[Chaturamnaya] Sri Ramana Gita as a Dialogue - 13

[S Jayanarayanan via Chaturamnaya]

(Continued from previous post)


http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2010/sep-oct.pdf
http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2010/sep-oct

What are the Granthis?

CHAPTER IX

14-8-1917

Kavyakantha: What are the granthis and how are they cut off, as referred to in the
famous line:
 
 भिद्यते हृदयग्रन्थिश्छिद्यन्ते सर्वसंशयाः |
 क्षीयन्ते चास्य कर्माणि तस्मिन् दृष्टे परावरे ||
 bhidyate hrdayagnanthish-chhidyante sarvasamshayaah
 kshiiyante chaasya karmaani tasmin drshte paraavare  8.
 When a person realises Him in both the high and the low,
 the knots of the heart are loosened, his doubts dispelled and his karmas exhausted.
 — Mundakopanishad, II.2.8
 
 
This has been the subject of doubt with several bhaktas. Will Maharshi please
enlighten us on this matter?

Maharshi: Granthi is a knot. The knot of the heart ties two things together:
the Supreme Brahman or Atma, and the appearance also of the jiva connected with
a body. The location or contact between the body and Brahman is styled as the granthi
or knot. It is by reason of that relation (or knot) that one gets the idea of a body,
and the idea that he has or is a body. The body itself is inert, but Brahman is of the
nature of Consciousness. The relation between these two is inferred by the intellect.

When the body is active in the waking and dreaming states, it is so by reason of its
being overshadowed or covered by the image or reflection of the pure Chaitanya,
i.e., Brahman. When, however, one is asleep, or for other reasons inactive and
unconscious (e.g., in faint or coma), such image or reflection is absent, and
from this fact the place of the Chaitanya or Brahman in the body is ascertained
or located. It is located in the heart (हृदयं, hrdayam), into which the soul or ego
retreats in deep sleep, ceasing its conscious activity in all parts of the body.
This heart is connected with a number of nadis (nerves) and the reflection of the
Chaitanya on the heart spreads from the heart through these nadis or nerves into all
parts of the body. The Chaitanya is subtle like electricity; and just as electricity,
which in its manifest form is seen in lights, operates through solid material-like
electric wires, so this Chaitanya Jyoti, or light of Brahman, moves from its subtle
form through these nadis or nerves into the entire human frame. The sun, from its
place in the heavens, illumines the entire solar system; so does Chaitanya Jyoti,
or the light of Brahman, taking its place in the heart, illumine the entire human
frame; and when such Chaitanya pervades every part of this body, then does the
embodied soul, the jiva, derive all its experiences.

There are various powers manifest in the different nadis or nerves according to
the function performed by each tissue or organ into which they (the nerves) enter.
All such powers, however, are the various transformations of the one Chaitanya that
permeates the nadis. But there is one nadi called the sushumna which is specifically
the nadi prominently connected with the manifestation of the Chaitanya itself.
It is also termed Atma-nadi or Amritanadi. When man is operating through the other
nadis alone, he derives the impression that the body is himself, and that the
external world is different from him, and hence he is filled with abhimanam or
dehabhimanam, i.e., 'I-am-the-body idea'. When, however, he renounces these ideas
(i.e., that the body is himself and that the world is different from himself) and
expels the abhimanam (I-am-the-body idea) and enters on the enquiry into the Self,
Atma Vichara, with concentration, then he is said to be "churning the nerves"
(nadimathanam). By such churning, the butter of the Atma or Self is separated from
the nadis in all parts of the body and the Self shines in the Amrita or Atma-nadi.
Then is the Self or Brahman realised. Then one perceives nothing but the Atman
(Brahman) everywhere.

Such a person may have sense objects presented to him and yet, even when receiving
those impressions, he will receive them as himself, not as different from himself,
which is the view of the ignorant. In everything that he sees, the ignorant one
perceives form. The wise one perceives Brahman inside and outside of everything
that he sees. Such a person is said to be a Bhinna-granthi, i.e., the Knotless.
For him the knot which tied up matter or body with Brahman has been severed.
The term granthi or knot is applied both to the nadi-bandha, or physical knot
in the nerves (something like the ganglia), and the abhimana or attachment to
the body resulting therefrom. The subtle jiva operates through these knots of
nadis when he perceives gross-matter. When the jiva retreats from all these nadis
and rests in the one nadi, i.e. Atma-nadi, he is termed the Bhinna-granthi,
or the Knotless; and his illumination results in his achieving Self-realisation.
 Let us take the case of a red-hot piece of iron. Here, what was formerly the cold,
black iron is now seen suffused with and in the form of fire. Similarly, the one dull,
cold and dark jiva, or even his body, when overpowered by the fire of Atma Vichara
(knowledge of the Self), is perceived to be in the form of the Atman. When a man
reaches that stage, all the vasanas (tendencies), derived (it may be) from many
previous lives and connected with the body, disappear. The Atma, realising that
it is not the body, realises also the idea that it is not the agent performing karma
or action and that, consequently, the vasanas or fruits resulting from such
(antecedent) karma do not attach to it (the Atman). As there is no other substance
besides the Atman, no doubts can trouble that Atman. The Atman that has once burst
its knots asunder can never again be bound. That state is termed by some Parama Sakti
(highest sakti) and by others Parama Santi (supreme peace). 


(To be continued)
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