Question: Why do I sometimes feel sad when I come out of meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: When you meditate, please do not have any preconceived ideas. Do not think about whether you will receive pain or joy. Do not act like a beggar. Feel that you are doing the right thing, and when you come out of meditation, feel that that is the proper time for you to come out of meditation. When you are going high, higher, highest, there is no reason why you should doubt yourself. While you are climbing up a tree, if you know that you are climbing up a tree, you don't doubt the act of climbing. You are climbing a tree and you know that you are going high. When you are sure that you are climbing up high, higher, highest, then there is nothing to doubt.

When you come out of your meditation, if you feel sorry, then you have to feel that you are making a mistake. You want to remain up in the tree and eat the ripe mango to your heart's content. You don't want to bring it down and distribute it to mankind, to your brothers and sisters who are hungry.

So when you go up, you have to feel the necessity of going up to the highest to collect the mangoes and bringing them down. You are bringing them down and they are meant for distribution. But if you come down and you feel sad, that means you want to eat them all by yourself upstairs. You don't want to have to bring them down. You will act like an ordinary person in a very miserly way.

So the best thing is, when you go up, always to go with joy and when you come down, also to come down with joy. When you go up, feel that it is for achievement of the highest and when you come down or come out of meditation, feel that it is for distribution.