Question: Guru, what about older disciples who do not come to Celebrations?

Sri Chinmoy: If they do not come to our Celebrations, what can I do? Before, I was strict in this matter; now I have surrendered. Sometimes I have to surrender, I have to surrender. If older disciples do not come to Celebrations, what can I do? If they do not have the money to come to New York, then what can I say? When people are poor, I fully understand. But there are some people who do have money, but they do not want to come. I cannot be strict with them. I just keep them in my boat out of compassion. If they have not done anything objectionable, we allow them to remain with us. There are disciples like that. It is very difficult. They do not come; they do not come. At one time I requested people to come for at least a week. Now, some people come for only a couple of days.

Good disciples will do everything right; unfortunate disciples will do everything wrong. Only on Wednesdays some disciples come. After one hour it is over for them. My special request is that for at least one hour everyone should stay. I stay for two or three hours, and so many important things we do. But one hour is enough for some people.

There is something called acceptance or tolerance. I tolerate some things, but there are other things that are beyond my toleration. I have requested people to come, but what can I do? There are many things that we unfortunately have to tolerate.