Question: Prayer and meditation are the same thing?

Sri Chinmoy: Prayer and meditation are the same thing. When we pray there is somebody to listen to us, and that Someone is God. I pray, “God, give me Peace, give me Light, give me Bliss.” My prayer is going up to God. But when we meditate, we become calm and quiet and we feel Peace, Light and Bliss descending. In prayer we are going up to get this, and in meditation we are bringing it down through our aspiration. It is the same thing whether we get it here or we get it there. Through prayer we feel that we go to God. Through meditation we feel that God comes to us. But it is the same thing, absolutely the same. I say that when we pray, we speak and God listens; when we meditate, we listen and God talks. Praying means that I am talking and somebody is listening. Who is listening? God is listening. And when I meditate somebody is talking. Who is talking? God is talking and I am listening.