Question: Is it difficult for intellectual people to have faith?

Sri Chinmoy: Some people spontaneously have faith, even if their minds are not intellectually developed. When the mind is predominant, it becomes very difficult to have faith in God. That is because the mind has thousands of doors to enter into God’s Palace, whereas the heart has only one door, and that door is faith; so it just goes right in. But the mind tries to find out which of its doors is best. It goes to one door and then it thinks that the next door might be better. In this way the mind is constantly hesitating and going from here to there. So it takes some time before it actually enters into God’s Palace.

Again, if a person has tremendous aspiration, even if he is intellectually developed, his heart may also be developed and he may have faith. Sometimes the conviction or perception of the heart will enter into the mind and be reflected in the mind. Then the mind will have faith along with the heart.