Question: Why is it that realised Gurus sometimes seem to defy the scriptures and accepted rules in what they say and do?

Sri Chinmoy: It is true that realised Gurus, great Gurus, have their own truth. But they do not defy anything. What they do is give a new orientation. Suppose a great spiritual figure has said something. At the time that he lived, that particular truth was needed. But the world is progressing, and now some higher truth must be manifested. So if we say something different, we are not defying the great Masters of the past. What we are doing is bringing a higher truth and a higher knowledge into the earth-consciousness, which is now ready to receive it. We are enlarging and illumining the truth.

Only by entering into the truth and transforming it will we achieve a larger and wider truth. If we think that everything to be said with regard to spirituality has already been spoken by our forefathers, we are mistaken. Truth is never complete because we are living in an ever-transcending universe. What the teachers of the past have said is eternally true; what we are saying is also eternally true. But each truth has its own grade, and all the time we are evolving and progressing.

Your father might have imagined or thought of something on the physical plane which was at the time quite striking. Now you have grown up, and you are thinking of something higher and deeper because science has evolved to a new plane. That does not mean that you are defying the achievements of your father. No, you are going beyond him, beyond his capacity, beyond his understanding.

In the spiritual life we do not negate; we just go higher and higher to reach the topmost height. Still the highest Truth, the topmost realisation, or what we call the absolute manifestation, has not taken place. Spiritual manifestation has not been completed, and perhaps it will never be completed.