Student: Sri Chinmoy, you've been teaching us about self-realisation and realisation of the Supreme. In the spiritual life, what should be one's responsibility to others?

Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the individual's inner growth. If you are an absolute beginner, I will tell you to go very slowly. If you are advanced, then I will tell you to go very fast. But at every step you have to dive deep within to see if you are doing the right thing. Then you will get the inner message whether it is God's Will for you to mix with so-and-so. It may or may not be God's Will that you mix with certain people at this stage of your spiritual development.

Just because God wants someone to spend his time praying and meditating rather than entering into human interactions, that individual should not think that he is spiritually superior to others. No, it is simply that God does not want him to be involved in the social life at this particular stage of his development. Again, someone else cannot say that just because he is deeply involved in philanthropy or social work that he is superior. In the spiritual life, the first and foremost thing is to hear the message from within and to obey that message. Only then are you doing the right thing.

So there is no hard and fast rule as to whether it is desirable or undesirable for spiritual people to mix with the rest of the world. You may say, "If I don't serve the world, then how am I going to realise God?" This type of question can be answered only from within. What I have to do for my inner progress may be different from what you have to do. If it is difficult for the seeker to get this message from within, then he has to go to a teacher who can identify himself with the soul's needs and then tell the individual what they are.