Immortality and Eternity

by Sri Chinmoy

Immortality deals with life, life in the form of consciousness, life in the form of reality and life in the form of object, subject or substance. Immortality means the immortality of consciousness, not the immortality of the gross physical. One can leave the body at one’s own sweet will. But if anything has to last on the physical plane for an indefinite time, it becomes the greatest torture. Even the most materialistic person on earth, even a pleasure-loving person, will be disgusted if he stays on earth for more than one hundred years. Every undivine desire may be fulfilled, but even then he will be disgusted because he is not dealing with the illumining consciousness.

When you deal with the illumining consciousness, you do not pay attention to the senses. You feel that you do not need the satisfaction of the senses, or of anything that belongs to earth, because at that time you see that earth itself is impermanent. The only thing that is permanent is the birthless and deathless Divine.

When we think of Eternity, we have to know that anything that is created, whether on the physical plane, the vital plane, the mental plane or the transcendental plane, can be eternal. It may have had its beginning yesterday, but it can go on, go on for millions and billions and trillions of years.

Immortality deals with life, and life came from Silence. We can measure Eternity, but we cannot measure Immortality. However, Immortality came first, because Silence itself was life. So life comes first, and then only can we start measuring. First one is born, then one is one second old, one day old, one year old, and so on.

So in Eternity there is a sense of measurement, while there is none in Immortality. You cannot measure Immortality, whereas you can try to calculate Eternity with your imagination. The sense of measurement comes in Eternity. It is divine, intuitive and psychic measurement. Immortality is something that is already there.

Let us take Eternity as a tree that is growing, growing and growing. Eternity grows and Immortality remains the same. Immortality is already there; just use your vision. But Eternity is always going upwards. Eternity’s conception goes upwards, while Immortality is all around.

Do not waste your time Thinking of Eternity. Do immediately What you are supposed to do. Since Eternity exists, It will definitely bring you the reward For your today’s self-giving.

Does God plan for the future the way human beings do?

God’s Vision is not something to be fulfilled in the future. God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. God’s perception and manifestation are simultaneous.

Man, being God’s instrument, plans; and later he sees the unfoldment of his plans in time. However, God’s Play is more like a child’s play in that it is spontaneous and without motive, and it does not seek a future result. God is a divine Child but His Play, unlike that of a human child, is responsible, conscious and divine.

It is good for man to have a plan. God manifests Himself through man. With our finite consciousness, Truth is revealed gradually as ignorance melts into Light. But in God’s world, Truth and Revelation exist together, so that perception and manifestation occur simultaneously. For man the vision of the future must be fulfilled through plans so that God may reveal through man what has always abided in Him.

Do you think that God lives All by Himself? No, He lives with millions Of secret and sacred plans For you.

How can we best utilise the physical earthbound time that we are living in?

There are two kinds of time. One is earthbound time and the other is eternal Time. The earthbound time is what we have created, but eternal Time cannot be created. It is within us and without us.

When we live in eternal Time, we cannot separate one second from another second. When we live in earthbound time, we know that it is one o’clock and then it is one minute past one. They are two separate minutes. But in eternal Time, we cannot separate the minutes or hours. In eternal Time one o’clock, two o’clock, three and four o’clock are all together. This is the difference between eternal Time and earthbound time. We can see the present, past and future perfectly housed in eternal Time, and this eternal Time we can easily possess when we are Self-realised.

Let us take an ordinary second. This second you can use either for meditation or for gossip. This second you can use either to pray or to cherish impure and undivine thoughts. When you consciously use time to do something divine, you are entering into divine Time, which means timeless Time. When you are consciously thinking of something divine, immediately eternal Life comes and shakes hands with you. Each moment you want to go upward through aspiration, the eternal Time also becomes your friend.

Love God unconditionally! You will not be chained By earthbound time.

Many say that we are entering into the end of this age, and that the world is going to end quite soon. I was wondering what you had to say about it.

Since your childhood I am sure you have been hearing that the world is coming to an end. Our grandfathers were also told the same story. The world is not just a tiny spot. It will not be destroyed totally. A portion of the world may be destroyed by an earthquake or some catastrophe, but the whole world as such is not going to be destroyed. Human aspiration is not going to come to an end.

Human aspiration may ascend and descend, but ultimately it goes up. If somebody becomes tired while he is climbing, then in his time of relaxation perhaps he may come down a little. But when he is again inspired, he will go up again and finally he will reach the Highest.

The world is not going to come to an end, because human aspiration is not going to come to an end. One day human aspiration may be very hot, and another day it may be lukewarm, but once it starts in us, it will carry us to the highest Absolute. Before it reaches that Goal, it will not be satisfied. As long as human aspiration exists in the earth atmosphere, this world will never be totally destroyed.

Aspire soulfully and sleeplessly. You will see that The death-dealing hand of time Will be transformed into The life-flowing heart of time. 

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His mind-clock tells him That he does not have to waste His precious time Waiting for God, Since God’s existence is quite uncertain.

His heart-clock tells him To wait and watch, For God will definitely come.

His soul-clock tells him That God has already arrived And asks him what he is doing And why he is not taking care Of the Supreme Guest.