Question: What is the difference between the highest Power and transcendental Power?

Sri Chinmoy: In the spiritual world, the word “transcendental” has infinitely more power and more significance than the word “highest”. The word “highest” is used thousands of times by ordinary people in all walks of life, whereas the word “transcendental” has been used in a more restricted way. The highest Power is higher than everything else. The transcendental Power is that which transcends everything. There is nothing above it. When we say “transcendental”, immediately we get a sense of the ever-transcending Beyond where the infinite Truth constantly grows and multiplies. What is “highest” remains static, like the Himalayas; there nothing grows. But that which is transcending is all the time moving forward, inward and upward. That is why the term “transcendental” has an infinitely more powerful meaning than the word “highest”. In the spiritual world, the transcendental is constantly moving, progressing and going beyond its own highest height. The transcendental Power is the Power that is already infinite and, at the same time, is increasing its own Infinity. It is constantly being multiplied.

It is like the word “God” and the word “Supreme”. “God” and “Supreme” are the same, but in a sense they are not the same. The moment I say “Supreme”, I feel that the Supreme is infinitely higher than God, although “God” is another name for the Supreme. We have to know which word strikes the very depths of our hearts. If you say “Supreme”, immediately it will strike the very depth of my heart, but if you say “God”, it does not strike me as much.