Bhakti and the Heart - Part 10 of 10

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The reason is, among these fleshy physical organs, the organs of the antaH-karaNaM sit like a person in a chair; the chair is never identified with the person in that seat!

The heart also, when it is semi-physical, is the chair for the ego, as I told you earlier.

But we do not call some one with a lot of ego as one with a heart.

It is in the subtle form of the heart that love, unlike anything else, penetrates deep into the core, and that is why we identify love with the heart.

Further when we refer to Bhagavan as *hRdaya-vAsI* we are not saying that it is He who sits in the semi-physical heart donning the robe of JIva with an ego.

We are actually saying that it is He who shines forth from inside having melted the physical into the subtle by Love at its peak of excellence.

Maybe we are not understanding it in all this detail but at least we understand that He manifests himself in Bhakti that is full of Love.

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 9 of 10

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When Bhakti ripens, it is only Love that shines through the whole heart more prominently than the flesh and the nADis.

That is why it goes by the name of the heart.

When somebody has no love or kindness we say they are heartless.

Sometimes we combine the two and say loving heart, or kind heart.

The Inner Organ (antaH-karaNa) has four organs in it.

But note that never are they identified with their physical locations in the body.

The location of mind is the neck, but we never call those who have a good mind as one with a neck!

Or, for that matter, someone with a good intellect as one with a face!

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 8 of 10

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Probably because of the importance for the JIva of all the physical functions of the body and the necessity of the JIva to monitor them, this heart is also kept ‘semi-physical’.

Even though it is semi-physical, once the continued practice goes on with the thought that ego is to be dissolved, in due time it becomes subtle and becomes almost just space.

The Atma-sthAnaM (the locale for the Atman) however is more subtle; it is kAraNa-AkAshaM (causal space) – it is the centre point of the heart.

This subtler thing cannot be approached by anything physical or semi-physical.

Only by lightening the ego, making it subtle, it can enter the subtler space.

This lightening of the ego (*ahamkAra-kArshyaM*) is what is done by Bhakti.

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 7 of 10

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Still it is not that subtle.

It is this heart which somehow controls in an integrated manner, by its life-feed, the blood circulation done by the physical heart, the passage of breath conducted by the physical lungs, the functions of the nerves prompted by the physical brain and the functions that take place in the digestive organs and the associated passages.

It does this control through the nADis that start from it.

Without the feeling of ‘I’ in the JIva, what can happen in a body?

That is why this ‘power’ has been given to the heart which is the locale for the ego.

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 6 of 10

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Wherever the Upanishads speak of the heart as the locale for the ego, (Ch.U.VIII – 6 – 1, BrihadAranyaka U. IV-2-3) the Acharya speaks only of a ‘lump of flesh’ .

Even then it should not be taken to mean it is a full-fledged physical organ.

That is why the words “like the physical heart” were used above. It is the organ which pumps blood that is totally physical.

This heart however is in between the physical and the subtle.

The chakras that yogis speak of, and many of the nADis are totally subtle.

They do not fall in any X-Ray.

This heart also is not to be captured by X-Ray.


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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 5 of 10

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Bhakti plays the role of acid for the ego.

The ego thus gives itself up to bhakti; thereby in the heart which is the locale for the ego, the ego thins out and thins out until there is no more ego but only bhakti pervades there.

And the heart then becomes the locale for bhakti.

As one matures in that bhakti, along with the change in Ashrama (i.e. having taken SannyAsa) and along with that bhakti -- that is, dissolving the ego in the goal through Love – one continues the shravaNa, manana and nidhidhyAsana.

Bhakti now sprouts fast and full in the heart and the feeling of ego is eradicated.

But before it is totally eradicated, the locale which is like the physical heart is filled up by the subtle atoms of bhakti.

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 4 of 10

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Because for that experience of the ‘rasa’ one has to hold on to the individual jIva.

So do those philosophers say who consider bhakti as an end-in-itself and that itself as mokSha.

But here, the basic maxim that in order to be doing bhakti eternally, the egoistic individuality has to be there eternally, is invalidated.

Indeed the objective here is to dissolve the ego by Love. How can it remain continuously dissolving?

After a certain period of dissolution, the ego has to be totally extinguished, so that there is nothing more to dissolve.

If Bhakti is intended to be a coating to be applied over and over, then one can be doing that continuously.

