Question: How does religious discipline differ from spiritual discipline?

Sri Chinmoy: Religious discipline may tell us to go to church once a week and pray to God. But spiritual discipline will tell us to try to remain conscious of God twenty-four hours a day and to pray and meditate at least twice a day — in the morning and in the evening. Spiritual discipline is a constant process. It is infinitely more significant than religious discipline since it asks us to try to become a conscious, constant, living instrument of God so that God can manifest in and through us in His own Way. If we follow spiritual discipline, then at the end of the road we will feel that we have grown into the very image of God; whereas if we follow religious discipline, at the end of the road we will say that we have seen the Goal. Religious discipline at most can lead us to the Goal, whereas spiritual discipline or yogic discipline will not only take us to the Goal but also make us feel that we are nothing short of the Goal itself.

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