Live in the eternal Now

I wish to tell all of you something. If you have accepted the spiritual life sincerely, then never think of the future, the so-called outer future. When you think of the outer future — what you are going to do, what you are going to become, what the world will say about you, what you will tell the world — you are placing on your poor human shoulders the weight of ten elephants — not one, but ten elephants. Then what happens, you know. If ten elephants are put on your shoulders, you will immediately be crushed.

Live in the eternal Now, today. Only try to become absolutely devoted to God’s Will and try to please God in God’s own Way. If you want to possess God, you will become a beggar. But if you want to be God’s prince, then allow Him to possess you in His own Way.

Every morning, when the day dawns, only think of that day. Think of how many ways you can make yourself happy, really happy: by doing this and by not doing that; by doing that and by not doing this. By doing and not doing, you have to make your life happy today. Do not think of tomorrow.

I do not think of tomorrow. In my universal and transcendental vision, I know many, many things, countless things, that will happen in the future. But I live in the Eternal Now. Today’s problems, the problems that will come in the next second, can be enough to make an individual insane. In one second I read a personal or important letter and immediately I am inundated with problems. Again, in the inner world also, problems come. If I have to think of you all in ten years — what you will become, what you will do, whether you will become much more spiritual or you will desert your spiritual life, whether you will become a truly unconditional disciple or you will disappear as others have disappeared — if I have to think of all those things, positive and negative, then I will not be able to live on earth even for five minutes.

The way I am going forward is that each second I am trying to offer my blessings, my blessingful light, to humanity, so that this light will illumine humanity. In what you want to do, in what you do not want to do; in what you want to become, in what you do not want to become — your illumination will come from the light that I am offering.

Most of the disciples, if not all, not only here but everywhere, are thinking so much of the future, future, future. There is no such thing as the future. Every second, every minute is the future. But if you think of what is going to happen in ten or fifteen years, if you think, “Let me start accumulating money-power” or “Let me save my earthly possessions,” these thoughts are only elephants that you are inviting to be on your shoulders.

If you have genuine aspiration, then grow at every moment with your aspiration. And inside your aspiration-light, you will see what God wants you to be, what God wants you to be for Him. If you want to live for yourself, you are bound to be frustrated. No matter what you become or what you were or what you are, you are bound to be frustrated. But if you become what God wants you to be, then there is no happiness that can ever be denied you, for God’s infinite Joy and Pride you will then become.

- Sri Chinmoy, Live in the eternal Now