Question: How can we bring enough perfection into our own lives and into the world to be truly satisfied?²²³

Sri Chinmoy: The perfection of the body lies in its conscious awareness of the ever-progressive Truth. The perfection of the vital lies in its acceptance of the Truth in a dynamic form. The perfection of the mind lies in its acceptance of the Vast, the Infinite, as its very own. The perfection of the heart lies in its soulful oneness with earth’s cry and Heaven’s Smile. In order to have complete perfection, we have to achieve perfection in our body, vital, mind and heart.

I feel that perfection has to be total and integral. In our human nature we have imperfection and at the same time we have limited perfection. If imperfection right now looms large, we have to brave that imperfection and transform it into perfection. Through our conscious prayer, concentration, meditation and contemplation, our past imperfections can be perfected and our darkness can be transformed into light. Through our conscious awareness and acceptance of the ever-increasing, ever-transcending Reality, we can see, feel and manifest perfection in our everyday life.

Hunger for perfection is like any other hunger. If we have an immense hunger, a very little portion of food will not satisfy us. If we have a hunger for infinite peace, light and bliss, our outer being will not be satisfied when it receives only an iota of these things. It will be satisfied only when it has peace, light and bliss in infinite measure. And from the highest point of view, we will be totally satisfied only when the entire humanity has peace, light and bliss in infinite measure.

The more we achieve inwardly, the clearer will be our concept of perfection. If an individual’s inner attainment is small, he might feel satisfied with the perfection that he has achieved. But it can never satisfy the inner hunger of someone who cries for absolute perfection in his nature and in the earth-consciousness. The higher we go, the more we receive and achieve, and the more we become aware of the possibility of achieving integral perfection in our nature and elsewhere.

Each seeker has to discover within himself at what point he wants to stop his inner quest for truth and light. If he is ready to continue, to march on and dive deeper within, if he feels that there is no end to his achievement, only then will he be ready to receive the message of ever-fulfilling and ever-transcending perfection. This message tells us that what we call perfection today, we may call imperfection itself tomorrow.

A child’s perfection is his ability to scream and shout and strike others. But when the child grows up, his idea of perfection may be just the opposite. And if he enters into the spiritual life, then his sense of perfection will be something far more illumining and fulfilling. He will try to conquer his fear, doubt, jealousy and other negative forces. Then, after he has achieved what he wanted for himself, when he goes deep within he will feel that only his limited self has been satisfied. He will realise that his larger self, which is the entire humanity, is far, far from perfect, and that his own integral perfection will not come about until each and every human being on earth is also perfect. So he will try to remove fear, doubt, anxiety, worry and other undivine forces from humanity. If he calls himself a child of God, then others are also children of God. If he does not share with them what little he has, then how can he call himself their brother? They may be travelling a few miles behind him or they may be fast asleep, but they must also reach the Goal before perfect Perfection can dawn on earth.