My Lord Loves a Pure Heart – Excerpt 26

In my early days as a Siddha Yoga musician, I was thinking too much about how I was going to play each chant. As a result, my mind would be all over the place, and I would experience heaviness, exhaustion, and doubts.
 
I then began considering my body to be an instrument like other musical instruments, and surrendered both kinds of instruments to Gurumayi, praying that she carry out her wondrous play. The result was that I often experienced an opening of the heart during chants and from there knowledge would arise.
 
This kind of knowledge contains no words, but shines through my whole being. As it flows through my legs, it starts to tap with melody. Then my spine naturally elongates upward, my skin radiates joy, my breath senses love, my mind visualizes a form of the Lord, and my heart begins to melt. Often, I experienced total stillness, feeling the oneness of body and instrument.

When this pure knowledge, arising from the heart, takes over, there is spontaneity, gentleness, joy, and the absence of all doubts.
 

This excerpt reaffims my understanding that when I am in touch with my “great heart”—especially when I meditate and perform the other Siddha Yoga practices—I receive knowledge along with new inspiration. The knowledge so received is altogether different from that which I could get intellectually through my brain alone.
 
This deeper, purer knowledge helps me to get insights and new directions in my research work, as well as to experience the Self in the form of stillness, serenity, and bliss during meditation. Sometimes I have the feeling that my whole body is charged and participating in the process.
 

As a composer, it matters a lot more to me how a piece of music feels than the theoretical correctness of it. In my life, I experience a massive difference between living in integrity, and merely entertaining a momentary thought of not doing so. The first results in peace of mind and equipoise; the second leaves opens the possibility of inner disruption.  
 
Grace has been awakened in me and has made known to me an inner guidance system so powerful that nothing escapes its vision. Every effort I make to live in accordance with this “great heart where the Truth abides” reinforces my understanding of what an incredibly trustworthy and reliable presence it is.
 

Even though my mind serves me well, more and more I let that deeper energy in me—my intuition—tell me what is going on. Excerpt 26 explains how valuable is that other energy beyond the mind, and in my body—indeed, in “every cell.” What a joy to know this! I feel freedom in knowing this. The cells in my body are happy to be acknowledged in this way.
 

This teaching brings new light to shine on my sadhana path. It helps me see how the practices in my sadhana purify all of my being, all of my cells. It is this purification that leads me to the attainment of pure knowledge, not only in the great Heart, but also in “every bit”of my being.
 

As a student on the Siddha Yoga path, and through my Guru’s grace and her  timeless teachings, I have over the years come to understand and embrace the meaning of these four vital steps: study, practice, assimilate, and implement. For me to successfully take in the Guru’s teachings, I must follow these four steps sincerely. It is only then that I can feel them arising from deep within and spreading throughout my being. In those moments a magical alchemy takes place, allowing me to embrace love and joy and the purity of the Self.
 

As both a Tai Chi teacher and a Siddha Yoga student I can really relate to this excerpt. I have learned that the system as a whole within my being is a microcosm of the outer universe, and the same principles that reside outside also reside within. To know the Self, I must be in touch with what is within me on all levels.
 

A few days ago, I was eating lunch with a friend when suddenly her little dog, which was playing around the table, went toward the bookshelf and licked the side of a book. I was surprised by its spontaneous and playful gesture and I went to see the title of the book. The French title was Autour de la table, which means “around the table.“ I understood this to mean that the dog, in perfect harmony with God, used this gesture to share with us its love and happiness at being with us around the table.
 
Similarly, when my words and my actions come from the pure space of the heart, I feel happy and spread God’s love around me through “every cell” in my body. When I link my mind to my breath, I become filled with prana and gain the purity of Consciousness, from which knowledge of the Truth arises.