Question: I cannot see anything created by God as imperfect. How can He create a soul that is not perfect and then say, "Alright, you go ahead in your own free way; develop the best you can?"

Sri Chinmoy: But God does not just throw the soul into the manifestation and leave it there helplessly. He Himself is going there. He is in the soul and with the soul, guiding it constantly.

Arati: Good! G-o-o-d!

Sri Chinmoy: God is…

Arati: Perfect.

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, God is perfect — the Absolute God who is above all. The Highest is perfect, who is the Supreme, the Self. The God who is One Soul without a second, He is really perfect. But the God who has entered into the multiplicity, the One who has donned these clothes, Chinmoy, He is imperfect because He is now taking this human consciousness which is full of limitations and full of imperfections.

God Himself is in the process of making. I should say that He is going from imperfection to perfection. God wants to make me perfect. The potter, when he makes a pot, changes it constantly, moulding and changing the shape until it comes to perfection. So God is also perfecting Himself through humanity because He is the Spirit. He has descended into matter. This is His game. You can say it is a cruel game, but it is His game.

I say, we say, that we are all God, we have come from God. But where is our realisation? Where is our perfection? We are in the process of realisation: we are in the process of perfection.

When each individual represents God, what is actually happening? Even though that individual has not fully realised God, still we can’t separate God from that person’s existence. So much imperfection we are seeing in this world. Do you think that God is not there in that imperfection? God is everywhere. God is in a thief just as He is in the honest man. He is there; He is getting experience. God can be everything: He can be the Highest and He can be the Lowest. Of course I don’t want to be the God who is in the lowest. I want to be the God who is in the Highest. God is in dirty, filthy water as well as in pure, distilled water. If I want to survive, I shall drink the pure water and not the filthy water; otherwise I would die. Similarly, if I want to be good, perfect and serve the Divine, I have to become Divine.

In our ordinary existence, during one day, how many times does each human being become the victim of ugly thoughts, undivine thoughts and all that? At the same time, you will see that he gets divine, fulfilling and sublime thoughts, too. So when God is in the uncomely thoughts as well as in the divine thoughts, how can He separate His existence from ours from one hour to another? No, He is in our imperfection and in our aspiration.

So God, the Spirit, has entered into matter, yet matter is ignorant, sleeping. There He is, awakening and pushing matter forward. Open your eyes, open your eyes; you have to grow into the Infinite. God is everywhere. God is in darkness and in Light. But with our knowledge, with our wisdom, with our aspiration, we have to grow towards the Best, towards the Highest, towards the most fulfilling.

Our conception of God is that He is up there and cannot come down, that my Father and I may be one, but that my Father is in Heaven and I am doomed to rot on earth. No, if I am in hell, my Father is also here in hell because my Father cannot remain in Heaven if I am in hell. When I say that I and my Father are one, if I am in the most abysmal hell, He will be there also. He cannot be up there. He is where I am, if He is really my Father. My Father will not be able to suffer the separation. If I am in prison, my Father will come to prison with me. He cannot separate Himself from me; He cannot remain aloof from me if He is my true Father.