Brahman as the Heart: Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 5.3.1

[Guest guest]

I have come across this wonderful exposition of a verse in the Brhadaranyaka

Upanishad on the Heart, or Hridaya, by Swami Krishnananda of the Divine Life

Society. http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brdup/brhad_V-03.html The full text

of the commentary has been included here for your reading.

I have seen the sanskrit word "Hridaya" analysized as Hridaya =( hrid=center) +

(ayam=this). In my readings of Bhagavan's works or others of his disciples, I

have never come across a *linguistic* explanation of the sanskrit roots for

Hridaya = Hr+da+ya as expounded here. It is interesting and beautiful.

In Bhagavan,

David M.

============ Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 5.3.1 ============

1. esa praja-patir yad hrdayam, etad brahma, etad sarvam, tad etat try-aksaram;

hr-da-yam iti. hr ity ekam aksaram; abhiharanty asmai svas canye ca, ya evam

veda; da ity ekam aksaram, dadatyasmai svas canye ca ya evam veda; yam, ity

ekam aksaram; eti svargam lokam ya evam veda.

'This heart within us is God Himself', thus begins this passage. Esa

praja-patir yad hrdayam. Of all things inside us, the most inscrutable is the

heart. It cannot be understood easily. The word used here in Sanskrit is

Hrdaya, a word with three letters, hr, da and ya representing together the word

heart.

The heart is one thing for the physician, the doctor, the biologist or the

biochemist. For him, the heart is that particular organic part of the body

which pumps blood and supplies energy to the lungs and to the different parts

of the body. This is what is called the heart in ordinary language, but it is

another thing when used in a symbolic sense e.g. 'I cannot understand your

heart'; 'yes, I understand your heart'. When we use such expressions as these,

we do not mean the physicist's or the biochemist's or the physician's heart. We

mean the feelings within, the deepest motives within, the intentions inside and

the spirit of the person. So, the Upanishad especially takes the spirit into

consideration when it defines Hrdaya or heart as the essence of a person. The

heart is an object for meditation. By understanding the heart you can

understand everything because it is in the heart you are located, you are

seated, you are rooted. Your heart is you. What your heart is, that is your

being. Even in ordinary life we seem to appreciate this point of view. Your

heart is superior to every other faculty of yours. Even the ratiocinating

faculty can be subordinated to the feelings of the heart. The heart has its

reasons as they say, which reason cannot tell. It can overwhelm even a rational

conclusion. You cannot accept rational conclusions which are opposed to the

feelings of the heart, to the conscience. The conscience is the heart which is

the touchstone of Reality and which is the Union Jack or national flag of the

government of God. Here you have the symbolic representation of the Absolute,

embedded in your own being, it being situated in your own heart. Our heart

speaks the

language of God, and so, what the heart speaks can be regarded as an indication

from the above. Here in this verse the literal meaning of the very word Hrdaya

is taken as a symbol for meditation.

Hr-da-yam iti hr ity ekam aksaram: The first letter of the word Hrdaya is Hr, a

Sanskrit letter. Now the teacher of the Upanishad tells us that you can

meditate on the import of this single letter Hr. Do not go to the entire

meaning of the word Hrdaya, or heart, here Hr, the first letter is itself

sufficient. What does it mean? How do you contemplate on the import of the

first letter Hr? Hr ity ekam aksaram: 'Hr is one letter'.

Abhiharanty asmai suds canye ca, ya evam veda: Hr means draw. That is the

grammatical root meaning of the word Hr. Drawing, to attract, to pull towards

oneself, to compel everything to gravitate towards oneself, to bring everything

under one's control, to subjugate everything, to superintend over all things and

to be overlord of everything - all these meanings are comprehended in the root

meaning of the letter Hr. When you contemplate the heart, bring to your mind

the meaning of the very first letter of the word Hrdaya, that which draws

everything towards itself.

And, what is the conclusion? What is the result that follows by this protracted

meditation? Abhiharanty asmai: 'Everyone gravitates towards that person'. Like

the gravitational pull of the sun exerted upon all the planets that move in

their own orbit and revolve round the sun, so all creatures will rotate,

revolve and gravitate around you if you contemplate, the capacity that one has,

to draw everything towards oneself, as the Supreme subject.

Abhiharanty asmai svas canya ca: 'Everything comes to you' means - whatever

belongs to you, and whatever does not belong to you also comes to you. People

pay tribute to you, not merely people who love you. 'Even those who are not

your friends', even those with whom you are not personality related, even they

shall pay homage to you. They shall also pay tribute to you. They shall accept

the supremacy of your being.

Svas canye ca abhiharanty asmai: This is the grand result that is proclaimed by

mere meditation on the implication of the root meaning of the letter Hr 'to

draw'. Think! I shall also pull the cosmos towards myself, as the Supreme

Consciousness, which is the Subject of all objects. The other letter is Da. In

the word Hr-da-ya, 'Da is the second letter'. Dadatyasmai svas canye ca ya evam

veda: 'Everyone shall give to you' rather than take anything from you, which

means to say, everything shall become obedient to you, everything shall become

subservient to you. Da connotes the meaning, 'to give' in Sanskrit. So the

meaning of this root syllable here, the etymological significance of the letter

becomes the object of meditation, and when you contemplate thus as the centre of

a force that receives everything towards itself as an ocean that receives all

rivers into itself, 'such contemplation brings the result of complete

acquisition. Everything shall come to you'.

Yam, iti ekam aksaram; iti svargam lokam ya evam veda: The third letter is Ya of

Hr-da-ya. In Sanskrit Ya means 'to go'. You go to the highest heaven by

contemplation on the meaning of the letter Ya of the word Hrdaya.

So contemplate not merely the light in the heart or the consciousness in the

heart or the ether in the heart, but the linguistic significance of the very

word Hrdaya also. Even this can be a symbol. If you cannot go deep into

philosophical and mystical techniques of contemplation on the heart, can you

not at least understand this much, a mere linguistic meaning, a grammatical

connotation, a literal significance of the word Hrdaya? This too, can take you

to a great glorious achievement.

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