Question: How can we increase and maintain our intensity?

Sri Chinmoy: You have to value time. You have to feel that you have a higher goal, and that goal is still far away. Always intensity will increase if you feel that you have to go far, very far. Otherwise you will not budge an inch. Let us say that you are now in kindergarten and you have to get a Master’s degree or Ph.D. If you are not ready, willing or eager to study, you may take quite a few years just to complete kindergarten. Later on you may become a school drop-out. This is what happens when eagerness is missing. Once you start your journey, your aim should be to reach the goal as soon as possible.

Similarly, in the spiritual life, we have to have eagerness. Eagerness has the power to create intensity. You can say eagerness is the penultimate step and intensity is the ultimate step. If you have eagerness to do something, you can invoke intensity inside that eagerness. Otherwise, right from the beginning you will be so relaxed and feel that you have Eternity at your disposal. Every day we have to feel that we have been given the chance to accomplish everything. If we cannot accomplish everything today, then tomorrow will come with the same opportunity. But if we feel that since it is something very difficult, we can take ten years or twenty years to accomplish it, that ten years will pass and we may not accomplish anything. Every day we have to have the adamantine will-power to achieve everything we want to achieve.