Question: How should we feel when you tell us that we aren't pleasing you?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, don't be displeased with me. Do not say, "Who cares for that Indian? Let him go back to India." On the contrary, you should be extremely grateful to me. When I say I am not pleased, that means that I really am paying attention to you. When I walk along the street in Manhattan, hundreds and thousands of people I see. They are in their own world and I am in my world, which is a little bit of spiritual world. They pay no attention to me and I pay no attention to them. On the outer plane I have nothing to do with them, but on the inner plane I have everything to do with everybody.

But since you are a disciple of mine, I feel I am duty-bound to be of service to the Supreme in you, even on the physical plane. It is my duty to perfect the seeker for whom I am responsible. You have given me the responsibility and I have accepted. So when I say that I am displeased, it means that I am offering to you my Concern-Light.

You want to run fast, faster, fastest. If I don't tell you that you are not running, that you are stumbling, stumbling, stumbling, then you remain in a self-complacent world. You will do everything wrong and think that you are doing the right thing. Then your progress will be delayed. If you are really doing the right thing, then without fail I will tell you. When I say that I am not pleased, then you should feel that it is a great blessing to know the truth, for this way you can run the fastest to the ultimate Goal. But if a spiritual Master remains indifferent, it will be a spiritual disaster. I always tell my disciples that when I stop perfecting them, when I don't scold them, when I remain indifferent, at that time my indifference is like an atom bomb. If I am really indifferent, then my disciples will take a very, very, very long time to reach their destination.

It is like a mother. How can the mother be indifferent to her children? If they do something wrong, the mother immediately points it out. And if they do something good, the mother extols them to the skies with her joy and pride. So, when I say that I am displeased, you have to feel that it is my concern which is speaking.

It is like my right hand telling my left hand, "Please be as strong as I am." My right hand is stronger than my left hand, so the right hand is telling the left that it is ready to help in every possible way. When I say something to you, you have to feel that I am your own highest illumined part. Your own highest part is asking the lowest to be as good, as divine, as itself. It is the highest in you that is speaking to the lowest, asking it to become perfect. If you take it in that way, then you will never be displeased. If the head asks the legs to do something, the legs will do it. They know that they are part and parcel of the body. There the question of anger or fear or other negative qualities cannot arise. When you feel that your highest is speaking to your lowest for its perfection, then you will be very happy because you know one part of your existence has already become what God wants it to become. One part has become what God wants, and the other will also become that way eventually.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Illumination-world, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/iw