How is it possible to have our inner life and our outer life synchronised so that we don't feel like two different people?
The inner life and the outer life cannot be given equal importance. The inner life has to be given greater importance. Our business is to enter into our own deepest Source. Then if we are really giving sincere attention to our inner life — to our aspiration, concentration and meditation — we will not be concerned with outer success. But that does not mean that we won't work. You are a doctor, so you will certainly deal with your patients; you will mix with your friends and all that. A boat is inside the water, sustained by the water; but the boat is not affected by the water. Similarly, we have to live in the world, but we should not be affected by the world. If the boat is not in water, then the boat cannot move. Likewise, if we are not in the world, then we cannot progress. We have to be in the world, but at the same time have full mastery of the world.
If you want to become one, inside and outside, then you have to pay infinitely more attention to the inner life than to the outer life. In each activity you have to feel the living breath of your inner life. If you can do that, then the outer life will be the image of your inner life and you will become one person, within and without. In the outer life, if the world calls you a failure, no harm. According to the world's eye you may be a failure, but according to your own inner life you will be extremely successful. And spiritual persons will even call your outer life a tremendous success. If you are truly successful in your inner life of realisation and aspiration, then you are bound to get outer success. But this success may not be and must not be what other people call success. It is you who will be the judge of your outer success in a divine way.
Sri Chinmoy, God-Journey's perfection-return
