To dry up the Heart

Sweet Mother, what is the meaning of “to dry up the heart”?

To dry up the heart! People say that your heart is dried up when you no longer have any vital sentimentality. That’s what they call having a dried up heart, when one no longer has any vital sentimentality. A really dried up heart is a being who… who would be incapable of any goodness, any generosity, any goodwill; but happily this is very rare.

There are some rare individuals, born without a psychic being who are wicked; but they are very rare. For everyone there is always hope; even those who imagine that they are very strong in being wicked, even for them, there is a hope; it can awaken suddenly. But that’s not what people think. What people think is what I tell you; it’s when you have no sentimental weakness and vital emotion that people tell you, “You have a dried up heart.” But that’s their opinion, it’s not a truth. A dried up heart would be someone incapable of having any compassion; it is very rare. Even in people who had the reputation of being the most wicked there was always a small corner of their being open to compassion. At times it was ridiculously small, but it was there.

Ref : Questions and Answers 1955