Question: Guru, how can I have more purity?

Sri Chinmoy: Look at a flower early in the morning and smell its fragrance. Look at the flower and immediately feel how pure the flower is. Then look straight at the morning sun, the early rising sun. How beautiful it is! Do you see anything impure in it? No. Look at the moon. Do you see anything impure? Look at anything which gives you the feeling of purity. Look at a candle flame and you will see that it is all pure; it is burning away all your impurities. Anything that you feel is outwardly pure, keep that thing right in front of your mental vision. This is one way, the easiest way to convince the mind.

The other way involves breathing. When you meditate, try to breathe in as slowly as possible. Quietly and slowly breathe in and feel that with each breath you are bringing into your system peace, light and bliss. These qualities are nothing but purity itself. Then, when you breathe out, feel that you are breathing out all the ignorance and imperfection inside you. Through conscious breathing you can bring purity into your system; and each time you breathe out, throw out impurity.

You can practise both methods. Keep a flower, incense and anything else that symbolises purity in your outer mind in front of your outer vision. Then, when you can go deep within, you will not need a flower, candle or incense.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The significance of a smile, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/sgm