Aspiration

Question: How does one increase one's aspiration or as you say, “the hunger for God” ?

What is most important is to try to develop a genuine hunger for God's love, God's compassion and God's blessings. There are two ways to increase one's inner hunger. One way is to cry for God like a helpless child crying for his mother. The other way is to offer one's actions to God while keeping a cheerful attitude. With both these ways the seeker will make real inner progress.

Question: What is the difference between desire and aspiration?

Desire is a wild fire that burns and burns and finally consumes us. Aspiration is a glowing flame that secretly and sacredly uplifts our consciousness and finally liberates us. Thirst for the Highest is aspiration. Thirst for the lowest is annihilation. Desire is expectation. No expectation, no frustration. With desire killed, true happiness is built. Aspiration is surrender. Surrender is man's conscious oneness with God's Will.

Question: How can we best utilise our outer time to better our inner aspiration?

You are a seeker. When you pray, concentrate and meditate, you have to feel that each second is infinitely more important than you thought it was previously, before you entered into the spiritual life. This second you can use either for meditation or for gossip or for cherishing impure and undivine thoughts.

Question: Is there a specific way to accelerate realisation?

Yes, there is a specific way, and it is called conscious aspiration. God must come first. Aspiration, the inner cry, should come from the physical, the vital, the mind, the heart and the soul. Of course, the soul has been aspiring all the time, but the physical, vital, mental and psychic beings have to become consciously aware of this. When we consciously aspire in all parts of our being, we will be able to accelerate the achievement of liberation.

Question: How do we aspire?

We aspire through proper concentration, proper meditation and proper contemplation. Aspiration covers both meditation and prayer. In the West, there were many saints who did not care for meditation; they realised God through prayer. He who is praying feels he has an inner cry to realise God, and he who is meditating also feels the need to bring God's Consciousness right into his being. The difference between prayer and meditation is this: when I pray, I talk and God listens; and when I meditate, God talks and I listen.