Question: But when disciples come to you, do you already see that they will go up very high or fall down, or is it all open?

Sri Chinmoy: In some cases I definitely know, and in other cases I deal with possibility. In some cases I can totally break and mould them. There, as the Christ said, "I am the Way and the Goal." In these cases I know the outcome. In other cases, I am only the way, and then I am dealing with possibility. Here my grace, the Light of the Supreme, gives the fastest progress according to the disciple's capacity. In most of the cases, I am the way. But in some cases I know that I am also the Goal. Where I am the Goal, I totally break those individuals and mould and shape them. But mine is not my way; it is the Supreme's own Way.

Why with some do I break their mould and make my own impression on them, whereas with others I will leave the speed either slow or fast, according to my own grace? In the cases where I break, the disciples have come to a position where they were able to accept that kind of breaking. Someone may want to become a first-class disciple, but if I ask that person to do something, he will say, "Oh, what will my father think, what will my mother think?" But if I ask the other disciple, there will be no father, no mother — only cheerful obedience.

When we started here, we gave the same chance to everyone. When I accept someone as a disciple, each person starts from the same starting point. But some run very fast, and others do not run fast at all.

Sri Chinmoy, The Master's inner life, Agni Press, New York, 1977