It often happens that aspirants put off the sacrifice of time which prayer and meditation call for because, they complain, they are too busy with this or that. Thus they never make any start at all and the years slip uselessly by. In most cases this involves no penalty other than the spiritual stagnation to which it leads, but in some cases where a higher destiny has been reserved for the individual or where a mission has to be accomplished, the result is far different. Everything and everyone that such a person uses as an excuse for keeping away from the practice of meditation, the exercise of devotion, and the communion of prayer may be removed from his external life by the higher self. Thus, through loss and suffering, he will be forced to obey the inward call.
-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 2 : Its Choice > # 426
