With this post we continue the longer text begun here and continued here. As noted earlier, the language approximately corresponds to the natural speaking style of Hazrat Inayat Khan, which many students may appreciate, and the meaning is certainly clear.
And now coming to the question, what do I mean by heart? Is this the nervous centre in the midst of the breast, the small piece of flesh that doctors call heart? No. The definition of heart is: heart is the depth of the mind; mind is the surface of heart. That which feels in us is heart, what thinks is mind. It is the same thing which thinks and feels, but the direction is different. Feeling comes from the depth, thought from the surface. But when the thought is not linked with the feeling, it is just like a plant rising up from the earth, yet its root has not gone deep in the earth. Thought without feeling is powerless, just like a plant without a deep root. A tree, the root of which has gone deep in the earth, is stronger, more reliable. So the thought deeply rooted in the heart has greater power. Therefore, the heart is the factor through which spirit and spirituality is to be attained. Man’s being can be divided into three aspects: the body, the heart, and the soul. The heart is a globe on the soul, and the body is a cover over the heart. But one might say, “Is soul so small as to be covered by the heart, and is heart so small as to be covered by the body?” It is not so. The soul is within and without.
For an instance, the light is covered by the globe, and the globe is covered by another cover. And yet, is the light covered? The light shines out just the same. The light is not under the cover. It looks to be under the cover, but it shines out. So is the soul. The globe does not shine out. It is the light that takes the colour of the globe. It is the soul that is larger. At the same time, the light is within the globe. The soul is within the body just the same; it is exactly the same thing as the light within the globe and the globe within the cover. And at the same time, the light is outside the cover. And the power of the globe is shining outside the cover just the same. Therefore, the power of the heart is greater than the power of the body, and the power of the soul is still greater. But as long as one is ignorant of it, one does not realize the truth. Imagine what power heart quality has. The little hen with its young ones, if there comes a horse or elephant, it is ready to fight. Otherwise, it will run away, but with its young ones it is ready to fight with the elephant. Heart quality at that time is blooming. It is feeling. At that time its power is so great that it is ready to fight with anyone. A hunter’s story is told in India, that he was after a she-deer, and it ran far into the woods. And this hunter pursued it. And when she comes near her young ones who were waiting for her, she did not run further. She forgot the hunter. At that time she had no fear, as soon as the heart quality is wakened in the presence of her little ones. There is nothing one will not sacrifice, not accomplish, one will not face when heart quality is wakened. All cowardliness and weakness, misery and wretchedness comes when heart quality is covered and man begins to live in his brain. Lions turn into rabbits when the heart is not living. Very few understand the power of the heart. If once the heart is wakened, there is nothing that one does not accomplish. It gives all the power that one needs, besides inspiration and illumination, to attain anything one wants.
One might ask, Is it not natural to attain spirituality? Does it not come without any effort on our part? And if it was not natural, then what is the use of attaining spirituality? This is a right argument. But my answer is, spirituality is not only for human beings, but also for the lower creation, for every being. Not spirituality in the sense we understand, but in the sense of being tuned to one’s natural pitch. Even birds have their moments of exaltation. At the setting of the sun, the rising of the sun, the breaking of dawn, or in moonlight, there come times that even birds and animals feel exalted. They sing and dance and sit on the branches of the tree in exaltation. Every day this exquisite joy they feel. And if we go still further and if we have eyes to see in those forms in which others do not see life, in the rock, or the tree, we find that there are times that even the trees are in a complete state of ecstasy. Those who move in nature, who open the doors of their heart, whose soul is coming in contact with nature, they find nature singing, nature dancing, communicating. It is not only a legend, a story of the past that saints used to speak with the tree. It is an actual fact. It is the same today as in the past. Souls are of the same nature. It is the same. Only as today we have become unbelievers, we have no confidence in life. We have become material, we have closed our eyes to what comes before us. Today souls can become saints and sages just as before. Are the stars not as before? They communicate today also with the one who is able to understand. But we have turned our back to nature; we live in an artificial world; there is no self-confidence in us, no belief. Naturally we have not become material, but we have become matter. Therefore, those who ever have attained to spirituality, they have attained by awakening the quality of heart.
To be continued…