Question: Is it possible for all of us to reach perfection in this life?

Sri Chinmoy: To be very frank with you, it is not possible for all of us. I know the capacity of all the disciples. Why should I give you false hope by saying that all of you will be perfect in this life? But, at the same time, I am not throwing cold water on you or anybody else. I am saying that the real height of perfection — perfection of the human nature — cannot be reached by everyone in this life. Even here, among my disciples there are hardly ten people who are sincerely aspiring. How can I say that those who are not aspiring sincerely will be perfect? Now, as I said before, progress is a kind of perfection. If someone used to tell twenty lies a day and now tells ten lies, he has reached a kind of perfection. But when it is a matter of nature's perfection — mental purity, heart's sincerity and other divine qualities-how can I expect that kind of perfection from those who are not aspiring right now?

I am sorry. I wish you all could become perfect; I need your perfection badly, and I cry for it, but it is not possible in this incarnation, But it will be possible for some of you to achieve nature's perfection in your next incarnation, while for others it may take a few more incarnations. Perfection is inevitable. It is not that you will be perfect and your friends will remain imperfect. No! If the hour strikes for you today, you will become perfect today; if the hour strikes for somebody else tomorrow, he will become perfect at that time. We all abide in God's Eternal Time, so we do not have to worry. But we do have to try. Those who are aspiring will undoubtedly reach the highest sooner than those who are still sleeping.

I have seven hundred disciples. If all my disciples realised God in one incarnation, it would be a historical record. But God has not made me that lucky; I know my fate.