When actually it is not a coating, but an acid in which the ego dissoves, then how can it be an eternal process?

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 3 of 10

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Thus, true bhakti is not the work of the mind.

It arises from the ego itself that lies deep within as a steadily rooted feeling of ‘I’ without any of the perturbations of the mind. Further it arises not to nurture that ego, but to lighten it and dissolve it in the unique self that is also its own root source by going into the locale of the Atman.

For desiring to dissolve there must be some one to desire. Without its being there, how can there be a desire to dissolve?

And that singleton is the ego. It is not the ego that does the bhakti, but the ego exists for doing the bhakti!

What should not be forgotten here is this.

This bhakti that arises in this quest for the goal of advaita is not like the ordinary bhakti which has the goal of varied experiences of ‘rasa’.

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 2 of 10

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The feeling of bhakti is not one among the many feelings that arise in, and are experienced by, the mind. VatsalyaM (affection), madhuraM (pleasantry) and dAsyaM (servanthood) are often talked about as the indicator-qualities of bhakti.

But there is a mountain of difference between these and the affection that a mother gives a child, the love that spouses exchange with each other, and the submissiveness that a dedicated servant shows to his boss.

Is there not a ton of difference between the affection shown by a woman to a neighbour’s child and the tenderness that she showers on her own child?

Far more than that is the bhakti that a great devotee shows to his god of devotion!

The same degree of difference will there be when love or servanthood are exhibited as bhakti to the Lord!

These feelings arise somehow through somebody and are of a unique class by themselves, far more purified, far more powerful, than ordinary feelings of the mind.

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Bhakti and the Heart - Part 1 of 10

 

As one progresses in the bhakti, Love and the submissive attitude consequent to that, the SAdhanA that has been done so far make the mind and intellect light and they are drawn by the ego to be sucked into the recesses of the heart.

Everybody knows that in that bhakti, the true bhakti wherein the individual soul delivers itself to the paramAtmA -- this is Atma-nivedanaM – there is no role or work for the intellect.

Not only that.

Even the mind has no work there. Mind is nothing but an aggregate of volitions and indecisions (samkalpa-vikalpa).

These two have no role in true bhakti. True bhakti is the state where we rest in the thought “It is Thy Will”.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 10 of 10

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It is true that even in the beginning, everything happens by God’s Grace. But during those times the JivAtmA was engaged in self-purification and for that to happen well God’s Grace helped.

But now the purification task has reasonably progressed. Now the purified antaH-karaNa (inner organ) has to reach step by step the state of experience.

‘Reach’ is really not the right thing; unusually instead of ‘reaching’, now it is ‘giving’.

As Manickavachagar said, it is a smart trading. One gives up the JIva-bhAva and receives the ‘shiva-sthiti’ (the state of being the Absolute).

But even this is only true in a poetic sense or in the sense of bhakti.

In reality, there is no JIva who receives the ‘Shiva’. JIva is gone but Shiva remains!

Bhakti has been prescribed for reaching this maturity of the vanishing of the ego.

The Acharya says, as it were, “I have prescribed SAdhanA so that you may acquire the wealth of the sextad (ShamAdi sampat) starting with Shama, the wealth of Dispassion, the wealth of Discrimination, etc. You have acquired them all. Hereafter you must learn to empty yourself. That is why Bhakti has been prescribed.”

Dual stages of Ego - Part 9 of 10

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Hereafter whatever is achieved is not to be ‘earned’ as the result of effort by the SAdhanA of the JIva, but they are the solvents of the self awarded by the Grace of God.

That is why the SAdhanA-set-of-four ends with ‘mumukShutvaM’ according to the Acharya.

So what happens thereafter is not by the sAdhaka’s effort; He has nothing to earn.

They are what he has to do to sacrifice himself. They are shravaNa (listening), manana (thinking) and nidhidhyAsana (contemplation).

When we manufacture a cracker we pack tightly a lot of explosive material inside, wrap it up by decorative paper, and make it attractive from outside.

All this is done for the final purpose of lighting up the wick and explode it so that nothing remains of that cracker.

Here also the ego inside has to be exploded so that nothing remains.

In Tamil one word for cracker is ‘vANam’. The vANaM’ (that is the ego) is elaborately prepared through a SAdhanA for the final purpose of exploding it and making it ‘NirvANa!

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 8 of 10

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The very fact of SAdhanA is for the egoistic individual self.

