Question: Why do you tell people to stay in the heart and not in the mind?

Sri Chinmoy: There are many reasons why I tell people to stay in the heart and not in the mind. The heart knows how to identify itself with the Highest, with the farthest, with the inmost. In the case of the mind, this is not so. The mind tries to identify itself with an object, with a person, with something limited. But this identification is not pure or complete. When the mind tries to identify, the mind looks at the object with an eye of hesitation, if not actual suspicion. But when the heart wants to identify itself with something or someone, it uses the feeling of love and oneness. When the heart wants to see something, it sees it unreservedly. But when the mind wants to see something, it tries to delay and separate. The heart simplifies; the mind complicates. The mind unconsciously gets pleasure in things that are complicated and confused, but the heart gets joy in things that are simple.

The human, physical, earthbound mind is at our disposal right now. But the higher mind, the overmind, the intuitive mind, the supermind, are not at our command right now. In our day-to-day life we use the earthbound physical mind, which is constantly contradicting itself. Unfortunately, we seldom use the heart, which is all love, all sympathy, all concern, all purity, all harmony, all oneness.

Why do I tell people to pay more attention to the heart and less to the mind? Because the heart expands. The soul represents our illumination and it is inside the heart that the soul abides. In the spiritual life our treasure is the soul. It is only with the help of the soul that we can make the fastest progress in the inner life and we can contact the soul only by meditating on our heart. All paths lead to the Goal, but there is a particular road that will lead us there faster than the other roads. That road is the heart. It is faster, safer and surer than any other road.

We are the possessors of two rooms. One room is known as the heart-room; the other is known as the mind-room. Right now the mind-room is obscure, unlit, impure and unwilling to open to the light. So we have to remain in the heart-room, the room of light, as much as we can. When we feel that our entire being is surcharged with the inner light that is there, then we can enter into the mind-room and illumine it. But if we enter into the mind-room without sufficient light, we will be totally confused because we are entering into a room which is all darkness. We will be caught there and will become victims of the ignorant, undivine and suspicious forces of the mind. This is why I tell my students first to strengthen their inner being by meditating on the heart. The soul's light is available in the heart. If we concentrate on the heart, sooner or later the light of the soul is bound to come to the fore. At that time, we will know that we are in possession of the inner light, and we will be able to use it at our own sweet will. Then we can enter into the mind-room to illumine it. But very often we make the Himalayan blunder of entering into the mind-room just because we see that it is all confusion and darkness. We have to know whether we have the necessary light at our command to illumine darkness. If we do not have the necessary light at our command, we have to enter only into the heart-room. There we can meditate and receive the inner light of the soul until we are inwardly strong. So we should not enter into the mind-room at the very beginning of our spiritual journey. To enter into that room safely we need inner confidence, inner light and inner assurance from the Supreme.