Question: Quite a few people in the past and even in the present have divided the physical and spiritual development.

Sri Chinmoy: People are clever. But cleverness and wisdom are two different things. Seekers in the hoary past wanted their own salvation, their own liberation, their own realisation. The spiritual seekers had problems of their own, but they were able to overcome these problems on the strength of their aspiration. But as soon as they dealt with the world, the problems they encountered were enormous, and they could not cope with them. As soon as they started mixing with human beings who had not reached the highest, they met tremendous problems. So they withdrew. They said, “I will remain at the top of the mango tree. I climbed up the mango tree and now I will eat mangoes to my heart’s content. I am not going to come down to share with you. Your ignorance is like a hungry wolf. If I come down to share with you, then you may devour me instead of taking the mango from me.” So they did not accept the world. Instead, they became clever.

But if a seeker is wise, then he will develop his oneness with the world. The same God who created me also created you. He who gave me the capacity to have illumination is infinitely higher than I am. But out of His infinite Bounty, He gave me the little capacity I have. If He could give me a little capacity out of His boundless Compassion, then will I not share it with you? If I have got something nice from somebody, if I am a good person, then definitely I will share it with others.

If one is a seeker, at every moment the world will ridicule him. But if the seeker feels the necessity, the command from within, to help the world, then he sees that the world is only one step behind him. If he has wisdom-light, on the strength of his oneness he will say to the world, “I know a little more than you; I am a little more aware than you because of my spiritual practice. But we are still brothers.” He takes the outer world as his younger brother and feels that he has a little more knowledge and wisdom. So he tells his brother, “I am not the Father, but I will take you to Him. I am not taking you to myself but to the One from whom I have received my own illumination. I know where our Father is. I will take you to Him, and He will give you Joy. Just come with me.” The spiritual figures must say, “I am not the Goal, but I know the Goal. I am the guide.”

When the mother feeds her child, sometimes the child does not want to eat. But the mother feels it is obligatory on her part to feed her child. Otherwise, the child will not be able to live on earth. Sometimes the child is very bad and will resist the mother in every possible way. But the mother keeps trying because she knows that the child has to eat. Similarly, people who are fully awakened feel it is their bounden duty to be of service to the world, which is their little brother. Even though the little brother is not listening to them, they keep trying because they know that they have something really good, which will be of tremendous help to their little brother. This is the attitude of the modern-day spiritual Masters. It is like the mother and the child. You may not accept me, you may kick me countless times, but still I keep coming to you because of my oneness with you.

God gave me my oneness with Him; then He gave me His oneness with His creation. So God the Creator and God the creation are one in my life. God the Creator and God the creation I have to accept together. If society and the outer world are God the creation, then how can we separate them from God the Creator? They are inseparably one, like water and ice.