Donna Halper: We read in the paper about various movements which are very austere, where the men and women are not allowed to associate with each other. They are not allowed to eat meat and they pretty much just stay inside and meditate all the time. Is this the kind of life that your disciples live?

Sri Chinmoy: No, I do not advocate austerity. I do not want my disciples to live in the Himalayan caves. We advocate acceptance of life. We have to accept life and then we have to transform life. There are many things in human life which we cannot appreciate. These are our deplorable weaknesses. So we try to illumine these weaknesses. We do not shun life. We accept life, but we transform the things that have to be transformed.