Question: How far are we from purity?

Sri Chinmoy: You cannot ask a collective question because you may have achieved one state of consciousness and somebody else may be one inch higher or one inch lower. Somebody may be ten miles ahead of you and someone may be ten miles behind. So I cannot make a general statement, because everyone has established purity according to his spiritual development.

If you want to know how far you yourself are from purity, then you have to ask the question, “How intimately do I feel God in my day-to-day life, in every moment of my life?” If you feel the living Presence of God every moment of your life, that means you are extremely pure. The moment you feel consciously the Presence of God, at that time you are one hundred per cent pure. If inside your heart you feel God’s living Presence, and not just a vague idea that God exists, at that time your whole body is pure. Again, when you don’t feel God’s Presence, no matter how many times you wash your hands or how many flowers you keep in front of your nose, you will not have purity. You are a perfect stranger to purity at that time.