Question: When we attain a divine consciousness, is it better to say that the divine consciousness attains us or that we attain it?

Sri Chinmoy: When we attain the divine consciousness, it attains us and we also attain it. There is a meeting place where the two come together. Reality is all-pervading. Suppose right now we are on the first floor; this is our reality. God, who embodies the universal Consciousness, is on the third floor. So God comes down to the second floor with His Compassion and we go up to the second floor with our intense cry to attain oneness with His Consciousness. God embodies the highest divine Consciousness and He also embodies our inner cry. So God, who is within us in the form of our inner cry, carries us to the second floor; and God, who is outside us in the form of the infinite divine Consciousness, comes down to the second floor. God climbs up with us and God climbs down with the divine Consciousness. When both the seeker and God arrive at a particular place, the seeker enters into the divine Consciousness and the divine Consciousness enters into the seeker. With our personal effort and God’s Grace we go up and with His Compassion and Love God comes down.