Question: At times during meditation, I feel that the physical heart stops for a few seconds and then it resumes beating.

Sri Chinmoy: When you feel that the physical heart stops, this is a very good experience, but you must not be afraid of it. What does it mean? Only that the physical in you has totally surrendered to the spiritual in you. You won’t die at all. In the spiritual life, many Masters, in order to enter into the higher regions during meditation, consciously stop their heartbeat. When I was a boy of fourteen or fifteen, I tried this and then I did it many times. My first experience was at the foot of a mango tree. In front of our dining hall in the ashram there was a garden, and in that garden there was a mango tree. I used to go there and meditate when I was fourteen or fifteen years old. One day, while meditating, I said to myself, “The yogis are able to stop their hearts. Let me see if I can do it. Is it true or not? I may suffer a little or I may die. If I suffer or die, no harm.” I stopped my heart and then went on meditating for twenty minutes or half an hour. Nothing happened.

But only yogis and spiritual Masters can do this. Out of His infinite Compassion, God has given you a glimpse of this experience. You should be very happy and proud. Then when you become a yogi, it is up to you whether to stop your heartbeat and then meditate. What it means is that the physical has totally ceased and the spiritual is reigning supreme. At that moment, you do not need the physical. At the present time, the physical being is ruling the spiritual. But when the heart is stopped, it is the spiritual which is ruling the physical and at that time, we become consciously one with God.