Question: Is there any change in the Bengali heart since Bangladesh was created? Has it affected the spiritual heart and consciousness?

Sri Chinmoy: I do not think so. Politics cannot change the crying heart. Politically they have divided Bengal. Mahatma Gandhi thought it would be difficult to keep India whole. At the time that the Hindu-Muslim riots took place, the heart completely went away because one party was made to feel inferior. Afterwards, some political figures were so happy and relieved that they did not have to worry about East Bengal.

But the loving heart of Bengal is a totally different subject. That heart East Bengal and West Bengal have both kept. Their crying heart for God is the same, although the mind, the vital and the physical consciousness have got all kinds of ornamentations; they have been Westernised. But the heart that they had, their crying and bleeding heart for God, that heart they have still maintained; it is the same.

Again, many things were considerably good apart from the heart, but those things are now, to a great extent, weaker. The Western civilisation has entered everywhere. In the Indian villages the heart is still the same, but it is the mind, the vital and the physical that are not the same. Before, the heart used to get help from the mind and vital; but now they do not help. Previously they were all pulling together, and now the heart is pulling on its own. Even then, the heart is quite strong, although it is alone. The heart is doing quite well.