lives, the current of aspiration.

Where desire looks to the world around us for satisfaction, aspiration looks within, seeking
the delight and peace of the soul. Sri Chinmoy describes this inner awakening as a hunger for
God's Love, Light and Bliss, the very life-breath of the Supreme within us. Aspiration itself is
happiness, or in Sri Chinmoy's words: "There is no difference between inner happiness and
aspiration. They are one. Aspiration is the flame and happiness is the light of the flame."

If our soul is only satisfied with its conscious discovery of our oneness with God, then this
penultimate achievement is won primarily through aspiration and all our human defects and
ignorance will be burnt up in the fire of this one ascending urge to know God. With beautiful
loftiness, Sri Chinmoy declares: "The sun of aspiration will rise to fully illumine every
aspect of your existence only when you constantly feel that the sun of aspiration is the only
reality-existence in your life and in God's entire creation."

Aspiration means continuous progress and continuous transcendence – to go beyond,

beyond, beyond. In our meditation this is the effort to become more still than ever before; to
go deeper/higher in our consciousness; on the path of bhakti yoga to cry out to God with an
ever-deepening, ever-climbing intensity. "Do not be satisfied with success," Sri
Chinmoy writes. "Aspire only for progress. Joy is in progress, not in success. Success ends
our journey, but progress has no end – if your goal is going higher all the time, then you
will constantly make progress and you will get the greatest satisfaction. Every day when
you meditate, feel that you will go still deeper, fly still higher."

"Aspire only for progress. Joy is in progress..." - Sri Chinmoy

Habit, time, apathy, the humdrum sameness of days and years; a resignation at our failure to
find happiness; a surrendered and secret inner pact with the ordinary – these sap our hope
and inspiration and we grow older, fossilize, resigned to be less than we really are. Aspiration
is the antidote, shows us the way forward, dreams inside us of what we can become, what
we will become – it is the life-breath of spirit, the sap of the hope-tree.

How to keep and increase aspiration? Increasing the percentage of our daily life that includes
spiritually positive activities is an obvious first answer – immersing ourselves more in
inspirational books, spiritual music, a lengthening and deepening of our meditation practice.
A daily goal chart helps – list the days of the week and for each set targets: physical
aspiration through aerobics, running, exercise; a half-hour of daily reading to inspire the
mind; singing so many songs; meditation at set and regular times; and group meditations to
benefit from the aspiration of others.

When our aspiration starts to slip, we have to cry like a child. "When a child's favourite
object is taken away by somebody forcefully, the child cries. On hearing his cry, his father
comes and brings him back his favourite object. If you also cry in the same way when your
aspiration is taken away by the hostile forces, then the Supreme, the Eternal Father, will
bring you back your aspiration."

During meditation, Sri Chinmoy advises also that we imagine and feel an abundance of life
energy is entering into us. "While you are meditating you have to feel that each breath that
you are breathing in is at least ten times larger than usual. This breath creates an
abundant supply of energy... which is nothing but aspiration, an immediate increase of
aspiration."

Gratitude, according to Sri Chinmoy, also quickly increases our aspiration - we are
meditating because God's Grace is at work in our lives, evident in this kindling of our hunger
to become illumined. "Aspiration is undoubtedly an unconditional gift from the Supreme...
you can increase your aspiration by feeling constantly your gratitude heart for the
mounting aspiration that God's infinite Grace has already given to you."And in another
lovely insight; "Impelled by His strongest compassion, God takes the feeblest man into His
omnipotence."

Like sunlight to the plant these practices nourish our innate spirituality – the inner cry of
aspiration can finally become constant and powerful. Writes Sri Chinmoy: "When you feel
that the tiny flame of aspiration has died inside you, it means one of two things: either you
have been buffeted by a desire-blow or consciously or unconsciously you have slept in one
of your familiar rooms: self-indulgence or ignorance."

"It is by constant, sincere effort that you can maintain a strong and growing aspiration.
Feel that the day you do not aspire, inside you somebody literally dies. What dies is the
most beautiful child which you call the soul. If you don't pray and meditate, then the soul is
not getting nourishment. On yesterday's food you cannot exist; on yesterday's meditation
you cannot exist. So, if you love the soul, everyday you shall pray and meditate. Your love
for the soul itself is your aspiration..."

