Feminist Spirituality
I believe that the equality of men and women in the Sri Chinmoy Centre worldwide community will someday be remembered as a most significant moment in the timeline of women's spiritual evolution, and therefore of all humanity. Whether past or present, I know of no other Eastern spiritual path or master that has offered women such a central and equal place alongside men.
Looking back through history, many Eastern spiritual masters did not accept women students. Realistically, it must have been an almost impossible task to entertain focusing with one-pointed concentration on the goal of complete union with God inside oneself at the same time as serving and nurturing a husband and children.
The reason I say this will be remembered as an historic juncture is that the constellation of circumstances making possible a new form of spiritual evolution for women is itself unprecedented. The first ingredient is the evolution of technology which greatly reduced the highly labor-intensive nature of running a household, labor done mostly by women.
Secondly, only in the last thirty to forty years in Western society has the notion of women not existing solely as helpmate to man and mother to children even existed - granted not including that there has always been a small minority of women who chose spiritual practise (perhaps as a nun), career or intellectual development, most likely with the privilege of wealth making it feasible.
The feminist movement, while replete with flaws as many socio- political movements inevitably are, has made this second reality possible. The role of wife and mother is a now a choice a woman can consider rather than being the only viable role to play in society. I was born in 1960. My mother's generation never even questioned the notion that marriage and children was the only choice (see the film "Mona Lisa Smile" for a depiction of this). Then in a single generation as her daughter, I was raised to believe that this was not the only choice. And that context helped lead me to where I am today. Financially self-supporting, unmarried, childless and consciously striving towards the eventual and lofty goal of God-realization.
Thus, I find myself one of many female students of Sri Chinmoy who are flourishing and pioneering something rather special and new. And flourish is indeed the operative word. I find that the Sri Chinmoy Centre is an extraordinary opportunity for women to pursue the highest spiritual goals without actually living a completely cloistered lifestyle. Within the group, the atmosphere of purity allows one to progress without the distraction of feeling that men in the group are seeing you primarily as a potential romantic interest. And I have never ever felt that Sri Chinmoy views anybody as a gendered being first and foremost. He teaches that the soul is beyond male and female and down to the minutest details that perspective informs all aspects of our lifestyle.
Many women are in positions of authority as centre leaders in the worldwide chapters of our group. Women often choose to participate in sporting events that defy the mind's imagination such as the feat of ultra-marathon running and multi-day running events. Women are playing key roles as business owners, managers and dedicated volunteers in our various humanitarian efforts. The idea of stereotype or restricted roles simply does not exist. Here we find an atmosphere that helps women come forward who might ordinarily be overshadowed by men who have been socialized to more easily assert themselves in public.
Sri Chinmoy has written countless poems and songs to the feminine aspect of the Divine. And all of this respect for women as far as I can tell is never at the expense of men. I think it is impossible for Sri Chinmoy to view either men or women as anything less than the branches of the tree, of which the trunk is the Absolute Supreme.
If you haven't guessed already, I was a staunch feminist before I became Sri Chinmoy's student. In my opinion, the oppression of women is the most complex of all injustices because of their exceedingly intimate relationship with their oppressor. Following this spiritual path paves a road that envisions a world where that complex and painful dynamic need not exist. If those viewing our path from outside imagine that women are unsafe, restricted or repressed in this environment, I ask history itself to speak for me and know in the depths of my heart that someday all women will remember this juncture in their evolution as staggering in its significance.
In conclusion, the song "Bread and Roses" wafts through my head as I write this because of the line, "the rising of the women, means the rising of us all." If you are not familiar with it, here are the lyrics below:
BREAD AND ROSES
- by Caroline Kohsleet and James Oppenheim
As we go marching, marching in the beauty of the day
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand millofts gray
Are touched by all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses
For the people hear us singing, bread and roses, bread and roses!
