Atma

[Ravi Mayavaram]

On Sun, 1 Feb 1998 Chelluri at aol.com wrote:

>                                         Brahmaiva Satyam
>
> When asked to show atma sthanam we put our hand on the right side of heart for
> the location of atma.
> With my minimal knowlegde in chakras I understand that Anahata Chakra is
> located there.
> Could anybody shed more light why we point to right side of heart instead
> whole body.    Some one might say body is not atma.  If it is not what else?
>
> Shubham                                                           Nagy
>


namaskaaram

1) I remember reading in one of the biographies bhagvaan shrii ramaNa
mahaR^ishhi aboua small space on the right side of the chest which is
aatmasthaanam. I dont remember the source, may be it the biography by
Narasimhaswaami.

2) shrii lalitaa sahsranaamam worships shrii maata as daharaakaasha
ruupiNii. The term daharaakasham refers to the small space in the
heart region, which was mentioned in the point 1 by
ramaNar.

May be this is why we point to the the right side of the heart. I
remember reading somewhere about the daharakasham in a book related to
shrii vidyopaasana. When I find the exact detals I will write about
that.

Symbolically they point to heart to refer to the anaahata chakram. But
all the chakraas are loacted on the spinal axis and in the suukshma
shariram according to some( i read this somewhere ).

Coming to the final point about where soul resides, I have a different
view which I tend to believe, may be be wrong too. Instead of body
possesing the soul, it is the soul which possess the body. By its
idenfication with the body (sthuula), the soul tend to think that it
is the body and even assumes a subordinate position that I am in the
body. By soul I dont mean atman, I mean the suukshma shariram.

For instance, one of my friends asked me one day whether plants have
soul. He even intensified it with additional questions whether stones
have soul. Those questions clarified some of my thoughts. Take for
instance ahalya of raamayana, she existed as stone for many years
before shrii ramaa freed her. Where in stone  was she?
I think she existed as stone beacuse she identified herself with the
stone due to the curse given by her husband. Rather than the stone
having her soul, her soul had the stone. There instances in which some
gandharvas becoming tree in  bhagavatam.

When your soul identifies with the body, you think you are the body
and you are in the body. In the same way when your kaaRanam identifies
with your suukshmam, at the next level you think you are soul. In fact
one is not even the ideational kaaraNa shariram, but the substratum of
all that seems to exist. The very root, sat-chit-aananda.


with respects,
Ravi
AUM karma phala pradaayai namaH