Question: How can one be constantly surrendered and at the same time deal with hostile forces?

Sri Chinmoy: If you really surrender to the divine in you, then the hostile forces are automatically conquered. It is just because you don’t surrender to the divine Will within you that you encounter these hostile forces. Surrender means that you remain in the light. If you are in light, how can there be darkness? You have two rooms, a room of darkness and a room of light. When you are in the room full of illumination, the undivine hostile forces cannot attack you. If you remain in the illumination-room, then you have the quality and capacity of that room. It is the same with the other room, which is full of darkness.

It is not like doing two things simultaneously. If you live in the dark room, you will be conquered by the darkness, and if you live in the light-room, then you are not only conquered by light but you conquer light. When you are in the ignorance-room, ignorance conquers you; you do not conquer ignorance. You become a victim, because you are not going to claim ignorance as your very own. But when you are in the light-room, not only does the light conquer you, but you also conquer the light and you claim light as your own.

So you have to decide whether to stay in the room that has light and surrender to the light, or in the room that has darkness. What you want, you will get. If you stay in the room that has light, the hostile forces cannot enter. But if you want hostile forces, they can claim you to such an extent that you won’t have the right to claim them as your own. If you want divine forces, they become yours and you can claim them as your very own.