As we go marching, marching, we battle too for men
For they are women's brothers and we'll march with them again
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes
Hearts starve as well as bodies, give us bread but give us roses
As we go marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing our ancient cry for bread
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirit knew
Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.
As we go marching, marching, we stand together tall
The rising of the women, means the rising of us all
No more the drudge and idler, ten that toil while one reposes
But a sharing of life's glories, bread and roses, bread and roses.
Peace Tree in Oxford
On Wednesday, we planted a Peace Tree in Harcourt Arboretum, Oxford. The event took place with the arrival of the World Harmony Run.
Related
The Outer Running and the Inner Running
Jayasalini is an accomplished ultra-marathon runner, triathlete and book and article author on running, she ran numerous times the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence 6 and 10 day races and an ironman triathlon. She now gives meditation classes in former Soviet Union, as well as has come to Slovenia and Brazil as an invited lecturer.
The very first time I heard the word “Meditation”, it caught my attention, but at that time I did not know its meaning. Later I found out that it relates to some spiritual practices. I was always under impression that these things were meant only for some special people and, by far, not everybody could practice it.
What attracted me in Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy is that he says that everybody can meditate and everybody has already had some experience of meditation. We could not be aware that it was a meditation, but we definitely have had this kind of experience. Simply looking at a burning fire’s flames or dissolving in the endless sky while looking at clouds can bring us to the experience of meditation – when we silence our mind and dive deep into our spiritual heart. Silencing the mind – the state where there are no thoughts – was totally new for me and I wanted to extend that experience.
Meditation is everybody's birthright.
In meditation
We establish our oneness
With the entire world,
And our whole being is inundated
With peace.Sri Chinmoy
Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 1
What really struck me is how these spiritual experiences can be applicable in our day-to-day life. Spirituality and meditation is not something isolated from our everyday life. Rather, they are a common, single flow. Meditation has indeed changed my life. And these changes still continue. It helps me to discover my inner self, the qualities of my soul, my role here on earth, what I am supposed to do. Meditation gives anwers to many of my questions.
One of the most unexpected discoveries that came to me after I started meditating under Sri Chinmoy’s guidance are my sport activities. I always liked sports, played volleyball and enjoyed different games, but I could never imagine myself doing such things as running for hours or even for days in a row… Marathon runners seemed to be supermen, and a marathon race seemed something beyond my reach. Something that I could never dare even to dream about. But after joining the path of Sri Chinmoy, I found out that many of his disciples have run marathons. Even those who did not seem to look very sportive have completed quite a few marathons.
There are many books by Sri Chinmoy where he gives advices on inner preparation and outer training for marathon. One of my favorites is The Outer Running and the Inner Running. These books helped me a lot, and I got rid of fear of the distance. Once I registered for the half-marathon race. There was one common start for two distances – marathon and half-marathon. The race started and, when I reached the point where those running half-marathon were supposed to turn back to the direction of the finish line, I felt a strong urge to continue and run the full marathon. This feeling inside was so strong, clear and powerful that I had no doubts: I continued and finished the first marathon in my life. Tears of gratitude filled my heart while running the home stretch to the finish. I knew it was nothing by God’s Grace that carried me through all the distance.
This was the very beginning of my ultra-marathon journey. After that first marathon I still cannot stop… I feel that my soul wants me to continue running. Half year later I found myself on the start-line of 10 day race and, since that, self-transcendence became part of my everyday life.
Transcending my own limits through sports is a very simple and clear way for me to realize that our capacities are truly unlimited, when we dive deep within and bring forward our divinity. One of my favorite aphorisms, that I often repeat as a mantra during my runs, is:
“We are all truly unlimited,
If we only dare to try
And have faith.”Sri Chinmoy
Aspiration-Body, Illumination-Soul Part 1
Related
World Harmony Run - live from the road
Heilende Kraft
Im Jahr 1979 auf dem Weg zur Weihnachtsreise mit Sri Chinmoy nach Hawaii war ich zuvor einige Tage in New York. Ich bekam starke Zahnschmerzen und ging zu einem Zahnarzt. Er sagte, ich bräuchte eine Wurzelbehandlung, weil der Fall ernst sei. Weil ich jedoch zwei Tage später nach Hawaii fliegen wollte, konnte er die Behandlung nicht durchführen.
