The first time I heard an inner voice

Before he started studying meditation with Sri Chinmoy, Pulak was living and studying in Denmark.

I made a little shrine out of three rocks that abstractly represented to me some sage meditating. I found them on the coastline in Aarhus and put them together.

One evening I was taking a ferry to Copenhagen. I was at the back of the ferry. The sun was setting, the stars were coming out, and a flock of seagulls who were following the boat.

I was just kind of letting go of all my thoughts and getting absorbed into the atmosphere of my surroundings—the sound of the boat motor, the water churning and the seagulls and all the other various sounds. I was just getting absorbed into them.

Then I started imagining the stars were coming out and what it would be like to be a beam of light travelling through the universe. It was sort of a meditation. Then something really unusual started happening. I felt I was like I was expanding or elevating, almost like my body was elevating off the boat. I was hearing this music, which seemed like angelic music. It was as if I was just drawn into this other dimension that was totally separate from the physical world. It was on some spiritual plane.

Then I heard a voice. This is the crazy part. A voice inside actually said, “Come back to New York.” Then I started thinking, “What am I doing here? How am I going to get back into my body?”

I started feeling afraid, and it all went back to the sounds of the boat motor chugging, the water churning, and the seagulls squawking.

I assure you,  
Unlike the outer world,  
The inner world is not asleep.  
The inner world only watches and waits  
For a little receptivity  
From the outer world  
So that it can pour and pour into it  
Its unreserved blessings and love.  

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 57, Agni Press, 1984