Excerpts from the writings of Joleen DuBois:

The Tara of the Heart

When the Tara of Light will
enlighten the world with revelations from the far-off worlds,
then will She be affirmed as the
manifestation of Beauty.
When the Tara of the Heart
illumines the world with love,
then is She affirmed as the
manifestation of Beauty.¹

I have decided to write about a most beautiful idea: the Tara of the Heart. “Tara” is a term defined in Agni Yoga as a goddess, the feminine equivalent of the Arhat, a sister of the Spiritual Hierarchy, the Brotherhood of Light. Arhat means “the worthy one,” “deserving divine honors.”

The Tara and the Arhat are those Great Ones who have entered the most noble and highest path of life and, thus, according to the Teaching, have become emancipated from the wheel of rebirth. In other words, such worthy ones are able to function at a very high level of consciousness, functioning in the Buddhic Level of Life. They can choose to reincarnate, to return to this Earth school as a Great Teacher or to stay in the subtle levels serving the Other Worlds.

What is the heart that I speak of? In the Ageless Wisdom, “the heart refers to a golden twelve-petaled lotus located behind the physical heart, about four to six inches away from the body. This heart can be found in various stages of development. Sometimes it is like a small bud. Sometimes only three petals are open. Sometimes the petals are hardened in varying degrees. Sometimes this heart is a fully developed, radioactive lotus.”²

I chose this beautiful theme to write about as a reminder that for one to conquer great spiritual heights, to become successful in the truest sense of the word, to become happy and full of the beauty of Life, one must have an all-giving heart; in other words, love and compassion. A Tara of the Heart is one whose heart is pure and all giving of love, one whose heart is in balance with her mind.

We can take our examples from noble ones who have walked the path of life before us. Since this talk is focused on the Teaching of Agni Yoga, what better life to look into than the life of the founder of Agni Yoga: Helena Roerich, a Tara of the Heart. Helena Roerich was certainly a noble woman; she was a wife, a mother of two sons, and a spiritual Teacher. She was one who was deserving of divine honors, who entered the most noble and highest path of life: the path of sacrificial service, the path of synthesis.

And yet with such a description, her life exemplified a humility in greatness. She climbed the heights of the bitter cold, majestic Himalayan Mountains, reaching heights of 27,000 feet, during the days when women were busy at home, doing laundry by hand. She was born in Russia in 1879 and died in India in 1955. She brought to humanity the newest yoga—not a physical but a spiritual yoga, the yoga that is only now becoming known worldwide. She wrote books, many under pseudo names and many more that are known as the Agni Yoga series. Two other books of hers that come to mind are the Foundations of Buddhism and On Eastern Crossroads. These are remarkable books for a woman who visited Venus but never stepped foot on an airplane. She spoke and wrote in many languages, including Russian, English, French, and German. Her many diaries are still being read and studied by people today; and with still unpublished materials available, some are being worked on now that will be published in the near future.

Helena Roerich gave humanity the Teachings of Agni Yoga, the yoga of Living Ethics, which can be understood as the Teaching of Life. Agni Yoga, a Teaching whose sutras (verses) number in the thousands, that generously offer spiritual disciplines to practice; the science of life to contemplate; exploration in an understanding of art, beauty, and culture; education to direct one’s thinking toward immortality and the continuity of life; insight into the higher spheres of life, higher thought, joy and the future; and more.³

Helena Roerich’s spiritual name is “Urusvati,” which means “a star.” In a book of writings by Helena Roerich, titled At the Threshold of the New World, it says: Urusvati is “the symbol of the Mother of the World.” In this book it also says, “The Great Era is beginning because the spirit understanding is linked with the Mother of the World.… The approach of this very great Era is important; it will substantially change life on Earth”—a prophecy that is readily coming into manifestation.⁴

Another definition of the word “Tara” is “the principle of Motherhood”; thus a Tara is symbolized by the Heart of the World Mother. This can tell us that the Great Era, which is only now beginning, is symbolized by women of a nurturing heart. The New Era is upon us. The approach of this Great Era is the approach of the Heart. It signifies that love will take on higher and newer dimensions that ever before, that love will give way to compassion, that a real human being will be recognized as one with a nurturing heart. When we celebrate Valentine’s Day each year, this is what we want it to symbolize—the Day of the Nurturing Heart.

A person without heart is a person with a dead heart. Such a person finds that nothing he has will satisfy him. And since nothing satisfies him, he must possess more and more to feel secure: more and more girlfriends, boyfriends, wives or husbands; more and more money, cars, houses, and this and that. You look into such a person’s eyes and they are empty. The person is without enthusiasm, without a fiery spirit, without love. His heart is dead. We see such people in both high and low positions, rich and poor.

