Question: How can one increase one's inner drive, one's aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: There are various ways to increase one’s inner drive or inner urge. If one is absolutely a beginner, if he has just entered or he is eager to enter into the spiritual life, then the first thing he has to do is to pray to God. What kind of prayer should he do? Prayer should be very simple, very sincere and spontaneous. Prayer is most effective in the early stages of the spiritual life because it is prayer that will increase the inner urge of the budding seeker. At the beginning when a person is just curious or only a little bit sincere in his spiritual activities, then we cannot call that person a seeker. But if one is about to jump or has already jumped into the sea of spirituality, if his spiritual life is certain, then we can say that he is a real seeker. The term ‘inner urge’ or ‘inner drive’ applies only to an aspirant.

Now if one is a step ahead in the spiritual realm, then he has to feel the necessity of God and the necessity of the fulfilment of God’s Will on earth. The seeker knows that God has to be fulfilled on earth and he wants to take a conscious part in fulfilling God’s creation. He is not satisfied with the rest of the world and he is not satisfied even with himself. If he wants a better creation in himself and in the world at large, then God is bound to give him an additional inner urge.

Then there comes a time when he feels that he can exist without anybody, without anything, but not without God. When the aspirant has that kind of inner conviction — that he does not need mother, father, brother, sister, wife, husband or anything, only God — at that point he has to be very careful. He has to see whether God wants him to make this kind of sacrifice or not. Just because he loves God more than he loves the rest of the world or humanity, it does not mean that he has to deny his nearest and dearest ones. No! Here in the field of manifestation he has relatives whom he calls dearest and who also call him dearest. If it is the Will of God that he should sacrifice everything, then he can sacrifice even his very existence. If God demands that he give up his so-called nearest and dearest ones, then he has to feel that his nearest is God, his dearest is God and nobody else. But God does not want him to leave his family and friends. God wants him to see the Divine inside everyone, inside his dearest friends, inside the members of his family. But at the same time he has to be prepared at any moment to give up everything if God wants him to do so. Then he will immediately run towards God, towards the ultimate Truth. If the seeker has that kind of surrendering attitude towards the fulfilment of God’s Will, then God is bound to increase his inner drive in infinite measure. In your case also, I wish to say that if you can have this divine attitude, then God Himself will give what you want for your life.

Now I wish to speak generally in answer to your question about how one can increase one’s inner drive. One can do it just by accepting the life of sincerity, the life of dedication, the life of absolute surrender. If one has a Master then he has to be absolutely sincere, absolutely dedicated and absolutely surrendered to the Master. Sincerity is his safeguard. One must have dedication to the Master and this dedication has to be total and complete. One must have surrender and this surrender has to be eternal and unconditional. If one has this kind of sincerity, dedication and surrender, then automatically, spontaneously, his inner drive is bound to increase, his aspiration is bound to increase.