Question: Are those beings on Mars consciously aspiring?

Sri Chinmoy: Some of them are consciously aspiring and some of them are not. But there are many that are aspiring. If a family of five people are in one room, when three get up and start making noise, the other two also get up. The first ones get up willingly to pray and meditate; the last two are getting up only because they are compelled. They say, “What will others think of me if I do not get up? Those three got up and they are now praying.” So they get up reluctantly, but the first three got up sincerely. The second batch are rogues!

Then again, it may happen that the first three, who got up sincerely, become tired. They may start thinking rubbish thoughts, while the second batch — who started by saying, “What will they think of me if I do not get up?” — now want to become very good seekers. They may try their utmost to aspire sincerely, and sometimes they go far beyond the ones who first got up early in the morning. The first batch may become tired and say, “Oh, we have been praying and meditating with no result.” Mechanically they pray. Then, after they have been praying for months and months and no prayer has been sanctioned, they give up. But those in the second group — who started out of sheer curiosity, worrying about what the first group would think of them — may become so sincere that they eventually go beyond the ones who got up first. Again, there may be some who got up early in the morning and gradually, gradually continue to do well.