Question: What is the role of power in the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: Power is indispensable in the spiritual life. At every moment we have to energise ourselves with divine, dynamic power. If we do not have that divine, dynamic power within us, then darkness, ignorance and inconscience will all the time reign supreme. Darkness will say, “Where are you going? You have been with me for twenty years.” And ignorance will say, “Where are you going, when you have been with me for forty years?” And then, all these friends, these old friends, will come and tell us that we have no right to leave them. But if the divine power, the inner power, that we have when we accept the spiritual life comes to the fore, then we will recognise that these so-called friends are not friends. They are only binding us and not letting us go forth.

So in the spiritual life, power is of paramount importance, because it is the inner power that tells us that we have to act like supreme heroes, that we have to embody, reveal, manifest and fulfil the truth. So if you do not have the indomitable feeling of power within you, you will be lethargic and feel that it is impossible to escape from ignorance. Always you have to be like a divine hero and feel that your life is for building the palace of truth, and not for the destruction of truth.