Part IV — Questions and answers: University of Honolulu

Question: What is aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Aspiration is our inner cry. Deep within all of us we have this aspiration, this mounting inner cry. We start our journey with aspiration. In the beginning when we aspire, deep within us we feel that we have to realise God. When we realise God, we have to feel the necessity of revealing God to mankind. This again is aspiration, on a higher level. There is no end to our aspiration. After we have revealed God we have to manifest God. This is the third step. Manifestation is the flowering of real aspiration. But there is no end to our manifestation, just as there is no end to our realisation and no end to our revelation. Each realisation of today is tomorrow's starting point, tomorrow's new dawn. Today's realisation is the steppingstone for the higher realisation of tomorrow.

To come back to your question, aspiration is the inner flame that is burning constantly, rising towards the highest ultimate Goal. It has no end. Constantly it is illumining our consciousness and the people who are around us. It is illumining within and without. And in the process of this illumination, we see that today we will realise God, tomorrow we will try to reveal God and the day after tomorrow we will try to manifest God. But there is no end to our realisation, revelation and manifestation, precisely because aspiration itself is an eternal inner flame.