Question: How do you know that you are really giving from the soul and not just fooling yourself?

Sri Chinmoy: If you give from the soul, you will not look to see whether or not the other person is receiving and you will not expect gratitude or appreciation from the other person. If you give something from the soul, you feel spontaneous joy just from the giving itself. You do not feel that you are giving something away; you are giving your smile or something else just because you feel an inner, spontaneous urge. When you are giving in an ordinary way, sometimes the idea of charity or a kind of superior feeling comes to your mind. You feel that you are superior because you are the one who is giving. But in real self-giving, you do not see the other person as somebody else, but rather as an extension of your own self. In giving yourself you are actually multiplying yourself. You are going from one to two. With your heart’s oneness you are creating another self that is exactly like you, and to that other self you are giving the same things that you have. With your own divinity, you are creating another divinity exactly like yourself — an exact prototype of your existence. It is like making another person in a factory. First you are making one person; then two, three, four, five persons; then countless persons.