Question: Can a housewife meditate?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly she can. Householders can easily concentrate, meditate and aspire. At the very beginning of your spiritual journey you have to feel the Presence of God in your immediate family. Suppose you are the mother of a child. When you are serving the child, you have to feel the Presence of God in him. That is why he is dear to you. Someone is dear to you precisely because God is inside him, and you are dear to him because God is inside you. So you have to go to the Source.

To gain access to the Source, you have to learn concentration, meditation and contemplation. Meditation does not mean that you have to leave the world and practise austere disciplines and so forth. No, only in all your actions you have to offer your soulful service-light to the Source. When you speak to your son, you have to feel that you are offering your love to the divine Inner Pilot in him. When you are giving him wisdom, you have to feel that it is the Inner Pilot within you that is serving the Inner Pilot in him. As a householder naturally you will love the members of your family. You are the tree and they are the branches. You will love them, and since you love them you have to devote yourself to them.

Each time, you have to feel that between you and your dearest one there is somebody who is a bridge, and that is God. You are loving your dearest ones precisely because God the eternal Lover is inside you. You are showing compassion to someone because the eternally compassionate Father is inside you. So in that way the householder can meditate.

It is better for a householder to meditate in a group, with the members of his family, if it is possible. Then there will be a family feeling. As you eat normal food together, so also you can eat spiritual food together. Spiritual food is prayer and meditation.