The Mother in her correspondence with a disciple answers an age-old question: Just as the Divine grants prosperity to people when they ask and pray for it, why does it not similarly bestow the the experience of the Truth to aspirants when they ask for it?. Her answer follows.
– Editor
You say that the Lord gives to people prosperity, children and happiness whenever they ask for it — Quite true, but these things belong to the physical consciousness and need no preparation to be received; they (people) can have these things with remaining just as they are, while you are asking for the greatest thing of all, the most difficult, the Truth — and to receive the Truth one must be prepared for It, capable of seeing and feeling it — and this demands a big preparation. In fact, the Truth is always with us. And if we do not see It and feel It, it is because we are not capable of seeing and feeling It—This is the reason of the delay. The Lord answers at once all sincere prayer, but we are not aware of His answer.
Behind the weakest weakness there is the supreme Strength, the Lord’s Force.
April 2, 1963
– The Mother
Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles and the East-West Cultural Center 