Question: When meditating, inside I feel very strong and outside I feel very soft. But as I go deeper, I start expanding.

Sri Chinmoy: That is wonderful. You feel strong inside because you are bringing down divine Peace, Bliss and Light into you. The more you consciously and devotedly bring down these divine forces from above, the stronger you become inwardly. You will feel that these things from above are helping you to expand your consciousness.

Now outwardly you are feeling soft, you say. It is not actually softness. It is the inner peace and inner confidence that are growing in your outer being. One who is outwardly strong, like a great boxer or a great sovereign, has inside him infinite confidence and great peace, because he fears no one. Inside his confidence he is totally relaxed. In great power there is quietude. But if a person is not very strong, he clenches his fists and gets ready to defend himself because he feels that his enemy is right in front of him. He has to show that he can fight. But when one has boundless inner strength, one does not have to display it outwardly. He doesn't have to clench his fists. He is relaxed because his inner strength has given him inner confidence. He is like a divine hero. At any moment, he can defeat the enemy or surmount any obstruction outside him. The more inner confidence one has, the more he can outwardly relax.