Another interesting aspect of aspiration is it's increase through self-giving, which contains
'the supreme secret of oneness with God's Will'. When we dedicate a portion of our time to
the service of others, we widen our heart, please our soul, multiply our good qualities, foster
egolessness, feel our oneness with others in God's creation – all of which intensifies our
aspiration.

To cultivate aspiration, our effort, sincerity and heart are all required – we have to prepare
ourselves. By such effort we attract the fourth secret – God's grace. God is dying to give us
everything, but we must cultivate our hunger, our wanting to enjoy His gifts.

"God has prepared my meal. I have to prepare my hunger. God is ready with my Victory. I
have to prepare myself to accept my victory." - Sri Chinmoy.

Related Links:
Aspiration and Desire And Aspiration - two talks by Sri Chinmoy.

The Inner Cry - an excerpt from The Wings of Joy by Sri Chinmoy.

Part 4: Grace
Grace
So far we have looked at three of the foundation stones of successful meditation practice –
sincerity, effective technique and aspiration. In meditation, sincerity consecrates a part of
our life to regular practice; our focus in the heart centre with its powerfully concentrated
spiritual qualities ensures maximum progress; and the heart's awakening inner cry ignites
our aspiration from tiny ember to mounting flame. This quickening in our inner journeying is
an exciting time of palpable results – how different we are beginning to feel!

But personal effort is only one reason for this blossoming of spirit – the second is the
transformative power of grace, a recurring theme in the written and oral teachings of the
great masters and spiritual teachers. Grace is the love and compassion of God responding to
personal effort and falling unconditionally like rain on agnostic and believer alike. Personal
effort, magnet-like, always attracts grace – and grace increases our hunger, deepens our
meditation, clears away the blocks and obstacles and expedites our progress. Grace is the
fourth secret of meditation, the key to the great alchemy that transforms ignorance into
knowledge, disbelief into devotion, seeker into saint.

"God is on the third floor and I am on the first floor. There should be a rendezvous, a meeting
place. I have to go to God; I have to go to the second floor with my personal effort, that is to say,
with my tears, my soulful cry. And then God will come down from the third floor to the second
floor with His infinite Grace, Compassion, and there we meet together. He has to give what He
has, His Compassion, the flood of Compassion, and I have to give my little personal effort and
my tears, the flood of my tears. Then we come together, there we meet together."
For most of us beginning meditation, personal effort is required because the concept of grace
with its assumption of the existence of God is simply not a reality. Either we do not believe in
God or, overly conscious of our blemishes and wrong doings, we cannot believe that a God
could love us constantly and unconditionally. Sri Chinmoy tells us that the opposite is true,
that even our little personal effort is itself entirely due to God's loving grace. God is calling us
– our meditation is our response.
"Personal effort cannot live by itself even for a minute, because its inner nourishment is the
Grace from Above. The grace is inside your personal effort. If grace is not there, personal effort
will be very, very limited – after some time you will give up. God's Grace is responsible for
everything... this moment it is using our hands, next minute it is using our legs, next moment it
is using our mind, next moment our breath or our heart."

Grace especially permeates our being when we are in the field of aspiration, even to the point
of nullifying or changing our karma. The law of karma refers to a cosmic law in which action
and reactions, causes and effects are part of a chain of experiences given to us by a higher
Power. Sri Chinmoy uses the analogy of a child who does something wrong then runs to the
father to avoid the consequences. The father has compassion for the child. He knows the
child has done something wrong but safeguards the child from the consequences.
"If we have complete faith in God and we surrender to Him and we immediately run to Him
with our wrong doing, our error or our defects, He will bless us and protect us from the karma
which would have normally come back to us."
Belief or disbelief in grace does not alter it's reality any more than our expectation of a sunny
day might stop a sudden downpour – and an open mind/open heart will gradually reveal it's
existence. As we become more conscious of grace in our life, a direct personal experience, our
faith and surrender and our feeling of being God's child deepen. Anxiety disappears, love and
patience come, everything is being taken care of by God the infinitely loving parent. This is
not a dogma or a philosophy or an idea but Reality – you know it, live it, you can feel it.

Comments Sri Chinmoy: "God's greatest adamantine Power is His Grace. The moment
God uses His Grace for an individual, He offers His very Life-Breath to the seeker. Grace
does everything. Grace is like sunshine. If you keep your windows open, then only can the
sunlight enter. But if you keep your hearts door closed, then how can sunlight enter? If we
approach God with the heart and the soul, there can be no dryness, only a constant shower
of love and Grace. We feel our love flowing to God and God's Grace constantly being
showered on us."

