Question: How can I keep my mind from worrying about the past and the future?

Sri Chinmoy: Suppose in the past you have done something very, very bad, unthinkable, unspeakable. Take that thing as a dead, smelly elephant. Are you so stupid that you want to carry a dead elephant on your shoulders? Since you are not stupid, do not carry any past experience that is torturing you. No, absolutely like a football, just kick it as hard as possible. Again, are you so stupid that you have to think of the future? Even the next moment you do not know what is going to happen.

Our philosophy is that the past is dust, absolute dust. Again, in the past if you had even one most sublime experience when your mind became tranquil or your heart became the vast sky, then try to bring that experience into your mind and into your heart. Right now if you are not having a good meditation, imagine a time fifteen years ago when you had a good meditation. Imagination has a power of its own. After imagining for some time, you will get back your former experience, your previous realisation.

If you had a discouraging experience, absolutely think of it as a dead elephant. If you had an extremely important experience, then remembering it now will inspire you to go farther, higher and deeper. Again, it may not be necessary to remember any experience. You may be given the golden moment right now. At this very moment you can pray to God to make you the absolutely purest person on earth or the most humble person on earth. Any good quality that you have, you can pray to God to increase. Then inside that divine quality you can try to grow. Let your heart grow in that divine quality. Let your life grow in that divine quality.

Do not think of tomorrow. Just to think of how you are going to spend today is enough. Today if you can become an excellent seeker in every way, then when tomorrow dawns, sooner than the soonest you will be inspired to become a better person. Our philosophy is progress. Perfection is not something static or fixed. Perfection is progress, progress, progress. So today try to become as divine as possible. Then tomorrow you will try to go still higher. Do not think of the near or distant future. Think only of today, of how you can become the most beautiful and the most fragrant flower and how you can place yourself at the Feet of our Lord Supreme.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy answers, part 20, Agni Press, 1999
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/sca_20