Our inner cry at once arises from our depths and descends from above. We know not where it comes from, or whither it will lead us. Prayer is our conscious endeavour to harness and control our inner cry, to put it to use, to give it name, voice, form, a role and direction, to employ it for our advantage.
And so we portion out the unknowable, uncontrollable, illimitable inner cry into our known, prescribed, confined framework of beliefs, rituals and apparent needs. We channel it into prayer. We pray.
The prayer that comes from our finite mind or vital quite often seeks something for ourself, giving voice to pre-conceived desires in service of our ego. In the fulfilment of these finite prayers, we miss our mark; our inner cry reveals the disappointment of our infinite soul, and bids our heart to take up a purer prayer.
Just as water will always eventually find its way to the sea, so our inner cry will eventually find its way around and beyond any restriction, control, language, beliefs or understanding we seek to clothe it in. The inner cry will always win: working its way through the finite to the infinite, through bondage to liberation, through the mind to the heart, control to surrender, through prayer to meditation, sound to silence.
The prayer of our heart yearns only to offer itself, devoid of desire, aspiring for a desireless confluence in the flow of our soul’s light and will. Rising from the heart, our inner cry casts off the finite ego-bonds. With the ultimate prayer, “Let Thy Will be done!” our inner cry unmasks itself, and its prayer-adventure is complete. Prayer surrenders to meditation. Our inner cry welcomes us to our new home.
To be effective, the tears of our inner cry must be sincere, unceasing and limitless. Sri Chinmoy described these tears as streaming from our heart, or a bleeding of our heart. When asked, how one can bring forward the determination to do the right thing, he replied:
“Only by virtue of prayer. There is no other way. Like a child, you have to cry and cry. The child thinks that if it cries for its toy for five minutes, the mother is bound to give it. No! The mother watches for ten or fifteen minutes, or even half an hour. Then she says, ‘It is a hopeless case. I must give it to him because he is not going to stop.’
“When a little child cries and cries, eventually he becomes desperate. Similarly, when we become really desperate, then the inner determination comes. But our determination is not like a child’s, no. There should be some poise in it. And there should be tears.
“If you can develop sincere tears, then you will really get determination. Everything depends on the heart’s cries and tears. If we really want to become a good person or do something for the world, we have to feel not the tears of the eyes, but the tears of the heart. Inside the heart, we have to feel streaming tears; we have to feel that our heart is bleeding for something. Then determination comes.
“Everything is inside the heart. If we can live inside the heart for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, we will find the answer. The question ‘How can I have determination or adamantine will’ comes from the mind, but the answer lies in the heart, the heart’s tears. For everything, the heart’s tears is the answer.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“To reach God’s Palace
You do not need an outer guide,
But you do need an inner cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Whatever we might imagine God’s Palace to be – whether as a place, an ideal, a realm of consciousness or state of being – it is certainly going to be fantastical, magical, blissful, thrilling and fulfilling in every way, our ultimate ideal. If the only thing needed to reach God’s Palace is an inner cry, then feeding our inner cry must be our first urgent duty, or else our ideal will forever remain unreachable. Which brings forth our next question:
“How to feed the inner cry?
Just try to claim
A higher life
As your own.”
– Sri Chinmoy
If we are satisfied with our life as is, then there is nothing to stir our inner cry into action.
Complacency captures us, our aspiration deflates and intensity dwindles as we slide into lethargy and spiritual decline. To fire it up, our inner cry needs an ideal to reach for, to yearn for, to aspire towards. By always setting our sights higher – longing for a better consciousness, a higher life, a fuller, more divine existence – our inner cry is enlivened and comes into its own.
Once our inner cry is engaged, naturally it longs to increase and intensify itself, for our cry knows there is no end to its work, no ceiling to its sky. The higher our aspiration, the more our inner cry is fed, the more powerful it becomes:
“The capacity is aspiration; the capacity comes from the inner cry. If you really do need God, if you desperately need God, then your standard is very high. If God comes first, Truth comes first, Light comes first in your life, then automatically the inner cry increases.”
