Question: Is our progress slower if we miss you when you go away?

Sri Chinmoy: This question can be dealt with in various ways. If you miss someone, then naturally you will try to bring that person into your consciousness. You miss me, so you try to invoke my presence. You miss the Supreme, so you invoke the Presence of the Supreme. You are a sincere seeker, so definitely you miss the Supreme. You have become a sincere seeker just because you miss the Supreme.

When you miss God, you feel that He is very far away, in Heaven. Since you are not seeing Him, you feel He is somewhere else, somewhere else, somewhere else. So naturally you miss Him. But your prayer and your meditation will one day tell you that he is everywhere, everywhere. Then you say, “If He is everywhere, why am I not seeing Him? That means my prayer can be stronger. My prayer, my meditation is sincere, but it can be stronger. Now it is strong, tomorrow it can be stronger, the day after tomorrow it can be strongest. So when my prayer and meditation become strong, stronger, strongest, at that time I will be able to see God.” It is like your two little children. Now they are studying and they are doing well. But even if they try hard, they won’t get their Master’s degree for twenty or twenty-five years. Here also, you have to pray and meditate most soulfully for many years before you can see God.