Sri Chinmoy mentions two important qualities that we need to better utilise the force of grace
in our lives - the first is purity in the heart, mind and vital; the second is gratitude. "It is
through gratitude, constant gratitude to the Supreme in us, that we expand our
consciousness and come to know our higher vision and reality." With the Supreme's Grace
always in our lives, everything becomes simple and clear and we know what our life's tasks
and purposes are. At this time we are eager to show our love by serving God in the
world. "God does not want an inactive body, a dead soul. He wants someone who is active,
dynamic and aspiring; someone who wants to be energised so that he can do something for
God; someone who wants to realise God and manifest all the divine qualities here on
earth."

But our inner wealth always starts with God's grace and compassion. This infinite wealth
achieves "first, a free access to His inner Existence, then a most complete intimacy or
oneness with His inner Will and finally, ecstasy or delight, which is the universal and
transcendental Reality which God Himself is."

(All quotations in this article are by Sri Chinmoy.)

Part 5: Meditation Lifestyle

Meditation Lifestyle
Sri Chinmoy Meditating

The development and deepening of our meditationdoes not depend only on the topics
already discussed – sincerity, technique, aspiration, the grace which these attract – but also
on the way in which other aspects of our lives impact on all these, help or hinder our
development. Our meditation cannot exist in isolation from everything else that we do – it is
supported, or conversely annulled by these things. This is the principle of holistics, the co-
dependence of physical wellbeing, lifestyle habits, diet and exercise, the desires, thoughts and
preoccupations that fill our mind – the mix of all these will have a considerable bearing on
how quickly we can progress.

The Body-Temple
Consider first the physical body. If we are unwell, unfit, then simply sitting still in a chair to
meditate will be difficult – discomfort, tiredness, restlessness will be serious obstacles and
these negatives will flow into the mind as distraction, reluctance, impatience. The body can
be a temple, filled with life force, health, wellbeing, prana – or a dungeon!

"The body is like a temple and the soul or inner reality is like the shrine inside the body-
temple. If the temple does not have a shrine, then we cannot appreciate the temple. Again, if
we do not keep the temple in good condition, then how can we take proper care of the
shrine?"
Many spiritual paths, Sri Chinmoy’s path especially, encourage physical excellence as a
necessary foundation and starting point for any attempts to meditate, to achieve stillness in
the mind and body. Hatha Yoga also has this purpose, a rung in the ladder of self-
development that cultivates suppleness, discipline, health - and throughpranayama (yogic
breathing techniques) focus and clarity in the mind. Any regular physical exercise greatly
enhances our ability to meditate, removes blocked and trapped energies from mind and body
and makes sitting in a composed and undistracted state quite effortless.

"If you value the shrine and everything else that is inside the temple, you will make sure
that the temple is kept in good repair. Similarly, inside the body is the heart and soul. The
shrine is within. We have to make the body a fit instrument to house the shrine; we have to
keep the grounds of the temple in good condition if we care for what is inside the temple."

"We have the body and we have the soul. A spiritual person has to give equal importance to
both… If someone does not get any exercise at all, then the physical will remain unlit,
lethargic and a real hindrance to the aspirant. If the physical consciousness does not
aspire, it will remain separated from the soul. Then rest assured, you will never be able to
achieve perfection. The physical has to aspire in its own way to increase its capacity so that
it can hold light. Then the physical will contribute to the spiritual and you will be able to
aspire and manifest much more. So physical fitness and spirituality must go together."

Understanding this mutuality of mind and body is important, and good reason for
those learning meditation to develop a fit and healthy body-temple.

Running
Running (or jogging) is outstanding among the various fitness regimes in that it cultivates
not only cardiovascular fitness and a calm mind but develops many inner qualities –
aspiration/intensity/will-power/dynamism – that powerfully complement and promote the
inner progress made in meditation. Sri Chinmoy’s writings and insights about
the relationship between running and spiritual blossoming are profoundly inspiring and
likely to persuade even the most reluctant sceptic to head off to the nearest running shoe
store.

"When it is a matter of running, all the members of the family - the body, vital, mind and
heart - have to work together. It is like a family party. The head of the family has invited all
of the family members to come and eat. Through running, the soul wants to offer a feast to
all it's children. What running is doing is keeping the body, vital, mind and heart fit, so that
the soul can get complete happiness. The soul is happy when it sees that all it's children
have come to enjoy the feast."

