Question: In calling on God, should we use the pronoun 'You'? If not, what kind of language should we use?

Sri Chinmoy: You can say “You” or “Thou” or refer to God by whatever name you feel comfortable with, or in whatever aspect you like. You can offer your prayers to God the Compassionate, God the Almighty, God the Beloved Supreme or any other aspect of God that pleases you.

During prayer and meditation, it is advisable to speak to God in your own mother tongue because the language that you learned right from birth has become inseparably one with your life-breath, which is all simplicity, sincerity, purity and divinity. So it is advisable, especially for seekers, to pray to God in the language they were brought up with.

Most of the time I speak to God in the Chittagong dialect which was spoken in my village, or in pure Bengali. Sometimes I speak English, but English comes last. When I was younger, every day I would recite a prayer from the Upanishads, India’s sacred scriptures, which are in the Sanskrit language. Also, I used to read prayers in French, but I get more joy from Bengali prayers. If I pray to God in the Chittagong dialect, the prayer is more spontaneous.