Question: Guru, one might decide to accept the inner life, but then it seems so difficult because sooner or later one learns that it is really hard to control certain things.

Sri Chinmoy: The inner life is difficult only when one wants to fulfil the outer life first and the inner life last. One has to fulfil the inner life first, or take both the inner life and the outer life together with the feeling that if the inner life is fed, then the outer life will automatically be nourished. We have to see how sincerely we have entered into the inner life. Sometimes we enter into the inner life out of temptation. As people enter into the outer life to fulfil their temptation, so also people practise the inner life for a few days or a few months. Then after they have tried, they feel that the inner life will not fulfil their temptation. The worldly life is better for that. We have to know how sincerely we have taken to the inner life.