Question: I'm Going Back To Venezuela Soon....

Question: I'm going back to Venezuela soon. How can a disciple feel from a distance the same force or magnetism that he feels when he is meditating with you?

Sri Chinmoy: The Master cannot be physically with his disciples twenty-four hours a day; it is impossible. The Master has many disciples and also many things to do. Again, a disciple may actually stay with the Master twenty-four hours a day, but he may not receive anything from him. Ramakrishna's nephew served Ramakrishna for many, many years, but he got practically nothing from Ramakrishna. He did quite a few wrong things and even tried to steal from Ramakrishna, and he was finally turned away. Again, look at Vivekananda. He did not stay with Ramakrishna twenty-four hours a day; far from it. He used to come to Ramakrishna once in two or three months, and then he did not stay for many days at a time.

So it is not the physical proximity that counts most; it is the inner awareness of one's relationship with the Master. Where is the Master? Is he in New York or is he inside the disciple's heart? The disciple has to feel that the Master is something very sacred and spontaneous in his life. He has to feel that just as he cannot exist without his heartbeat, even so he cannot exist without the Master. If he feels these things, and if he feels the necessity of pleasing the Master in everything he does, then only is his relationship with the Master secure and complete.

Again, if a true, sincere disciple has already established his inner connection with the Master, if he has established a totally intimate and most surrendering and surrendered relationship, and if he stays near the Master, then naturally he will be able to get more benefit. His inner life is already one with the Master and now his outer life is crying to become one with the inner. So naturally he will get a double push and progress infinitely faster. But very often we see that familiarity breeds contempt. When you speak to the Master and stay around him, cutting jokes and all that, immediately you will say, "He is also like us." But actually the Master is not like an ordinary seeker. In the outer world he may also eat the same food, walk and talk and do everything as you do. But he also can do quite a few things in the inner world which you cannot do. That is why his inner existence has to be approached and adored before his outer existence, and not vice versa. If you have pleased the Master inwardly, then rest assured it is only a matter of a short time before you can please the Master in the outer life as well.