[Chaturamnaya] Sri Ramana Gita as a Dialogue - 7

[S Jayanarayanan via Chaturamnaya]

(Continued from previous post)
 

http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2010/jan-feb.pdf
http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2010/jan-feb
 

Chapter V

 
What is the Hridaya (Heart or Centre)?

 
On the 9th of August 1917, Sri Ramana Maharshi sat up at night in the Skandasramam.
Kavyakantha and other bhaktas had gathered at his feet. For the benefit of all,
Kavyakantha requested the Maharshi to explain fully 'the Heart' (हृदयं) mentioned in his
poem composed in 1915. [See Sep/Oct 2009 Newsletter].
 
Maharshi thus answered: 'हृदयं', i.e. the Heart (or Centre), is that from which all thoughts
spring. A description of it is given in various passages of the Vedas:

पद्मकोशप्रतीकाशं हृदयं चाप्यधोमुखम् ..
अधो निष्ट्या वितस्त्यान्ते नाभ्यामुपरि तिष्ठति .

"padmakoshapratiikaashaM hR^idaya.n chaapyadhomukham.h ..
adho nishhTyaa vitastyaante naabhyaamupari tishhThati ."
(mahAnArayaNopanishad)
 
The above comparison of the Heart to the plantain bud or lotus bud and various other
physical descriptions¹ are given to assist the yogi's practice of meditation.
 
How do we proceed to trace all thoughts to their source, you may ask. Well, let us
discover if all thoughts could in the first place be traced to some one thought as
their base of operations, and let us then go deeper and find the source of the
basic thought. Is there then any such basic or fundamental thought underlying all
other thoughts? Do you not see that the thought or idea 'I' – the idea of personality
– is such a root thought?
 
For us, Maharshi explained later, whenever any thought arises, these questions arise
and should be raised by the aspirant aiming at Realisation: 'Does this thought exist
independently of any person thinking, or does it exist only as the thought of a person,
and if the latter is the case, to whom does it arise?' The answer is: 'This thought
arises only as a person's thought and this thought arises in me.' So the 'I' idea may
be regarded as a stem from which other thoughts branch forth.
 
Next let us see the root source of this (stem). But how? Dive deep in
ecstatic concentration within yourself (i.e. within the 'I' thought) and perceive
its source. There is nothing there to perceive in or through the senses. You have
no guidance from sensation and rationalization for this search. But if you have the
right intuition, the Centre 'हृदयं' is immediately felt and the above or former 'I' which
inquired disappears into this 'the Centre.' Thus, 'हृदयं' or the heart centre is the source
of the 'I' thought and of everything else.
 
The term 'हृदयं' (Heart) is however persistently identified by some who practice yoga with
one of their six centres² 'चक्रं' (chakram), i.e., their fourth centre called the 'अनाहत चक्रं'
(anahata chakram) situated in the chest. These yogis admit that 'हृदयं' denotes the
source or abiding place of the personality. Well then, if these yogis wish to trace
or promote the development of their personality or soul from its source or abiding
place to its highest reach, as they profess to do, they should start its course from अनाहत चक्रं
(anahata chakram), whereas they invariably start their course from मूलाधारं (muladharam) which
they style their first chakra. Hence one is perhaps well advised to confine the term,
'हृदयं' i.e., 'the Centre', to the Universal Centre or Brahman.
 
Brahman is often indicated in scripture as अयं हृत् (ayam hrit), two words which make up 'हृदयं'³
(hridayam) when conjoined. Even the practicing yogi does not identify the 'हृदयं' (Heart) or
अनाहत (anahata) with the organ forming the centre of blood circulation (with its auricles and
ventricles), and in the above stanza (vide Ch. II) the Heart 'हृदयं' is not used in a
physiological sense, but rather as a metaphor and refers to the centre of consciousness.
There is no harm, however, in taking 'हृदयं' to indicate an actual spatial region as is done
in various parts of the scripture. There, 'हृदयं' is said to be on the right side of the chest
(not on the left where the blood propeller is situated). From it radiates the
sushumna nadi (or nerve), up which the current of consciousness or light goes to sahasrara
(the thousand petalled – evidently referring to the brain with its numberless cells).
From that sahasrara the light of consciousness passes again (evidently through the nerves)
to all parts of the body and thereby the outside world is experienced by one. But if the
experiencer views the experienced object as something distinct from himself, i.e.,
from the Self, then he is caught up in the whirl of samsara, the wheel of metempsychosis,
or chain of births and deaths. The sahasrara (i.e., brain) of the Atma Nishta,
i.e. the Self-realizer, is pure light or enlightenment. If any flitting or passing desires
approach it, they perish therein immediately. They have no soil to flourish upon there.
The sankalpas or seeds of desire that occur in the Atma Nishta, staying in pure light or
suddha sattva, are referred to in the Upanishads as getting parched or fried. Such a seed
भृष्टबीजं (brishtabijam) does not give birth to fresh vasanas (tendencies) or karma (action),
as they consume themselves, "nor leave a wrack behind."⁴ This expression is frequently
found in other Upanishads, in Vasishta and the works of Sri Sankaracharya, but this
reference will suffice.
 
