Question: Could you speak more about aspiration?

Sri Chinmoy: Aspiration is man's inner cry for the Highest. It is the mounting flame within us that climbs up high, higher, highest. In the outer world we use one thing to reach our goal and that is desire. In the inner world we use something else: aspiration. Now the difference between desire and aspiration is this: desire tells us that we have to get one thing today and tomorrow two things. The day after tomorrow again we have to increase the number to two, three, four or more. But aspiration will not say that. Aspiration will say, "Enter into the infinite Vast and this Vast will give you boundless Peace, Light and Delight."

Aspiration is the mounting flame within us. If there is no aspiration, then one can never, never realise God. Aspiration has the key to unlock the door of God. Aspiration in concentration, meditation and contemplation is of paramount importance. No aspiration, no realisation. Now this aspiration has to come from the inmost recesses of our hearts. Very often we have mental curiosity and we take it for aspiration. This is absolutely wrong. Aspiration is a burning cry within us. A child is crying for milk. No matter where he is, the mother comes running because the child is crying for milk or something else. The mother comes and feeds the child. In the spiritual life also, when an individual seeker cries ardently, soulfully and devotedly, God comes and stands in front of him.

If you ask whether there is anything that is most important in our spiritual life, then I wish to say, "Yes, there is, and that is aspiration." Today's aspiration is bound to bring down God tomorrow or in the near future. It is in aspiration that God manifests Himself through us. The human aspiration and the divine Compassion go together. Divine Compassion is the flame of human aspiration. There is no end to our aspiration. There is no end to our realisation, no end. The goal is ever transcending its own limits. Today's goal will be tomorrow's starting point. There is no end to our goal; therefore there is no end to our ultimate realisation. There is no end to our aspiration. We aspire for the Highest, for the Infinite, for the Eternal. The Infinite cannot be measured. As we enter into Infinity, the finite and the Infinite become inseparably one. Our Vedic seers voiced forth:

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Aum

Purnam adah purnam idam, purnat purnam udacyate

Purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate

Infinity is that. Infinity is this.

From Infinity, Infinity has come into existence.

From Infinity, when Infinity is taken away,

Infinity remains the same.

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That is the message we can get from our aspiration. Again, aspiration takes us immediately into the realm of Delight. From Delight we came into existence, from the transcendental Self. Again, in Delight we grow. Our inner being grows in Delight. The outer being may not be aware of it. The outer being goes through suffering, but the soul, the inner being, grows in Delight. At the end of our journey, we enter into the same perpetual Delight. This was the realisation of the Vedic seers, the seers of the hoary past. And also this is the realisation of all true spiritual Masters. Aspiration is that which offers us Infinity in the form of boundless Peace and boundless Delight.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Inner progress and satisfaction-life, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ip