Question: Is there any way to reconcile the spiritual life with material success?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly! The thing is that we have to know the value of material success. If we achieve material success, well and good. But if we feel that spiritual success and material success are equally necessary to our soul's journey, then we are mistaken. The correct attitude is to feel that the spiritual life comes first. Then we should feel the necessity of manifesting the living breath of the spiritual life within the material life.

We should give due importance to the material life. We work hard and we try for success. But we have to know that experience will come to us in two forms: in the form of success and in the form of failure. If we are really spiritual, we will try to see if it is success or failure that is going to please our Lord. When we enter into the spiritual life, our real success is not the so-called success that we gain in the outer life. Our real success is our conscious identification with the Supreme's Will.

If we cannot achieve material success, then others will say we have failed. If we look at things with our human eyes, we ourselves will say, "Oh, we have not succeeded." Our unspiritual friends will say that we are a total failure, and if we use our human mind, we will also say, "Yes, we are a total failure." But on the spiritual plane, acceptance of the experience itself is real success. The experience of oneness with the Inner Pilot is the supreme success, and our inner being will be able to tell us if we have passed that test. Spiritual success does not mean an achievement which others will appreciate with their human minds. If we are spiritual, success means oneness with the Will of God.