Part VI

These questions were answered by Sri Chinmoy at the First Unitarian Church, San Francisco, California, on 2 November 1976.

Question: How can we protect ourselves from the mind and from making a Himalayan mistake, especially when we are making decisions or judgements?

Sri Chinmoy: It is a mistake to think that only with the mind you can calculate or judge things. This is a false distinction that we have given the mind. We are told by our parents and our teachers that only the mind can judge or make decisions; no other member of our earthly existence can do it. But this is not true. The heart can do it far better than the mind, and so can the soul. We have to consciously say to the mind, “I don’t accept you as a reality superior to the heart. You are a reality, and I don’t deny your existence, but just because in the outer body you are a few inches higher than the heart, that does not mean that in inner maturity, in spiritual development, you are superior to the heart. Far from it.” On the physical plane there are many here who are taller than me, but in terms of heart-power, I think I am one inch taller than you. Just because my heart is one inch larger than yours, your head is surrendering to me. Now you have to convince your mind that it is no match for the height of your own heart.

The mind has many things to do: add, subtract, multiply and divide. The heart has only one thing to do: to feel oneness. When it feels oneness, it grows into perfection. We must always feel that the heart is far superior to the mind. Unfortunately we do not do this. We have been trained by our parents, by our teachers, by our environment that the mind is superior, but it is not. Every day the mind digs a grave for us, but the heart will never do this. The heart always tries to save us; yet we take the mind’s side.

At the end of our life’s journey we should ask, “What has the mind taught us?” The physical mind, the earthbound mind has given us only information. If you can tell me who all the Presidents of the United States were, what do you gain? Only that others will say that you are not an idiot. This is what the mind can offer. But if you can identify yourself soulfully, with utmost love and concern, with whoever the President is, then you are becoming one with God’s creation. Only oneness with another creation of God will give you real satisfaction. You are a petal of a flower. Becoming one with another petal will give you tremendous joy. Just by knowing who the President is, you do not gain anything. You have only mental knowledge. But by becoming one with the soul of the President, you will receive tremendous joy. This joy you will never be able to receive from the mind.

If you become sincere, you will try to unlearn what the mind has taught you. You have learned too much; now try to unlearn. There are millions of things which you can unlearn. If you unlearn them today, you will not suffer so much. You are suffering because you have learned too much. The mind has learned many undivine things. If you can unlearn those things, you will be safe.

In the case of the heart there is nothing to unlearn. The heart has discovered the Supreme. The physical mind is nothing but information. We also have the intuitive mind, which is a higher mind, the overmind, the illumined mind and the supermind. These are not like the earthbound mind inside the head. In our spiritual development we can learn to use these higher minds. There we can have a quiet, calm and tranquil mind, and we can achieve boundless peace in the mind. But unfortunately we do not have access to these minds, or these levels of consciousness. We live only in the physical mind, which at every second is dividing us, separating us from others. It even separates us, in a very clever way, from its own outer life. In this respect children are far better than we. They do not use their minds. They live in the heart.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Aspiration-Glow and Dedication-Flow, part 2, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ag_2