– Sri Chinmoy
In meditation and the spiritual life, the master key to open every door and reach every goal is the inner cry, aspiration. Sri Chinmoy was asked for some techniques for increasing one’s heart-power. His answer was succinct:
“Cry, cry. Think of a child. A child knows how to cry. Because he feels the need of a toy, he cries. In our case also, if we need God, our Divine Toy, then we must cry. A child is not satisfied until he has his toy. In our inner life also, we must cry. We are here on earth for thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years, but if we do not get something at once, then we feel that we should not take our aspiration seriously. We have to know that the thing that we want is all-important; then only we will value it. Our human difficulty is that we do not take anything seriously. We hope for name and fame, but if we see that we must climb up a tall tree in order to get what we want, then we lose interest. So, in the spiritual life also we want God, but before we realise God, we have to do a few things. If we feel inwardly the value of God-realisation in our life, then the so-called hardship that we go through is nothing. If we value the goal, then we are bound to walk along the path. What actually happens is that the road is long and arduous but, if we constantly keep the goal in our view and walk along the road, then we will reach our destination. If we really value the goal and cry for the goal, then there will always be some way for us to reach the goal.”
– Sri Chinmoy
To find our inner cry, we must identify with our soul, which is ceaselessly crying on our behalf.
When asked, what are the first steps in the spiritual life, Sri Chinmoy replied:
“The spiritual life will give you inner peace, joy and bliss in abundant measure. People cry for name, fame, earthly achievement, success and progress and so many things. They are right in their own way. But you should start crying inwardly from this moment on for joy, peace of mind and the awakening of your inner consciousness.
“We have, all of us, two different types of consciousness: one is finite, which is earthbound; the other is infinite. This infinite Consciousness, this universal Consciousness is within us. So early in the morning, go deep within. Focus your concentration on your heart and try to feel there the existence of a child crying within you. This is your soul. Then consciously try to identify with this inner being, which is absolutely yours. When you are identified with this inner being, you will see the inner being is crying for you, has been crying for you and will cry for you for eternity unless and until you have become inseparably one with the Absolute Truth.
“So, early in the morning for five or ten minutes, please try to go deep within with your conscious mind or with your pure, sincere heart and feel the necessity of the inner life. Once you feel the necessity, your inner being will guide you, mould you and shape you along the path. Finally, you can march and run along the path. If you can go deep within and sow the seed of aspiration with your inner cry, then sooner or later you are bound to get a bumper crop.”
– Sri Chinmoy
We all long for a better life: this longing ultimately leads us to meditation and the spiritual life.
We know however, that a better life means a different life from what we have now, which means we must be prepared to change, both within and without. Without change there can be no progress; without progress there can be no transformation: without transformation there can be no abiding satisfaction in our lives.
Change is the greatest challenge we all face. Always there is something within us which resists change, no matter how eagerly we yearn for it. According to Sri Chinmoy, there is only one agent capable of changing us and transforming our nature:
“Transformation — transformation of nature, transformation of life — is the most difficult subject in the entire world! The most difficult subject in human life is the transformation of our nature, and for that, how many centuries, how many lives we have taken, and how many more we shall have to take!
“We may be sixty, seventy, eighty or even ninety years old, but if we want to see how much we have transformed our nature, sometimes we cannot give ourselves a mark of more than zero. For ninety years we may live on earth, but it may happen that, in terms of transformation, we have made no progress. Again, in the case of some people, right from the beginning, from the dawn of their life, we see that they are making progress, making progress.
“Earthly age is no indication of our transformation. It entirely depends on the inner cry. Only the heart’s inner cry can transform us. Otherwise, year after year we are only adding earthly years to our life; transformation is not taking place. Transformation comes only from the inner cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“Our progress-life
Is sumptuously fed
By our inner cries.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Spiritual progress blossoms in the expansion and deepening of our heart, experienced when our mind is silent. To enter into a silent mind is therefore the first objective of any meditation practice or spiritual path.
The mind, however, cannot and will not easily be silenced. Its very nature is to be restless like a monkey, to distract us and thwart our concentration and meditation efforts, to keep our attention focussed on itself. As long as we are absorbed in our mind, we are restrained in the box of our mind’s chatter: we do not change, and cannot progress.
We cannot employ our mind to silence the mind; we cannot think away thoughts. Only the psychic power of our hearts’ inner cries can subdue the mind. Our mind’s bluff and bluster is swept away in the flood of our inner cry’s intensity, disarmed by its purity, charmed by its simplicity, captured by its urgency, silenced in its sincerity.
As our inner cry eclipses our mind, the portals of our heart open and we find ourselves basking in our inner sunshine, flowing and growing into our perfection-potential. Our inner cries not only make our spiritual progress possible, but inevitable; they are the spark plug, fuel, engine and accelerator of our progress-life.
