Professor Ananda W.P. Guruge: Is belief in God or a Supreme Power absolutely essential for a person to lead an ethically sound and fruitful life of devotion and service? When does the belief in such a power become necessary, and for whom?

Sri Chinmoy: Belief in God or a Supreme Power is absolutely essential for those who want to make the fastest progress in both their inner life and their outer life. There are many human beings, including a few world figures, who do not believe in God, but their lives are ethically sound and fruitful. Inwardly they are aspiring, although it may not be consciously, and outwardly they are serving God the creation.

They may not use the term 'God'; they may not even believe in God, but they believe in goodness. From the spiritual point of view, their choice of an ethically sound and fruitful life and signal service to mankind is an act of faith. In the way they have chosen to live their life, they are representing God in His active and dynamic manifestation.

But if one wants to realise the Highest and grow into the Highest, then one must necessarily believe in the Highest. For those people, we do not even use the word 'belief', we use the word 'faith'. Belief is in the mind, with the mind and for the mind. Faith is in the soul, in the heart and in the inner existence, and eventually comes to the fore in the outer life.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Professor-Children: God's Reality-Fruits, Agni Press, 1997
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