In the spiritual life our treasure is the soul. It is only with the help of the soul that we can make the fastest progress in the inner life and we can contact the soul only by meditating on our heart. All paths lead to the Goal, but there is a particular road that will lead us there faster than the other roads. That road is the heart. It is faster, safer and surer than any other road.

The heart is like the commander-in-chief, while the soul is the king. When the soul comes into existence, its first concern is to illumine the heart. When the soul withdraws from the body, automatically the commander-in-chief loses all his power. The heart wants to stay with its king. It does not want to go and join another king or another army.

The spiritual heart is located in the centre of the chest, in the centre of our existence. When the heart centre is open, you will feel boundless joy, boundless love and boundless purity. The first thing you will have is purity: purity inside you, outside you. You will feel infinite love, boundless love, and this love is absolutely pure. It will be within you and without. Then, you will see joy in everything. Now you are crying for joy, but a day will come when this centre is opened and you will get spontaneous joy from everything. You will look at a flower and get joy, you will look at a child and get joy, you will look at the world and get joy. You will also get peace and the feeling of oneness, universal oneness. If your heart centre is fully open, during meditation you are likely to taste the divine nectar, amrita. According to some Masters, the spiritual heart is the universe; they have gone so far as to say that the universe is inside the heart. Nothing is beyond or outside the spiritual heart.

If we want a free access to the soul, we have to focus our attention, our concentration, on the heart. When we can receive the soul’s light, we can make the fastest progress.

Written by Sri Chinmoy