Part III — Questions and answers: University Of Connecticut, Storrs

Question: How can a person be sure that he really has aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: A person can be sure that he has aspiration by the mere fact that the question has entered into his life. You have aspiration. Otherwise you would not have come here. You would have become a perfect friend to desire. Whoever comes to a spiritual place or wants to see a spiritual Master most certainly has aspiration. Now you may say that some people have come here out of curiosity. But even in curiosity there is aspiration. Otherwise the person would say, "Who cares for spiritual life? It is all useless." But if a person has some curiosity, he will say, "Let me see what a spiritual man looks like and what others are doing." Curiosity is a kind of subtle eagerness, an unconscious eagerness to learn something, to do something, to grow into something. Curiosity is the precursor of aspiration. Here there are many, many people who are sincere, and one or two who are just curious. Now the many who are sincere will be able to inspire the curious people easily.

To come back to your question, you do have aspiration. But if you are conscious of your aspiration, if you are confident about it, then you will make better progress. If you are doubtful of its existence in your life, you will not be able to march like a hero. You do have aspiration, so you should try to run as fast as possible, like a deer. If you do not try, you will just plod along like an Indian bullock cart. We are all given the opportunity to walk slowly or to run the fastest. Please try to run.