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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