Question: When you tell us to learn by heart twenty meditations, are you not establishing a kind of competition among the disciples?

Sri Chinmoy: The world is full of competition. In the ordinary life, we are constantly competing. I am competing with you; you are competing with me. All the time, we are competing. But this competition must not take place in the spiritual life. In the inner life, the spiritual world, there is no competition. It is only you and God. We are not in competition, but if you say that there is competition, let it be between you and your ignorance.

How fast can you leave aside your ignorance and go towards your own Goal? Competition, if it is at all necessary, should be to see how far behind us we have left ignorance and imperfection and how fast we are running towards our Goal. Let there be two sides: one, perfection’s side; the other, imperfection’s side. How fast are we running from imperfection and ignorance towards the positive side of Perfection, Truth, Light and Bliss? That and not rivalry with others, should be your competition.