Question: When I meditate, I see within and without that everything is alive and has millions of patterns. I see something like a Living Presence in everything.

Sri Chinmoy: This is absolutely true. This is a very high kind of meditation because inside everything is God. And where God is present, life is bound to be present. Life and God can never be separated. Where there is life, there is God and where there is God, there is life. It is a wonderful experience.

Now you see infinite patterns. Inside one thing you are seeing many varieties. Here the One is being expressed in many forms and many patterns. Look at a lotus flower. It is one flower, but it is expressed or manifested by many petals, by the leaves, the stem and the pollen. In one lotus you see the manifestation of reality through various forms. You touch one particular part of the lotus, the leaf, for example, and you say, “This is the lotus.” Then you touch another part, the stem, and again you say, “This is the lotus.” God is there in all parts of the flower; that is why you feel that each part is the whole. God is present wherever life exists. God is endless in expression. He is endless in manifestation.