The Oceanic Consciousness

Recently, I wrote over a thousand words about one of Sri Chinmoy's
short poems:

God is descending.
Man lost his umbrella.
The ant-heart devoured the
Elephant-Eye.

http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/books/0177/1/1/

I was fortunate to have an intuition about the poem which helped me
write about it. I am very grateful to readers who felt I was able to
shed some light on the poem. Other poems in this series from his book
God The Supreme Humourist, Part 1 may be too difficult for me. I can
enjoy them because they have his consciousness, but I may not be able
to explain them.

This beautiful man was not just a poet; he was many poets. He was not
just a musician; he was many musicians. He was not just an artist; he
was many artists. And in his most sacred inner life, he was not just a
God-lover, he was a God-becomer. In his inner life, he played the role
of the perfect seeker for his disciples, so that they would understand
the art of it. He also played the role of the Absolute Lord Supreme.
He entered into the oceanic consciousness and brought back the taste
of the oceanic consciousness.

I have said before that it will take hundreds of years for the world
to understand and appreciate this glorious soul who walked - nay, ran
among us. His glowing consciousness is still sending earth infinite
blessings from the soul's world. For his 73rd birthday, his disciples
gave him a bouquet of 100,000 roses which were later donated to
charity. But in the inner world, he is now showering them with not
thousands, not millions, not billions, but infinite infinite
purity-flowers, love-flowers, and gratitude-flowers.

If you get an inner telegram - if someone rings your buzzer and you
see flowers, flowers, and more flowers, do open your inner door and
receive his message. It is a message of love.

http://humanflowerproject.com/images/uploads/yebiggest-bouquet.jpg

Sri Chinmoy left us with thousands and thousands of works of art, such
as his poems, songs, and paintings. Some of them are serious, some of
them are playful, and some of them explore a rich palette of spiritual
emotions so vast that human language has not yet found a name for them.

In some of his later works, like the piano and organ improvisations,
he was searching for a way to spontaneously express the oceanic
consciousness. He had the courage to experiment; and as a God-Realized
soul, he had the childlike quality which allowed him to simply play.

He had become a true human being - which is to say a God man - and had
earned the right to play. Therefore, to see him at play was as
illumining and inspiring as any sermon ever preached.

In the coming years, connoisseurs and music critics will no doubt
spend much time comparing the piano and organ recordings, looking for
those which are most outstanding. While this is naturally a matter of
personal taste, two of my current favorites are:

Piano: Silence-Sea-Flood (on CD of the same name), with an M4A version
on Radio Sri Chinmoy*:

http://www.radiosrichinmoy.org/radio/93

Pipe Organ: at St. John The Divine (on Multiplicity-Ecstasy CD), with
an M4A version on Radio Sri Chinmoy*:

http://www.radiosrichinmoy.org/radio/109

If, as a listener, you have been concentrating on his shorter, more
accessible works, and are looking to break into the longer, more
oceanic compositions, I highly recommend these two recordings.

When researching the poem I wrote about, I happened upon another of
his poems about compassion and forgiveness:

My dear Lord
How can I live
Without Your Life's
Compassion-Eye?

My sweet Lord
How can I breathe
Without Your Heart's
Forgiveness-Sky?

http://www.srichinmoylibrary.com/books/1233/1/27

The song version is sung by Japaka Orchestra on their CD Living in the
Heart, with a Real Audio version on Radio Sri Chinmoy:

http://tinyurl.com/ywlfo6 (shortcut to page)
http://tinyurl.com/2ojd45 (shortcut to download)

In my earlier essay, I spoke about human doing - the constant human
doing that forms an umbrella which keeps away God's Compassion. I am
thinking that as the spiritual seeker reduces his wants, he comes to
feel that to live and breathe, he needs only these two things: God's
Compassion-Eye and God's Forgiveness-Sky.

I am a long way from that place, but it is good to hear about these
things again and again, so that we can prepare ourselves. Fortunately,
Sri Chinmoy found thousands and thousands of ways to express these
spiritual truths through poems, songs, and paintings - not just his
talks. Therefore, he is destined to be the Master most beloved by
those with a creative and artistic temperament. I offer him my
gratitude for being a visionary unsurpassed in human evolution, and a
perfect embodiment of the ideal of Compassion.

Michael

*Thank you to Kamalakanta and Sumangali for continuing to make Radio
Sri Chinmoy a beautiful place to visit.