_Question:_ Talking too much.

Sri Chinmoy: Like spiritual father, like spiritual daughter. But in my case, I am a divine thief. If I talk too much, no harm; I can draw from the cosmic energy. I just talk, talk, talk, then I steal energy from where it is unlimited. But you cannot become an expert thief like me, so there are several things you can do. If you know how many hours you are talking, just try to minimise it by fifteen minutes every week. Another way is to count how many times you are talking unnecessarily, just count. A third way is this. When you talk, please feel that you are buying some rubbish, which you will not use. Always think that way when you are talking unnecessarily. Feel you are buying something which is rubbish, meaningless, useless. You are talking and the other person is talking — action and reaction — and it is all meaningless and useless. One of my disciples used to talk like anything, so our President, Dulal, discovered his own method for dealing with this problem. He said to her, “Each time you talk to Guru or anybody for a long time, feel that you are making a long-distance telephone call. Then, when the phone bill arrives, you will be careful not to make that same mistake again.” If you imagine that you are making a long-distance telephone call, you will not talk so much because you will think that at the end of the month you will have to pay an exorbitant bill to the telephone company. These are effective ways of talking less, on a very practical level.

From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol.II-4, No. 3, 27 March 1977, Vishma Press, 1977
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