To be effective, the tears of our inner cry must be sincere, unceasing and limitless. Sri Chinmoy described these tears as streaming from our heart, or a bleeding of our heart. When asked, how one can bring forward the determination to do the right thing, he replied:
“Only by virtue of prayer. There is no other way. Like a child, you have to cry and cry. The child thinks that if it cries for its toy for five minutes, the mother is bound to give it. No! The mother watches for ten or fifteen minutes, or even half an hour. Then she says, ‘It is a hopeless case. I must give it to him because he is not going to stop.’
“When a little child cries and cries, eventually he becomes desperate. Similarly, when we become really desperate, then the inner determination comes. But our determination is not like a child’s, no. There should be some poise in it. And there should be tears.
“If you can develop sincere tears, then you will really get determination. Everything depends on the heart’s cries and tears. If we really want to become a good person or do something for the world, we have to feel not the tears of the eyes, but the tears of the heart. Inside the heart, we have to feel streaming tears; we have to feel that our heart is bleeding for something. Then determination comes.
“Everything is inside the heart. If we can live inside the heart for five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, we will find the answer. The question ‘How can I have determination or adamantine will’ comes from the mind, but the answer lies in the heart, the heart’s tears. For everything, the heart’s tears is the answer.”
– Sri Chinmoy