"The body's capacity and the soul's capacity, the body's speed and the soul's speed go
together. The outer running reminds us of something higher and deeper - the soul - which is
running along Eternity's Road. Running and physical fitness help us both in our inner life
of aspiration and in our outer life of activity."

For a more comprehensive discussion of this, go to Body-Mind-Spirit.

The Power to Change

For those undertaking a deeper commitment to meditation, gradually clearing away the
unhelpful habits of our lifestyle will prove greatly rewarding. Smoking, drugs, alcohol for
example all diminish our capacity to meditate, tilt the temple/dungeon balance
unfavourably, subtract from all that we might become. It is helpful, irrespective of our age to
feel young enough, open enough and free enough to still change, to believe that we have the
power to choose what we will become – but to fossilize, to become addicted or attached to
our bad habits to the extent that we are caught by them and have lost this power to change
would be unfortunate.

"We can think of ourselves as two halves: imperfection is one half, and our sincere cry for
perfection is the other half. One side is weakness, and the other side is strength. With our
inner cry for perfection, let us run towards our destination and reach the illumination-
shore."

The Role of a Vegetarian Diet

Many paths, my own included, recommend a vegetarian diet, since even the food that we eat
has some measurable effect on the depth and subtlety of our meditation, the purity and
stillness of the mind. Everything carries consciousness – the mild properties of vegetarian
food induce a corresponding mildness in our own consciousness since what we eat – at least
in the mind/body realm – in some measure shapes what we are.

"The vegetarian diet plays a most important role in the spiritual life. Purity is of
paramount importance for an aspirant. This purity we must establish in the physical, the
vital and the mental. When we eat meat and fish, the animal consciousness enters into us -
our nerves become more agitated and restless, and this can interfere with our meditation.
But the mild qualities of fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, help us to establish in our
inner life as well as in our outer life, the qualities of sweetness, softness, simplicity and
purity. So, if we are vegetarians, it helps our inner being to strengthen its own existence.
Inwardly, we are praying and meditating; outwardly, the food we are taking from Mother
Earth is helping us too, giving us not only energy but also aspiration."

"If one has aspiration, the vegetarian diet will help considerably: the body's purity will help
one's inner aspiration to become more intense and more soulful. But again, if one is not a
vegetarian, that does not mean that one will not make spiritual progress or will not be able
to realise God."

This topic is elaborated upon in more detail in Conscious Living, a short feature
encapsulating Sri Chinmoy's own insights.

The above recommendations are not intended to sound disapproving or veering toward some
moral high ground – they simply invite any serious practitioner of meditation to explore
adjustments in their lifestyle that can be beneficial. The choice is always ours – and the true
value of these suggestions is best discovered and tested in personal experience and our
willingness to simply try. You be the judge.
Sri Chinmoy playing meditative flute music

Spiritual Books and Meditation Music

Just as the flow-on benefits of fitness, running and diet greatly enhance our ability to
meditate and expedite the great journey of awakening, so too other positives can be explored.
Some are simple and obvious – more spiritual music; immersing ourselves each day in
reading about spirituality, about the lives and teachings of the masters, the inspirational
accounts of others who have ventured along this self-discovering road before us. As the plant
grows in the sunlight, the seeker’s inner life is likewise nourished by the sunlight
ofspirituality – peaceful music, the literature of the realised masters, the still and silent
haven of meditation itself. Simply increasing the daily percentage of our life devoted to these
activities will greatly benefit us.

One way to effectively usher in some of these changes is to set weekly goals. Make up a Daily
Goal Setting Chart, listing each day down the left column then across the top write down your
specific targets – exercise, meditation (the morning one is most important but an additional
evening meditation is very worthwhile), twenty minutes daily reading, no smoking/drinking
(!), vegetarian diet… you choose! You will discover for yourself how very differently a week in
which you meet these goals will feel to a normal week in which these resolutions do not
feature. This very positive difference will encourage and inspire you about your own
possibilities and make the notion of progress a palpable reality.
The deeper our meditation becomes, the more we can feel the guidance of our own real Self,
the 'inner pilot' as Sri Chinmoy describes the soul. This inner wisdom tells us how to live in
the outer world, what to do and not to do, what decisions are best – all the details of life are
guided from within. Thus a lifestyle enabling this access to the soul through meditation is of
incalculable value for it grants us great happiness – the soul’s delight flows into everything
that we are and do.