With the pure light mentioned, outside objects विषयाः (vishayaha) are sensed or experienced,
and their impress received. But, if these impressions are colored or swallowed up in the
prevailing non-differentiation of the perfected yogi (Self-realized one), his yoga or
Self-realization is not marred thereby. Even when receiving outside impressions,
the yogi maintains his consciousness of the unity of existence; and it is this state
of central conscious-unity with a (so to speak) peripheral experience of objects
(the central light swallowing up the peripheral rays), that is called Sahaja Sthiti.
But when the yogi completely shuts out cognizance of outside objects, his state is
described as Nirvikalpa Samadhi, i.e., pure concentration, or the Absolute Consciousness
without attributes or characteristics.
 
What are these objects which constitute the external universe? The entire universe or
macrocosm is found in man, the microcosm. The entire man is found in the Heart,
or Ultimate Centre. Ergo, the entire universe is found within that Centre,
the Heart 'हृदयं'. Again, looked at in another way, the external world does not exist
without the mind perceiving it. That is, unless a mind perceives and notes the
existence of the worlds, how is that existence to be posited? And the mind does not
exist without the Centre 'हृदयं'. Ergo, the entire world of experience ends at
the Centre. The respective positions of the Heart (the Centre) and the mind may be
illustrated by an analogy. What the sun is to the solar system – the origin of all,
the supporter of all, and that which lights up all – that, the Centre (i.e., the Heart,
or that which has intuition), is to man. What the moon is in the external universe,
casting a delectable but uncertain light, incapable of creating or sustaining real
life or throwing clear light on all objects, that the mind is when it works in or
with the brain (sahasrara). Just as the moon borrows its light from the sun, so does
the mind derive its power of knowing from the Centre, or Heart. It is when man has no
intuition or illumination from that Centre or Heart, that he sees the mind as the only
basis of his conscious activity, just as one may have, at night (i.e., when there is
no sun), to be content to work by moonlight. At such a time the man is ignorant (pamara),
as he does not see the source of all light (i.e., consciousness), viz. the Real,
the Atman, but sees objects with the help of the mind alone, and sees them as different
from himself; hence, he wanders as in a maze. The Jnani, on the other hand, stationed
in the Centre, sees within it the mind, no doubt; but that mind is of as little
significance to him as the moon when seen in daylight. The term Prajna has for its
superficial denotation (Vachyartha) the mind, but it is in reality, i.e. in its
essential content (lakshyartha), the Centre (हृदयं), the Heart. Brahman is naught but that.
To those who perceive with the help of the mind only, the difference of seer and seen
exists, but to those at the Centre, they are one and the same.
 Now, as for the advice given in the second half of the stanza (i.e., Chapter II) that
one should enter into the Self in the Heart, there are, apart from spiritual enlightenment,
other instances of the mind disappearing into the Centre by reason of deep sleep,
excessive emotions of joy, sorrow, terror, rage, catalepsy, possession or coma.
These also strike the mind and drive it into its source. However, in these states,
there is no illumination or even awareness of one's individuality, whereas in the
condition of Samadhi, the Self-realization achieved by the yogi, one has such awareness
and illumination. That is the difference between Samadhi and the above mentioned states.
 
Footnotes:
 
1. The Upanishad compares it also to the leaf of the Aswatha tree (ficus religiosa).
2. Corresponding perhaps to nerve ganglia running parallel to the spinal cord.
3. Scriptural passages in which Brahman is styled in Brahma Gita Suta Samhita
ayaM hRRidi sthitaH sAkShI sarveShAmavisheShataH .
tenAyaM hRRidayaM proktaM shivaH sa.nsAramochakaH ..
अयं हृदि स्थितः साक्षी सर्वेषामविशेषतः .
तेनायं हृदयं प्रोक्तं शिवः संसारमोचकः ..
[This (the Self) exists clearly in the hearts of all without exception.
By that (Self) alone 'this is the center' is declared. It, the liberator, from the bonds
of worldly illusion.], itself based on
sa vA eSha AtmA hR^idi tasyaitadeva niruktaM hR^idyayamiti tasmAddhR^idayam.h
स वा एष आत्मा हृदि तस्यैतदेव निरुक्तं हृद्ययमिति तस्माद्धृदयम्
[Verily, that Self is (abides) in the heart.
Of it the etymological explanation is this. He who knows this goes day by day into the
heavenly world.] (Chandogyopanishad, VIII:3:3)
4. Muktikopanishad, II:61, 62
(a) malinaa janmahetuH syaachchhuddhaa janmavinaashinii मलिना जन्महेतुः स्याच्छुद्धा जन्मविनाशिनी
(b) punarjanmaa~Nkura.n tyaktvaa sthitiH saMbhR^ishhTabiijavat.h पुनर्जन्माङ्कुरं त्यक्त्वा स्थितिः संभृष्टबीजवत्
(a) The vasana, if impure, results in fresh births; if pure, results in destruction of,
i.e. release from, rebirth.
(b) As in the case of fried seeds, sprouting into fresh births is avoided.
 

(To be continued)
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