“Create in me a clean heart, O Lord.”
Psalm 51
If we want to nurture beauty in our lives, our families, and the world, we must have a clean heart. Sri Yukteswar tells us that a clean heart is one that is perpetually lifted up toward “Maharlika,” that is, to the highest heaven, the dwelling place of the saints. This means that we don’t create beauty through our own cleverness. Rather, we channel beauty from the heavens. Yogananda goes so far as to say that great works of art and literature were conceived by souls in the astral realm before they incarnated on planet earth. We all have the capacity to channel heaven’s inexhaustible beauty. We do this by focusing on things that are above, paying attention to what is true, beautiful, and good, nurturing a consistent level of interior prayer, developing soft eyes and a soft heart, and by recognizing the truth that we are truly citizens of heaven. Yogananda taught us to nurture clean hearts in these simple words: “Read a little, meditate more, think of God always.”
I am a channel
Of heaven’s inexhaustible beauty.
