Question: How can we do well in our studies and also be involved in meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, I wish to tell you that I have quite a few university students who are doing extremely well in the spiritual life and, at the same time, they are doing very well in their studies.

If you want to do well in your studies, what you need at this stage is concentration. If you cannot concentrate well, you will not do well in your studies either. So spirituality is the answer. You have to know that what you get from your spiritual life is natural, normal, spontaneous and fulfilling. Early in the morning, if you can concentrate for ten minutes or even five minutes, then you will accomplish two things. You will feel boundless energy within you and you will simplify your life. These qualities will be a great help to you in your studies.

Spirituality you have to take as your private tutor. The private tutor teaches you at home and helps you to pass the examination. When you pray to God, when you concentrate and meditate on God, when you go deep within, at that time you are getting help and energy from your Source. Then it becomes infinitely easier to achieve success in your outer life. Spirituality will never stand in your way. Spirituality is not the negation of life; true spirituality is acceptance of the real life in us.

You spend eight or ten hours daily in order to get your degree, but this degree will only help you in making money or improving your social status. It won't help you to get inner peace or inner joy. You may be at the top of the class, but the strength of this achievement will last only for a fleeting hour and then you will feel a barren desert within you; there will be no satisfaction. The things that will give you permanent satisfaction are peace of mind and inner joy. And these things you can only get from meditation.

The outer knowledge and the inner knowledge must run abreast. But eventually the outer knowledge has to surrender its existence to the inner knowledge. When the inner knowledge takes full charge of the outer knowledge, then outer knowledge finds its real purpose and true fulfilment. Spirituality is the light-seed within you and this light you have to bring to the fore. Around you is tenebrous darkness, but if you can bring your inner light to the fore, then true knowledge can dawn in you.