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. You won't die at all. In the spiritual life, many Masters, in order to enter into the higher regions during meditation, have consciously stopped their heart beat.

When I was a boy of fourteen or fifteen, I first tried this at the foot of a mango tree. In front of our dining hall was a garden, and in that garden there was a mango tree, where I used to go and meditate. One day, while meditating, I said to myself, "The Yogis are able to stop their hearts. Let me see if I can do it. 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 another twenty minutes or half 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 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.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Meditation: man's choice and God's Voice, part 1, Agni Press, 1974
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