Question: Does the mind have a will of its own?

Sri Chinmoy: The mind has a will of its own; again, the mind can fall victim to hostile forces and it can also surrender to higher forces. Limited will everybody has. When we don’t use our limited will, we can allow either God to conquer us or ignorance-force to conquer us. But if we use the mind properly, we will not surrender to undivine forces that assail us.

We have limited capacity. We don’t have sufficient capacity to reach our destination. We are like helpless children. If the Goal sees that a little child is trying desperately to reach it, then the Goal comes to the little child. Either the divine Being who is at the Goal will come or the hostile forces will come. In the beginning, the mother stands at the destination and observes whether the child is making a sincere effort to come to her. If so, then the mother goes and stands in front of the child. With the limited mind we can walk towards the Goal, we can at least go one step forward. So if we use the limited capacity, the limited will, of the mind to aspire, a divine Being will come to us. Otherwise, an undivine being will come. So the mind, if it is sincere, can be inspired by the divine Will or, if it is not sincerely trying, it can be instigated by the undivine will.