Some days ago a post proposed working for a while with the phrase, “O Knower of my heart, fulfil my desires,” and enough reactions and comments have come back through various channels to warrant looking again at the exercise.

By keeping the phrase in one’s mind, and perhaps placing it upon the swing of the breath so that the meaning is vitalised in our consciousness, we become aware of a trajectory, beginning in the depth of our heart and extending all the way to the Divine Presence. Along that path travels an energy, like electricity along a cable, and that is the power of our desires.  But of course the intensity of that power is dependent upon the condition of the heart.  If the heart is just a cluttered closet, filled with unsorted records and fragments of our life, the jumble may contain some flashes of beauty but even when we find them they will not be very inspiring, and the sum-total of our longing will be diffuse and unfocused.  If the space is cleared and cleaned, and used as a shrine for a single bright point of beauty, the effect will be completely different.

Hazrat Inayat Khan frequently spoke of the heart as a place from which a living spring is meant to flow–but the spring has become blocked, and we have to dig it out.  Some, he said, complain because when they dig they encounter mud, but this only means they have not finished the work; if they will dig further, in time the clear water will rise up and by its own life help to clear away the remaining impurities.

The phrase ‘O Knower of my heart…’ is not a magic spell;  it cannot produce an effect without our effort.  If we are persistent and attentive, working with this phrase may help us to realise that our heart-space is very often full of conflicting impulses, and needs a thorough ‘house-cleaning.’  Impulses and memories that are not loving tend to deaden the heart, whereas it is the desire of a truly living heart which reaches up to heaven.

Then, how to begin this cleaning?  Just as in the example of digging out the spring, we have to be willing to get our hands dirty.  Examine your heart, and weigh what you find there.  Throw away whatever does not make you happy, and whatever is not beautiful. Keep whatever is uplifting.  Repeat until your heart becomes tender.