Question: How long does it take a great Yogi or an Avatar to realise God?

Sri Chinmoy: Usually people have to go through hundreds and hundreds of incarnations to realise God. But spiritual Masters who are destined to do certain things can realise God in thirty, twenty or even ten incarnations. In my case, I went very, very fast, and I did it in ten incarnations. It is true that everybody will realise God. But some souls come with a different type of potentiality. You can call the Supreme partial to those souls, but it is not actually a question of partiality. It is His conscious Light that He pours in a very abundant measure, infinite measure, into certain souls. So these souls naturally will progress faster.

Realisation everybody has. In the inner world you people all are realised, only you have forgotten it. You have learned too many outer things and your outer knowledge has eclipsed your inner knowledge. When it is a matter of a soul’s realisation, everybody has that; but realisation of the entire being — heart, vital, mind and body — that is the thing that you do not have, but I do have.

For you right now, realisation is most difficult because you have not realised God. For me, since I have realised God, I find that revelation is really more difficult than realisation. You may say, “Oh, you can go and give a talk at Hunter College and that is your revelation.” But that is not my revelation. My revelation comes when earth accepts my Light; that is called real revelation. Earth needs it and the Supreme needs it for earth. But earth doesn’t want it. If the Commander says, “Help this person,” I am ready to help. Then that person kicks me and says, “I don’t need your help.” So I go to the Commander and He says, “No, you go and you give.” So I go back. Like this I am a shuttlecock going from this court to the next. The Supreme says, “Go and give,” so I go, but earth doesn’t accept it. Then I go back again.

When I realised God, I had to go beyond the cosmic gods, and I had to fight them. But at that time there was no third person involved. I was going up to my Beloved Supreme, and there was nobody else involved. Now when I am dealing with the earth, problems start. Earth does not want what I have, but the Supreme says, “No, whether earth wants or not, you give.”

Then comes manifestation, which is much more difficult than revelation. Now earth is saying, “No, I will not accept your Light at all.” Tomorrow earth will say, “Yes, I am accepting.” Then for five minutes or five years or ten years, earth will accept. Then it will say, “You are very bad. You have not done the right thing.” Then earth will kick me, and the manifestation, the lasting manifestation, will not take place.

So many spiritual Masters have come, but how many have left behind lasting manifestation? Only a few, a handful: Krishna, Buddha and a few others. The rest are not of the same height, true. But they came with Light. Many, many, many Indian spiritual Masters did realise God and they were simply washed away. Where are they now? Do you know? Do I know? They also tried to manifest, but their manifestation did not last. In India’s spiritual history, so many people have realised God, but there was no revelation, no manifestation.