2 October 1980 — evening²

Ambition is not a good thing according to many. Especially when one enters into the spiritual life, one gives up one’s ambition; one does not try to shine in one’s particular field. But I wish to say that this is only the human ambition, the ambition that wants to surpass others by hook or by crook. One must give up ambition in the desire-world. But ambition in the aspiration-world is totally different. Divine ambition is to become good, and not great, for goodness always embodies greatness, but greatness need not embody goodness.

Our spiritual ambition is to transcend ourselves, to conquer our own limitations, to become perfect instruments of our Lord Supreme. When we have ambition of this type, we are perfectly safe. And when we cry for this kind of ambition, we are doing the right thing. Human ambition is in the desire world — to defeat others, to be always on the highest pinnacle of success. But the divine ambition is to feel a universal oneness constantly. And in order to feel this universal oneness, we have to transcend our own limitations. Our incapacities must be transformed into capacities. So what we are crying for is divine ambition — the sincere necessity to be the best possible instruments of our Lord Supreme — to transcend our limitations so that we can eventually feel and grow into universal oneness.