Question: Guru, what is the best way to conquer physical self-pity?

Sri Chinmoy: Just throw yourself into a sea of dynamism. Then you will get some joy. But if the result is not satisfactory, don’t feel sorry. Do not feel that you do not have the capacity. In no way show pity to yourself. Be merciless to yourself. If he can do something, if she can do something, you can also do it. By doing that thing, others are becoming closer to God; and by not doing it, you are remaining very far from God.

Early in the morning, think of yourself as the soul. Do not think of yourself as the body. If you think of yourself as the body, you will feel that you are tired, exhausted. When six o’clock strikes, you will say, “No, no, no. Let me sleep until seven o’clock.” Then at seven o’clock you will think of eight o’clock. Your body needs rest, it deserves rest; all kinds of things you will say. But at that time don’t pity yourself. No, the time has come for you to meditate. It is six o’clock. You have to get up. If you do not show any pity to your physical, which is all the time fond of enjoying inertia and ignorance, then you are saved. Your dynamism, your soul’s dynamism, will ask you to do the needful.

Otherwise, if you identify yourself with the body, the body will tell you, “Yesterday you worked very hard, so for one day you can easily take rest. Tomorrow you will be able to meditate.” If you argue this way, you only lose your inner potentiality and fool yourself. But if you are dynamic, then at every moment you conquer the forces of sadness, depression, inertia and negative thinking.