Question: Guru, for you, using spiritual power is almost as easy as drinking water. But when you lift heavy weights it seems that you really have to struggle and afterwards you seem to feel a real sense of achievement.

Sri Chinmoy: You have to see on which plane of consciousness I am operating. Here I am dealing with gross matter. The physical plane has the least receptivity to light, but still the weights are receiving. If I am operating on the psychic plane and you are praying and meditating, at that time it is not so difficult for me to raise your consciousness because you are already in a higher plane, and you are consciously trying to receive. If you are already up a little bit, then it is easier for me to lift you further. But if your consciousness is in the abysmal abyss, then don’t I really have to struggle to lift you up even an inch? When I am dealing with the inner plane, already the standard of receptivity is higher. But the weights are all on the gross material plane, so it is with utmost difficulty that I manage to offer light to them.

Again, when human beings who have been aspiring for many years fall, it is almost impossible to raise their consciousness. On the aspiration-tree at one time they were very high, but now they have descended considerably. So to lift those people even as much as I lift the weights is almost impossible. These metal plates are responding to my aspiration and dedication more powerfully than some human beings. Instead of going up like the weights, some human beings have gone down and they do not want to go up again. They are not incapable, but they are consciously and deliberately unwilling to receive light any more. So you can see the difference. With their extremely limited capacity the metal plates were aspiring, and that is why it was possible for me to do something.