Question: By what process do hostile forces leave us?

Sri Chinmoy: Sometimes slowly and steadily bad forces leave us on the strength of our own inner illumination. Sometimes it takes one week or two months or three months. It is like a wound. Gradually it becomes smaller, but it hurts until it is totally recovered. When we run a thorn into our foot, a particle remains and when we walk we get such pain. If we recover from the wound immediately, as if by some miracle, then we get tremendous joy.

But when we suffer, along with suffering comes doubt. Human life is so precarious. Each time we suffer, either we can open more to God or we can open more to suspicion. We will say, “I have tried so hard. I have given up my vital life. How is it that all the evil forces are coming to bother me? When I didn’t care for the spiritual life, I didn’t have so many wrong forces.” We don’t realise that these forces have to be conquered slowly and steadily and that they may come to the fore at times. A kind of conscious anger and all kinds of self-contempt may come. “I am useless and good for nothing. This means that I am not meant for the spiritual life.” Whenever this happens, we must increase our own aspiration as quickly as possible. We have a disease and at this time we have to become more careful and more alert. When we are all right, we sometimes become relaxed and self-complacent.