Question: You said that time is short. Were you referring to the spiritual life or to the life on earth?

Sri Chinmoy: In the spiritual life we are living in eternal Time. But here on earth we stay for only fifty, sixty or seventy years. Some people do not enter into the spiritual life until the age of thirty or forty or even sixty, and some do not enter at all in a given lifetime. So what are they going to accomplish during all those years? The sooner we enter into the spiritual life, the inner life, the better.

Today's goal cannot be tomorrow's goal. Tomorrow we have to have a higher goal. Because we are restless and lack peace of mind or any joy or sense of illumination, today our goal is to have an iota of Peace, Light and Bliss. But when we get that iota we feel that it is not enough for us. We are not acting greedy. It is just that we realise that the promise we have made to God that we shall please Him, that we shall realise Him, that we shall reveal and manifest Him, is not yet fulfilled.

If we are alert, we can avail ourselves of each moment as an opportunity. Otherwise, as time passes, either our ignorance increases or we do not allow the Light to enter into us. On the one hand, we have to know that we cannot bring God's living Presence into our lives by hook or by crook. But at the same time, we should feel an inner urge and intensity to see His Face immediately. Again, if we do not see Him and feel His Presence, we must not be doomed to disappointment. At that time, we shall have to use another type of wisdom, which is called patience. We want to see God because we feel that we need Him badly. But if He does not want to come to us at that particular moment, it is up to Him. Our business is to pray and meditate, and we have to leave the results at His Feet.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 2, Sri Chinmoy Centre, New York, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ffb_2