Jemand erwähnte die Angelegenheit Sri Chinmoy gegenüber, und am nächsten Tag, auf dem Weg zu unserer Abendveranstaltung, blieb Sri Chinmoy stehen, als er bei mir vorbeiging. Er sagte: "So, du hast starke Zahnschmerzen?" Ich sagte: "Ja, Guru." Sri Chinmoy schenkte mir ein breites Lächeln und ging weiter. Von diesem Augenblick an hörten die Zahnschmerzen auf, wann immer ich in Sri Chinmoys Gegenwart war, und als wir dann nach Hawaii flogen, waren sie völlig verschwunden und kamen nie wieder.
Als wir wieder zu Hause in Deutschland waren, ging ich sofort zum Zahnarzt und erzählte ihm von meinem Zahnproblem, das ich drei Wochen zuvor hatte. Er machte eine Röntgenaufnahme und sagte, dass mit dem Zahn alles in Ordnung sei. Dieser Zahn quälte mich nie mehr.
Eines Tages verletzte ich meinen Rücken bei der Arbeit. Die Schmerzen wurden immer schlimmer. Während der Nacht wachte ich mit extrem starken Schmerzen auf. Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass ich vor Schmerzen ohnmächtig werden würde, so stand ich auf und eilte zu Karalis Zimmer. Unglücklicherweise wurde ich auf dem Weg dorthin ohnmächtig und fiel auf den Fliesenboden. Es musste einen heftigen Aufschlag gegeben haben, weil beide, meine Frau Karali und meine Tochter Aruna, aufwachten. Als ich wieder mein Bewusstsein erlangte, konnte ich mich wegen der Schmerzen und der Schwäche durch die Ohnmachtnicht bewegen.
Aruna rief Ashrita in New York an, und glücklicherweise konnte er Sri Chinmoy meine Situation sofort mitteilen. Während ich so am Boden lag, fühlte ich ganz deutlich, wie die Schmerzen weggingen, sie schmolzen dahin wie eine Schneeflocke. Innerhalb von einigen Minuten waren sie komplett verschwunden und kamen nicht mehr zurück.
Projjwal Pohland (Augsburg)
How to be a good spiritual seeker?
As a foreword, I have honestly to say that it does sound quite amusing that I got into writing this. This question and the answers that may come up here actually mean my own seeking for an answer on how to improve my own standard. It seems to be something born out of my own aspiration. I usually feel that writing on spiritual topics is part of my conscious aspiration to improve on myself.
Sri Chinmoy depicts the ladder that runs from aspiration (per se) to dedication and manifestation (to be of oneness-service as a result of your aspiration) to realisation (the fulfilment of the Highest Vision of aspiration):
The secret of realisation
Is aspiration in secret.The secret of manifestation
Is dedication in secret.The secret of perfection
Is satisfaction in secret.Sri Chinmoy
Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 7, Agni Press, 1980.
Am I a seeker?
If you are reading this or if you go out running or if you are looking for something or (whatever...), then you are a seeker!
"Dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, dear distinguished professors and deans, here we are all seekers. We are sailing in the same boat, the boat that is carrying us to the Golden Shore of the Beyond. Nothing gives me a greater sense of satisfaction than to be of dedicated service to seekers, for I am also a seeker, an eternal seeker, a seeker of the infinite Truth and Light. ..." -
Sometimes we even do "wrong" things. But the past is dust. If you learn from something, that is your experience. Only please learn from it! Repeating the same things will delay your progress!
How to improve?
