Question: How important is patience in the spiritual life?

Sri Chinmoy: Patience is of paramount importance. We have to have infinite patience. We want to reach the Highest sooner than at once, but we cannot reach it by hook or by crook. We are crying for Infinity and Eternity, as a child cries for candy or milk. The eternal Child in us is crying, but we have to have infinite patience. Sri Ramakrishna used to cry every day to the Supreme Goddess Kali: “O Mother, come! Come and stand in front of me.” When the day had passed and the Mother had not come to him, he felt that the following day he would have to pray and meditate with more inner intensity. On the one hand, we must try our hardest to see our Beloved Supreme right in front of us; on the other hand, we have to feel that we are in the process of eternal Time, and that we must have infinite patience. If we have infinite patience, then the finite earthbound time expands itself into the eternal Time, or the infinite Time enters into the finite time.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Transformation-Night, Immortality-Dawn, Bhakti Press, Ottawa, 1975
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/tn