VEENA MISHRA shares her experience of learning to listen to the voice of the heart through a meditation practice. She describes meditation as the way she learned to allow the heart to speak out – “that magical tool we are all unknowingly looking for.”
Everything has a tendency to age and decay with time. The outer glamor of this so-called “perfect world” continues to fade slowly but steadily with each passing day. What we often do not realize is that, amid all this pomp and show, our tiny hearts are trying to speak to us. The noise around us is so clamorous, however, that the heart’s voice is drowned even before it can surface.
Our heart is the most beautiful creation. This inner heart of ours is not subject to any kind of disintegration. What it needs is nourishment. If the heart is properly nourished and taken care of, then over time, as the body shrivels, the heart continues to shine, radiate love and, most importantly, guide us through life.
How do we nourish our hearts? I think that meditation is a very simple yet effective way of achieving this. Meditation is that magical tool we are all unknowingly looking for. It enables us to lend our ear to the voice within that is trying to speak to us. As we meditate, the outer cacophony begins to die out and that voice becomes prominent.
Meditation is that magical tool
we are all unknowingly looking for.
It enables us to lend our ear to the voice within
that is trying
to speak to us.
As we meditate, the outer cacophony begins to die out
and that voice becomes prominent.
We often wonder how to discriminate between the voice of the heart and the so-called voice of the mind. When I began meditation, I started to realize that there is only one voice, and it is that of the heart. When caught up in any kind of situation, this voice is always trying to tell me the right thing to do. Whether I am able to listen to it or not depends on how much I have been able to detune myself from the other unwanted noises, which are a culmination of desires and ego. Meditation helps to refine these and lessen their impact on my thinking, enabling me to know my heart’s wish.
Whether we listen to it or not depends on us.
Illustration by ARATI SHEDDE
Veena Mishra