Without a purified heart, without a loving heart, there is a condition of the heart where the petals of the heart are dried and petrified. A petrifying of the petals of the heart is the greatest disaster for a human being.

Purification of the heart is necessary if you want to use the energy of your heart, for example, to heal people. If your heart is not pure, your efforts at healing will have mixed results, and you will transmit both healing energy and poison. It is the heart that heals people, but the heart will never be powerful unless it is purified.

There are various things that we must be careful not to bring into our life, for if we do, it will cause problems to the heart, causing the petals of the heart to further petrify.
For example:

— “Revenge petrifies the love petals of the heart and kills the sensitivity of the person….

— “If you petrify your subtle heart, in future incarnations your physical heart will give you trouble in the form of heart disease, heart attacks, [and other diseases related to the heart].”

— Another condition of a heart that is not purified is blockage of the energies of the heart…. “For instance, you have a great love for someone, but behind that love lie your self-interest and vanity. If the motive behind your love is not pure, your love energy cannot flow out to others; it is blocked within your heart, where it creates congestion with various physical repercussions.”⁵ The condition of such a heart causes many troubles in marriage. I think that in the future all universities and colleges need to teach the nature of the heart. There is a wonderful little booklet titled What to Look for in the Heart of your Partner. I would suggest all parents study and discuss this booklet with their high school-aged son or daughter. This will help save your child much pain and suffering from being with the wrong partner.

— Another condition of the heart is a “state in which past memories of pains and sufferings continuously echo within your heart. This is a very dangerous state of the heart because it eventually destroys your blood and nervous systems. The best remedy for this condition is forgiveness. Forgiveness wipes out such painful memories.”⁶

— The Teaching indicates: “In the near future, science will prove the existence of one hundred to two hundred different heart diseases, each one caused by various negative emotional and mental conditions. For example, self-pity is actually a disease of the heart. Hatred is a disease of the heart. These diseases will eventually be researched and carefully indexed.”⁷

In an Agni Yoga book titled Infinity, Book II, it talks about love and the heart. It says: “It is truly told about the power of love for humanity. Can one love a garden and despise its flowers? Can one worship the power of beauty and not show respect for love? I attest that the Power adorning Our Universe is confirmed as Our Mother of the World—the Feminine Origin! Indeed, one may cite many scientific examples indicative of the creative destiny of woman. Those who deny the evidence of woman’s creativeness should reflect that woman gives voluntarily…. Hence is the woman’s path termed one of voluntary giving. Certainly in Cosmos everything is interwoven, but humanity transgresses the laws of the Higher Reason. Truly, the Feminine Origin is most beautiful! Verily, the pinnacle of Be-ness cannot exist without the Feminine Origin. How badly people have mutilated the great cosmic laws! How far people have departed from Truth! The one who possesses the full Chalice We call a voluntary giver.”⁸

By this, we could say that a Tara of the Heart gives all that she has to all that is known and unknown. As she gives, she nurtures. As she nurtures, she ignites the spirit, the divinity in all she touches. As the Divine Spark is ignited in those she nurtures, they will echo the nature of the Tara of the Heart, loving the flowers in the garden of God. The nurtured ones will recognize the beauty of the soul in each and every person. In that recognition the petals of the heart in those she nurtures begin to unfold.
In the book The Flame of the Heart, we are given ten methods we can use to purify our heart:

• Overcome selfishness.
• Clean your vanities.
• Check your motives.

“Once you purify your heart, you will have cosmic energy within you. M.M. says that we communicate with Cosmos through our heart. We are initiated with our heart, and we conquer with our heart.

Develop the spirit of worship … devotion … and a life dedicated to higher ideals…. “One day Rabindranath Tagore and his father were taking a boat ride on a lake. It was sunset, and the light was casting a beautiful reflection against a tree near the lake. Suddenly Tagore’s father stopped the boat, and looking at the tree and the setting sun, the colors and the serenity, he began to fuse with the beauty in great ecstasy. That moment was an unforgettable joy in the heart of young Tagore.” [The adult Tagore, a Nobel Prize winner in literature, was a good friend of Helena Roerich and her husband, Nicholas.]

• Renounce your ego.
• Do not obsess and possess people.
• Do not try to control the lives of others.
• Do not speak evil.
• Try to see beauty in everyone.
• Obey your heart.⁹

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