Our inner cry arises from a compelling dissatisfaction with our present consciousness and capacity, a gnawing awareness that we can and must go deeper, grow into and become someone better, brighter, fuller. Our inner cry fulfils its own yearning, piloting our progress-journey from human self into divine being. Sri Chinmoy states this spiritual law in an aphorism of transcendent beauty:
“The rainbow of our inner divinity
Always rises from
Our crying and weeping hearts.”
– Sri Chinmoy
Sri Chinmoy was once asked, if there is a specific way to accelerate the attainment of our God-realisation. His reply encapsulates the entire purpose and function of the inner cry, from the highest point of view:
“Yes, there is a specific way, and it is called conscious aspiration. God must come first. There must be no mother, no father, no sister, no brother — nothing else but God, only God. True, we want to see God in humanity, but first we have to see Him face to face. Most of us cry for money, name, fame, material success and prosperity; but we do not cry even for an iota of inner wisdom. If we cry sincerely, devotedly and soulfully for unconditional oneness with our Inner Pilot, then today’s man of imperfection will be transformed into tomorrow’s God, the perfect Perfection incarnate.
“Aspiration, the inner cry, should come from the physical, the vital, the mind, the heart and the soul. Of course, the soul has been aspiring all the time, but the physical, vital, mental and psychic beings have to become consciously aware of this. When we consciously aspire in all parts of our being, we will be able to accelerate the achievement of liberation.
“How do we aspire? Through proper concentration, proper meditation and proper contemplation. Aspiration covers both meditation and prayer. He who is praying feels he has an inner cry to realise God, and he who is meditating also feels the need of bringing God’s Consciousness right into his being. So both ways are correct.
“Conscious aspiration is the first thing we need. Aspiration is all that we have and all that we are. Then consciously we have to offer our aspiration to the Supreme so that we can become one with Him.”
– Sri Chinmoy
The inner cry is God’s secret mechanism for our illumination and perfection.
All that we seek – peace, light, bliss, satisfaction – is already within us; there for the taking. God could give us all realisation here and now – but then there would be no game, no drama, no mystery, no suspense, no battle to be won. We tend to value something much more if we have worked hard for it, whereas things which just appear in our lap, we may take for granted.
So God devised the inner cry, and planted its seed in the depths of our being. When this seed germinates, we feel the inner cry as coming from within ourselves, arising of our own volition. When we follow our inner cry and attain some degree of peace, light and satisfaction, we are thrilled at our achievement, for we have worked to attain what we aspired for.
Sri Chinmoy writes:
“Meditation needs practice. You have to practise to become spontaneous in your meditation. Why is it that you get hungry one day and the next day you don’t get hungry? If you work hard on the outer plane, then you are bound to become hungry. If, on the physical plane, you run quite a few miles, then you are bound to feel hungry. Similarly, if you work hard on the inner plane, then you will be blessed with receptivity. In the inner plane, if you cry soulfully and devotedly, then you can create receptivity, and inside that receptivity you will feel gratitude. When you feel gratitude, at that time your meditation is bound to be spontaneous. So there are many ways to get hungry. But the ultimate cause of inner hunger, the real source of your inner cry is God and nothing else.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“If you want to develop
A special bond of oneness-delight
With God,
Then use your unused inner cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
This poem carries such power, promise, allure, beauty, intimacy, urgency, agency and thrill! Who would not want to develop a special bond of oneness-delight with God? Is this not the secret purpose of our every breath and heartbeat? And here, this prize is so close, within our grasp…
That Sri Chinmoy points to our inner cry as the pathway to this goal is no surprise: however, he specifically nominates “your unused inner cry” as the anointed pathfinder for this quest. We do not need anything new: we only need activate something we already have within; realign our priorities, reorient our goals, reorder the cards of our deck.
The same truth is coloured differently in another poem:
“Somewhere God’s Bliss can be seen —
True, but where?
In the home of the seeker’s
inner cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
The home of our inner cry is our soul, God’s representative within us: trace our inner cry to its source, its home, to find ourselves face to face with our soul, resonant with God’s Bliss. We have only to keep our inner cry always alive, always active: then by feeling it, loving it, treasuring and embracing our inner cry, we return with it to its home, God’s Home in us, our soul.
The highest capability of a human is to live always in our infinite, immortal soul, the soul’s consciousness permeating and reigning redolent in our heart, mind, vital and body.
What is the secret, then, to live always and only in our soul? When asked this question, Sri Chinmoy replied:
“Through the constant, sleepless and breathless inner cries of the heart we can live in the soul only.”
