Question: Do you kill hope and expectation by surrendering to God's Will?

Sri Chinmoy: Hope is a power. There are many people who don't hope. They don't know how to hope. They don't want to hope. But that is wrong. Hope is not delusion. Hope is not mental hallucination. No, no. Inside hope there is power. We hope to do something good or to become something good. The very act of hoping is a kind of power. God is still hopeful. That is why His creation still exists. If God lost all His Hope, then there would be no creation.

Then comes expectation. Expectation is also a power, a stronger power. We expect something from our life. Because we expect something, we feel that we can't waste our time like ordinary people. We expect something good, something divine from ourselves. Then, after expectation comes surrender. At that time we don't expect anything. We will do our best and offer the result at the Feet of the Supreme. So we hope to become good. Then we go to expectation: we expect to realise God. Finally comes surrender. Still we expect; but we shall not fix a date: "On such and such a day, I expect to become perfect. If by that time I can't become perfect, then I am giving up the spiritual life." That kind of idea we must not cherish. We shall do the right thing. We shall pray and meditate and leave it up to God to give us what He wants us to have. At the same time we must not feel that since we are praying, God will give us what we want. Some people feel that if they surrender to God, then naturally God will please them in their own way. But I wish to say that this is a very tricky way of acting. God's bargain is not like that. It is not that if we please God in our aspiration-life, then God will fulfil us in the desire-life. No. That is absurd. Surrender means that our will becomes one with God's Will. At that time, we execute only the Supreme's Will. We have no will of our own. So if we execute the Will of the Supreme, naturally at that time our will will be the will of aspiration and not the will of desire.