Question: I have been meditating on and off for a couple of years, but a few months ago I did some Hatha Yoga and shortly afterwards I experienced pain in the third eye area. I don't want it, but at the same time I don't want to get rid of it. It helps me become conscious of everything I am doing, yet I feel confused about it. I was wondering if you could suggest anything.

Sri Chinmoy: If we invite pain or invoke pain to make us conscious of God’s Reality, then our progress will be very slow. God is all Bliss. He does not want us to cut off our limbs to prove to Him how much we care for Him. He will say, “Children, you are fools. I am all-loving. You should come to Me with all your heart’s love, not through your body’s pain.” God does not want to torture us. It is our own ignorance and wrong forces, and the hostile forces all around us that like to torture us. In order to reach God we should not create pain or invite pain. It is through constant love that we should approach God. As a child runs toward His parents — cheerfully and lovingly — even so each individual seeker should run toward the Eternal Father — cheerfully, lovingly, unreservedly and unconditionally — not through deliberate invitation of suffering. That will be a very long and unhealthy process, and it may lead the seeker very far astray.