_Question:_ Guru, when you give us grades for our meditation, what scale do you use? Do you grade us against what our present capacity is, or what our ultimate Perfection is? What does 100% mean?

Sri Chinmoy: It is your present capacity, not the ultimate. If I give you grades in comparison to the ultimate Goal, you will get 0, because your standard is so low. The Goal is not, say, 20 miles away and you are now at one mile. If that were true, then you would get some grade. But the Goal is so far, so far. It is a million miles away, and you are now at one mile. But according to your present capacity I grade you. Otherwise, it would be impossible to give you any grades.

Question: That means that when you give us over 100% for something we do, we have transcended our present capacity?

Sri Chinmoy: Right. It is not that you are absolutely the world’s best singer, for instance, or that the cosmic gods are singing in and through you.

Question: Occultly does the number just all of a sudden appear to you? When you give grades you are so clear about it.

Sri Chinmoy: In my vision it is written down. Immediately it appears, like on a computer. The figure also changes immediately. Sometimes, before you start singing, the mark is already recorded. It is not that I am prejudiced, but in the inner world my inner beings have already measured the performance. Many times, many times during this celebration, the marks were already recorded before the song was sung. My inner beings have measured; they have heard your capacity. My inner beings know of that particular song. How beautifully or how badly you will sing it is already recorded. So my inner beings have observed it and brought it. The mark appears here, right on the forehead, and I just watch. Sometimes the mark changes many times before the song is sung. That’s why after I write it down I may change the mark, because it has changed here. The marks come very quickly.

From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol.II-5, No. 7,8, July-August 1978, Vishma Press, 1978
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