Question: Is it possible to follow the spiritual path and to have a family also?

Sri Chinmoy: Certainly! The real spiritual life does not exclude humanity. To follow a spiritual path does not mean you have to go into the Himalayan caves to meditate. Inside each human being, inside each member of our family, you shall try to discover God. When an aspirant follows a spiritual path, he should feel that each human being is an instrument of God. We are all instruments of God, but those who are practising meditation and spiritual disciplines, those who have accepted the spiritual life, are becoming conscious instruments of God. If you become a conscious instrument of God and you see that your own husband and wife or children are unconscious, what do you do? You do not exclude them from your life; you try to bring to the fore the conscious part, the divine part in them so that they also can become conscious instruments of God. In the real spiritual life you do not exclude the family. On the contrary, you try to awaken the members of the family who are fast asleep. Unless and until they are also awakened and running toward the same Goal, you will not be fully satisfied. Suppose you have a most delicious meal in front of you and you are in a position to eat, but the members of your family are not in a position to eat. Your sympathetic heart will not be satisfied unless and until they are in a position to share with you. In the spiritual life always we want to share with others our divine experiences, our divine achievements, so we always try to show others the way. But how do we do this? We do it by prayer. We pray to the Inner Pilot who has awakened us to also awaken the members of our family. But if it is not His Will to awaken them at this moment, then we must run along the inner path without them.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Canada aspires, Canada receives, Canada achieves, part 1, Agni Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ca_1