Question: My question is about work. Can one make equally fast spiritual progress if one is working outside of our Divine Enterprises?

Sri Chinmoy: You have to be the judge. If you are in the company of your spiritual brothers and sisters, you all have the same spiritual Master. If people who are working at the Divine Enterprises are really spiritual, if they are only thinking of me, thinking of me and pleasing me, it is easier. If four or five disciples are working at the same place, and if they are good disciples, their consciousness or their concentration is all the time around me. They will say to each other, “Tomorrow is Saturday. I am dying for Saturday to come so that I can go to New York.” They will all be trying to find out what is happening in New York and what I am doing. They have an advantage because their goal is the same.

If you work outside the Divine Enterprises, your colleagues have nothing to do with your spiritual life, absolutely nothing. Your destination is your Guru, and their destination is somewhere else, so it may be difficult, very difficult for you. That is why I encourage the disciples to work at our Divine Enterprises. There are many disciples who work in Divine Enterprises. They may not get as high a salary as they could get elsewhere — I know that. But in one place several workers are thinking of the same goal, whereas at another place, you are the only one who is on our path, so it may be very difficult. Who will be there to help you? And whom are you going to help? There is a great advantage for those who work in a Divine Enterprise.

Again, if you are very spiritual, who cares whether others are spiritual or not? But you have to have tremendous concentration and will-power. Let others think of their own life; you will think of your spiritual life. It is very difficult, but not impossible, not impossible, not impossible. Nothing is impossible — it is only difficult. In a Divine Enterprise it is easy, because all the workers are in the same spiritual boat. But in your case you have to be extremely strong in your heart, in your mind and in your life to maintain the height of your spiritual life.

Again, it is difficult, but not impossible. Look at this boy! He is a doctor. Where is his country, and where is New York? While he is working, his mind and his heart are all the time for me. His consciousness and his concentration are here, with me. In how many ways he serves our humanitarian programme, The Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles! In the doctors’ profession, they are dealing with life and death every second. Their business is life and death. In spite of doing something very serious, he is always thinking of me and how to please me, how to please me. He is one example. We also have a professor who comes to New York so often. While he is teaching, his mind and heart are here, with me.

The mother is working someplace, let us say, and the child, the little baby, is at home. The mother is working, but her heart is in her house, in her home, in her baby’s room. That little child is the mother’s goal and her God — nobody else. With her mind the mother is working at her office, but her heart is in the tiny room where her baby is staying.

It is difficult, difficult, I must say, to maintain your spiritual height while working outside our Divine Enterprises; but it is not impossible. Nothing is impossible. Definitely it is difficult if your colleagues are not spiritual and they are not in the same spiritual boat — very difficult, but not impossible.