Erfolg mit Herz – My spiritual guide – Sri Chinmoy

Each soul is endowed with creativity. But the soul finds it extremely difficult to convince the mind, the vital and the physical that they can consciously co-operate with the soul, that they all can create together and fulfil the Divine here on earth. Creativity does not mean that one has to write poems or articles, or compose songs. Creativity means one's inner concern for the expansion of what he is or what he has. When one consciously wants to go beyond his capacity and beyond his achievement, only then do we find real creativity, only then can creativity have its proper value, worth and purpose.

No price is too great to pay for inner peace. Peace is the harmonious control of life. It is vibrant with life-energy. It is a power that easily transcends all our worldly knowledge. Yet it is not separate from our earthly existence. If we open the right avenues within, this peace can be felt here and now.

The greatest misfortune that can come to a human being is to lose his inner peace. No outer force can rob him of it. It is his own thoughts, his own actions, that rob him of it.

Our greatest protection lies not in our material achievements and resources. All the treasure of the world is emptiness to our divine soul. Our greatest protection lies in our soul's communion with the all-nourishing and all-fulfilling Peace. Our soul lives in Peace and lives for Peace. If we live a life of peace, we are ever enriched and never impoverished. Unhorizoned is our inner peace; like the boundless sky, it encompasses all.

Self-transcendence gives us joy in boundless measure. When we transcend ourselves, we do not compete with others. We do not compete with the rest of the world, but at every moment we compete with ourselves. We compete only with our previous achievements. And each time we surpass our previous achievements, we get joy.

In the spiritual life, we are always trying to transcend and go beyond. If today I do twenty things wrong, then tomorrow I will try to do only nineteen things wrong. I will constantly try to improve myself, and in this way I will get a tremendous sense of satisfaction. I am not competing with anybody other than myself. This is how I can feel that I am arriving at perfection.

Do not see faults in anybody’s life; do not see the faults in your own life. Only force yourself to see all the good things you have done, all the good things you are planning to do and all the good things that others have done. In the next millennium, the goal of philosophy will be only to see the light in oneself and the light in others. Then only will you be able to expedite the arrival of world-peace and world-oneness.

My philosophy is very simple: love and serve. We love God the Creator and serve God the creation. God is at once the Creator and the creation. When I pray and meditate, I love God the Creator, and when I serve mankind, at that time I am serving God the creation.

You are God’s creation; so is humanity. Humanity is only an expression of your universal heart. You can and must love humanity, not just as a whole, but also individually if you realise the fact that until humanity has realised its supreme Goal, your own divine perfection will not be complete.

Do not try to change the world.
You will fail.
Try to love the world.
Lo, the world is changed, changed forever.

True happiness is not a mental hallucination. True happiness is not a complacent feeling. True happiness is the spontaneous feeling of joy that comes from knowing you are doing the right thing and leading a divine life.

Joy and cheerfulness is not a life of pleasure. No! It is the conscious awareness of our inner divinity. When we are happy, when we are really happy, we are making real progress. When we become a happy heart, we move forward, we dive deep within, we fly. Progress is in movement, and this movement comes only when we have joy and we become joy.

Real joy comes from acceptance of the world, and not from renunciation of the world. God has chosen the conditions under which you are living your present life. It is like a play. The stage is set and the curtain has been raised for you to perform your part and advance in the spiritual path. Your present conditions are the best possible ones for your advancement.

The purpose of life is to realise the highest Truth, to reveal the highest Truth, and to manifest the highest Truth. What is the highest Truth? The highest Truth is that man and God are eternally one and inseparable although man is right now an unrealised God and God is right now an unfulfilled, unmanifested man.

God is all Love. God is all Light. God is all Beauty. God is everything: Truth, Peace, Light, Bliss in infinite measure. He is with form; He is without form. If you experience God as Peace, then you will say God is Peace. If you experience God as Light, then you will say God is Light. If you experience God as Love, then you will say God is Love.

Self-realisation means self-discovery in the highest sense of the term. One realises one’s oneness with God — consciously. Now you have studied books and people have also told you that God is in everybody. But you have not realised God in your conscious life. When one is self-realised, one consciously knows what God is, what He looks like, what He wills.

Those who have not realised God will say, "God may be like this, God may be like that" — it is all mental speculation. But when one achieves self-realisation, one remains in God’s Consciousness and one speaks to God face-to-face. He sees God both in the finite and in the Infinite; he sees God as personal and impersonal. In this case, it is not mental hallucination or imagination; it is direct reality. This reality is more authentic than my seeing you right now in front of me.

We speak of self-discovery, but self-discovery and God-realisation are one. When we discover our true self, we realise God, because in our true self is the existence of God.