Part VI — General questions and answers

Question: Do accidents ever have a divine purpose?

Sri Chinmoy: If we look at an accident from the highest spiritual point of view, the highest spiritual consciousness, then it is not an accident at all. It is just an incident, an experience that God is having in and through a particular human being. But in the outer world, in the field of manifestation, very often the dark, wrong, hostile forces cause accidents. Sometimes the Supreme actually disapproves of these accidents. Sometimes the divine tolerance is there and He just tolerates them. And sometimes He approves. This is because at the time of an accident the Supreme feels that a particular person can be inspired to lead a better, more spiritual and more significant life. Someone may be disturbed by circumstances in his life, by members of the family, his neighbours and so forth, so that a new life is needed. The present life may be absolutely useless for that particular person. So you may see that an unfortunate accident will take place. If you look at it with your outer eye, you may call it an accident. But you have to know, did God want that accident? Is it for the person’s punishment? Here I have to say that God does not want to punish us. God never punishes us. He may give us an experience, but if we go deep within, we will feel that God is actually having this experience. If we can identify ourselves consciously with the Will of the Supreme, then there is no such thing as an accident.

In the highest Light of the Supreme what we may call an accident or a catastrophe is actually a form of Delight. But we have to be in the Supreme’s Consciousness. Otherwise, an accident is something threatening, discouraging and painful. We can feel this only when we go beyond the domain of the physical world and identify ourselves consciously with the Will of the Supreme. At that time we get the deepest joy and the most meaningful purpose inside the accident itself.

Several days ago a disciple’s wife had a serious accident. She does not care for the spiritual life, but her husband is extremely devoted to me. He is a true and genuine seeker. If he had not been in the spiritual life, in the inner life, and marching, running towards his goal, his wife would now be in the world of death. So accidents that could take your life away can be prevented by somebody else’s aspiration. But the person who saves you must be your nearest and closest friend or relative. Because this disciple’s wife was his dearest in the outer world, she escaped death. She escaped on the strength of his aspiration. So there are many factors that can prevent accidents from taking place.