Question: What would you say to a thirteen-year-old child who says, "Because of the condition I find myself in, I don't know if I am going to make it."

Sri Chinmoy: I would tell him, “Do not think of yourself as a failure or as someone who is going to become a failure. Do not look around and see how many people have failed. If your father has failed and your mother has failed, do not look around at them. Only think that you are responsible for what you do. If you think of yourself as just a human being who came out of the womb, as only a human body, then you will fail. But if you think of yourself as part and parcel of something divine, something pure, something illumining and fulfilling, then you are bound to succeed.” It all depends on how the individual thinks of himself and his source. If he thinks his source is the mind, vital and physical, then he is bound to fail. But if he feels his source is the heart, which is all oneness with God’s Will, if he thinks of himself as the soul, then he is bound to succeed.

A thirteen-year-old or a twenty-year-old should not use his outer eyes to look at the world and see how many people have failed and how many people are suffering. He should use his inner eye to feel what he is. Let him not look with his outer eye to see what the outer world can give him, but instead use his inner heart to feel what he can give to the world. If he is only concerned with taking from the outer world, then he will get frustration at every moment and never have satisfaction. Even if he gets something, he will feel miserable that someone else has received more.

Satisfaction comes from what we have inside our heart. Doctors will call the heart a physical muscle, but we call it God’s most beautiful Abode, God’s Nest. The spiritual heart is full of compassion and love. If we remain there, we find only joy. But if we go outside, we find only frustration, misunderstanding and confusion. So we have to decide where we want to go: inside ourselves or outside ourselves. If these young children you are speaking of go inside their hearts, they will discover a beautiful garden where they can enjoy the beauty and fragrance of all their heart-flowers. It is their garden; they are the owners. So let them go inside the heart!

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy answers, part 18, Agni Press, 1999
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/sca_18