Part I

• Question: Guru, what is more important: inspiration or imagination?
• Question: Guru, do you remember when you gave us the daily prayers,you said that you were giving us an approach that was most compatible with the Western mind, which is "I must conquer, I must conquer."
• Question: Guru, my question is, does the Supreme have a preference? If I have the approach of "I must conquer," then it is as if I must take charge. But what if I approach a particular prayer with a heart of intense supplication? Does the Supreme have a preference for a more modern approach, for a conquering attitude or a "take-charge" attitude, over an attitude of supplication?

Part II — 'Comments about Thomas Jefferson'

• Nripal: We know that spirituality — in the sense that we all understand it, that you taught us to understand it — pervaded the consciousness of so many of the founders of our country and they were able to distinguish between the highest, simplest spirituality and the practice of religion. Jefferson was the champion of the separation of Church and State and yet he was a profoundly spiritual person. People today do not really understand that.

Part III

• Question: When I want to pray for a certain divine quality, I do not know any way to do it other than by repeating the name of the quality over and over again. Does the English word for the quality have any power to bring forward that quality?
• Question: Does everything you do or not do mean something? For example, if somebody takes prasad when there are so many people around, is it of importance if you look at the person or not, or is it sometimes just coincidence?
• Sri Chinmoy spoke about singing "The Invocation."
• Question: Guru, sometimes we are staying in a room with one or two other people, as we do on the Christmas Trip. If they are still sleeping and we need to leave soon, can we sing "The Invocation" by ourselves while they are asleep?
• Question: If you have to leave really early to catch a flight and you would like to sing "The Invocation" before you leave the room, even then do the others have to get up, Guru?
• Question: Guru, is it all right if we whisper "The Invocation" so as not to disturb others who are sleeping?

Part IV

• Question: Could you speak about your prayer that says, "Even after God-manifestation, God comes with a new Dream"?

Part V

• Question: If somebody does something first, does he pave the way in the inner worlds for others to follow? If somebody breaks the four-minute-mile barrier, for example, is it easier for others to follow him?
• Question: Is there any quick way to get affection and forgiveness from our soul?
• Question: When we were listening to your synthesiser the other day, it seemed as though different qualities were coming out in different parts of the performance. I was wondering if you wanted to tell us anything about what was happening inwardly?
• Question: Guru, when I am back at home working, I try to imagine you as often as possible in person, but sometimes because there is so much happening, it is difficult. But often when I concentrate on my heart, I feel that it is full of light and full of joy and I was wondering if that is enough?
• Question: Why is the mind afraid of visiting Heaven?
• Question: During this huge disaster, what kind of spirit would we need to face it?

Part VI

• Seeker: Guru, a gentleman came from the Beijing Municipal Government. I told him, "Sri Chinmoy has students in more than one hundred countries," and he said, "That is like the United Nations!" Then one of your disciples said, "It is only the United Nations of all the hearts." Please, Guru, in your heart's United Nations, do not leave China out!
• Question: There are roots in the spiritual life that go down deep, deep, deep and I feel they are building our solid life as a spiritual seeker. How can we become more solid and work on our roots in the spiritual life?

Part VII

• Question: Suppose somebody dies and they are supposed to go to a lower world. Then you help them inwardly and they go to a higher place. My question is, do you also help their spiritual consciousness so that when they go to that higher place, they actually fit in there, or is that soul like a kindergarten pupil in a high school class?
• Question: In our Centre, we have five or six disciples who would like to run forty-two marathons each by April next year in honour of your forty-two years in the West. We aim to run two or three marathons a month.
• Question: Today you talked about karma. Let us say I have bad karma due to me because I did something wrong. Then somebody hurts me. Cosmically, that was a result of that bad thing I had done at some time in my past, whether in this incarnation or in a previous incarnation. But was the person who hurt me an instrument of the Supreme, or will that person in turn now get bad karma?
• Question: If somebody does something to you and you pray for that person not to be punished, can your prayer affect the Supreme's decision?

Part VIII

• Question: Guru, you said not too long ago that it has been a very, very long time since you received a sincere smile. My question is this: is there anything at all that we, your disciples, can do to change that?
• Question: In one of your books you say that the really great spiritual Masters have their own worlds in the inner world. For example, you describe Sri Krishna's world as very vast and soulful. Could you describe your world?

Part IX

• Question: How can we feel your presence constantly?
• Question: Is the soul's quality always the same?
• Question: How can we assimilate beautiful experiences?
• Question: How can I inspire my Centre?
• Question: Within a family, is there a difference between attachment and love?
• Question: How can we be happy always?
• Question: How can we be more disciplined?
• Question: How can we sing really powerfully?
• Question: How can I have more intuition?
• Question: How can I be more yours?
• Question: How can we keep intensity always?
• Question: How can we have more inspiration?
• Question: Where is perfection?
• Question: How to meditate when we are stressed and exhausted?
• Question: How can we be fully forgiven?
• Question: How can we better serve our country?
• Question: How to increase my inner oneness with my Master?
• Question: How can we know God's Will?
• Question: How many hours do you feel we should spend daily in prayer and meditation?
• Question: How can I give true joy to you?
• Question: How to shed constant, soulful tears?
• Question: How to increase sincerity, purity and humility?
• Question: Why am I afraid of myself?
• Question: How to increase my inner hunger?
• Question: What will give me the best meditation?
• Question: How can I get rid of my fear?

