More Comments on the Heart/ and also Ramana Maharshi/April 21st, 1937 on The Heart

[Guest guest]

Dear Harsha,

 

Excellent points! I think your messages on this topic

have been extraordinarily interesting.

 

I wonder, Harsha -- would you let me combine these

messages into one letter and print it as a letter to the

editor on Realization.org, related to the interview?

 

Of course I would say that the letter first appeared

in this mail group, with a link to the group, and you

would check it first before it appears.

 

Beggingly,

 

Rob

 

 

 

-

"Harsha" <harsha-hkl

<>; <RamanaMaharshi>

Monday, October 08, 2001 2:08 PM

[RamanaMaharshi] More Comments on the Heart/ and also Ramana

Maharshi/April 21st, 1937 on The Heart

 

 

> People often raise the point about the >

>

[Guest guest]

Yes, certainly Rob. How can we say no to a man of your wisdom and stature!

 

Glad you enjoyed it! :-).

 

Harsha

 

 

Rob Sacks [editor]

Monday, October 08, 2001 2:42 PM

RamanaMaharshi

Re: [RamanaMaharshi] More Comments on the Heart/ and also

Ramana Maharshi/April 21st, 1937 on The Heart

 

 

Dear Harsha,

 

Excellent points! I think your messages on this topic

have been extraordinarily interesting.

 

I wonder, Harsha -- would you let me combine these

messages into one letter and print it as a letter to the

editor on Realization.org, related to the interview?

 

Of course I would say that the letter first appeared

in this mail group, with a link to the group, and you

would check it first before it appears.

 

Beggingly,

 

Rob

 

 

 

-

"Harsha" <harsha-hkl

<>; <RamanaMaharshi>

Monday, October 08, 2001 2:08 PM

[RamanaMaharshi] More Comments on the Heart/ and also Ramana

Maharshi/April 21st, 1937 on The Heart

 

 

> People often raise the point about the >

>

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

People often raise the point about the Heart--- that if the Heart is the

Self, how can it be contained in the body at a particular location! Of

course, body and the whole universe are an appearance in the Heart It Self

and the Heart is their Source. This Is Known When One Is the Heart and

Recognizes It as One' Own Being!

 

Sri Ramana did not ever say that it was *"necessary"* to meditate on the

"Heart-center" for Self-Realization. The key word here is "necessary"! It is

not "necessary" to do Japa either! But Bhagavan told Kunju Swami to do Japa

as part of his spiritual routine after Kunju Swami had served him for 12

years and knew Bhagavan's teachings inside and out. Kunju Swami had even by

then glimpsed the Self in Kevala Nirvikalpa Samadhi! It is important to know

both the theory and the practical applications as indicated by Bhagavan's

words, behavior, and interaction with many devotees over a period of over 50

years. Without understanding the totality of Bhagavan's Pure Grace, we can

get caught up and fixated upon certain words. It would be comical for us to

make Bhagavan engage in professional wrestling with himself using his own

words! :-).

 

So yes, it is not "necessary" to do this and that and follow various

spiritual practices. Bhagavan often said that "It is only "necessary" to

enquire "Who am I"? And when the enquiry is ripe, the mind will

automatically sink into the Heart! The Heart pulls the mind in like a huge

magnet as if a black hole is sucking in the entire universe.

 

It is clear that whatever the mode of someone's spiritual practice (Japa,

Prayer, Nada, Kundalini, Devotion to a deity, various meditations, etc.),

Bhagavan encouraged it in the context of Self Enquiry and was keen to make

the devotees aware of the Heart. To think that Self-Enquiry is somehow

inconsistent with another spiritual practice is a mistake. To suggest that

Arthur Osborne did not understand Self-Enquiry because he was aware of the

Heart-center as he did self-enquiry is certainly quite a leap! Sri Ramana

spoke of the Heart in both physical terms and at the same time how it

transcends the physical upon Realization! (see my quote at the end).

 

There really is no debate about the purest teaching of Self-Enquiry as

Bhagavan gave it. Bhagavan encouraged people whatever their spiritual

inclinations were and said that in the end, they will come to the Heart.

Once we have direct knowledge of the Heart, we see that the Heart can

certainly be experienced in relationship to the body! Why not? How can we

limit the Heart? For the one who Knows the Heart, there is absolutely no

conflict between knowing the Heart at various levels, and simultaneously

transcending those levels completely.

 

Because it is the Same Heart at every level! That which is the True Heart

center of the body is the Heart Center of Cosmos. It Is Pure Being. Here is

the quote where Sri Ramana again speaks of Heart in physical terms and

points out how Heart transcends the physical when the reference to the body

evaporates.

 

408. With reference to the location of the Heart center on the right hand

side of the human body, Sri Bhagavan said:--

 

I had been saying all along that the Heart center was on the right,

notwithstanding the refutation by some learned men that physiology taught

them otherwise. I speak from experience. I knew it even in my home during my

trances. Again during the incident related in the book Self-Realization I

had a very clear vision and experience. All of a sudden a light came from

one side erasing the world vision in its course until it spread all around

when the vision of the world was completely cut out. I felt that the

muscular organ on the left had stopped work; I could understand that the

body was like a corpse, that the circulation of the blood had stopped and

the body became blue and motionless. Vasudev Sastri embraced the body, wept

over my death, but I could not speak. All the time I was feeling that the

Heart center on the right was working as well as ever. This state continued

for 15-20 minutes. Then suddenly something shot out from the right to the

left resembling a rocket bursting in air. The blood circulation was resumed

and normal condition restored. I then asked Vasudev Sastri to move along

with me and we reached our residence.

 

The Upanishads say that 101 nadis terminate in the Heart and 72,000

originate from them and traverse the body. The Heart is thus the center of

the body. It can be a center because we have been accustomed to think that

we remain in the body. In fact the body and all else are in that center

only.

>From "Talks with Ramana Maharshi" Ninth Edition (1994), page 383.