Question: Does a strong involvement with technology mitigate against our realisation of God?

Sri Chinmoy: Technology as such does not stand against realisation, but we have to know how we deal with technology. Science, the purest science, does not negate God. But the scientist may think that the universe was created by science or that he can do without God, because with scientific research he is making the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb. Whatever he wants, he thinks he can get from science and he is satisfied with his scientific achievements. But we have to know that there is something called inner realisation, Self-realisation. For that we have to do something else. We have to do inner research, not scientific research.

What technology offers to the world need never stand against God-realisation. But from technology and science we cannot expect God-realisation. God-realisation is inner oneness with the highest absolute Truth. For that we have to master and go beyond the senses. We have to conquer our senses; we have to have perfect control over the senses. In this way we can transcend our limitations and attain the highest oneness with the Absolute. This oneness with the highest Absolute, technology does not aim at; and this is the problem. But if you want to see the existence of God in technology, I wish to say that it is absolutely possible. God does exist in technology. God exists in everything.

With technology you can have great, greater, greatest success, but that success is not the success of God-realisation. God-realisation is totally different. Neither the self-realised person nor God-realisation itself will ever stand against the achievements of science and technology. At the same time, God-realisation does not expect science and technology to stand in its way. There is no harm if you are interested in technology and science; only you have to know what you expect to get from them. If you are looking for the absolute transcendental Truth, you will not get it there. You have to go deep within yourself for God-discovery. When you have discovered yourself, you have discovered the highest Truth, and that Truth is God.

There is no necessary barrier between a seeker and a technologist, but one has to know what one is aspiring for. Once one has realised one’s conscious oneness with God, there is nothing else to cry for, for then one is self-sufficient. In the case of technology, one may be thoroughly conversant with it, one may get the utmost result from it, but there will still be a cry, an inner cry, for something more. That “something more” will not come from technology. What technology can offer it will certainly offer, but only God-realisation can satisfy that inner cry. In realisation there is no feeling of loss or gain. You do not feel that you have lost something or gained something, but rather that you have become something, that you are one with something.