Question: Guru, what is the most effective way to invoke and utilise divine power to conquer hostile forces that may have entered us or that may be trying to enter us?

Sri Chinmoy: Let us say that some undivine forces have stationed themselves inside us and are perfectly housed there. How can we bring them out of our system? The easiest and most effective way to conquer the hostile forces that are within us is to feel that we have an inner sun. There is a great difference between the inner sun and the outer sun. Both mean light. But here on earth, if we do something wrong, the outer light will expose us, whereas the light that we find in the inner world will never expose us. On the contrary, it will only illumine us.

What do we mean by hostile forces? These are dark forces that eclipse the inner sun. They are like veils that cover the inner sun. If we can consciously meditate on our heart and discover there the living presence of our inner sun, then we are bound first to feel and then to see this most effulgent sun. When we feel and see our inner sun, the hostile forces cannot stay even for a fleeting second. This is how we conquer the hostile forces that have already come inside us.

Now, what do we do about the hostile forces that are attacking us from outside and trying to enter into us? How are we going to conquer them? If we want to fight against them with our own strength, it is simply impossible. Our vital may say that we have abundant strength, but actually our own strength is limited, very limited. So what do we do? The easiest thing is to pray for protection, divine protection. For two minutes early in the morning, if we pray for divine protection, God’s adamantine Force in the form of divine soldiers will be moving around us. And these soldiers are bound to protect us. Our meditation will immediately bear fruit or, we can say, our prayer will be transformed into a battalion. So, in the morning we have to pray for protection and illumination. There is no difference between protection and illumination. When we are fully protected, then illumination automatically takes place; and when we are illumined, fully illumined, protection will be there all around us.

So, for protection against hostile forces that are already lodged inside us, we try to bring to the fore our inner sun. For protection from the hostile forces outside us, we have to pray and meditate early in the morning. And while we are praying, we have to feel that the protection is already there with its power. It is not enough just to have a vague feeling that we are doing it. We cannot do it mechanically. Mechanical prayer is no prayer. Mechanical meditation is no meditation. Each time we pray or meditate, we have to try to feel tremendous enthusiasm, an inner urge. We have to feel that we want something and that we are getting it. We are growing into it; we are becoming it. Then, I tell you, we are bound to get protection from within and from without.