"Spirituality is a one-way road that leads you to your goal. Once you have embarked on
your journey, you can't go back. The starting point is gone. Once evolution starts on any
plane, you can't go back to the initial point. If you are consciously running toward the goal,
then naturally you want to get there sooner than the soonest. If you want to run fast,
faster, fastest, then you have to simplify your outer life, your life of confusion, your life of
desire, your life of anxiety and worry. At the same time, you have to intensify your inner
life, your life of aspiration, your life of dedication and illumination… At first you will see
that the goal is right in front of you. Then you will feel that the goal is within you, and
finally you will come to realise that not only is the goal within you, but you are the goal
itself. Your own higher self is the goal that your lower self has been searching for."

(All quotations in this article are by Sri Chinmoy.)

Part 6: Finding Your Path

Finding Your Path
The secrets of meditation are all linked and sequential – each prepares us for the discovery of
the next and each contains within itself, like Chinese boxes, the essence of the others. Each
path will have it's own secret keys, but in meditation some are universal. Let us briefly review
the secrets so far considered.

At the beginning, sincerity is the resolve to practicemeditation every day and to resist the
innumerable challenges from life that so easily, and so usually, persuade us to lapse. Too
tired, too busy, too uninspired – we each have our little dragons to confront. But sincerity is a
powerful word and a powerful attitude that gives us patience, determination, a warrior's
resolve and – akin to a far-off whisper from our soul – a reminder of another reality in our
lives beyond the everyday things. We have entered the stream of enlightenment, we are
awakening.

If you develop sincerity, you will be unconcerned with today's 'good meditation' or
yesterday's 'bad meditation' – you will meditate to make progress, not just to have
experiences, and the regularity of practice will carry you forward, nourish your strength,
prepare you to advance ever forward on the journey.

Meditating in the spiritual heart is the next key and a powerful technique in both bypassing
the restless mind and immersing ourselves in the peaceful, vast consciousness of this
powerful meditation centre. Here in the heart the soul sleeps, now begins to stir. And from
within the heart - secret number three – aspiration grows, the impulse of the soul towards
self-unfoldment, towards its penultimate purpose. Heart and soul tell us – "Arise, awake,
you are the sons and daughters of God and nothing less than the full blossoming
of your divinity will satisfy you."
Sri Chinmoy sprint training in New York

Next secret – a gift endlessly regiven – is the great secret of grace. Our aspiration-cry – even
if faltering and faint-hearted – draws to us the love ofGod, the loving Mother or Father.
Sincere effort always attracts grace, and grace renders all effort fruitful. Grace is the
compassion of God that responds to our aspiration and takes care of us, an unseen Hand
guiding us onward. Trusting in this grace (a long apprenticeship sometimes!) and forsaking
our self-determination in favour of God-reliance is the beginnings of spiritual surrender, the
'let Thy will be done' maxim of Christ and so many of the great Masters.

Now too, our slowly blossoming meditation practice is making us more conscious of our
outer life – the manner in which its details and activities help or hinder our spiritual
development. And we can respond to this understanding by introducing new positives,
dropping the obvious negatives; looking at support practices like physical fitness , an exercise
regime; less TV/parties; diet modifications; inspiring the mind and deepening our knowledge
(jnana yoga) with daily reading on spiritual topics; and goal setting to deepen our
commitment to practice. This willingness to change, a makeover of lifestyle, is the fifth
secret of our transformation.

Animated by the grace of God, inspired by the glimpses won in meditation, all of our life is
swinging around, magnet-like, towards the pole of liberation, realigning itself to achieve a
new unanimity of purpose.
Secret Six: Finding Our Path

The next secret is also a consequence of effort and grace – finding our spiritual path. In the
maze of life, many paths lie before us – which to take? Each spiritual path is one of many
possible routes to the summit of the mountain – liberation – and our own nature will
determine which way we choose to go. Each path has its own particular practices and
recommendations for those choosing to travel that way, and we are truly ready for a spiritual
path when we have an inner hunger. Sri Chinmoy comments:

"When you have an inner cry, that inner need for something, then you are ready for a
spiritual path… If you have a hunger to learn more, or to learn something which you do not
know, you go to school. Your hunger compels you to go to a teacher and study; your
hunger prepares your readiness. In the spiritual life also, when you are hungry for Peace,
Light and Bliss, that means you are already prepared for the spiritual life."

