Question: It seems to me that it is easy to have this feeling if one is living in a spiritual community with all his needs provided for. But what about someone who is a separate individual living in the world?

Sri Chinmoy: What you are saying is absolutely true. In a spiritual community it is much easier to be childlike, for there one will have a Master whose concern one can feel constantly. But even a person who is living in the world can have a childlike attitude towards God. To be childlike does not mean to be childish. We can be simple, sincere and spontaneous in our dealings with the sophisticated world without being stupid or foolish. We can have implicit faith in God’s Protection and Guidance even while living and working in the ordinary world. To have this faith, we must feel that whatever job we are doing was given to us by God, out of His infinite Compassion. It is He who has given us the necessary capacity to do the work satisfactorily and keep the job, and it is He who will enable us to find another job if we lose the one we have. This kind of childlike faith is not foolishness. Far from it! It is the spontaneous trust of a child in his father or mother. This kind of feeling will never stand as a hindrance in our outer life. While following the spiritual life, if we do not take a childlike attitude, our speed will be hampered. It is only a child who can constantly be moulded. A child is like a lump of divine clay. He can easily be shaped into something divinely beautiful. If someone tries to maintain his independence while following the spiritual life, he will not make much progress. There is only One who is truly independent and that is God. The more we can be dependent on that One, the faster will be our progress. Human individuality does not last. No matter how hard we try to maintain it, we must eventually give it up if we sincerely want to become close to God and one with God. If we try to expand our human personality, very soon it bursts like a balloon. But our divine individuality, which is the supreme individuality, is already infinitely vast. It can embrace all our human individuality.

From:Sri Chinmoy,My meditation-service at the United Nations for twenty-five years, Agni Press, 1995
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