Question: Is it bad to pray to God for spiritual dreams?

Sri Chinmoy: It is not bad for an ordinary seeker to pray to God for spiritual dreams. Dreams are necessary, as experiences are necessary. But if you do not have dreams, if you do not have experiences, that does not mean that you are not fit for the spiritual life or that you are not fit for God-realisation. There are people who do not have any experiences. They curse themselves and think that God is displeased with them. Far from it! God is most pleased with them. Suppose I want to reach a door. There are two ways of going. One way is to go there consciously. My calculating mind says that I have to take four or five steps to get there: one, two, three, four, five. Each step is a experience for me. If my physical mind wants to be convinced at every moment while I am walking towards my goal, then I can say that step one is an experience, step two is an experience, and so on. But again, if I know that my destination is awaiting me, it may not be necessary for me to count each step or to have constant experiences each step of the way. What is necessary, in my case, is only my destination. I just go there and God is ready for me. If you want to have dreams or experiences, they can serve as preparatory steps. But they are not necessary at all. The human mind always wants to be convinced and wants to get joy at every step when it does something. But if we live in the soul, in the heart, then we need not give that kind of importance to experiences and dreams. They are not necessary because God is preparing us in His own Way. If He does not want to give us convincing experiences, no harm. But if we pray to God for convincing experiences or sweet dreams, there is no harm in our prayer. Eventually a day will come when we shall offer God the highest prayer: "O God, if You want, give me dreams. If You want, give me experiences. If You don't want to give me dreams or experiences, it is all up to You. Only make me worthy of Your Compassion. And if You don't want to make me worthy of Your Compassion, it is also up to You. Only do with me as You will. Let Thy Will be done in and through me. I care for nothing except for Your own fulfilment in and through me." When we have that kind of prayer within us, then God comes to us and says, "Do not be a beggar. Do not cry for dreams; do not cry for experiences. Take Me, the Reality itself."

From:Sri Chinmoy,The journey of silver dreams, Agni Press, 1974
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