Question: Please say a little more about your statement that, for the beginner, meditation seems to be the highest reality, but when one becomes an advanced seeker one knows that meditation only leads to the highest reality.

Sri Chinmoy: Meditation is both the way and the goal. In the beginning, meditation plays the role of a staircase. We need a staircase to climb up to a certain height. Then there comes a time when we see that this meditation not only leads to the highest but actually embodies the highest. We say that God is the Boat, God is the Boatman, God is the Way and God is the Goal. In exactly the same way we can describe meditation. With meditation we go up, up, and up until finally we become the meditation itself. And this meditation embodies the universal Light, the universal Delight, God the Creator and God the creation at the same time.