Meditation we generally begin with an idea of Divine principle.
But thought has to be graduated or transcended to a feeling, feeling of
the object you are meditating upon.
I have heard of Mindfulness.
But I have never heard of Heartfulness.
What is Heartfulness?
Well, Heartfulness in essence, is doing things with your heart;
intending things with your heart; discriminating things with your heart.
Anything and everything that you do, refer to your heart, before you execute.
How is it different from Mindfulness?
And here, how do you see the relationship between the mind and the heart?
Let us imagine for a moment, mind as one end of the spectrum of consciousness and heart is
the other extreme end of the same spectrum.
When you talk of deeper thoughts that arise in your mind, and they are so
deep – it feels as if they are touching your heart, it almost becomes a feeling.
Sometimes you can be too superficial with your heart’s feelings,
it is almost like a thought.
So it has its own spectrum.
So Mindfulness is one extreme of it, Heartfulness is another extreme of it.
Rather, I would like to think, Heartfulness to be inclusive of Mindfulness.
Mindfulness is where you are mentally aware.
You try to remain mentally aware of things around you, within you, all kinds of things.
Heartfulness too, is part of this mental awareness, mental regulation and empathy.
Anything and everything that we do in the emotional world, it refers to heart.
And here, when this system was established officially, to run as
an organization in 1945, then it was known as Shri Ramchandra Mission.
Even now it is Shri Ramchandra Mission, but I feel that it should have a nickname.
I like it to be recognised by this name because it is all about heart.
The whole practice, we have in meditation is all about heart,
that we feel with your heart.
Though we generally begin meditation with an idea of Divine Principle,
but thought has to be graduated or transcended to a feeling, feeling of
the object you are meditating upon.
It should no longer remain a form, or an imagination.
I must be able to perceive that in my heart as a feeling, rather than just a thought.
As I understand, Mindfulness is an intellectual kind of an exercise
and Heartfulness is perhaps more inclusive and is more emotional.
More emotional at a heart level.
And heart, by and large, includes everything that you do, including the mind.
So, what is this path, this Sahaj Marg, that is there, this
natural path, what is that path?
It offers a practice.
Multiple practices are there, for one simple goal, “How to become simple and pure and in
tune with our divine nature?” So, various practices are offered and that is Sahaj Marg,
a way of life or Heartfulness way of life.
How do you use Heartfulness or Mindfulness in your daily living?
It is all about Heartfulness.
You wake up in the morning.
I generally meditate for twenty-five to thirty minutes.
And then have breakfast or read a book, for a few minutes.
Go to office.
Spend the day there in the office and interact with people there.
Launch new projects or whatever it is and come back home.
While coming back home, I would rather play some music or listen to some
inspirational talk by great guys.
And once I reach home, I adopt this process of Cleaning.
Before I interact with family members, I go to my basement, sit down and do the
cleaning of the impressions that we collect.
Knowingly or unknowingly, we come back with so many emotions.
Once you come home, you try to erase them.
You will feel so refreshed, unbelievably refreshed after going through this process.
Then you start, I mean, you are ready to mingle with family members.
Is that Cleansing different from the meditation of the morning?
Definitely, it is a different one.
What is the trick that you do for your mind for that?
No, there is no trick.
It is just a suggestion that we make to ourselves, that all these complexities
and impurities are going away.
We teach a method.
We also enable each individual personally, that this is how you do it.
We make them also capable of how to do it, and what to expect
while undergoing this process.
We, literally walk them through - how to do the morning meditation and
evening cleaning process and how at bed time, which is also important, to scan
through your daily activities and see where I could have improved myself; or
see how badly you goofed up somewhere; how to make it better next time.
So there is always continuous improvement; you are always
self-critical about your actions.
And finally, once you have gone through and resolved that ‘I will not repeat this
mistake again’, or ‘if I have do this again, I will do it like this’ - after
finishing all these things, we pray.
And with that prayer, I think, still we do not end our day, we just
contemplate on the meaning of the prayer.
Meditate over the meaning and sleep in that mood.
So your sleep pattern will also change.
I have this routine, that is all.