Question: Quite often I find that when I look at students who are standing in front of me and meditating, the peace that I felt before increases. Why is this?

Sri Chinmoy: You have peace and if you stand in front of a peaceful person, then naturally your peace will grow. You are not a thief, but if you stand in front of a thief or mix with him, then naturally the consciousness of the thief will enter into you. Similarly, if you stand in front of someone who has a good quality, then that good quality will enter into you.

Sometimes you don’t have to stand in front of a person. Suppose you see a beautiful tree. Being an artist, a good artist, naturally you will appreciate and admire the beauty of the tree. Perhaps you will even try to sit at the foot of the tree and paint. But the moment you sit down, all the world’s undivine thoughts, absolutely worst thoughts, may start entering into you. Then you will say, “Why is this happening to me? I came here with a pure mind only to paint, so how is it that all the world’s absolutely undivine, impure thoughts are attacking me?” In this case, you have to know that somebody with a low character had previously sat under the tree and invited the lowest thoughts to enter into him.

Again, it may happen that a saint or a saintly person has sat at the foot of the tree and meditated for some time. Then you come and sit there and you get his vibration. It is not only the physical presence of the person that can affect you. Although his physical presence is no longer there, even the subtle presence of the person who was there before may affect you.

Sometimes, while you are walking along the street, you may find that you can’t account for an experience that you suddenly get. Although there is no flower of any kind, absolutely none, still you get a beautiful, fragrant, flower-like feeling, which is very ethereal and divine. Where does this Heavenly feeling come from? Either a spiritual person has been there or some angels or astral beings happen to be there.

So if you are in front of someone who has more capacity than you have, then his presence may help you to acquire more of that capacity. Although outwardly you are not begging him to give you anything and perhaps he also is not conscious of giving you anything, from his very presence you may get that capacity. If he is embodying intuition or any capacity or quality, then you get it. It is like a magnet: you are pulling the quality from him and it is entering into you. Sometimes if you are pulling from him outwardly, then the ego-world enters and he will not give you anything. But inwardly if you pull, then he will give.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Flame-Waves, part 12, Agni Press, 1978
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/fw_12