RAMANA GITA STUDY GROUP Ch 5-vs1-6...[ AR Natarajan]

[Guest guest]

Chapter 5…The Science of the Heart

 

Vs 1

Ramana Muni spoke exhaustively about the Heart on 9th of August 1917.

Vs 2

That from which all thoughts of embodied beings spring is the Heart.

Descriptions of the Heart are only mental concepts.

Vs 3

In brief, the `I'-thought is the root of all thoughts. The source of

the `I'-thought is the Heart.

 

Commentary (abridged)

Ramana is pointing out the source of all thoughts- the Heart.

Knowing the source is of utmost importance for the practice of

tracking back thoughts to their origin. No thoughts can exist

without `me', the individual, the `I'-thought…..only then other

thoughts get linked to it... So, source of `I'-thought is the source

of all other thoughts……

Why say the `I'thought has a source? Answer lies in our daily

experience.... `I'-thought is a phenomenon of the waking state.

Daily it `perishes' in deep sleep – no thoughts at all, not

even `I'-thought…..Thus it rises on waking, subsides when sleep

overtakes.

If one enquires wherefrom the `I'-thought rises and subsides,

the answer would be found experientially, as the Heart. Then all the

descriptions about the Heart (mental concepts) would become

superfluous—-there would be direct knowledge.

 

Vs 4

If the `Heart' be the seat of the `Anahata Chakra' how can the

practice of yoga begin in the `Muladhara'?

 

Commentary

Muladhara is the first, Anahata is the fourth charka. Yogic

texts do not speak of the heart & Anahata charka as one.

Ramana has also clarified that `Anahata chakra' is not the

seat of the Heart,- Anahata is not the same as the Heart centre.

Anahata is the charka lying behind the Heart. Lalitha Sahsranama has

it-`salutations to the core situated in anahata' and the next

mantra, `in the Heart'. Thus it is clear that `anahata' is not the

same as `Hrit'.

 

Vs 5

This Heart is not the blood-pumping organ. `Hridayam' means

`This is

the centre'. Thus it stands for the Self.

Vs 6

The location of the Heart is on the right side of the chest and not

on the left. The light of consciousness flows from the Heart

through `Sushumna' channel to `Sahasrara'.

 

Commentary

Ramana's teachings point out that the fullness of existence is

shining always in the core of the Heart –not a physical but a

spiritual Heart - the Heart being the source of the mind.

He invariably referred to his own experience as the authority for

it. "The Heart that I speak of is non-physical and is only on the

right side. It is my experience and no authority is required by me.

Still you can find confirmation in a Malayalam Ayurvedic book and

in `Sita' Upanishad."………..Ramana's experience...death and

deathlessness co-existed. The glow of the Heart as `I' was felt

directly………….

How can a physical location be given to a spiritual Heart ? ..Ramana

has clarified…it is true, consciousness is all embracing and

indivisible. – no `within', no `without, no`right', no `left'. In

this sense, Heart which is consciousness cannot be assigned any

place in the body. But for the person who is rooted in the body, a

physical location and a relationship between the individual, the

separate, and the whole has to be postulated. Here Ramana stated

that the channel linking the Heart and the mind, which springs from

it, is termed `Sushumna'. Other names are `atma nadi'

`amrita nadi'

and `para nadi'.

 

==================

anu