Question: How can we know if we are really pleasing you or not?

Sri Chinmoy: You are pleasing me if you are making progress. In the outer world, each day you are eating new food, fresh food. You don't depend on yesterday's food; today again you have to eat. Similarly, if you can think of today as the beginning of a new dawn in your life, then you make progress. In the spiritual life, dawn means progress, gradual progress. Light is increasing gradually, convincingly and unerringly inside your heart. So every day try to feel inside your heart a new dawn, new and convincing progress. If you feel a new dawn, then undoubtedly you are pleasing the Supreme in me.

Early in the morning when you get up, if you feel deep inside your heart a new hope, new inspiration, new aspiration, at that time you will feel inside yourself the speed of a deer. Then immediately you become more energetic and enthusiastic. At that time there is a forward movement, and this forward movement is your progress. So when you are making progress, automatically you are pleasing me.

There is also another way. Suppose you are feeling a constant joy inside you. Outwardly your mind cannot account for it; you have done nothing spectacular during the day. So how is it that you are getting such joy? There may not be any outer reason. The joy is spontaneously coming from the soul. If you feel joy and claim this joy as your own, then you will know that you are making progress.

The third way is by thinking of me, the Supreme in me. During the day, count how many times you have thought of me, and how many times consciously and soulfully you have offered loving gratitude to the Supreme in me. The Supreme is also inside you, but it is easier for you to see God in somebody else — especially in a spiritual person — than in yourself. Why? Before you realise God, you always feel that you are swimming in the sea of ignorance. You think of God, you pray to God, you meditate on God, but you don't think of yourself as the chosen instrument of God. You don't think of yourself as the supremely chosen son or daughter of God. So naturally it is very difficult for you to see the Supreme inside yourself. But I am your spiritual Master. You do not think that I am swimming in the sea of ignorance. You feel that I am standing on the shore. So if you think of me and meditate on the Supreme in me, it is infinitely easier for you to realise the Supreme. Don't think of the body-consciousness; think of the soul, which has a free access to the Universal Consciousness. Think of my soul, which embodies Light, Peace and Bliss in abundant measure. I try to represent the Supreme in His own Way; therefore, it becomes infinitely easier for you to see the Supreme in me. But once you see the Supreme in me, you have to know that the same Supreme is inside you. So, if you think of the Supreme all the time, then you are pleasing me.