Part III — Inner progress and satisfaction-life

Question: How can I be assured of making good progress if my past was not at all aspiring?

Sri Chinmoy: Suppose for seventeen years you smoked, drank and took drugs, but today you are no longer doing these things. You saw what was bad and cut it off, like the part of a fruit that is rotten. Now the obscurity and impurity are going away from your consciousness and again you are becoming luminous. Today you are crying for perfection. Previously you were all imperfection; now you are fifty per cent perfect and your perfection is increasing. Now you are getting solid experiences; you are growing into light. So why do you have to worry about your obscure and impure past? Only think of the future. I always say, "The past is dust." Do not look backward. Only live in the immediacy of today and grow into the golden future.