Question: Is it wrong to pray for any desire?

Sri Chinmoy: No, you can pray for the fulfilment of your desires, but you have to be very careful because if it is a material desire, then it may fight against your inner aspiration. People pray for new cars. They pray for one house, two houses. You have to see which kind of desire is binding you and which kind of aspiration is liberating you. Some material things are absolutely necessary in our day-to-day lives. Some people who have money-power can easily afford to live decently. But no, they are not satisfied. They have to become multimillionaires. Be rich if you wish, but then you may be poor spiritually. You have to decide which one you want.

Our way is the life of acceptance. You have every right to pray to God for whatever is necessary in your outer life. But you have to see when greed comes, when your desires become exorbitant. How can someone cope with that kind of desire in the spiritual life? You can pray to God to meet the basic necessities of life. At that time I will never say it is the wrong thing to do. But some people only accumulate, accumulate, accumulate. They start accumulating material wealth and become bankrupt in spiritual wealth.