Question: What is the difference between your poise and your patience?

Sri Chinmoy: Poise is infinitely, infinitely higher, deeper and wider than patience. In my case, there is no comparison between my poise and my patience. My poise deals at every second with the universal consciousness, the transcendental consciousness. Poise is the product of the universal consciousness, the transcendental consciousness, or you can say it the other way around: from poise we enter into the universal consciousness, from poise we enter into the transcendental consciousness. Patience is like an insect and poise is like one million giants.

The poise of a spiritual Master deals with the universe. Spiritual Masters do not deal with one individual or two individuals, one hundred disciples or two hundred disciples. Poise has to deal with the universe, with all human beings, with the creation itself. Patience deals only with individuals we know — our dear ones or people we encounter in our daily life. But poise deals with humanity, with the universal consciousness. Poise and patience are so different. One is like a tiny drop. The other is like an ocean.