Question: What do you mean by a complacent feeling?

Sri Chinmoy: Previously, for months and years some of you tried to discover the meaning of life so that your existence could have even a little bit of the feeling of joy or purpose. You were moving around sometimes working in politics or mixing with society, but there was no higher goal. Now that you know the higher goal, it becomes a matter of reaching that goal. But you feel that because you know the goal, the goal is within your reach. Previously there was no mountain. Now you are standing near the mountain and you are waiting to see if somebody is coming towards the mountain. If someone comes, then you will try to climb. You have now possessed the mountain; it is your possession. If somebody comes, then you will climb up to show that it is really your mountain. It is a complacent feeling. But the attitude should be, “Yes, here is the mountain. The mountain is claiming me, but I won’t claim the mountain until I have reached the goal.” Until that time our claim cannot be conscious. Sometimes we forget all about it. Sometimes we see the immensity of the goal and we say, “How can we claim it?” When the goal looks at the pilgrim, the goal always claims the pilgrim as its very own. Here, after arriving at the base, at the foot of the mountain, the pilgrim should start climbing up the mountain. Then only the pilgrim can claim it consciously and constantly. If the pilgrim cannot constantly claim the mountain, if he cannot climb up with the help of the mountain, then today he will say, “I don’t need it” and tomorrow he will say, “It is too high; I can’t assimilate the vastness of the mountain.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,Transcendence of the past, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/trp