Question: How can I increase my self-discipline and will-power?

Sri Chinmoy: You can increase your self-discipline and will-power by knowing what you want in life: the fulfilment of God's Will or the fulfilment of your own individual will. Right now your individual will is not God's Will. So you have to pray to God: "Your Will is the only Will I want." In my one thousandth book, I have one poem that says:

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I came into the world to prove

That my Lord is always right

And I am always wrong.

I am right only when

I am with Him, in Him and for Him.

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Because I am ignorant, I am always wrong; I am right only when I can place myself inside God and be with Him and for Him. That is the meaning of the poem. At every moment you have to know that only God is right, only the Supreme in your Guru is right, only your soul is right. Your mind will say, "Guru has done the wrong thing." But if you ask your soul, it will say, "No, he has done the right thing." If you ask God, God will say, "No, he has done the right thing."

There are many unspiritual people in the world who do not believe in God. They do not care about God's Will; they care only for their own will and for the fulfilment of their own desires. They want to be the greatest singer, the greatest dancer, the greatest scholar or the greatest something else. They get determination from the vital world and use that determination to discipline themselves and achieve their goals. But very often, once they are successful and achieve the things that they wanted to achieve, still they are miserable.

Since you are following the spiritual life, you want to obey only God's Will. But first you have to know the Will of God. If you pray and meditate, He will tell you what He wants from you. Outwardly He may tell you through your Master, or inwardly He can tell you by speaking to your heart. Once you know the Will of God, if you are sincerely trying to follow it, discipline will come. It will come from your inner need. If you have an inner need, and if you value that need, the discipline to fulfil it will automatically come. You do not have to use the word “discipline”. Spontaneously you will feel an inner urge to do the needful.

God is not blind. God is not deaf. God is not useless. If you sincerely want to get up at six o'clock in the morning to meditate, He will definitely give you the capacity — even if you just went to bed one hour earlier. If God asks you to do something and you are sincerely trying to listen to Him, definitely He will give you the capacity. It is all a question of your sincerity.

Similarly, when your Master tells you to do something, you have to know that it is because God has asked him to tell you, or because your own soul has asked him to tell you. So when you try to become one with your Master's will and do the right thing or become the right person, the determination or discipline that you need will come from within or from Above.

It was not your idea to form this musical group. I was the one who asked you to form this group, and I was the one who asked you to become good singers and to learn hundreds of songs. Then inwardly I helped you bring forward all your musical talents. In the beginning some of you could not sing at all, but now you have all become excellent singers.

A few minutes ago I asked you to come and sing in front of me. Why? It is because I know what is necessary to increase your love, your devotion, your surrender, your gratitude, your humility and your sweetness. Since you have listened to me, while you were singing I was doing whatever additional things that had to be done inside you to bring forward all your good qualities. The whole time you were singing, I was pouring all my sweetness, affection, love and gratitude into you.

When you were little, you felt, "Guru will do what is best for us." But now that you have grown older, that feeling is gone. Now you feel, "Guru is playing tennis. He is talking to this person and that person. He cannot take care of me, so I have to take care of myself." No, inwardly I can do hundreds and thousands of things at a time. Your love for me and your faith in me should tell you, "My Guru can do many, many things. If I need him, he will always be there to help me."

I am like a restaurant with all kinds of food. Whatever your soul wants I am ready to give you. Whatever you need I will immediately supply. A real restaurant may have only a few workers, but I have so many inner beings who can be of service to the Supreme inside you. So you do not have to worry about discipline or will-power. They will come automatically if you just surrender your will to God's Will. This is the only way you can be truly and eternally happy. There can be no happiness in life unless you make God happy. People who try to be happy in their own way will always be miserable. If they say they are happy, they are fooling themselves.

From:Sri Chinmoy,My Heart-Melody, Agni Press, 1994
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/htm