Question: What is the quality that I should concentrate on right now to help me make the fastest progress?

Sri Chinmoy: To make the fastest progress, you must forget the past. Do not dwell on your past failures or past imperfections even for a second. You have to feel that you do not have a past with imperfections, defeats or any kind of discouraging negativity. Feel that you were just born; you are just a little baby; you are now only a few hours old. Do not think that you are even one year old. Or look at a flower that has just begun to bloom. See that it will blossom petal by petal and soon it will become a most beautiful flower.

Another way is to see yourself as the dawn. Imagine the sun rising little by little. When we look at the sun, we never think of yesterday’s sun. We never think of the day before yesterday’s sun or the sun that rose before us two years ago. We just watch the sun climbing higher and higher, giving its light. We do not see the past of the sun. We just see that, like a little baby, the sun is taking birth, becoming bigger and bigger.

Always feel that you have just been born. Then you will make the fastest progress. A little baby is always making progress — he is crawling, he is standing up, he is walking, he is marching, he is running. Never think of the past — your past failures, past defeats or past imperfections. Feel that the past does not exist. Feel that only today, here and now, exists in your life. Do not carry anything with you from the past — whether it is good or bad. If you can sincerely feel that you have just been born, that you are only a few hours old, and that you are on the Lap of the Supreme, that He is responsible for you, you can make the fastest progress.