So often we feel that we have innumerable options and opportunities available to us. That we stand poised before so many open doors. Each one leading to greater satisfaction and fulfilling possibilities in our life. Whenever we hesitate or doubt whatever lies waiting for us just beyond, the doors then simply vanish, an opportunity gone forever.
Whenever one truly and fully enters the spiritual life then the selection of paths in front of us changes. It becomes more obvious which doors lead to the unsatisfactory basement of our desire and expectation. A spiritual seeker looks always for the path they hope will lead them upwards to a more divine life. At the same time asking for the strength and guidance to make the right choices and fulfill and complete all the needed steps to go beyond.
A spiritual journey is not an easy thing. The material world we live in is lacking in guidance and aspiration for a higher life. The transformation of mankind is a slow yet inevitable process. To have a spiritual teacher for many is the ultimate answer in moving forwards towards a more divine and spiritual life. Yet to accept a teacher is to understand that once this takes place the infinite doorways of opportunity that we thought were in front of us now no longer exist. The spiritual teacher instead already knows the way and it his job to guide and lead us as quickly and as directly as possible to the goal.
51 days ago a 47 year old Russian named Vasu did not just walk, but ran through a doorway of an incredibly difficult journey. To ask him if there were any other options he would say no. To ask him if he had doubts that he had done the wrong thing, despite days of torment and pain he would say no. He has been acting with unwavering faith, with steadfast courage, and tireless optimism for the entire length and breadth of his 3100 mile journey. If any time you asked him, he would say it was his spiritual teacher acting in and through him. He has said this clearly with his words and even more powerfully with his actions. This evening he has completed this race and offers the result to his late spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy.
Whenever someone tries to explain just about anything about technology to me my brains starts to ache. I have little interest and cannot understand. Explaining spirituality and spiritual teachers to anyone who is not a seeker is also usually an exercise in futility. It is simply something you have to feel and realize within. For Vasu, and all those who ran here this summer, and over the years of the race, something within called them here, and in ways great and small, this same bright force acted in and through them.
Just across the road from where Vasu has completed his 3100 mile race, another race was held in August, just about 33 years ago. The 47 mile race first started the year before, in 1978, and has taken place each August 27th ever since. What happened on that night in 1979 is that 47 year old Sri Chinmoy (who turned 48 at midnight) would run and complete his own race for the first time.
His path of spirituality was not something theoretical or academic. He clearly demonstrated this through all his accomplishments, in so many diverse fields. His was a life dedicated to serving, inspiring, and illumining all of humanity. Whatever he attempted he gave his fullest. Whatever he accomplished he then proceeded to transcend that achievement. When one became his student they soon realized that they had entered a revolutionary new way of making true spiritual progress. A way that uniquely combines both the inner and outer life. It is a path that continues to blossom and reveal itself. Just as it has done so this past 52 days, in real and trans-formative ways for all those who took part in the longest race in the world.
And for all those who seek out their own Self Transcendence journey, who want only one doorway to their own perfection. Who want to proceed along a sunlit path of the heart, he continues to be a willing companion, and a guide who inwardly leads the way.
God wants me to be a murmuring, running river flowing from the inner Source and carrying that Source to the outer reality. If I want to be an expression of the Source, then I cannot separate my inner and outer existence. The main thing is to bring to the fore the limitless potentialities that I have deep within. From this point of view, even to speak of three million birds is binding.
Spirituality is not something abnormal or unnatural. Spirituality is more normal and natural than anything else. God is limitless, infinite, immortal, and I want to become consciously part and parcel of His Existence so that I can serve Him in His own Way. At the same time, the One who is infinite, eternal and immortal is trying to express Himself in and through my limitations.
He says, “Now I want to express Myself in and through your artistic life. I want to express Myself in and through your poetic life, your sports life.” But He can do it only according to my receptivity.
Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Answers, Part 3, Agni Press, 1995.
This will be my last post for this years race. Thank you for all your support and encouragement. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve this great experience in this small way. Utpal
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