Through the inner cry of the heart, which is fulfilled by discipline, patience, simplicity and humility!
"The role of the disciple is quite simple, of course, if he follows the path of the heart and not the path of the mind. The role of the disciple is to give what he has and what he is. What he has is an inner cry, which is birthless and deathless. The disciple offers this birthless and deathless inner cry to his Pilot Supreme and receives His infinite Light, eternal Peace, and immortal Bliss. What he is, is a devoted and soulful instrument. He wants to help mankind see the beauty of the Infinite in the very heart of the finite. He wants to unite earth’s helpless cry and Heaven’s endless Smile. He takes it as his bounden duty to serve both Mother Earth and Father Heaven. To manifest the eternal Truth is his constant cry and constant hunger. Undoubtedly, he is a chosen instrument of the Absolute Pilot Supreme.
"Yesterday’s disciple, today’s disciple, and tomorrow’s disciple. Yesterday’s disciple was simple and humble. Simplicity was his outer life, humility was his inner life. Simplicity and humility inundated his entire being. Today’s disciple is complicated and argumentative. Complication and argumentation reign supreme in his life, day in and day out. Tomorrow’s disciple will be the fastest spiritual runner. His code of life will be to run and become, to become and run. He will run in order to succeed; he will become in order to proceed. At times he will run to reach the Goal; at times the Goal will come to him. When he reaches the Goal, he will be blessed with the transcendental Pride of the Absolute Supreme. When the Goal reaches him, he will immediately sit at the Feet of the Absolute Supreme with his heart’s soulful gratitude-sea.
(...)
"Until the Goal is reached, do not stop! And this Goal is for whom? Not for the weakling! “The soul cannot be won by the weakling,” Nayam atma bala-hinena labhyo . The inner Goal can be achieved only by powerful souls, not by weak ones. The Goal that satisfies our inner world and our outer world, the Goal that quenches our Eternity’s thirst, will not be achieved by weaklings."
- Sri Chinmoy, The Meaning of Discipleship
The Spiritual Master and The Meaning of Surrender
"The Upanishadic seers have taught us how to inspire the body with inner dynamism just by repeating these soulful and powerful words of incantation:
Arise, awake! Realise and achieve the Highest with the help of the illumining, guiding and fulfilling Masters. The path is as sharp as the edge of a razor, difficult to cross, hard to tread—so declare the wise sages."
"Unfortunately, the present-day world is scared to death when it hears the word “surrender.” But the surrender that we speak of in the spiritual life is not the surrender of the slave to the master. It is the recognition of the Infinite by the finite. A tiny drop recognises its inner identity with the vast ocean. It then enters into the ocean and becomes the vast ocean itself.
"In the spiritual life, nobody is compelled to surrender. But everybody has an inner urge to grow into the Infinite. As the tiny drop grows into the Infinite, even so, our finite consciousness can eventually grow into Infinity. Surrender and freedom are always at daggers drawn, but if we dive deep within we see that there is no difference between these two so-called realities. They are just the obverse and the reverse of the same coin. Before we accepted the spiritual life, we enjoyed freedom in one way. We fulfilled, or wanted to fulfil, our earth-bound desires. We felt, perhaps, that we had the capacity and potentiality to be another Napoleon or Alexander the Great. Like Julius Caesar, we wanted to voice forth: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” This is the positive way that we could have embraced: this reality. Otherwise, if we embraced it in the negative way, then we would have cherished and admired deep in the inmost recesses of our heart the destructive message of Hitler and Stalin. In any event, before we entered into the spiritual life we did enjoy freedom; whether it was real freedom or not is another matter. But we can say that we enjoyed something in a limited way, and the after-effect was total frustration. Therefore, we needed a kind of escape. Or we can say that illumination dawned on us. So we gave up the desire-bound life and entered into the spiritual life.
