Part II — Union and realisation

Question: What is the difference between a mystical experience and God-realisation?

Sri Chinmoy: God-realisation is infinitely higher than a mystical experience. In a mystical experience, you feel God’s Presence as something very sweet and delicate, but a mystical experience is not a permanent thing. As soon as you achieve a mystical experience, you can lose it. But God-realisation you cannot lose; it is permanent. Once you realise God, you never lose what you have. Sometimes poets get mystical experiences. A poet can receive most sublime light and have a deep mystical experience. After completing his poems, however, the poet’s consciousness may become undivine and he then cannot maintain his mystical experience. A mystical experience is not a permanent experience. But if God-realisation takes place, then the mystical experience that one has will have abiding strength and can be permanent. So, there is a great difference between God-realisation and mystical experience. God-realisation is something infinite, eternal and real. Mystical experience is divine, but if mystical experiences do not come after God-realisation, they don’t last. A mystic is much inferior to a Yogi. There is no comparison. A Yogi constantly and unconditionally serves the Supreme and is continuously having God-experiences. A mystic is satisfied with experiences alone. He wants to enter into wisdom-light, but he does not care for the world. The Yogi cares for the world. The mystic wants only experience and wants it to lead to a final merging in God.

From:Sri Chinmoy,God, Avatars and yogis, Agni Press, 1977
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