Question: How can I get rid of expectation?

Sri Chinmoy: How can you get rid of expectation? You can get rid of expectation by establishing more oneness with your Beloved Supreme, with the Supreme in you and the Supreme in me. Here is an example. A beggar expects something from the rich man. He will knock at the door, the owner will open the door, and the beggar will say, “Please give me a few dollars or some food or clothes.” He is a beggar; therefore, he has to knock at the door and beg. Now, if you are not a beggar, if you are the daughter of the owner of that house, then you don’t have to go out and knock at the door. You just remain inside, and it is the bounden duty of your father to support you, to feed you, to clothe you, to take care of your needs, to help you, to illumine you, to fulfil you. He knows that to fulfil his own daughter is to fulfil himself. And the way you have to feel is that when you fulfil your Divine Father, you fulfil your own reality.

You have to know what kind of oneness you have established with the Supreme or with your Master or with your soul. If you have established a strong, sincere, soulful oneness, then you don’t have to expect, for you will automatically get. A true, loving son or daughter, and an all-loving Father, need each other. The daughter’s affection, love and concern, and the Father’s Illumination-Power, Salvation-Power and Liberation-Power should go together. But if you expect, you will be frustrated. Who expects? The beggar in us, not the divine lover in us. If the daughter offers divine love to the Divine Father, the Supreme, then it is His duty to manifest Himself in and through the daughter. But a beggar has not established that kind of oneness. He is a stranger; he is from another world. He is not an intimate and loving member of the family.

If you establish your oneness with the Supreme more and more by virtue of your own inner cry and dedication, then the question of expectation does not arise. While you are giving, you are getting satisfaction. Self-giving is God-becoming; therefore, self-giving is the best kind of satisfaction. There is no satisfaction that can equal the satisfaction of self-giving. If you give yourself totally, unreservedly, unconditionally, inside your giving you will get tremendous joy, boundless joy. But from expectation what do you get? If you want ten dollars, you may get only five dollars, or you may not get anything at all. But while you are giving, you are only increasing the capacity of your heart, which is oneness, universal oneness. In the process of giving yourself, you are getting satisfaction far beyond your imagination. So give unreservedly — body, vital, mind, heart and soul — to the Supreme Cause, to the Supreme. While giving, you are bound to get tremendous, tremendous joy, the joy that you wanted all along. Don’t act like a beggar woman. Act like a daughter; act like a princess. Then the problem is solved.