Question: To have a childlike quality, do you have to have a great deal of faith and trust?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, indeed. That is absolutely necessary. A child knows that the mother will not intentionally do anything to harm him. The child believes that even unconsciously the mother will not do anything wrong. For her to harm him consciously is out of the question. The child will never think that the mother will do something wrong consciously, far from it. On the contrary, the child has implicit faith in the mother. He feels that if someone gives poison, the mother herself will drink the poison and save her child. This same faith is needed by a mature person, someone with a developed mind.

After a child becomes thirteen, the mind starts functioning. Whether it is the intellectual mind or the ordinary mind, the mind has its own way of doubting, suspecting and doing all kinds of undivine things. So the best thing is to think that you are four years old, even if you are very mature, very developed in the spiritual life. If you think that you are a child, then you make the fastest progress. How can you have receptivity? A child has receptivity, immediate receptivity, because he does not rely on his own capacity. He relies on his mother's capacity. Again, he is eager to give his little capacity. His little capacity is his faith. A child's capacity is his faith that his father can lift up a heavy weight. His faith is that his father can do it and also that his father will do it for him. The very faith that he has in his father will save him. His faith in his father is his faith in himself.