Question: I had an experience in which I felt the purity of God and the feeling of Eternity and Power.

Sri Chinmoy: This was an act of sheer Grace. The Supreme, the Divine, the Absolute, out of His infinite Bounty, unconditionally offered His Grace to you. That is why this experience was possible. These things are not hallucinations. Spiritual Masters have these experiences and you also can have them. But you also have to know that for that you have to practise Yoga. You have to pray and meditate.

The Supreme in the Master can show you what He has. He will say, “This is all for you. But right now you are a child. First you have to grow up.” The father can bring the child right in front of the safe and show him all his wealth. Then he says, “Look, I have millions of dollars. It is all for you, but you have to work for it. You have to grow up properly. You have to please me. Then this wealth is yours.”

The first time you got this experience, it was because of Grace. But then impurity came. Any spiritual wealth that you may have, no matter what kind it is, will all be destroyed if impurity comes. Many people have good experiences one day, and then the next day they indulge in lower vital life, and all their higher experiences are destroyed. But if they do not enjoy vital life and emotional life, then the higher experiences grow. They grow up and become very solid, like a banyan tree. So when you have experiences, it is always necessary to be extremely careful not to indulge in the vital life, so that you can have still high, higher and highest experiences. You can have them, you can embody them, you can reveal them and you can manifest them.