"Previously we wanted to please and fulfil ourselves by fulfilling our desire-life, but now we want to please and fulfil ourselves by fulfilling our aspiration-life. It is not that we have given up our freedom. No! Freedom is always there. Only we have changed the course of the game, and now we are enjoying a different kind of freedom.
"Unfortunately, when we enter into the spiritual life and follow a Master, we feel that we are surrendering to somebody else and giving up our freedom. But this is not at all true. Nobody is compelling us to follow a spiritual path; nobody is compelling us to listen to the Master. The seeker has come to the Master on the strength of his own inner urge. The seeker is staying with the Master in order to fulfil a divine longing that he feels. He feels that the Master knows a little more than he does, so he himself has decided to follow the Master. It is his own freedom that he is exercising. So the question of surrender does not arise at all. When we lead, we enjoy freedom. Again, when we consciously, deliberately, soulfully and unconditionally follow, at that time we enjoy another kind of freedom. In the case of the seeker, his inner awareness, inner development and inner sense of truth are compelling him to follow a higher life, a more illumining life, a more fulfilling life. It is his own free choice.
"In the spiritual life, it is always God for God’s sake right from the beginning. If this message the seeker can embody, reveal and manifest in his life at every moment, then he will be a supreme and perfect instrument of his Beloved Supreme. There shall come a time when Mother Earth will be inundated with seeker-disciples who will be carrying the banner of unconditional surrender to God which is nothing other than conscious, constant, inseparable and unconditional divine oneness with their own higher reality and their Master who represents this higher reality."
3:00 PM
June 1, 1979
Pacific School of Religion
Berkeley, California
Von Soldaten gesucht
Diese Geschichte ereignete sich im Herbst 1992, kurz vor dem Krieg der Jugoslawien auseinanderreißen sollte. Ich war gerade erst Schülerin von Sri Chinmoy geworden. Die jugoslawischen Schüler hatten ein Treffen geplant, zu dem sie aus dem ganzen Land anreisen wollten. Es sollte in Sarajewo stattfinden, der Hauptstadt der Republik Bosnien. Für uns Schüler aus Belgrad war Sarajewo am besten mit dem Zug zu erreichen; allerdings führte die Strecke auch durch ein sehr gefährliches Teilstück im Gebiet einer anderen Republik, und gerade über eine bestimmte Bahnstation in diesem Gebiet kursierten Gerüchte über entsetzliche Vorkommnisse, die sich immer wieder dort ereigneten. Jeder durchkommende Zug wurde dort angehalten und die Papiere der Reisenden von Soldaten untersucht. Sie suchten nach Leuten mit gewissen Nachnamen, welche sie als Angehörige einer anderen Nationalität und somit Erzfeinde der letzten kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen auswiesen. Machten die Soldaten eine solche Person ausfindig, zerrten sie sie aus dem Zug und töteten sie in einem nahegelegenen Feld. Die serbische Polizei wiederum wagte nicht, sich dem Zug als Begleitschutz anzuschließen, da sie in diesem Fall von den Soldaten ebenfalls exekutiert würden.
Nun wies allerdings mein eigener Nachname, und auch die einiger anderer Schüler, genau die Eigenheiten auf, auf die es die blutrünstigen Soldaten abgesehen hatten. Wir hatten daher in unserem Zentrum in Belgrad eine ernsthafte Diskussion darüber, ob wir es wagen könnten zu dem Treffen in Sarajewo anzureisen, oder ob man gar das Treffen für ganz Jugoslawien absagen sollte. Da es aber schon von langer Hand geplant und von allen sehnsüchtig erwartet wurde, beschlossen wir schlussendlich doch zu fahren. Auch hatten wir das Gefühl, dass wir uns als Anhänger eines spirituellen Meisters, und als Friedensbewegung, nicht durch solch dunkle Umstände davon abhalten lassen sollten. Und siehe da, die Zugfahrt nach Sarajewo verlief ohne Zwischenfälle und wir verbrachten mehrere wunderbare Tage im Kreise unserer Freunde. Das sollte sich allerdings auf der Rückfahrt schlagartig ändern!
