Question: Guru, is it good to meditate on mandalas?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, you can meditate on mandalas. You can meditate on anything that gives you joy. If it gives you joy, then you can meditate on a flower, on a candle, on my picture, even on your own picture. Just stand or sit in front of a mirror and look at yourself without appreciating your physical face. Look at yourself and feel that this is what you are, but you want to be something else. Look at yourself and enter into what you are seeing. Say to yourself, "I don't want to have this kind of face; I want to have a most luminous face."

Again, you can meditate on a flower and say, "How beautiful this flower is. Let me meditate on this flower and become as pure as the flower." Or you can meditate on the sea and say, "Look, the sea is so vast, so full of spiritual consciousness. Let me meditate on it and become Infinite Consciousness." Whatever gives you most joy, utmost joy, is the best thing for you to meditate upon.