Royal family member: I would like to ask about the meaning of our life, what is our fate and destiny. I believe that everybody has their own mission in their life, and I want to know what our mission is in life.

Sri Chinmoy: You have to discover the mission of your life. Nobody can thrust it upon you. Nobody else can tell you what the mission of your life is. It is something that you have to discover. Then how do you know what the mission of your life is? When you pray most soulfully, one day you will be able to know the mission of your life. It is through prayer and meditation. If you pray and meditate, one day you will hear a voice, a very sweet voice who will tell you, this is the mission, this is the mission.

Nobody else can tell you, but if somebody has a spiritual Master, then the spiritual Master can tell somebody what their mission is. Otherwise, the person needs to discover it himself.

There is only one general mission, to work for the betterment of humanity – not to pray to God, “Give me success, give me glory.” If somebody really wants to help mankind, then he has to pray to God to give him the capacity to love God inside humanity, that means to love Allah inside everybody and to serve Allah in everybody. That is the best prayer: to pray to God, to pray to the Almighty Allah to give you the capacity to love Him inside everybody, inside every human being that you meet with, and also to serve Him inside every human life.

That is the general mission for people who are spiritual, who love God and want to make God happy in His own Way. Again, each individual has his own way of pleasing God. No two individuals please God in the same way. God wants every human being to please Him in His own Way. When you pray and meditate, you will definitely hear from deep within what your mission is. If you are spiritual, if you want to lead a spiritual life, then there will be one mission. If you want to lead an earthly life to fulfil all your desires, then at that time again, God will decide whether He will fulfil all your desires or not.

Suppose you have a desire today to have one car. Then God fulfils your desire, and then tomorrow you want two cars, three cars. After two cars, God will say, “No, he does not need more than two cars. One is enough, but if he has two, then it is more than enough.” Then God stops fulfilling your prayer. If you say, “O God, You are so kind to me. When I prayed to You for one car, You gave it to me. When I wanted two cars, You were a little bit unwilling, reluctant. But now when I am asking for three cars, You have stopped fulfilling my prayer.”

God knows how much you need. Need is one thing, greed is something else. We are so greedy. We look around and say, “My neighbour has four cars, then I want to show off that I can have five cars. He has five cars, then I need six cars.” God may say it is unnecessary, unnecessary. It is only competition that is going on. God does not believe in that kind of competition. God wants only to make you happy with two cars, not more than two cars. And if God fulfils somebody else’s desire by giving them six cars, then you will see how many accidents will take place instead of making the person happy. Today one son will take one car without the permission of the par-ents, and he will meet with an accident, and tomorrow somebody else will meet with an accident.

Here God gives you two cars because you need them. If you have a small family, then you may need a maximum of two cars. But if you have greed and compete with your neighbours, then you will only have miseries and no happiness. Like that, God decides for us how much we need, although sometimes we are not satisfied with what He gives us.

Again, if we pray and meditate, then we feel that our needs are very few. We do not need too many things because the more material possessions we have, the more problems we have. The more our desires are fulfilled, the more problems we face. If we need just a few things in our life, we get more joy, more satisfaction. Here we are asking for just a few desires to be fulfilled, and inwardly God becomes so pleased with us, He not only gives us what we need, but He gives us much more than we ever wanted.

I will give you an example. When I came to America, I had a desire to write two hundred books. But every day I was not praying to God to give me the capacity to write two hundred books. My desire was to write two hundred books, but day and night when I prayed and meditated, I never prayed to God, “God give me the capacity to write two hundred books.” No, I prayed for the manifestation of God’s Victory on earth – God’s Victory inside me, inside you, inside your religion, inside everybody. Only to fulfil God in His own Way: that is my prayer.

God was pleased, and He said, “You have the desire to write only two hundred books? I will bless you.” Now I have written over 1,500 books. My desire was two hundred. But for the fulfilment of that desire, I never prayed. God was pleased with me because I was praying for His Victory, so He fulfilled my desire with 1,500 books instead.

Here I was praying to God all the time for His Victory, His Victory, His Victory, His Way, not my way. Then God said, “You have a desire for two hundred books? It is such a simple thing.” Now He has given me 1,500 books. And I have composed thou-sands of songs. I never prayed to God to give me the capacity to write so many songs. In Bengali, I am nearing 13,000, and in English 7,000. These kinds of things are not from prayers. I am not praying to God to give me the capacity. No, I am praying to God only for the fulfilment of His Will. Then when I fulfil Him in His own Way, He gives earthly things. I never had the desire to become an artist. Now I have drawn more than fifteen million birds and 200,000 paintings. My mind cannot believe it. Raisa Maximovna, the wife of President Gorbachev, the former head of the Soviet Union, chose painting number 100,000 when she visited our Jharna-Kala Gallery in New York.

We do not pray for material things. But if God is pleased, He may feel that if we have some material outer things, it will inspire us, and then He may give them to us. Even so, even here in Malaysia, I have done one thousand paintings. It is only God’s Will we try to express, and He has given us the capacity, capacity to do these things. He gives us infinitely more than we need and deserve. He feels that my paintings, my writings and my music will inspire people. And if they get inspiration from my writings, from my music, from my songs, from my paintings, then people will be happy. I inspire my students, and they inspire me. When I do something, they get tremendous joy, and this is spiritual joy.

In the beginning it is necessary, as long as we are in human bodies, to pray to God for something good. At that time, we pray to God to give us some-thing good, not with the idea of defeating others – friends, relatives, neighbours. No, that idea should not enter into us. Only if you feel that something will make you happy, you can pray to God, but not with the idea of defeating others. You may be happy by fulfilling your desire, but if your desire is to defeat others, then you will never be happy. God may give you the capacity. Then you will see that if you get ful-filment from your desires, your desires may just increase and increase and increase. It will make your life miserable. But if you pray to God only for the ful-filment of a small desire which will not create any problem, either for you or for others, God is more pleased. God sees you need something for yourself, not to compete with others, not to defeat others, and God fulfils the desire. If there is competition, then it does not work.

When you pray and meditate, God will definitely tell you from within, Allah will tell you from within what your mission is. He wants you to be here on earth to do His Will.