Question: How can you take the mind to the heart? It seems impossible.

Sri Chinmoy: How can it be impossible? If it is impossible, then how have I done it?

The thing is not to pay any attention to the mind. Just feel that there are two boys in front of you. One is a mischievous boy. The other is kind, polite and nice in every sense of the term. The bad one will try to disturb you, but don't pay any attention to him. You pay attention to the nice one.

Now in this world there is something called prestige. You may think that only good people have a sense of prestige. If that bad boy bothers you for a long time, and you are not paying any attention to him, then he will say that it is beneath his dignity to bother you. I tell you, it is absolutely true. You are ignoring him, and you should ignore him because he is a very bad boy. He is pinching you all the time like a monkey, but you don't pay any attention. You just let him go on, go on, go on. He will see that all the time you are paying attention to this other boy, the heart, who is very kind, affectionate and loving. If you go on showing all your affection and love to the nice boy, then the other one will stop bothering you.

Afterwards you will see that while you are showing affection, love and concern to the heart and becoming one with the heart, there will always be competition. The mind will say, "By disturbing and bothering this person, I have gained nothing. On the contrary, he is ignoring me like anything." So the mind will immediately try to imitate the heart. First it will say, "I can also become a nice boy. I want to become nicer than he is so that I can get more attention, more affection from this person." In the beginning it will try to imitate. So here imitation is very good. I always say that in order to try something, we have to start by imitating.

After a few months or a few years, the mind will say, "I am imitating the heart, but why have I to imitate it? What is it doing? Let me try to become good in my own way. Let me try to please this person in my own way." But when the mind tries to please you in its own way, it finds this very, very difficult. Then it says, "How is it possible for the heart to please this man? How is it that I can't please him? All right, let me go deep within." When it goes deep within it sees that inside the heart is the soul. The soul is constantly offering light to the heart. That is why the heart is able to please the human being. So the mind will try to enter into the soul.

The mind finds it very difficult to enter into the soul because the soul is like the vast ocean. The mind thinks that if it enters into the ocean, it will be totally lost, like a tiny drop. It will see how much light the heart has, and when it makes a comparison between the heart's light and the soul's light, it sees that the soul has much more light than the heart. At the same time, it will see that the light that the heart has is more than enough to satisfy the person. Now the mind will feel that the light of the heart is within its reach. Just five minutes ago the mind and the heart quarrelled and fought. Even if the heart can get the soul's light, still the mind is ready to fight with the heart; but the mind is not ready to fight with the soul. The mind does not dare to fight with the soul, because it knows how powerful the light of the soul is. So the mind tries to compete with the heart's light, and while competing, it comes very close to the heart in a positive way. At that time the soul, out of its infinite compassion, offers light to the mind through the heart. The soul knows that the mind is only able to grasp or to know the capacity, quality or quantity of the heart's light and not that of the soul's light. The soul is so kind that it tries to offer a little light to the mind through the heart, according to the mind's capacity.

So from the very beginning, always try to think of the mind as a naughty boy who is creating problems all the time, and just ignore it. Think that the mind does not exist. In Indian villages, there are thousands and millions of people who don't use the mind. Does this mean that they do not exist? No, they do exist. They have the heart. Let us ignore the mind for one year or two years or ten years. We will not ignore it forever, because we know that if any part of our being remains imperfect, then we are not totally perfect or complete. But for the time being we have to be wise. It is not that we shall neglect and ignore the mind forever, far from it. But we will let the mind know that it is not sufficient, it is not complete, it is not perfect. The mind wants to convince us all the time, but let us convince the mind that it is not perfect. It is imperfect, it is weak, it is helpless. Let us go our own way to convince the mind that what it wants to be is not enough. We do not need it. We need something higher, something deeper, something infinitely more meaningful and fruitful. Previously we surrendered to the mind, but when we convince the mind, then the mind will surrender to us.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The silent mind, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/smn