Question: How can we deal with this world, which is literally wracked by agony?

Sri Chinmoy: There is only one way to deal with it. We have to feel that the world is not around us or in front of us, but deep within. It is not outside us; it is within us.

Then we have to try for our own nature's purification and transformation. The more we are purified and fulfilled inwardly, the sooner will world transformation take place. By telling someone, "Come here, you are imperfect. You have to become perfect," you will never make him perfect. But if you can purify your own emotion, if you can illumine your own inner life, then it will be infinitely easier for you to convince him to illumine his life. So we always say that aspirants have to go deep within to have their own inner illumination first. Then, when they have their own inner illumination, it becomes easier for them to give inspiration or dynamic energy or mounting aspiration to others and to illumine the rest of the world. We can illumine the world only through our own awakening and our own inner illumination.