Question: How does one know whether he is ready for the spiritual path or not?

Sri Chinmoy: You can easily know whether you are ready for the spiritual path or not. When you are hungry you know that you have to eat. Your hunger compels you to eat something. In the inner life also when you are hungry for Peace, Light and Bliss, at that time you are ready. When you have that inner cry, that inner need for something, then you are ready for a spiritual path. So when you have the need, you have to realise that you are ready. If you don’t have the need, then you are not ready. Instead of going to a movie or reading newspapers, you have come here. The fact that you have come here to our Centre means that you care for Peace, Light and Bliss. When you go to see a spiritual Master, that means that you are already ready. If you go to church or some other spiritual place, that means you are more than ready to follow a spiritual path. Again, in your readiness you have to know how sincere you can be. You may be ready to go to school and yet you may not be sincere, or you may not be as sincere as somebody else. So sincerity is also necessary, along with readiness. If you are ready and also sincere, then naturally you will go very far.

Just as you know when you are ready to become a student, so also you know when you are ready to become a disciple. If you have a hunger to learn more, or to learn something which you do not know, you go to school. Your hunger compels you to go to a teacher and study; your hunger prepares your readiness. In the spiritual life also, when you are hungry for Peace, Light and Bliss, that means you are already prepared for the spiritual life.