Question: When I feel that my spiritual progress is not fast enough and that my meditation is not deep enough, sometimes I feel the Supreme is not happy with me. Then feelings of depression and frustration enter. How can I deal with this?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, when you are not making progress the way you want to make progress, that is to say, when you are not making the fastest progress, it is because you are making some mistake. But if you become depressed, then you are making your problem worse; you are making another mistake. Depression is not the answer. In the spiritual life you have to try to be as cheerful as possible. Cheerfulness will never help to bring out the undivine in you. If you can be cheerful, then automatically half of your spiritual fever is gone, and you can walk faster.

But why are you not running fast? This is the important question. Sometimes it happens that a runner, knowing well that the goal is very far, slows down. Since the goal is very far away, he says, “I can go slowly and, without fail, I will reach the destination. Why try to run the fastest and become totally exhausted?” But the runner has to know that there is not one but three goals. When he reaches his first goal and realises the highest Truth, he cannot stop and relax. He has gone only part of the way. There are two more goals: the revelation of the Truth and the manifestation of the Truth. If he loses his enthusiasm and relaxes before he reaches even the first goal, then he will reach the ultimate Goal at a very late date.

All those who are sincere seekers must know that the realisation of Truth is still a far cry. Once they have realised the Truth, the game is not over. If you have three things to study, you won’t relax as you would if you had only one thing to study. If you know that there are three things you have to learn, one after the other, you will be more alert, more conscious, more devoted, more aspiring. So please feel that in order to make the Supreme happy in your spiritual progress, you have to study three subjects one after the other. Do not feel that you have Eternity at your disposal. No! You have to be alert and feel that every moment is either helping you to reach your Goal or preventing you from reaching your Goal. So let each moment be utilised to dive deeper, run farther, fly higher. Then you can easily make the Supreme happy.