Question: Have you heard of scientology? It is what you might call a kind of spiritual psychology where people try to bring out the supposedly negative aspects and get rid of them, resulting in finally what they call the 'clear' person, who is rid of all personal defects.

Sri Chinmoy: We always say that it is necessary to empty oneself. If you have a vessel which is not filled with the highest consciousness, then it has to be emptied. Only then can your highest consciousness enter into the vessel.

Negative thought, undivine qualities in the nature: we are always dealing with these things in our spiritual life. But by constantly dealing with the negative forces, the unlit qualities in us, we cannot run towards the Light. If the vessel is filled with dirt, then we have to empty it and fill it with divine things.

The tiny vessel which we have inside us has to be kept purified and empty so that every day we can fill it with Light. But if we constantly dig up the dirt without paying attention to filling ourselves with Light, what will happen? After digging the vast quantity of dirt that we have in our conscious mind, we will then enter into the field of the subconscious, then into inconscience. Finally we shall see what we were some three thousand or four thousand years ago: we shall see an animal, or just a tree, or a solid piece of stone. Now what benefit do we get from this? If we want to go to the source of our evil, dark, corrupt ideas and activities, we shall end up at the very source of destruction or imperfection. We have to be very careful about this.

I may not know the term ‘scientology,’ but from your explanation of it, I think that spirituality encompasses it. That is to say, if you care for aspiration, what has to be rejected will automatically be rejected and whatever has to be transformed will be transformed.