Question: Do dreams have anything to do with ambition?

Sri Chinmoy: Dreams can easily have much to do with ambition. There are usually two types of ambition. One is like the ambition of Napoleon and Caesar and Alexander the Great. When Caesar said, Veni, vidi, vici, “I came, I saw, I conquered,” that is vital ambition. But spiritual ambition will say, “I saw, I loved, I became.” With vital ambition we try to trample others and dominate others, but with spiritual ambition we try to become inseparably and universally one with others. This kind of ambition is good.

In the outer world you are a pilot. When you fly, at that time if you feel that your consciousness is flying in the sky of Infinity and Eternity, then you are flying into something infinite. But if your ambition is only to go from one place on earth to another, then your goal is limited. It is not an ever-transcending Goal. So if you dream of doing something expanding, something transcending, that kind of dream embodies spiritual ambition. But if the dream has its start and finish together, if you know your own destination, then you cannot go very far. The ambition that binds you and the ambition that frees you, liberates you, or gives you a sense of Infinity are two different ambitions. When you have a dream, try to feel that you are entering into the worlds of beauty, peace, light and bliss where everything is constantly growing in infinite measure and where everything is transcending its own reality. If you have that kind of dream, if you have that kind of ambition, then earth-life is meaningful and fruitful, and you really become a chosen instrument of the Supreme, for the Supreme.