Question: I seek strength when I meditate; am I seeking the wrong thing?

Sri Chinmoy: You are doing the correct thing when you seek strength and get it. The Upanishadic seers used to chant this prayer thousands of times: “Give me strength. Give me valour. Give me virility. Give me patience.” As light is strength, strength is also light. This we can see with our own eyes. We feel that light is one thing and power is something else, but it is not like that. In light there is power and in power there is light. So when you are praying to God for strength, please feel that not only strength, but light is entering into you, to drive away your darkness and to keep you constantly in the lap of the Supreme, to fulfil you both in your inner and outer life.

This power is not the power of a boxer, who will knock me down. That is only human power, unlit power. But the divine power is light itself. So when you pray to God to give you strength, you are really praying to God for light as well.

If there is no strength, then God-realisation can never be achieved. The Upanishads say, “The soul cannot be won by a weakling.” You have to aspire for strength. One has to be divinely powerful in order to realise his goal.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Meditation: God's Blessing-Assurance, Agni Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mgb