Question: Do you believe in reincarnation? Who were you before and who will you be in your next life? Can a spiritual man decipher the mysteries of life?

Sri Chinmoy: I do believe in reincarnation. In one lifetime it is impossible to reach the Highest and manifest the Highest. In each successive incarnation we try to make more progress. We are like a plant that is growing up high, higher, highest. One day we will be a huge tree with countless leaves, most fragrant flowers and delicious fruits. But this cannot happen overnight.

God has created us. The very purpose of creation is the manifestation and fulfilment of God’s Vision here on earth in and through each individual soul. God will never allow any person to remain unfulfilled. But in one lifetime we cannot accomplish everything. Even on the earthly, material plane we cannot fulfil all our desires. At the age of seventy we may see that some of our desires from our early childhood have not yet been fulfilled. Similarly, on the spiritual plane, we cannot fulfil all our aspirations in the short span of one life. We must come back again and again to make inner progress and eventually transform God’s transcendental Dream into fruitful Reality.

In my immediate past incarnation I was a spiritual Master in India with just a handful of extremely soulful and devoted disciples. In that incarnation, I lived in circumstances of extreme simplicity, perhaps I should even say austerity. Although I offered my inner goodwill to the world, my role in that lifetime was not to work in the world but to concentrate on my own spiritual progress and that of a few excellent disciples. Both God’s Justice and Compassion are needed for the transformation of earth’s consciousness. In my immediate past incarnation, God used His Justice-Light for me, in me and through me more than He used His Compassion-Height. In this incarnation it is absolutely the reverse. Right now it is God’s Compassion that is playing a greater role in inspiring, uplifting, illumining and fulfilling countless God-seekers through me.

With regard to future lives, my Beloved Supreme, out of His infinite Bounty, has repeatedly told me that this incarnation of mine marks the unmistakable end of my earth-pilgrimage. In the future I will continue to love, serve and please my Lord Supreme in His own Way from the inner and higher worlds.

A spiritual man cannot necessarily decipher the mysteries of life. Only the highest spiritual giants can and do decipher the mysteries of life. Then it is the bounden duty of these spiritual giants to share their wisdom and light with the spiritually hungry and thirsty humanity.