Question: If you're always aiming for perfection, which you never can get, then when is there a rest? When is there a satisfaction?

Sri Chinmoy: Perfection is our goal. Unless and until we have achieved perfection, satisfaction cannot dawn; this is absolutely true. But we also have to know that perfection can be achieved only through gradual progress. We cannot achieve perfection all at once. No, it comes by degrees. Today's perfection will be, in your case, to have an iota of peace. If you can have an iota of peace in your mind, if you can have peace of mind just for a fleeting second, that is your perfection. Then, tomorrow, if you can have peace for five minutes, that is your perfection. Then the day after, if it lasts for an hour, that is your perfection. For a child, perfection is to learn the alphabet. He cannot learn the alphabet all at once. But eventually he does learn the alphabet. But then, he has a new goal, a new standard of perfection. Eventually this child will get his Master's degree and read thousands of books. And each time he reaches his goal, each time he achieves perfection according to his standard, he will strive for a greater perfection. But that does not mean that he doesn't get satisfaction each time he reaches his goal. When the child finally learns the alphabet, he has such joy. But then, he sees that there is a new goal, a higher goal. In the spiritual life also, today's perfection, in your case, will be to have an iota of peace. If you can have an iota of peace in your mind, if you can have peace of mind for just a fleeting second, that is your perfection. Then, tomorrow, your sense of perfection is to have peace for five minutes. The day after tomorrow it will be one hour. We are God's children, and since God is infinite we are constantly on the march; we are aiming at an ever-transcending reality. We are marching, we are running, we are flying. But the reality we are aiming at is constantly transcending its own bounds. Infinity is constantly transcending its own reality. In the spiritual life, constant progress is our sense of perfection.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Self-discovery and world-mastery, Agni Press, 1976
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