Question: How does one discern his sincerity in the beginning? What certitude does he have that he is sincere?

Sri Chinmoy: We always know whether we are sincere or not. Sincerity is not something that we have to be taught; it comes from deep within. When something comes to the fore from the inmost recesses of our heart, we are bound to be sincere. But very often something comes from the mind, which is constantly negating itself. This moment we think that it is true and we fight for it, but the next moment we discover that it is absolutely false. When our own realisation is so dubious, we cannot build on it. At that time what we do and say becomes all insincere.

If our focus of concentration is in the heart and not in the mind, then what comes to the fore will be all sincerity. Inside the heart is the soul, and what comes from the soul cannot be anything but a flood of sincerity. More than that, it is also a flood of spirituality. Through the heart, the soul speaks most powerfully and convincingly.

If we spend more time in our heart than in our mind, then we are bound to know what sincerity is. Inside our heart we have an inner vessel and this vessel is every day filled by God's Purity. There we can grow. When our existence grows there, then we will see that we are collecting a bumper crop of sincerity every day.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Perfection and transcendence, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/pt