Abstract
This is a discussion paper that sets out to explore an approach to the writings of the spiritual master Sri Chinmoy, through the motif of the Quest. In particular, it explores his own journey to God-realisation, or Self-realisation, and his teaching of the interdependence of the relationship between aspiring humanity and the ever-transcending nature of the Supreme Being. The Quest is defined in general terms as a journey towards humanity’s inner divinity, and corresponds to the three traditional steps of Separation, Trial and Return, which are illustrated throughout the writings, particularly in the poetry. The human soul, separated from the divine Oneness of existence, descends into the physical world to enter God’s Cosmic Game of hide and seek. Endless trials and cycles of life eventually awaken man to his higher purpose and fulfillment in seeking union with the Beloved. It is aspiration through the heart that Sri Chinmoy claims will cause the descent of divine Compassion and the bestowing of the Union, and he illustrates this through his own journey to the highest. He portrays the exalted states of blissful absorption in the divine Consciousness, and illustrates that his poetry and writings then become a pathway for all seekers to enter a higher state of consciousness – which he calls the ‘manifestation’, the divine purpose of God to fulfil himself and humanity at the same time. The cross-referencing of Sri Chinmoy’s poetry and prose writings both supports and explains many of the mysteries of the ever-transcending Quest of the Supreme for divine manifestation in the sphere of the physical world and offers a bright new path of spirituality which itself transcends boundaries of East and West.
Highlights
This is a discussion paper that sets out to explore an approach to the writings of the spiritual master Sri Chinmoy, through the motif of the Quest
Sri Chinmoy challenges us to examine again what it is we identify with deep within us – we can identify with the mind, body, heart, even soul, but we are given an outline of another level – the vital, seat of emotion and desire
Sri Chinmoy explains many mysteries, that of the different levels of consciousness abiding in a human being, and their implications
Summary
From Sri Chinmoy’s youth he wrote poetry, a little in French, but mainly in Bengali. Around age 22, one of the ashramites, Romen Palit, insisted that Chinmoy should write poems in English and taught him English metre one afternoon. This intimacy between a simple flower and the divine is contrasted with the seeker’s corresponding lack; a complicated fluctuating presence and absence in the human seeker where the surpassing beauty of the divine is withheld It admits of the perception of the divine in the human, and of the divine as the Perceptor; God and human as One, “Who is the Eye of my eye;/Who is the Heart of my heart?” The plaintive cry at the close places the lily back into unconscious nature by accentuating humanity’s conscious aspiration and search for divinity. It speaks indifferently of the loss of faith and direction, the point of view is undercut by the self-irony at the close
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