The spiritual life is simple; it’s a matter of living from the heart. The challenge is that we often have a superficial understanding of the heart, reducing it to feelings, emotions, and moods. Properly understood, the heart is so much more than these passing sensations. Yogananda tells us that God‘s Consciousness enters our nervous system through the thousand-petaled lotus, the crown chakra, and then “descends into the heart center” and manifests as blissful love. Blissful love has nothing to do with anything sentimental. Valentin Tomberg describes blissful love as “substance and intensity.” In other words, love is God manifesting in time and space. It is real, ever so dynamic, and the most powerful force in all of creation.
We all occasionally visit our heart’s depth. Examples abound: the birth of a child, a wedding celebration, the death of a loved one, an experience of beauty, a good cry, and so forth. A God-realized person or saint always lives from this deeper dimension of the heart; in a manner of speaking, it is their permanent home. Learning to live from our hearts begins with a conscious choice, rooted in our love for God and the people in our lives. It implies the willingness to be vulnerable not to the forces of chaos, but to the movements and intelligence of love: compassion, sympathy, joy, selfless service, truth, creativity, and the inspired impulse to serve the highest good of others. Pardon the pun, but living from the heart is not for the week of heart; it takes great courage. Of course, our consistent meditation practice is one of the essential avenues into the heart. Yogananda tells us, “The greatest love you can experience is in communion with God in meditation. The love between the soul and Spirit is the perfect love, the love you are seeking. When you meditate, love grows.”
Divine Mother, Beloved Guru,
The love I am seeking
Is the perfect love
Between my soul
And your Spirit.
