Question: What is the relationship between aspiration and acceptance? There seems to be an aspiration which expends all its effort in the direction of rising, but it seems that there is also a time to accept and be still and let the influence of the higher forces come in.

Sri Chinmoy: They go together. If we aspire sincerely, then the higher forces are all the time descending. At that time the divine forces can enter into us properly. If we don't aspire, then the doors are all closed. Let us say that the divine Grace wants to descend into us, but we have kept all our doors closed. Now naturally the Grace cannot descend, since our heart-door we have kept closed. Then the time comes when we want the divine Grace to enter but we have just opened one mental window. Just a tiny window we have kept open and the door is still quite firmly bolted from the inside. It is so hard to open. But when we sincerely aspire, at that time we keep our heart's door wide open, our mind's door wide open, our vital's door wide open. All the doors we keep wide open. Aspiration is going up and the doors are all open, so the divine Grace is descending into us.

So, acceptance means that we allow the divine Grace to descend fully into us without being hampered. That is the best way. When we sincerely aspire, we open up the heart, vital, mind and every other part of the being. At that time, we tell God or the higher forces, "Now I want to become an open book. I don't want to remain a concealed book, a sealed book. I want my life to be an open book. You can read it. There I have written everything wrong. Whatever I have written is absolutely wrong. Now you enter into my existence and correct it, rectify it. Please make a new book of your own, a new life of mine." So when aspiration goes up, real acceptance comes.