Questions and answers

The following questions were asked in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, on 16 September 1978.

Question: How can we know our mission in the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: It is very easy. We can know our mission if every day we pray to the Supreme or meditate on the Supreme to bring to the fore our soul. The soul has to come to the fore to inspire us. I have written considerably, I have spoken considerably, I have composed songs, I have painted thousands and thousands of paintings. How do I do all this? I bring to the fore my soul. The soul is all the time one with the Supreme. It is inside us like a seed under the ground. If we cultivate it, it germinates and becomes a small plant. Then it becomes a tree, a huge banyan tree. From inside, it comes out. In the case of the soul also, from deep within it has to come forward to manifest itself. The more we can bring the soul to the fore consciously, the sooner we can be aware of our mission.

Right now we use our mind most of the time. We feel that the mind knows everything, but actually the mind knows next to nothing. Later we come to feel that the heart knows everything, but the heart does not know everything. The soul knows everything. The heart is always eager to listen to the soul, whereas the mind does not want to listen. Quite often the mind does not listen. But the heart tries to listen; therefore, the heart gets considerable light from the soul. We feel the presence of our heart. Inside the heart we have to feel that there is something else, the soul. If we can bring to the fore the soul — its consciousness, its vibration and all its capacities — then definitely we shall know what is our mission on earth.

Somebody within us knows what our mission on earth is, and he who knows has to be invoked to come to the fore. I know a little bit more than you know. That is why you are asking me, and then I am answering. Again, the Supreme knows infinitely more than I do, so I ask Him.