Question: How can I trust my discrimination and know what is the right thing to do in my life?²³⁰

Sri Chinmoy: How do you know whether you are making the right decision? God has given you something called conscience. Conscience will tell you how to discriminate. Perhaps a friend of yours is going to steal something and he wants you to help him. In this case, your conscience will simply say, “No!” You do not want to be a thief, not because you are afraid of being caught red-handed and put into jail but because your inner being, your conscience, tells you that stealing is something wrong.

In the spiritual life also your conscience will tell you what to do and what not to do. But in order to use your conscience as a guide, you have to be very careful. You have to remain calm and quiet; otherwise, your vital being will imitate the voice of your conscience and confuse you. It will make you feel that what you are doing is right even though it is wrong. You do not have to learn how to meditate in order to be calm and quiet for a few minutes. Many times when you are tired and exhausted, you just sit quietly. So while sitting quietly, try to hear the voice of your conscience. It will say either “Yes!” or “No!” Only two words it has: yes and no. You want to do something; if it says, “Yes!”, then you can do it. If it says, “No!”, then never do it. You should not argue with your conscience; you should listen to its voice.

Again, you have to know that there is a great difference between knowing what is right and wrong and achieving the right thing. Someone may know in a mental way that God-realisation is good, but he may not cry for realisation. His mind may know that God-realisation is good, but he may not work for it. In your case, you not only know that God-realisation is good but you also go one step further: you pray and meditate. So you are bound to have realisation one day.

You started with conscience. Your conscience or your inner being told you that it was good to meditate. It told you that if you meditated you would attain peace, light and bliss. You believed the inner message when you got it, and you launched into the spiritual life. When you enter into the spiritual life, you not only know what is right but you also get the inner strength to do what is right. Even a child knows the difference between right and wrong, but he may not have the capacity to do the right thing. But when one follows the spiritual life, one gets the inner strength to do what is right. So now that you have launched into the spiritual life, you can rest assured that you will be able not only to know what is right, but also to do what is right.