Question: Guru, sometimes we are staying in a room with one or two other people, as we do on the Christmas Trip. If they are still sleeping and we need to leave soon, can we sing "The Invocation" by ourselves while they are asleep?

Sri Chinmoy: When somebody is sleeping, what is wrong? Let that person sleep! You do your job. You cannot force someone to wake up and sing with you. That person needs sleep desperately. Will you pinch that person or throw cold water or hot water on her? You do your job: you sing "The Invocation" while others are asleep. Then, whenever the others get up is the best time for them to sing. Otherwise, what can you do? You will have to go out of the room and enter into a wood or forest in order to sing alone.

If you are lucky, you and your roommates can get up at 6:00 or at another fixed time to meditate and sing "The Invocation" together. Then you can go back to sleep and let the others go out and run or do whatever they need to do. Where there is a will, there is a way. If you have mutual sympathy or mutual concern for each other, then can you not get up at 6:00 together?