Als wir in besagter Station einfuhren, bestieg eine Gruppe Soldaten den Zug und kontrollierte jedes Abteil. Schließlich kamen sie auch zu uns und verlangten unsere Ausweise. Als der Soldat den Namen in meinem Pass sah, riss er überrascht die Augen auf und wollte sofort meinen Wohnort und den Grund meiner Reise wissen. Ob ich Verwandte in der verhassten Region hätte, ob ich Kontakt zu ihnen pflegte, sie besuchen würde … . Als er mit dem Ausfragen begann, fragte ich mich ängstlich, was jetzt passieren würde. Aber ich versuchte äußerlich ruhig zu bleiben und die Fragen des Soldaten so besonnen wie möglich zu beantworten. Ich verneinte gewissenhaft, dass ich Verwandte in dem besagten Gebiet kennen würde, zeigte ihm meinen Studentenausweis und versuchte ihm zu beweisen, dass ich in Belgrad geboren wäre, dort studierte und keinerlei Verbindung zu anderen Teilgebieten Jugoslawiens hätte. Dann erzählte ich ihm, dass ich ein Mitglied der Sri Chinmoy Friedensorganisation sei und dass ich in der Gruppe reiste. Der Soldat jedoch schien nicht überzeugt. Immer und immer wieder stellte er mir dieselben Fragen und weigerte sich mir meinen Pass zurückzugeben. Schließlich trat er aus unserem Abteil in den Gang und rief seinem Offizier zu, er habe hier ein verdächtiges Subjekt lokalisiert!
"Hol ihn aus dem Zug!" schrie der Offizier zurück. "Da gibt es nur ein Problem", erwiderte der Soldat, "es handelt sich um ein Mädchen!". "Was…?" der Offizier stürmte heran und ich hörte unter Qualen seine schweren Schritte näherkommen. Ich weiß nicht, wie ich äußerlich so ruhig bleiben konnte und die zahllosen Fragen des Offiziers so vertrauensvoll und freundlich beantwortete. Die Gefühle, die dabei in meinem Inneren tobten, sind schwer zu beschreiben! Ich war mir von Anfang an voll bewusst, dass ich mich in einer lebensbedrohlichen Situation befand und dieses Gefühl, dass mein Leben an einem seidenen Faden hing steigerte sich, je länger mich die Soldaten ausfragten. Ich weiß nicht mehr welche Worte ich in meinem Inneren wiederholte, um Gott um seinen Schutz anzuflehen, aber ich erinnere mich deutlich, dass ich dachte: "O Gott, das war’s jetzt, innerhalb weniger Minuten kann mein Leben zu Ende sein!" Währenddessen hörte der Offizier nicht auf mich zu befragen, mein Foto zu studieren und mich abzuschätzen.
Da plötzlich passierte es: Ich vernahm in mir ganz deutlich und voll Sicherheit die Worte "No! Everything will be alright!" ("Nein! Es wird alles gut ausgehen!"). Sofort begann meine Angst zu verebben und das lebensbedrohliche Gefühl in mir nachzulassen. Der Offizier, der immer noch meinen Pass studierte, klappte ihn plötzlich zu, reichte ihn mir mit einem durchdringenden Blick zurück und verließ ohne ein weiteres Wort zu sagen unser Abteil. In diesem Moment hatte die Gnade und der direkte Schutz meines Meisters mein Leben gerettet, denn ich weiß mit absoluter Sicherheit, dass es mir mit meinen menschlichen Fähigkeiten nicht möglich gewesen wäre, die Soldaten, die nur allzu bereitwillig nach scheinbar verdächtigen Personen fahndeten, davon zu überzeugen, dass ich nicht eine von jenen war, die sie suchten.
Bhashata, Belgrad
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