Question: How can I make my mind more quiet? I try so hard, but it is very difficult for me to make my mind calm and quiet. I have a hard time staying in the heart. The mind is always pulling me out of the heart and there is a constant battle going on.

Sri Chinmoy: Suppose you have just entered into an apartment. You need an apartment to live in, and you have gone to see this particular apartment. You are satisfied with one room of the apartment, whereas the other room has not satisfied you at all. The first room is most satisfactory. It is all illumined, clean, clear and full of pure vibrations. The other room is dark. In that room there are all kinds of rubbish and broken furniture. It is all in a mess and everything is most unsatisfactory. But you need an apartment and the landlord says that if you want this apartment you have to take this other room as well. When you rent an apartment, it is up to you to stay in the room that pleases you most; but you have to keep the other room because the landlord does not want to rent the apartment without it.

So let us say that our body is the apartment or the house. In this house there are two rooms: one is full of darkness and the other is full of light. The heart is the room where you have all light and the mind is the room where you have all darkness.

Now, in my house I have many rooms, but I am fond of my own room, my bedroom. There are so many other rooms on the third floor, on the second floor and in the basement, but I am fond of my bedroom, so I spend most of my time there. Now if I don't want to enter into a particular room in this house, I don't need to. I have so many rooms. Why should I use all of them if they do not please me? I stay in the room which pleases me most.

Similarly, you should feel that your heart-room is the room that you need. The other room is the mind, which is full of conflict, darkness and imperfection. This room does not want any perfection or illumination. Again, the room that is already illumined and crying for perfection, illumination and salvation is the heart; so you should try to remain in that room. Then, when you get illumination, salvation and immortality from the heart-room, you bring all these qualities into the dark room. Right now you are unsafe if you enter into the dark room. If you want to enter it, you will be caught by imperfection, bondage and impurity. But once you get illumination, purity, liberation and salvation from the other room, the heart, then you can enter the mind-room, because the light of the heart is infinitely more powerful than the power of darkness in the mind-room.

Right now the heart is not at your disposal. But when its divine qualities are at your command, at that time you can take them and enter into the mind-room. This way you will be safe, and you will be able to illumine and purify the other room. So try to feel that the heart-room is illumined, and it is crying for liberation and immortality. Just enter into the heart-room. When you feel that the wealth of this room has become part and parcel of your life, then you can enter into the dark room to purify and illumine it. At that time you will feel that you have two rooms that you can use.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The silent mind, Agni Press, 1977
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