Question: When you meditate, do you hold any special position, like they do in Yoga?

Sri Chinmoy: It is an individual matter. Are you asking me what I do or what others do? If you ask me what I do, to be very frank with you, when I meditate, now being an expert in spiritual life, I can meditate while I am walking, while I am running, while I am driving in New York. But this I can do now, not twenty years ago -- oh far from it! So, for a beginner, yes, one has to sit in a quiet place and, if possible, one has to sit on the floor, keeping the backbone erect and trying to breathe quietly and slowly. A beginner has to go through all kinds of discipline. I did it. Everybody has to do it in the beginning. One cannot be a good dancer overnight. It takes considerable time, then automatically the steps fall correctly. One cannot be a good runner overnight. It takes time. When one becomes a good runner, everything -- his hand movements, his leg movements -- is perfectly coordinated. So, in the spiritual life, for the beginner, those who want to launch into the spiritual path should sit at a particular place and try to breathe as slowly and quietly as possible. They should keep the back erect and try to focus their attention either here, on the third eye between the eyebrows, or on the heart centre, here. Here we have a major centre, the third eye. From here we envision the past, present and future. This is the place for meditation. Again, here in the middle of the chest there is another centre. If you want to identify yourself, if you want to be inseparably one with the universe, with the universal consciousness, then meditate on your heart centre. There are six major centres. If you follow the kundalini yoga, you will know all about them. And, I wish to say, for the beginner it is always safe to meditate on the heart. If you concentrate here, on the third eye, you will be meditating on the mind and inside the mind; then doubt may come. Doubt may assail you. You may think, “Oh, I am doing something wrong! It is all futile.” If you do not get considerable encouragement or inspiration or result from your daily meditation, then naturally you will be disappointed and you will leave the spiritual life; whereas if you meditate here, if you concentrate on the heart centre, you will get a constant feeling of security, joy. So it is safer to meditate on the heart centre.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Earth’s cry meets Heaven’s smile, part 2, Aum Press, Puerto Rico, 1974
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ech_2