Part X

• Question: We were listening today to some of your writings that sound like reminiscences and I was wondering if you will release these writings? Are you preparing your own autobiography?
• Question: A few months ago my grandfather died. When he was on his deathbed, I was singing your songs to him. I was just wondering, how much can our family members appreciate our path?
• Question: The other day you told a story about how in the inner world a soul came to you and you said, "Oh, I have not seen you for such a long time!" I always thought that the souls who are close to you are always in your world or your universe and they see you all the time.
• Question: What are souls doing in the inner world?
• Question: I was just wondering if you could tell us something about your spiritual vision.
• Question: Over the millennia, has God's attitude towards humanity changed in any fundamental way?
• Question: It almost seems like you have to do your spiritual work all by yourself in the inner world. Is there anyone helping you?
• Question: How can we develop a real inner hunger for God's Victory?
• Question: Many years ago, when I was extremely ill, I saw you in a different way. I could not see you as my Guru. I only saw your divine form. My question is, was I having that experience because I was partly in the other world, because I was half alive but also half on my way out?
• Question: So many times in classical music the soundless sound is mentioned. You have also written about it. How does what you say relate to what is said in books about classical music?
• Question: How can we develop the closest and strongest connection with our Master for this incarnation and all the rest of our incarnations?
• Question: I read in an article about a Japanese scientist who did an experiment on water crystals. He observed the crystals from different environments in the world and he discovered that when water is in a very spiritual environment, the crystals are very beautiful. But when the water comes from a very polluted environment, the crystals change forms to become very ugly. He put 'love' on a glass of water overnight and 'hate' on another glass of water overnight. In the morning, he observed that the crystals with the word 'love' had become very beautiful and those with the word 'hate' had become very ugly. Is there any spiritual significance to this experiment?
• Question: Nature can be such an inspiration to us. Is there anything we can do to help nature?
• Question: It is said that Sri Ramakrishna on a special occasion became the kalpataru , the wish-fulfilling tree, for his disciples. I would like to ask you if you could say something about this state of consciousness when a spiritual Master becomes the kalpataru for his disciples and I would like to ask you if you also have become the kalpataru for your disciples?
• Question: How do your forgiveness, compassion and protection operate in our present, past and future lives?
• Question: Three times Sri Ramakrishna told Naren to ask Mother Kali for material things for his family, but Naren did not want gourds and pumpkins. Was that disobedience on the part of Naren, or was it a test, or something else?
• Question: Are the gods that appear in all the different world religions all the same, like Quan Yin in China and the ancient Greek gods and the cosmic gods and goddesses of India?
• Question: When you give us a score for our meditation, I was wondering what the score was mainly based on and how we can all improve the overall score.
• Question: I have seen you in different forms, but it is you and I recognise you. When I was in India recently for one month, every evening I climbed a small hill covered with trees. It was all wilderness. Every day I wanted to go there because the very first day, I saw you coming from there, far away. After that, every day whenever it was not raining, if I walked, I saw you many, many times. Was that hallucination, or was I really seeing you?
• Question: Both my husband and I have seen you in your previous incarnations with different clothes and different ornaments. It was perhaps a few hundred years back or maybe a thousand years back. Once you were giving a concert. Afterwards, my husband asked me, "Did you see what I saw?" Then I said, "You are talking about Guru's new earrings?" "Yes," he said. "Yes." Then when you came out, when the concert was over, you appeared as normal. But throughout the concert you were wearing a different costume from a different time period. That was amazing.
• Question: A lot of times we know in our minds that you love us more than anyone else does. But many times I feel that someone understands me more than you do. What is the problem?
• Question: When a soul comes to you for blessings, is its appearance similar to the physical form of that person?

Part XI

• Question: When I meditate, sometimes I can almost get my mind to stop, but then there will be some song going through my mind. It could be one of your songs or some other song that I knew a long time ago. I wish I knew a way of making that stop.
• Question: Two mornings ago, when I woke up, the first thought that came into my mind was, why did God make it necessary for us to sleep?
• Question: Do you value at all what some people call a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'? In other words, if someone says, "I believe that good things are coming now," is there any power of that self-fulfilling prophecy to turn the forces around and make things better?
• Question: Some people believe that you can will something to go better by just saying that good things are coming.
• Question: I wanted to ask if there is a certain spiritual quality that the cello embodies. Recently you gave two concerts on Long Island and I felt a lot of power and intensity when you were playing the cello.
• Sri Chinmoy: Now I would like to answer one or two questions from the disciples who have been with us over thirty-three years. Over thirty-three years if you have been on the path, if you have any question, quickly ask me and I shall quickly answer.
• Question: On the Christmas Trip you said, if I understood correctly, that even when some of us want to be receptive and are crying to make some progress or crying for light in some way and you try to give it to us, we become frightened or we refuse it. I was wondering if there was something we could do so that we could be more receptive in that way.
• Question: You have said that sometimes God blesses the world with His Compassion and sometimes with His Justice-Light. Is it possible that God may act in various ways in the same situation?
• Question: Should I feel that my spiritual Master is the highest?
• Question: In China I saw the Chinese goddess Quan Yin and I really felt something in her. I am wondering, if I feel inspired to sit in front of Quan Yin, is that a good thing?

Part XII

• Question: When I look at the moon, I get a special experience and I believe it is coming through you. I just wanted to ask you, what is your connection to the moon, specially the full moon?
• Question: I have checked about your birthday and I found that you were born on a full moon. Is that true? Also, I know of others who were born on a full moon.