When contemplating a path we often feel that we must review all of the options before
reaching a well-informed decision as to what is best. But it doesn’t work like this. The path
best suited to us will often involve subtleties and inner connections not apparent to our
rational mind – perhaps an inner link with a Guru or teacher, or an inner trait that will
predispose us along a particular pathway, for example. Often our mind is the last part of our
being to recognise our path – but in a certain sense it is the path which finds us or is given to
us. The way best suited for us emerges instead out of our own spiritual practice and our
meditation, an inner wisdom that comes into our awareness as a feeling in the heart, not
rational choice in the mind.

"The easiest, fastest and most convincing road is the psychic road, the road of the heart...
inside the heart is the soul. The soul is the divine messenger, the divine representative of
God. If you really knock at the heart's door, everything is achieved because when the
heart's door is opened you will find the soul within. Everything that you want from God, in
God and for God must come directly from there."

Someone will take the path of devotion to God – bhakti yoga – another will incline to action
and service – kharma yoga – another to knowledge and wisdom – jnana yoga – yoga
meaning union with God, higher Self, the mountain summit.

"If people are really hungry and they find the fruit that will satisfy their hunger in the first
shop, then they just eat it there and don't bother going from store to store. Of course, if they
don’t like the food offered there, they have every right to go to some other place."

"But if you feel that this is your path, then don't allow the mind to come forward and bring
in doubts. You may think that the mind is being sincerely cautious in questioning the heart,
but the mind is only showing its insecurity. The mind is helplessly insecure, and that is why
it always creates confusion. Have faith only in your heart and soul. If the soul conveys the
message to you through your heart that this is your path, accept this path and stick to it."

"No matter what path you follow, it will lead you to one destination. You may call it Christ-
Consciousness, another will call it Krishna-Consciousness or Buddha-Consciousness. But
there can be no conflict, since truth is one. Any path you follow will help you realise the
truth."

Spiritual paths are never at variance with religion, and will never find fault with other paths
or other religions. Sri Chinmoy expresses this very succinctly:

"Spirituality is not merely tolerance. It is not even acceptance. It is the feeling of universal
oneness... Spirituality is not mere hospitality to others' faith in God. It is the absolute
recognition and acceptance of their faith in God as one's own."

He compares religion to a house in which we live, spirituality to a school where we meet

together and study.
"Your house is good for you; my house is good for me. Your religion will certainly help you
to reach the Highest and my religion will help me to reach the Highest. All the religions are
one. God is the tree and the religions are the branches of the tree."

The further we advance along our own path, the more we understand the universality of all
paths:

"Yoga transcends all religions. Here we don’t want to be satisfied only with my house or
your house. We want to claim all the houses of the world as our very own because God is
inside all of them. In Yoga, all religions become ours because Yoga means union with God.
When we have this union, we transcend our limited feeling of 'my' and 'mine', my religion,
your religion. At that time we go beyond the boundaries of religion."

"God is our aim, our goal. If we enter into Him, we enter into the infinite Consciousness. If
we pray and we meditate, we accept all religions as very own and place them in the very
Heart of God."

It is interesting that we very often do not think of ourselves as seekers, even though we are.
We neither feel special, nor are we consciously looking for a teacher or a path – but in
another reality of our being we are ready, our life has been preparing us, and only our mind
has not yet recognised this truth. But here grace plays its part – the path is there right before
us and has found us itself.

Sometimes people think "I am not worthy, I am too impure, I have too many bad habits to
follow a spiritual path, to be a student of a Master." This is not so. What distinguishes a
student on a path is not their lack of problems and blemishes but a desire to transform the
many they may have; not their spiritual maturity and their perfection but their wish to one-
day achieve this. If we wait until we are 'ready' or 'pure' we will postpone our journey
forever.'Now' and 'today' is the best mantra!

Sri Chinmoy: Meditation-Delight

A path refines our practice down into clearer guidelines and specifics – the spiritual master
or guru who established this path will have his or her own recommendations. A teacher at
this level is like a loving parent who wants his child to blossom and fulfill its highest potential
– not sleep all day in bed, waste time in bad habits, indulge it's wish for unbridled freedom.
For real freedom is not self-indulgence but freedom from ignorance, from suffering – it is the
liberating freedom of God-oneness. The guidelines of each path are the recommendations of
the teacher, the steps which, if taken will lead to the great freedom of enlightenment.

