In the mind, we often find limitation and clutter - the mind needs silence for its purification and perfection. In the spiritual heart, we find expansion, vastness and clarity. Sri Chinmoy makes this comparison: "In the mind there is a constant battle raging. The mind is like Times Square on New Year's Eve; the heart is like a lonely cave in the Himalayas."

In this weeks meditation exercise, Sri Chinmoy urges the meditation practitioner to take inspiration from the natural elements as an aid to experiencing the vastness of heart meditation.

Now we shall meditate. Kindly keep your eyes half open and imagine the vast sky. In the beginning try to feel that the sky is in front of you; later try to feel that you are as vast as the sky, or that you are the vast sky itself. After a few minutes, please close your eyes and try to see and feel the sky inside your heart. Please feel that you are the universal Heart, and that inside you is the sky that you meditated upon and identified yourself with. Your spiritual heart is infinitely vaster than the sky, so you can easily house the sky within yourself. (Source)

When you want to meditate, at that time think of something very vast - the sky, the ocean, the mountains - and become one with the vastness, which is all power. (Source)

My mind admires
The vastness-beauty of the sky.
My heart adores
The oneness-universality of the sun.
   – Sri Chinmoy