Question: Suppose one achieves Realisation, say, at the age of twenty. Does this realisation wipe out all karmic debts for that individual?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes. After you have achieved your Realisation, you are no longer bound by karmic laws, cosmic laws or universal laws. What you do is that you surrender; you become one with God’s Will and Decision. At that time, suppose you still have some suffering or pain, it is not because of your previous karma, the reaction to your previous actions. No. Once you have consciously realised God, karma cannot bind you any more. But if God wants to give you a particular experience, then you have to accept it.

It is like Sri Ramakrishna’s cancer, you know. He took it from his disciples; it was not that he did something wrong. Certainly it was not his karma. No. Mother Kali wanted to give him that experience. He took it gladly. This experience is different from the experience of a normal man. A normal man has to undergo this suffering because of his previous karma. But a spiritual figure, a yogi, does it for a different reason. He accepts the burden from his disciples because he feels that he and the disciples are one. He has to accept it because the Divine within him wants to give him that particular experience. After all, the experience and the Divine are eternally one.