Question: Could you speak about possessing God and being possessed by God?

Sri Chinmoy: There was a time when humanity wanted both to possess God and to be possessed by God. Now humanity wants only to possess God and not to be possessed by God. There was a time when the disciples wanted to possess me and be possessed by me, but now they say, “No, we want only to possess you, so that we can tell you, ‘Do this, do that’. We want you to be at our command. If we are possessed by you, then we will lose our freedom.” Human beings have become so clever! They say, “We want to possess you, but we do not want to be possessed by you.”

There was a time when the aspiring soldiers of humanity wanted also to be possessed by God. They said to God, “I am possessing You. Now You also possess me. If You possess me, then You will have no time to think of anybody else. You will have to think of me.” But now people say, “If I possess You, then You will not be able to go anywhere.” So humanity’s progress has disappeared because humanity is not aspiring both to possess God and to be possessed by God. People feel that if they are possessed by God, they will not be able to enjoy their freedom.

Again, if their love, devotion and surrender are genuine, then the seekers will say, “This moment You are the tree and I am Your fruit. The next moment if You want me to be the tree, then You will become my fruit.” God wants to play both the role of the tree and the role of the fruit, but we want only to play the role of the tree. It is the tree that is growing and growing and producing fruits. The fruit comes into existence just because of the aspiration of the tree.