Question: Is it important for a spiritual aspirant to have satisfaction?

Sri Chinmoy: Let us say that you have worked hard at something, and now you are going to get the result in the form of an experience. If the experience comes in the form of failure, if you can take it as cheerfully as success, then your satisfaction is perfect. After working if you can gladly accept the result in the form of success or failure, then satisfaction is bound to dawn.

But if you don’t work at all just because you are afraid that you will fail, then you will get zero; you will not pass the inner examination. True, there are people who do not work, yet they appear to be satisfied. But they are not actually satisfied. A lazy person, an idle person, can never, never be satisfied for even one minute. On the physical plane, a lazy person’s satisfaction means that he does not have to work; he does not even have to climb down the staircase. But although he is satisfied on the physical plane, on the mental plane evil thoughts are making a big hole in his mind. He has stayed five hours in bed after the sun has dawned, so he has got satisfaction by stretching his legs. He is so satisfied because he did not have to budge an inch from his bed. But hostile, undivine forces, unlit emotional forces have all come and entered into him. So what kind of real satisfaction can he have?

If wrong forces enter into you, and you enjoy vital thoughts, then after an hour or two you will get up and cry. When the soul comes forward you will say, “What have I done? My first mistake was not to get up early in the morning. Then my second mistake was to indulge in these vital thoughts.” This is what is happening in the spiritual life of many seekers. So I always say, do the right thing. Early in the morning, meditate. After meditation, if you are not very happy or peaceful, if you feel that peace has not descended, just offer your experience up to God. This very act of offering will be your satisfaction.