Question: I feel unhappy when I think of the suffering that is going on in the world, that children are starving and things like that.

Sri Chinmoy: The fact that you are suffering is a sign that you have a very big heart. You feel sorry that although you are able to feed your children, your neighbour is unable to feed her children. God has given you what you need while He has not given somebody else the things that she needs. But we have to know that we are all human beings. Our compassion is good, but the amount of compassion that we have is next to nothing when compared to God’s Compassion. God created you and it is His Compassion that has given you money and material wealth. Do you not think that since He is Infinite, He also has the capacity to give the same amount of material wealth to others? There is a special purpose in what He is doing. Why He has not given wealth to others, He alone knows. In this incarnation God has given you money, material wealth, a husband and children and many other things. But who knows in your past incarnation what kind of suffering you may have gone through? And what will happen in the next incarnation, we also do not know.

It is like a game. Suppose one of your team’s players has been attacked by your opponents and is badly injured. Naturally you will feel sorry that you have lost a player from your team. But if you constantly think of the player who is suffering, how will you be able to play the game? God wants you to play your own game. You have lost a partner in the game, but you must also remember that in this game, your team needs you badly.

What your side needs is your joy. Your cheerfulness is like the strength of a lion, the strength of an elephant. When you identify yourself with suffering humanity, your heart may be big, but your cheerfulness is lost. It is true that your team-mate has fallen, that humanity is weak. But when your own cheerfulness goes away, then you become weak in a different way. You cannot make your own progress. If you are dwelling on the thought that people are sick, or people are poor, then while they are weak in one way, you become weak in another way by losing your own joy. So instead of one weak soldier, now there are two.

Again, there are many people who feel sorry for the suffering of others and it is right to feel sorry for others. But in some cases the after-effect is often a kind of inner revolt. We ask, "What kind of God is He who cannot take care of His children?" Instead of accepting God’s Will and surrendering to it with the knowledge that He knows what is best for all of His children, we blame God and criticise Him.

When we see suffering, we must immediately throw unhappiness from our minds and make our minds clear. We must feel that this is an experience God is having in and through those people and that when the time comes, when the hour strikes, those people also will be given material wealth. You may sympathise for a second, but you must maintain your cheerfulness; you must make your own progress. Your progress means your joy. When you make your own progress, you will have joy that you will be able to spread all over the world.

If we try to make our fastest progress, we will become one with God. When we go into our highest, automatically real power enters from the highest into the earth-consciousness. At that time, the suffering of humanity is helped. The higher we go the more we spread our wings. We spread our wings and can carry all of humanity. In this way we can really save ourselves and humanity. All the spiritual Masters do this.