We are used to approaching life and its many questions, mysteries and challenges from a scientific viewpoint. We have come to assume that science either already has, or will be able to find the answer to every question and the solution to every problem.

Yet science can only go so far: faced with the inner realms of the Self, the scientific method must give way to more direct means of perceiving the truth. Sri Chinmoy writes:

“Ours is not a scientific path; we approach God psychically, from the heart. We notice inside our hearts a mounting flame that is climbing high, higher, highest. This flame is our inner cry for God. When we cry, when the inner flame mounts up, it illumines all our darkness, ignorance and bondage. When we pray and meditate, we intensify this cry and our consciousness rises towards the highest. Since this cry comes from the heart, we call our path psychic discovery and not scientific discovery.”
– Sri Chinmoy

Sri Chinmoy speaks of the inner cry as a mounting flame. This same flame, as it rises and expands, raises our consciousness and illumines all our darkness. The inner cry is not only the spark which ignites our aspiration, stirs our inner yearning and prompts our self-search; it is the very flaming of aspiration itself; and the spreading, all-illumining light which answers the very questions it posed, and fulfills the very longing it voiced forth.

Born as a helpless yearning, our inner cry morphs into a daring, transforming journey – and ultimately reveals itself as the fulfillment of that yearning and destination of that journey.

Our inner cry is the Goal itself, come to us disguised as a question, a puzzle, a mystery; a self-completing circle of fulfillment; God’s game of hide-and-seek within us.