Question: Early in the morning, how can the seeker convince his sleeping body of the necessity for meditation?

Sri Chinmoy: Every day you must feel one of two things. As soon as you get up, or are about to get up, you have to feel that the dearest in you — either your soul, or your Master or the Supreme — is waiting for you to serve him because he is very hungry. Your soul, your Master and the Supreme are eternally one, but take them as separate individuals. Now if the dearest in you is starving and you are in a position to feed him, will you not do so?

Again, you can have another idea, and that is that if you meditate early in the morning, then you will achieve the thing that you want to achieve. If you want to have something, then naturally you will work for it, whether it is Light or Peace or Eternity. Even if you want power so that you can dominate the world, or light so that you can catch all those who are doubting you in the mental world, or energy so that you can be the only thing with life in the physical world, still you have to work for it.

Now, why do you want energy in the physical world, or power in the vital world or light in the mental world? It is because you get pleasure in seeing inside yourself something which others don't have. In a competitive way you are trying to get something which others do not have. You are starting your journey with a competitive spirit, and in most cases I tell you this competitive spirit is essential. But the moment you feel energy, or the moment you touch power, light and other divine qualities, you lose your competitive spirit. If you have energy, you share it with others. If you have light, you share it with others. If you have power, you share it with others. Why? When you approach the Divine it automatically changes your consciousness, for the Divine gets satisfaction only in distribution. In the beginning you start in a competitive spirit, but while you are reaching your goal your consciousness is changing. You are running and running to get the flower so you can grab it and tear it apart petal by petal. But the moment you get the flower, immediately you change your mind. "It is so beautiful," you say. "Let me place it on my shrine so everyone can come and enjoy its beauty and fragrance."

If you really call someone your dearest, you won't be able to remain satisfied without feeding that person. When the child is hungry, the mother comes running because she knows who is dearest. So if you maintain the feeling that the dearest is inside your heart, after you have fed him, what happens? The dearest gives you satisfaction, and in that satisfaction you become eternal, infinite and immortal. When the child is fed, he gives his mother a smile. The mother sees her whole world, the entire universe, inside the smile, because the child is the mother's universe. So when you feed the dearest and the dearest smiles, at that time you feel your entire world smiling.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Life-enquiry and self-discovery, Agni Press, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/led