_Student:_ You said oneness is living in the heart, not in the mind. But in order to become aware of the heart, don't you first have to know what it is you’re trying to reach and have some concept of where you’re going?

Sri Chinmoy: Let us speak in terms of what we want from life instead of what we are aiming at or trying to reach. If what we really want is happiness, if what we really want is peace and bliss, then we will cry for these things. The reason we have to go to the heart is because the heart hungers for these things, and also the heart knows how to cry. Unless I feel and express my hunger, who is going to feed me? The mind does not have that kind of hunger. And even if the mind manages to create a hunger in itself, the moment someone brings food, the mind will doubt and suspect it. The mind will say, "Is it food or is it poison?"

In the outer life, if a child cries, immediately the mother will come running to give him what he needs. The child may be in another room, but she will come running to give him food, or a toy, or whatever it is he is crying for. Similarly, if we sincerely cry inside our heart for the highest Reality, then no matter where we are, God will come running to give it to us.

The mind is always doubtful and suspicious. This moment my mind makes me feel that you are a good man, and the next moment my mind will say you are a very bad man. And then the mind will say, "Who am I to judge him? Let him remain whatever he is. Whether he is a good man or a bad man, it is his life after all." So where is satisfaction in this approach? But if my heart feels that you are a good man, then immediately it will try to know more about you. On the strength of its oneness, the heart is always trying to proceed forward, farther and deeper. But the mind just questions its own discoveries over and over again.

From:Sri Chinmoy,A seeker's heart-songs, Agni Press, 1994
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