– Sri Chinmoy
“I try, I try,
I always try
To love and please
My inner cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
This simple, humble aphorism carries the most profound truth and secret of the spiritual life. If we are trying always to love and please our inner cry, then our inner cry is effectively our lord, our obsession, our darling, our primary focus – as it must needs be, for our continuous progress.
Our inner cry is the engine that invokes inspiration, engages our aspiration, activates our hidden capacities and qualities, gives voice to our deepest yearnings, disciplines our vital energies, clarifies and focuses our mind, continually expands our heart, and drives us ever onward to self-discovery and fulfillment.
As the only indispensable necessity in our spiritual life, maintaining, nourishing and intensifying the inner cry itself, becomes our foremost goal, our primary cry. The effort to find, nurture, love and please our inner cry, is like the role of a spark plug in a motor vehicle: first the spark must itself be produced, which in turn ignites the fuel that powers the engine of our progress. Once the engine of our inner cry is engaged, all else that is needed, follows and flows naturally.
When we are focused on loving and pleasing someone, we have no time or inclination to think of ourselves, our own desires. So, when we are only trying to love and please our inner cry, there is no room in our consciousness for petty thoughts and emotions, for doubt, fear, jealousy, insecurity, anger and pride. Every weakness, limitation and problem, with all negativity is swept away by the momentum-torrent of our quest.
First and forever more, let this most precious mantra resound:
“I try, I try,
I always try
To love and please
My inner cry.”
– Sri Chinmoy
There are two aspects of our inner cry: the conscious and the super-conscious. Consciously, we cry to attain specific qualities, or to overcome certain obstacles in our spiritual life. We cry for that which we are aware we are in need of.
Yet behind, within, around and beyond our conscious cry flows the invisible, unfathomable inmost cry. It is not only that this inmost cry, cries for that of which we are unaware: this inmost cry itself lives, breathes, moves and operates in realms to us unknowable and inconceivable.
Our conscious inner cry is our instrument, inspired and directed by our aspiring will. Our super-conscious, inmost cry is the executing voice of the Supreme’s Will, shaping and employing us as God’s instrument in His cosmic Game.
The spiritual quality which most eludes us on earth, and yet calls to us most compellingly, is Delight. Happiness, joy, even bliss we are familiar with, as they come and go with apparent cause and effect: while Delight hovers ever ineffable, subtle, effulgent beyond our grasp.
Sri Chinmoy speaks of Delight as the source and goal of our inmost cry:
“Aspiration takes us immediately into the realm of Delight. From Delight we came into existence, from the transcendental Self. Again, in Delight we grow. Our inner being grows in Delight. The outer being may not be aware of it. The outer being goes through suffering, but the soul, the inner being, grows in Delight. At the end of our journey, we enter into the same perpetual Delight. This was the realisation of the Vedic seers, the seers of the hoary past. And also this is the realisation of all true spiritual Masters. Aspiration is that which offers us Infinity in the form of boundless Peace and boundless Delight.”
– Sri Chinmoy
If our heart is devoid of an inner cry, we cannot pretend we are leading a spiritual life. The inner cry is the beating heart of spirituality: arising from the Infinite and the Eternal, and reaching ever towards the Infinite and the Eternal. The inner cry is at once our most sacred gift from God, our most precious offering to God.
Our inner cry will bring us faster to God than any spiritual book, religious observance, good deed, sacrifice, offering or spiritual discipline.
Sri Chinmoy was unequivocal that the inner cry of aspiration is the single indispensable prerequisite and qualification for the spiritual life:
“If you ask whether there is anything that is most important in our spiritual life, then I wish to say, ‘Yes, there is, and that is aspiration.’ Today’s aspiration is bound to bring down God tomorrow or in the near future. It is in aspiration that God manifests Himself through us. The human aspiration and the divine Compassion go together. Divine Compassion is the flame of human aspiration. There is no end to our aspiration. There is no end to our realisation, no end. The goal is ever transcending its own limits. Today’s goal will be tomorrow’s starting point. There is no end to our goal; therefore there is no end to our ultimate realisation. There is no end to our aspiration. We aspire for the Highest, for the Infinite, for the Eternal. The Infinite cannot be measured. As we enter into Infinity, the finite and the Infinite become inseparably one. Our Vedic seers voiced forth:
‘Infinity is that. Infinity is this.
From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence.
From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away,
Infinity remains the same.’
That is the message we can get from our aspiration.”
– Sri Chinmoy