It is not for the Atman.

Does the Atman have to do SAdhanA to realise itself?

The Atman is actionless and it remains as it is always as Atman.

Therefore it is the individual JIva, that has to do the SAdhanA basing its actions on the ego which is the cause for its individuality.

However, after one obtains a certain success in controlling one’s senses, mind and intellect, having discarded much of those that need to be discarded, having obtained the formal teaching about the Atman to be realised, one reaches the stage of readiness for being in the only thought of

That and that is the stage when the ego joins the set of those that are to be discarded.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 7 of 10

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All the time the efforts as well as the results are all based on the individual self.

This is an ego-based feeling, no doubt, but it is necessary to enthuse ourselves in these earlier stages.

Nothing wrong.

Not only for encouraging ourselves in the progress but also for a proper regret and due correction at times of slipping down.

Only when the individual feeling of ‘I’ is there, the thought will arise: “Oh, I have slipped down. I should correct myself and practise more carefully”.

On the other hand if we rationalize it by an incorrect use of Vedanta by saying “After all everything is false; there is no individual jIva. So where is the slip? Where is the correction?” then there will be no upward progress of spirituality.

The apex attitude of “There is no individual ‘I’ at all” is not to be imagined on the way.

If in that imagination one ignores the necessary self-effort, then there is nothing to hold you back and all the SAdhanA will go waste.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 6 of 10

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Only when all old vAsanAs are extinguished it will go.

The extinction has to be done by means of the JIva-hood itself.

The SAdhanA-set- of- four is for that very purpose.

First the effort goes with the thought “I shall try to cultivate Discrimination”;

after some time one gets the satisfaction “I have got some Discrimination now” and then the effort continues with the thought “Now I shall try to cultivate Dispassion” and this, afterwards becomes “I have cultivated some Dispassion now”.

This goes on.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 5 of 10

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Desirous of being totally consumed and dissolved by it, one sacrifices himself to it.

That is what is termed here as ‘higher-grade’ bhakti.

When one begins SAdhanA we keep on using the word ‘I’ in our thoughts: “I should get Release. I should reach Brahman. I should become Brahman”.

It is impossible to sacrifice that ‘I’ at that stage itself.

Even the thought of it might be scaring.

Many westerners who are strong in their intellect and courage are fearful of the thought of sacrificing the JIvahood – the feeling of an individual self – and they say: “What? Am I to sacrifice my individuality?”.

Even when one is not afraid from the very beginning itself, the JIva-hood does not disappear then and there.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 4 of 10

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Only when the ‘I’-hood ends there is Realisation (*sAkShAt-kAraM*).

Even the word ‘Realisation’ is only a formality (*aupachArikaM*).

It is actually wrong to say ‘One realises Brahman’.

No one can do anything to Brahman.

There is no ‘sAkShAt’, no ‘karaNaM’.

Nothing can be done with Brahman.

Really what happens is, in that final state this very person (sAdhaka) vanishes.

Whoever did the SAdhanA he himself is not there at the end of the SAdhanA; only the goal remains!

It is this very phenomenon that the great Ramakrishna described as “the story of the doll of salt examining the depth of the ocean”.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 3 of 10

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For what purpose does one begin a SAdhanA?

His goal is the thought “I should reach Brahman. I must become Brahman”.

And he continues the SAdhanA to reach that goal.

But when he reaches the goal, does the ‘I’ who started it all become the Brahman?

No. Not at all.

There is no one to claim that ‘I’ now.

There is only Brahman.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 2 of 10

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The relationship that arises from that is not any more dualistic.

One knows that it is to become a relationship whereby the one who relates gives oneself up to the object that is admired and dissolves to the extent that there are not two now, but only one.

And then one gets the maturity to practice what one has known.

That is where Love has been termed as Bhakti by the Acharya.

If one continues in that practice, the maturity ripens further and thereafter there is only the non-dual dissolution!

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 1 of 10

“When We say ‘Love’ or ‘Relationship’ it needs two people.

Consequently it is dvaitaM.

It should not come anywhere near advaita-SAdhanA” – this might be the general understanding.

Yes, for a long time during the course of the SAdhanA it remains that way.

In other words, understanding love to be limited to just kindliness one is not supposed to bring it anywhere near actions.

But in due course of time, by the very fact that a refinement takes place by SAdhanA, one gets to know what true love is.

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