Love, devotion, surrender

Question: What is your path?

Sri Chinmoy: My path is very simple. At least it seems so to me. Here we have a spiritual ladder and this ladder has only three rungs: love, devotion and surrender. And then, when we are very advanced, we have three more rungs in our ladder: realisation, revelation and manifestation. First love, devotion and surrender; and then, when realisation takes place, one step upward we go to revelation and then one step to manifestation. ²

Question: What is your basic philosophy?

Sri Chinmoy: Our basic philosophy is love, devotion and surrender. We love God not in a human way but in a divine way. In human love there is constant demand. If I give you something, then I expect you to give me something; it is always give and take. But in divine love we give unconditionally. Human love ends in frustration and frustration ultimately is destruction. But divine love is constant illumination. In divine love, we love God unconditionally; then it is up to God to give us what He wants to give us. And when we love the world in a divine way, at that time we see the world as only an expansion of our own selves and our heart becomes universal.

Human devotion is attachment; divine devotion is dedication to a higher purpose or ideal, to a higher way of life. Divine devotion grows out of our soul’s promise to manifest our inner divinity here on earth.

Human surrender is the surrender of a slave to his master. It is done out of fear. But divine surrender is the surrender of our less illumined part to our higher part. Right now we are not fully aware of our highest Height. But once we become aware of who we are, we try to surrender our lower self to our higher Self. The tiny drop is not aware of the ocean. But when it merges with the ocean, it becomes the ocean itself. In divine surrender, the finite in us surrenders to the Infinite in us and becomes inseparably one with it. ³