True Spirituality
"True spirituality tells us that we need not reject anything, we need not negate anything, we need not renounce anything. True spirituality tells us that we have to accept the world as it is, then transform both our inner world and our outer world for God-realization, God-revelation and God-manifestation."
— The Garland of Nation-Souls: Complete Talks at the United Nations
Loving the World
"A man of disbelief hates the world. Why? He feels that the world is never of him and can never be for him. A man of disbelief always feels that this world does not belong to him and that he can never lord it over the world. This is precisely why a man of disbelief dares to hate the world.
"A man of belief loves the world. Why? He believes that this world of ours is verily the aspiring Body of God, the glowing Dream of God and the fulfilling Reality of God."
— The Garland of Nation-Souls: Complete Talks at the United Nations
The Divine Mission
"The world needs attention. The divine mission is always willing to offer its one-pointed attention to the world. The world needs concern. The divine mission is always ready to offer its soulful, meaningful and fruitful concern to the world. The world needs love. The divine mission is always ready to offer its love, inner and outer, to the world. The outer love is constant sacrifice. The inner love is inseparable oneness."
— The Garland of Nation-Souls: Complete Talks at the United Nations
See The Divine
"Every day, early in the morning, stand in front of a mirror. If you dare to stand in front of a mirror, then you can easily stand in front of the whole world. When you stand in front of the mirror, if you see an undivine face looking back at you, then rest assured that the whole world is undivine. But if you are getting joy from your face, if it is pure and divine, then rest assured that the world is also pure and divine. According to the way you see yourself, the rest of the world will present itself to you."
— The Garland of Nation-Souls: Complete Talks at the United Nations
Just Convince Yourself
"God does not have to convince you
Of His Existence.
You just convince yourself
That you came into the world
To do something great
And be something good."
— God Is
Don't Shun the Light
"Although Light is the most needed spiritual quality of all, unfortunately it is the least wanted. Very often seekers invoke joy, peace or power, but very rarely do they aspire for Light. Instead of feeling that the divine Light will illumine them, they mistakenly identify with their own limitations and imperfections and feel that they are going to be exposed. But the divine Light is not going to expose them. On the contrary, Light embraces humanity with all its imperfections and tries to illumine human ignorance so that human life can be elevated into the divine life."
— The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy
Clean Us With His Compassion
"When a child is playing in the mud and then all a sudden he is called, he is not afraid that his mother will beat him because he is dirty. He will go running to his mother and his mother will immediately take his dirt, his filth, as her very own. She will wash him in order to show others that her son is also very clean. We have to approach God like that. No matter how many undivine things we do, we can run toward Him and feel that with His Compassion He will clean us immediately."
— God Is
Keep That Prayer Ringing
"Early in the morning, when you leave your bed, you can say to the Supreme, 'Oh Supreme, make me unconditionally devoted to you so that I can serve You in Your own way.' Then, before your breakfast you can repeat it again. As soon as you are through with your breakfast, say it once more. When you go to school or to work, you can again repeat it. Before performing any action, consciously pray that you will be able to serve the Supreme most devotedly and unconditionally. Each time, the vibration of your prayer will last for two minutes, six minutes, or ten minutes, depending on its soulful quality. But every time you offer this prayer you renew the vibration. Soon it will be like a bell. After you have started ringing the bell, it will become automatic and you will feel that the bell is ringing inside you constantly."
— The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy
Communing With Others
"On earth we can make either a local call or a long-distance call to any part of the world. The telephone is the medium. Similarly, our conscious oneness with God or, we can say, our Self-realization, enables us to commune with anybody, whether here on earth or there in Heaven."
— The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy
Imagination and Service of Others
"How does one become a first-class disciple? By serving, serving in every way possible. How do you serve? You serve through aspiration. And how do you get aspiration? In the beginning, you have to exercise your imagination. Imagination is not a bad thing; on the contrary, it is a very important thing for the scientist, for the poet, for everyone. In any field of life you have to exercise your imagination. Then you can do something; you can become something. With your imagination, you will try to spread the Light of the Supreme."
— The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy
Duty for God's Sake
"Duty is pleasant, encouraging and inspiring when we do it for God's sake. What we need is to change our attitude towards duty. If we work for the sake of God, then there is no duty. All is joy; all is beauty. Each action must be performed and offered at the feet of God. Duty for God's sake is the duty supreme. We have no right to undertake any other duty before we work out our own spiritual salvation. Did not God entrust us with this wonderful task at the time of our very birth? The supreme duty is to constantly strive for God-realization."
— The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy
Conquer Ego With Gratitude
"The easiest way to conquer ego is to offer gratitude to God for five minutes daily. Then you will feel that inside you a sweet, fragrant and beautiful flower is growing. That is the flower of humility. When you offer Him your gratitude, God gives you something most beautiful, which is humility. Once it has seen the flower of humility, the ego goes away because it feels that it can become something better: universal oneness."
— The Wisdom of Sri Chinmoy
