Question: But don't you think that if you did not have the TV set you would be more inclined to go to the meeting?

Sri Chinmoy: No, that is not so. If laziness enters, then you may say, “Who cares? Spiritual life is not meant for me; it is something unreal. It is the mind that is creative.” If what you are saying were true, then the poorest people would all be inclined to follow the spiritual life. But it is not like that. There are beggars in India and here also who do not care for the spiritual life. Poverty does not mean that you are one inch closer to God. It is a mistake to say so. The possessions are not responsible for what you do; it is the possessor who is responsible. I am sure you have heard the name of King Janaka. He had a vast kingdom, but in spite of having this vast kingdom his whole life was always devoted to God and God-realisation. Similarly, the material prosperity of the West need not be an obstacle to God-realisation. You must feel that you are the possessor and that you must not be possessed by what you have. Those who don’t have possessions will always harbour ill-feelings because they are poor and they don’t have anything. This feeling will cause difficulties to arise in them. You have a television and therefore you do not want to attend a spiritual class; but the person who does not have a television is thinking of something else. He is not aspiring either. So always you have to see the difference between the possession and the possessor. You have to separate the possessor from the possession.

From:Sri Chinmoy,A twentieth-century seeker, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/tcs