Question: How can a man achieve will-power — I mean the strength to go forward on the spiritual path?

Sri Chinmoy: There are quite a few things one has to do. You are using the term "will-power" in the spiritual sense, so I am telling you from the spiritual point of view how you can develop and increase will-power. First of all, you must mix only with spiritual people. It is true that everyone is God's child; we are all God's children. But God is not asking you to mix with everyone. He is asking you only to mix with those whom you feel are spiritually aspiring. By sitting beside an ordinary person, you may get pleasure. But by sitting beside someone who is spiritually aspiring, you will get divine joy, because his inspiration is increasing the divine strength inside you. Will-power is in all divine qualities. In joy also there is tremendous will-power. So you will be able to increase your will-power by mixing with people who are spiritual.

Here is another way. You know that you eat twice or three times a day. Eating energises your body but it does not energise your soul; it does not fulfil your soul's mission on earth. For that you have to spend a few minutes two or three times a day in meditation.

Then you have to constantly ask yourself one thing: do you want God or do you want ignorance? Both are standing right in front of you at every moment and you must make a choice. You know and everybody knows that one cannot serve two masters. So when these two masters stand in front of you, you have to decide immediately which one you want. If you choose God, then you must come to Him and enter into Him. And each time you find that you have come out of a divine consciousness, you have to enter into it again. If you can re-enter into God's Consciousness faithfully every time you come out of it, then eventually you will reach the point where you will not come out of it and enter into ignorance any more. A day will come when your conscious choice of God will be permanent and you will be totally merged in God forever.

As you begin your spiritual journey, always try to feel that you are God's child. Early in the morning you can soulfully repeat, "I am God's child, I am God's child, I am God's child." Immediately you will see that whatever is dark, impure and ugly in you will go away. Later in the day, when ignorance comes to tempt you, you will feel, "I am God's child. How can I do this? I cannot enter into ignorance." By repeating, "I am God's child," you will get abundant inner strength and will-power.

These are some ways to increase your inner strength. You can practise all of them, but to start with, mix with spiritual people. Again, you should be careful. If you are following my path, you should mix with my disciples. This is not because I am mean or I am jealous of other spiritual seekers. But one cannot be in two boats at once. If you have one foot in our boat and the other foot in another boat, you will only fall into the sea of ignorance-confusion. It is for your own good that I ask you to associate only with the disciples of your own Master. A real Master cannot be jealous of any other path or any other Master. We shall all ultimately reach the same Goal. But as I said before, one cannot serve two masters. Two spiritual Masters can never be properly served by one individual at one time. If you want to serve the Supreme in me, come only to this place and do not go to any other spiritual place. If today you are here and tomorrow at some other group, then you will never make any progress. You will not get anything lasting, either from me or from the other Master. You will only become confused. By being regular in any path you develop inner will-power. Regularity is a great help in developing will-power.

From:Sri Chinmoy,A seeker is a singer, Agni Press, 1987
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ssn