Question: I'm having difficulty accepting some things in my spiritual life.

Sri Chinmoy: From the very beginning, spirituality is acceptance. Spirituality means acceptance of the life that is offered by the Master to the disciples. This is spirituality. When you joined our path, you felt tremendous aspiration and you felt that your Guru was like this or like that. Now you see that your Guru is anything but that. Poor Guru will say, "No, no. I am not like that." You have to accept the Master and the Master's path in his way, not in your way.

Since you are with us, please jump into the sea of reality, the reality that we are trying to identify with. We have had unfortunate experiences with some people. Aspiration they accept, but manifestation they won't accept. Only one or two of these people are still with us and they are not safe in our boat. Needless to say, if they don't accept our path, how can I be satisfied with them? If you are not satisfied with me, then no matter how hard I try, I am not going to be satisfied with you either. I am pulling you or you are pulling me. These people suffer and they make us suffer. We want to see them happy. We are happy with our path, but if we see someone who is unhappy, then we feel miserable.

If you want to remain with us, I wish you to accept our path of manifestation as well as you have accepted our path of aspiration. They are inseparable; they are like the obverse and reverse of the same coin. They must go together, although right now they are puzzling you, confusing you. With our aspiration we do pray and meditate. We hold many meditation meetings. We have different times to meditate for special purposes. If you observe the faces of the disciples, you will feel that they do pray and meditate. Now if manifestation is confusing you, then please feel that it has to be accepted as part and parcel of our life, along with aspiration.