A devotee remembers asking Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda one time in the early years, “Swamiji, I’ve been trying to meditate. Sometimes the mind is obedient, many times not. What is your instruction – how long should I meditate each morning?”
Gurudev looked down at her from his seat at the writing desk, crossed one hand over the other in his lap, and smiled down at her where she was sitting cross-legged and full of expectation on the floor by his feet.
“Don’t try to ascribe any time to something that is beyond time” he said. She remembers feeling a little disappointed then. She had wanted a specific instruction, tailor-made for me, hopefully couched in a long series of sentences for detailed guidance on the path. But all she got was one simple sentence.
“Yet, over the years, I’ve learned the fullness of the wisdom in his simple response. Many of his responses were like that, utter simplicity, whereas our minds may have yearned for something complex and dramatic and personalised. He shot through all of our ego fed yearning with utter, naked, unpretentious simplicity.” she smiles wistfully.