[Advaita-l] On the forms of Guru

Anbu sivam2 anbesivam2 at gmail.com
Sat Mar 27 07:22:29 CDT 2010


"It should be perfectly obvious to anyone, from the context, when the word
"heart" is used to refer to the physical organ and when the word is used in
a non-literal manner. In my opinion, there is no need to go on and posit
another entity, also called heart, non-physical in nature, but still
physically
located in the body on the right side of the chest. I mean no disrespect to
Ramana Maharishi here."

Sure, You have been labouring hard for a while to say Bhagavan Ramana is
wrong.

That's OK.

Sri SatgurubhyO Namaha.

On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 6:37 PM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <
svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> > And Sunilji is right. Bhagavan says the locale of the hrdhayam is on the
> > right chest where we all point to when saying 'I'. Hrdhayam is translated
> > as heart in English for whatever reason but that does not mean it is a
> > physical heart that is on the left that is meant.
>
>
> hRt (Sanskrit), heart (English), herz (German), hjarta (Swedish/Icelandic),
> hjerte (Norwegian/Danish), hart (Dutch), cardia (Greek) - all have a common
> ancestry in the Indo-European languages. There is a good reason for the
> translation and part of the connotation is the physical heart. In all these
> languages, there are also many non-literal usages of the word heart, e.g.
> to lose heart, to steal one's heart, etc. Even in English, the word heart
> does not refer only to the physical organ.
>
>
>
> Also, "the physical heart is on the left side" is overdone in common talk.
> It
> is really quite along the center of the chest. There is a slight leftward
> tilt
> in its orientation - that is all. If it were substantially on the left
> side, there
> would be no room for the left lung! When we point to the chest and talk
> of hRdaya, our fingers land on the sternum bone, almost exactly on top
> of the physical heart. We don't point over the right pectoral muscle.
>
> It should be perfectly obvious to anyone, from the context, when the word
> "heart" is used to refer to the physical organ and when the word is used in
> a non-literal manner. In my opinion, there is no need to go on and posit
> another entity, also called heart, non-physical in nature, but still
> physically
> located in the body on the right side of the chest. I mean no disrespect to
> Ramana Maharishi here. I would request you to see whether he said this
> himself or if it was something a disciple asked and he merely said, "yes,
> people say this." There is a world of difference between the two scenarios.
> A lot of what people attribute to Ramana Maharishi lies in the questions
> that
> his disciples and devotees put to him, not quite in the answers that he
> gave!
>
>
> Finally, returning to the vedAntic source-texts, even the location of the
> Atman/ISvara in the heart is meant primarily to focus a sAdhaka's
> attention.
> The Atman is really all-pervading - there is no one place where it is nor
> is
> there any place where it is not.
>
>
> > The vedanthin hold that the locale of the mind is at the throat. Sorry to
> > differ with you on that one (because you think it is in the physical
> heart)
> > and hold on to a view that is much more ancient than the 19th century!
>
>
>
> It should be clear that I am pointing to a view that is timeless, more
> ancient
> than ancient and more modern than modern, because I base them on the
> upanishad-s and their commentaries. But you are always welcome to differ;
> no need to feel sorry about it!
>
>
>
> I presume your view about the mind being located at the throat is based on
> the taittirIya passage, "antareNa tAluke | ya esha stana iva ..." Again,
> this
> is not meant literally, but only to focus attention as part of a
> meditation. This
> is made clear in the upanishad itself at the end of the same anuvAka, "iti
> prAcInayogya upAssva |" (Meditate thus, O Pracinayogya).
>
>
>
> > I know that so many people consider western education to be superior and
> all
> > knowledge should be known in its light. On the other hand we folks talk
> of
> > 'para' vidya some of which are not even written or spoken, yet
> transmitted
> > from the Guru to sishya. The western education would be nowhere near it!
>
>
> Let me clarify that I neither privilege Western education nor deny that it
> has made a deep mark on Indian thinking in the recent past and now has
> a permanent place there for the conceivable future. And it is unfair to
> disparage Western education by comparing it with parA vidyA. Because,
> standard Eastern education also, of whatever variety, is still aparA vidyA,
> nowhere near the parA vidyA.
>
> Best regards,
> Vidyasankar
>
>
>
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