Question: Should marijuana be legalised, so you can buy it in stores instead of having it be illegal?

Sri Chinmoy: If the country feels that it has descended so far that it has touched rock-bottom and it cannot go further down, then it should be legalised. If the country feels that it has not yet touched rock-bottom, that still there is an iota of hope that we will see the effulgence of light and realise that God does exist, then it must not be legalised. We have to know what we expect from ourselves. If we expect nothing, absolutely nothing, if we think that we are nothing, our forefathers were nothing and our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be nothing, then it should be legalised. But if we feel that we were something and that we can become something greater, then we must stop. We must not legalise marijuana.

We have to know the needs of the soul and the desires of the body. The body will always remain unconscious of its true needs. The soul will always be conscious of its needs, but if the soul is weak, it will not be able to fulfil its needs. But once the soul is able to fulfil its needs, it will not allow the body to remain unfulfilled. It will compel the body to fulfil its true needs.

It depends entirely on the standard of the country. It is the standard of the country that makes its fate. On the one hand, America has gone very, very fast in the spiritual life. On the other hand, there are now two fruits being offered to it. One fruit is most delicious; the other one is rotten. Just because the two fruits are side by side, after eating the delicious food voraciously, we try to taste the other food. But a wise man will know that only the delicious fruit, only the food that is good, should be eaten.

We want to remain as divine and pure as possible. If we look at marijuana or other destructive drugs with our inner vision, we will see that we have to go beyond them. It is not through experience that we will transcend them, but through aspiration. Millions of experiences which you people have had, I do not have on the ordinary human level. But with my occult and spiritual vision, and with my universal oneness, I can see them, feel them and become one with them. There are people who say that you have to go through the experiences in order to know them. But I do not have to smoke marijuana in order to know what it tastes like or what its effect is. I just identify myself with someone who has done it. When I identify with my soul’s light, I am not at all affected, but I get the experience. Millions of experiences I have gotten from my disciples just on the strength of my identification. Then I have gone far beyond those experiences.

One does not have to go through an experience in order to say, “I know it because I have personal experience.” Personal experience is not like that. On the strength of yogic development, spiritual development, you can have the personal experience of everything you want. So I am telling you that it is not at all necessary for seekers to go through this experience. It is not at all advisable. When you realise God, all experiences are at your disposal. God-realisation is the supreme experience. At the feet of that experience, all the experiences are there. Once you have God-realisation, all the rest of the experiences are at your command.