Your Questions Answered

by Swami Krishnananda

Chapter 23: The True Heart

Visitor: When we meditate, Swamiji, we generally concentrate at trikuti but sometimes the mind wanders. It keeps on wandering. We say "OK," and go to the heart centre...

Swamiji: Meditational techniques are learned through initiation by a Guru. It is not done of one's own accord. Have you been initiated by any teacher who has suggested that you should meditate on some spot of the body?

Visitor: Yes. It was suggested.

Swamiji: What did they suggest?

Visitor: I follow the Yogananda system of meditation. They said to concentrate at the trikuti, but in my own experience I prefer to concentrate at the heart centre.

Swamiji: Why are you having an experience different from what the Guru has told? The Guru must have told something very right and proper. What is the problem that you have?

Visitor: I find it easier to concentrate at the heart centre than the trikuti.

Swamiji: In what way is it easier?

Visitor: I feel a feeling of peace and joy.

Swamiji: All right. There is no objection. You can concentrate on the heart centre if you feel peace and joy. But a question has to be raised here. What actually do you mean by the "heart"? When you say that you are concentrating on the heart, what do you mean by the "heart"? That fleshy substance which pumps blood – that is the heart?

Visitor: That is the place where the heart centre anahata chakra is.

Swamiji: So, you are not meditating on the physical heart.

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: You are meditating on a conceptual centre, not physical. Is it so? What do you say?

Visitor: Yes. I prefer to concentrate on the heart chakra, visualize the petals.

Swamiji: It has no connection with the actual physical heart?

Visitor: No.

Swamiji: OK. Since how long are you doing this kind of concentration?

Visitor: Three or four years I have been following this Yogananda.

Swamiji: But you have modified it by concentrating on the heart.

Visitor: No, I concentrate at kutastha also, but whenever I find that my mind keeps on wandering...

Swamiji: What actually is your aim in concentrating like this?

Visitor: To go deeper into the heart.

Swamiji: You are using some word. What are you wanting to achieve, finally? Concentration on the heart is not good. It interferes with the working of the heart, to some extent. The heart has its own way of operating, and we are not supposed to go on bombarding it with our thoughts. Actually, we should not think of any part of the body, properly speaking, because the body has its own way of operating in a harmonious manner. If you bombard any part of the body with your thought, the harmonious working of the organism gets disturbed a little bit, unless you have a specific purpose in doing that. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong; you can go on. And your Guru is sitting here. You ask him.