A few months after seeing Sri Chinmoy for the first time, during small talk in the teachers’ lounge at school, I was lamenting that I needed to buy a new scarf to wear with my winter coat. About a week later, my disciple friend approached me in the lounge and said, “I saw this scarf and it reminded me of you. I don’t know if you’ll like it or not. If not, it’s okay, I can take it back.” With that, she showed me a scarf that was quite bright, with yellow-gold rectangles on aqua sky-blue. I had been thinking of something darker, but she was offering it as a gift, and I really needed a scarf.

There was something about the scarf that drew me to it, but the colours were not a combination that I would ever have chosen for myself. Also, something about the scarf put me off. I felt uneasy about it and couldn’t figure out why.

In the subway on the way home, I closed my eyes and imagined Jesus, with me showing him the scarf. Suddenly, in the inner vision of my mind’s eye, Jesus was there, concretely, with me. I showed him the scarf, and inwardly questioned him about it in a way that was wordless. He took it from me and held one end of the scarf in one hand and the other end in the other hand. Standing in front of me, he looped the middle of the scarf over my head and onto my neck and shoulders, letting the ends hang down the front of my body, while saying, “It is a mantle upon thee.”

I remember thinking, “What’s a ‘mantle’?” I thought this word might refer to some kind of medieval cloth drape or embroidered hanging, but I didn’t know for sure, as it was certainly not a word I used in my daily language. When the subway arrived at my station, I walked quickly to the house where my apartment was. I was in a hurry to get back to this experience.

I sat down in my room and went into prayer. I saw myself with Jesus, again with the scarf. Immediately, the image returned as strong, as vivid and as concrete as the first time. I knew that this was a special experience. In my mind’s eye, I was standing with Jesus, with the scarf draped around my neck. He repeated, “It is a mantle upon thee.”

Then, feeling perplexed, I told him that I was uneasy about this scarf and I didn’t know why.

Jesus turned his head slightly away and extended his left arm straight out. I looked where he was pointing, and in the distance, some ways off, I saw Sri Chinmoy sitting in a dark blue, cushioned armchair, with various disciples coming and going around him. There was a lot of light around Guru and the chair and the whole scene. The disciples were all very happy as they came in and out of the scene.

Jesus looked at me and said, “What do you see?” I said, “I see … Light, … and Joy, … Light, and … Love.”  Then he dropped his arm to his side, looked straight at me and said, “And are you afraid of … that?”

The image disappeared. I was back in my room.

Obviously, I decided to keep the scarf. I did not tell my disciple friend about this inner experience. It seemed a personal message and not to be shared at the time. I merely told her, when next I saw her, that the colour combination in the scarf was not what I would usually wear, but that I really did like the scarf. She said, “Well, you know, this blue and gold, they’re the Sri Chinmoy Centre colours.” Instantly, a series of understandings cascaded through my brain. (I later learned, Guru had said that blue is the main colour in his aura and gold is the colour of God’s manifestation on earth.)

After my inner image experience, I had looked up the word ‘mantle’ in the dictionary. It said, “in heraldry, the representation or drapery of a coat of arms.” A ‘coat of arms’ was defined as a “light garment worn over armour, generally emblazoned with the insignia of a person, family or institution.”

Jesus Christ had mantled me in the colours of the Sri Chinmoy Centre.

My Absolute Lord Supreme!
Today You are asking me
To be a passenger
Of Your Eternity's
Blue-gold Dream-Boat.
My gratitude-heart
I place at Your Feet.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. My aspiration-heart cycles, part 1, Agni Press, 2000

There is a photograph of me in my highest transcendental consciousness. A seeker should always meditate on what inspires him most. Just because I am their Master, my disciples get abundant inspiration from meditating on this picture. If anybody looks at it with love, joy and devotion, no matter how much of a beginner he is, no matter which path he followed before, just because the person is a seeker, my inner consciousness will open its door to him.

Sri Chinmoy 1

My introduction to the path was when I went to my first meditation class one weekend.   In our first session, we were doing some exercises on the candle flame and a flower. During this session, during these exercises, I saw a streak of light coming from my right side. But there was no window, no light, no door, nothing. So I was a little bit puzzled. What is this light? Where is it coming from?

During the intermission, I saw there was a frame against the wall. Its back was toward us, so I just looked at the frame. The light was coming from this picture. There was nothing else on the wall. At the end of the session, I went to the centre leader. I told her my experience and she said, "Oh, this is a Transcendental Picture of our Master. He was just calling you."

I had another very strong experience with the Transcendental. As Guru said, the Transcendental is not a picture. It is not a photograph. It is really something more.

In 1999 during the Christmas trip in Bandung, Indonesia, the leader of our Centres in France came to me and said, “Guru wants to give you your name.” I was a little bit surprised because just the year before this, our centre in Paris was disbanded. I was quite surprised that he would give me a spiritual name at this time.

During the first week of that trip, I was waiting every morning to get my spiritual name and had another very strong experience - an inner connection with Guru. I was ready to be called by Guru but it didn’t happen the first week. I was quite worried about that. After one week, we moved to another city in Bandung. Perhaps Guru has forgotten, or he sometimes says that he will give a name and then he doesn’t.

I was ready to accept this. I became very strict with myself. I had a small notebook, and every time I was thinking, saying or doing something not very nice, I wrote it down. At the end of the day, I was counting how many times I thought, said or did something that was not very nice. I was very strict with myself.
 
One morning we met for meditation in a small amphitheatre in the hotel. I was sitting in one of the upper rows. After meditation, Guru remained silent for a while. Everybody remained seated, reading or listening to music with their headphones. It was very silent, and I was just looking at Guru. I was quite far from him. At one point, he raised his head and looked at me. He nodded his head a little bit. So I understood that it was time for me to go up to him. I left the row and started to go down to the stage. The guards just stood up, ready to stop me because Guru hadn’t called me.

Then Guru said, "No, no, no." He motioned for me to come to him. I kneeled down on the stage in front of him to meditate. Then he gave me a piece of paper with my name on it. When he handed me the paper, he didn’t release it at first. For a while we were stretching out our arms toward each other. He didn’t move at this time—he was meditating on me and over my head also. It was a very, very strong feeling, and I was a little bit stressed about the situation. This is perhaps why he gave me another experience with the Transcendental.
After that, the disciples came to me and said, "How did you know that Guru would give you your name? He didn’t call you." I said, "No, I don’t know. I just felt it."
This next experience with the Transcendental came right after Guru gave me my name. When you receive a spiritual name, you recite this name 100 times and meditate in front of the Transcendental. I went to my room and I repeated my name 100 times. My name was quite complicated so I didn’t know how to pronounce it. But I did what I could.

After meditating a while, everything disappeared in my room—just the Transcendental remained. Everything disappeared around me, and there was real light flowing from the eyes of the Transcendental to my eyes. I could really see the light coming to me from the eyes of the Transcendental.

It didn’t last so long because just a few minutes later, there was a big bang on the door and my roommate Unnatishil came in and yelled at me, "Wow, you got your name!" So my meditation was finished.

Note: Sri Chinmoy asked that his Transcendental Photograph be given only to his sincere students, and not reproduced online. Therefore, the photograph is not reproduced here. To see it, we recommend attending one of the free meditation classes offered by the Sri Chinmoy Centre.

The inner world
Is not a mental fantasy —
It is an unfathomable Reality.

Sri Chinmoy 2

• 1. Sri Chinmoy, Beyond Within — A collection of writings 1964-1974, Agni Press, 1975
• 2. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 42, Agni Press, 2005