Question: Are rituals and invocations really important for meditation? Sometimes we feel that because you are not physically with us that we have to invoke your presence.

Sri Chinmoy: No, no! This idea is wrong. It is not that I am not with you. On the contrary, you have to feel that I am with you, but while you are invoking me, at that time you are actually manifesting me. My consciousness is always with you, with all my disciples. You may think that you are praying to me and invoking me. No. At that time you are manifesting me. You are within me and I am within you; that is absolutely true. Whether or not the child calls the mother, the mother knows if the child needs something.

It is not that I am far away in the sky, or that I am in New York and you are in Puerto Rico, so you have to invoke me. Oneness has already been established. But when you invoke me, you are making an effort to manifest me. When you invoke the Supreme, at that time you are thinking that you need the Supreme to work in and through you. You invoke the Supreme and, while you are invoking Him, His Will is being manifested through you to the outer world.