"Choose whomever you want to have as your spiritual master. God will eventually bring
the right one for you... The ignorance-sea has to be crossed and without a boat nobody can
cross it. Even if there is a boat, without a boatman, who will row? Who will sail the boat?"

A path means a new velocity, a new purposefulness, a clear direction forward – where before
we were hesitant and uncertain, now we are confident and growing in our inner commitment
to the journey.

"We shall all reach the goal. But it depends entirely on our aspiration. Those who have
inner wisdom never waste a single second. They feel that time is most precious, time is
golden. This same time will not come again. A seekers life is meaningful and fruitful only if
he can use each moment for a divine purpose. The seeker who believes in God but who has
no time for God, who believes in meditation but does not meditate, his life is not much
better than the atheist."

All the paths cannot be the same, Sri Chinmoy writes, only the ultimate goal will be the same.
There are different roads but each road leads to the same goal. And no sincere effort ends in
vain.

"If someone makes a sincere effort, then I wish to say that his inner life and outer life are
bound to be crowned with success."

(All quotations in this article are by Sri Chinmoy.)

Related Links:
Our Path - on Sri Chinmoy's Homepage

Part 7: The Role of the Teacher

The Role of the Teacher

For meditators wanting to make very fast progress in their spiritual life, the last of the seven
secrets of meditation is also the most important. This last step is usually taken when the
others have been observed and developed – especially our sincerity and regularity of practice,
the awakening of our aspiration, the resulting grace that effort always brings – and this secret
also heralds the beginning of another wonderful chapter, a new velocity and clearer direction
in our journey of self-discovery. The seventh secret is the discovery of our spiritual teacher
and the transformative role he or she will play.
... Sri Chinmoy ...

An illumined master or guru is someone who has attainedGod-realisation and offers this
wisdom to others. Guru is a Sanskrit word meaning 'he who illumines', and a real guru is a
bridge, a connecting link between man and God, earth and Heaven, our present reality and
the full flowering of our future possibilities.

The guru is like an elevator operator – God is on the third floor and we are on the first floor
and he can take us up to the third floor to meet God. "I am a broom" said Sri Ramakrishna in
another analogy, likening the role of the master to sweeping away the debris that conceals
our true nature.

What is the role of the guru? Their task is to make us consciously aware of something vast
and infinite and ever-free within ourselves, to reconnect us with our truest and highest
Selves, which is nothing other than God Himself.

A real spiritual Master tries to bring to the fore the inner divinity of the disciple from deep
within the disciple's heart. He knocks at the disciples heart-door and awakens the divine child in
him, which we call thesoul.
We spend the first two decades of our lives learning from others – parents, teachers, college
instructors – since these know more than we about each of the many life-skills we must
learn. Once our proficiency is established, we move on. In the spiritual life too, we need the
guidance of those who have journeyed much further along the realisation road than we have
– without them our progress is uncertain and slow.

For millennia we have been swimming in the sea of ignorance. When we become awakened, we
want to swim across that sea into the ocean of Light and Delight. If we know that there is a
boatman, and that there is a boat which can safely carry us to our goal, then naturally we will
try to get help from him. A genuine spiritual Master knows the way and is bound to help us
reach the goal. Like a boatman, he will carry us to the other shore.
While a school teacher gives each pupil the same lesson, a spiritual master is more like a
private tutor – he sees the student's individual capacity and propensities and will foster
these. Each soul has it's own unique way of meditating, it's special qualities and a way
forward that will enable very fast progress – this self-knowledge is usually unknown to us but
very clear to a true master. Working with this insight he can help us to navigate our way
forward quickly, clear away the inner blocks and obstacles and through many inner
experiences show us what we have within, what we shall one day become.

When a master accepts a student or disciple, an inner bond is forged. The master promises
God to take care of the disciple, not only in this lifetime but throughout the long journey to
God-realisation, and also brings the soul to the fore, injecting light and aspiration into the
awakening inner life. This inner process is called initiation and can occur in a number of
different ways – through meditation; occultly or psychically; through an outer blessing or
mantra.

