Question: Does the factor of having spiritual experiences make you closer to the Supreme?

Sri Chinmoy: Now here I wish to say both Yes and No. Sometimes you may get experiences, inner experiences, higher experiences and then, what do you feel from them? You get inner joy, inner zeal, but this inner joy and inner zeal are not enough to bring you closer to the Supreme. When you get inner experiences, it inspires you. Your very joy does take you nearer to your Goal. But you have to know that these experiences have been given to you by the Supreme. There are other persons to whom the Supreme has not given these experiences. So the experience is not the most important thing.

Another person has not been given a particular experience. The Supreme has not given it to him, but the Supreme wants that particular person to come to Him without the experience. So it depends on the Supreme. The Supreme can bring you to Him by giving experiences and He can bring you to Him without experiences. But I wish to say that each person has to have a few major experiences, a few higher experiences. If you say that he needs hundreds of higher experiences in order to realise the Supreme, that would be foolishness. There are people who have had only three, four or five major experiences and then, in the process of their meditation, they realise God. Again there are others who have had hundreds and thousands of experiences before they realise God. So what is important? Aspiration. Then the rest we must leave to the Will of the Supreme. If He wants to take you to Him with innumerable experiences, well and good. If He wants to take you with just a few experiences, well and good. But one thing is that when you get experiences, you get inspiration, you get joy, you feel that you are fed. So that gives you inspiration to meditate again and again. But a real spiritual farmer goes on digging the ground. He does not care for the immediate crop. His very nature is to plough the field and he knows that at God’s Hour, he will get the bumper crop. So a real aspirant will continuously dig the inner soil and at God’s Hour, he will get a bumper crop. If you get experiences, wonderful; if you don’t get experiences, do not feel that God is displeased or that it is an indication that you are not marching towards God, that you are not getting closer to God. That is wrong. Is it clear?