Question: How do we actually know that we are getting close to realisation?

Sri Chinmoy: The more we are able to get rid of wrong forces from our system, the closer we come to our destination. If we have less impurity in our mind today than we had yesterday, then we are approaching realisation. If we have more sincerity in our spiritual life, if our lower vital problems have decreased, if we have less doubt than we had two weeks ago, then we are approaching realisation. Our mind can tell us what negative, unaspiring forces we have been cherishing for so many years. If we see that these bad qualities are decreasing, it means the divine, aspiring forces are lovingly embracing us and taking us towards the light. If we see that we have many more good qualities than bad qualities in our life, we are getting closer to the destination. But if we see that the bad qualities are absolutely predominant, then we are not doing well at all.

The whole problem in life lies in our obedience. We do not want to do the difficult thing; only the thing that is easy we want to do. We know what is right, but we want to follow the easier way. Americans do not like to take orders, but we do not realise that at every moment we are listening to someone or something. Most of the time we are obeying our stupid mind or vital. We are not doing it unconsciously. We know what we are doing; we are doing it deliberately.

Spiritual Masters who have realised the Highest can dictate to their own minds if they want to. But for ordinary human beings, it is usually the mind that is telling them what to do. And when it does so, it brings worries and anxieties into the picture. At first, when we surrender to these wrong forces, they give us some candies. We eat those candies and get false satisfaction. But eventually we come to know that those candies will not give us real satisfaction, so we challenge the wrong forces. When we are spiritually developed, immediately we challenge those forces and eventually we defeat them. Then we get real satisfaction.