When the Master initiates someone, he gives that person a portion of his life-breath. At the time
of the initiation, the Guru makes a solemn promise to the individual seeker and to the Supreme
that he will do his best to help the seeker in his spiritual life, that he will offer his heart and soul
to take the disciple into the highest region of the Beyond… At the time of initiation, the Master
actually takes on the disciples teeming imperfections, both from the present incarnation and
from past incarnations… This flowering of the initiation is really more than initiation. It is the
revelation of the disciples’ own inner divinity. At that moment, they feel that they and their
Guru have totally become one.
The path of a true master will be defined by a number of spiritual disciplines and lifestyle
observances. Why are these necessary? Spiritual masters are like parents who deeply love
their children – they want their children to realise their fullest potential, not lie in bed all
day, develop bad habits and never blossom. The disciplines of a particular path create the
optimum conditions in which the disciples can fully grow – just as the plant thrives in the
sunlight, our spiritual life also blossoms in the right conditions. The requisites and
recommendations of the master are not confining but liberating – here are the steps we must
take, the negatives we must erase and the practices that will bring about our enlightenment.
If we cling to our limited notion of freedom – usually this is simply self-indulgence – and
undervalue the true freedom of self-realisation (freedom from attachment, suffering,
everything in our unillumined nature that limits us and prevents our full self-discovery) a
spiritual path will be very difficult to follow. But when we know that we are not illumined or
truly free, that all our life choices have failed to make us truly happy, and from this
understanding comes an openness and willingness to take help from a path and a teacher,
then we are ready. If we have become fossilized, unwilling to change or embrace a new way,
then no teacher can help us.

... Sri Chinmoy ...

In the West we are frightened of ‘commitment’ and the imagined loss of our personal choices
– but in accepting a spiritual path we should see this instead as an invitation to explore a new
way forward, a new opportunity. Commitment grows slowly over time, even over years, as
our understanding grows and our inner bond with the guru strengthens.

The Guru and the disciple must test each other sweetly, seriously and perfectly before their
mutual acceptance. Otherwise, if they are wrong in their selection, the Guru will have to dance
with failure and the disciple with perdition.
How to know which teacher is meant for us? We imagine that we must assess all the possible
masters, make a rational choice based on all the available information. But in reality it is the
path and the master that find us as we become ready – there may be an existing bond
between disciple and master, or a natural predilection towards the yoga of a particular path,
or inner factors about which our mind will almost certainly be unaware. It is the inner
realities and affinities that determine our spiritual life at this level, not the limited
comprehension of the mind. Here, heart’s feeling and intuition are more important than
mental consideration. Our spiritual life is like a stream flowing down a mountainside – left
alone it will find it’s way, but if blocked and checked by the impositions of the mind it will get
diverted and slowed. Out of our sincerity, regular practice and growing aspiration our teacher
will eventually come to find us.

There is no seeker on earth who will remain without a teacher if he is desperately in need of one.
If his aspiration is intense, if his inner cry is constantly mounting, how can God remain asleep?
It is God who has kindled the flame of aspiration in that particular seeker, and it is God who
will bring a spiritual master to him or place him at the feet of a spiritual master.
You will know your guru when you meet him by the immediate joy you will feel – there are
other genuine masters, but this guru gives you an immediate feeling of spontaneous joy.
While the goal is one and the same, the paths leading to the goal are many – but it is a
mistake to have more than one teacher, one path at the same time and will cause confusion.
Each teacher has his or her own prescription and their one path is enough to take you to the
top of the mountain.

In the West, having a spiritual master can sometimes attract cynicism or criticism. Do not be
disturbed by this. Many challenges lie waiting to test our resolve, but our strength will slowly
grow and the approval of others will cease to be important. Most spiritual masters
themselves have been criticized during their lifetimes and the prejudices and
misunderstandings of mankind are well documented – the life of Christ is an obvious
example. These misunderstandings still exist today. Always trust in your own sincerity, make
up your own mind and heart. To have reached a point in your evolution where you have
become deeply interested in spirituality indicates that you are a very special person, with very
good karma, even though you may not feel this about yourself.

Sri Chinmoy has a song-mantra, 'dak eseche bishwa prabhur dak' – it means God is calling
you, your hour has struck, a profoundly special time has come in your life. Have courage and
determination and go forward with your teacher on the most wonderful and liberating
journey of them all. It is the greatest good fortune that any seeker of the truth could ever
have.

Related Links:
• The italicised quotes above are drawn from The Master and the Disciple - by Sri
Chinmoy.
• Our Path - on Sri Chinmoy's Homepage.
• The Role of the Guru - by Jogyata Dallas.
• Stories From The Path - by Jogyata Dallas.