The NaaDis of the heart - Part 4 of 20

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Let us be content with that (explanation). Thus even after Brahman-realisation he has his life (prANa).

What happens to that prANa at the time of his death? Just as the ahmkAra (since the mind and intellect has gone into the ahamkAra – so we can as well say it is antaHkaraNaM now) has already gone into the heart-gate and merged into the Atman-locale, so also now when death takes place the prANa also merges in the same way in that Atman-locale.

In other words, when the JnAni’s body dies, his prANa does not go outside anywhere through any nADi. In the Upanishad and the Brahma-sUtra it is so declared clearly. (Br. U. III-2-11; IV-4-6) (Br. S. IV-2- 12 to 16).

In general parlance also, it is never said that the JnAni’s life is gone; it is usually said that it has ceased, settled or disappeared.

Other than the JnAni who are those that have made themselves not to be reborn in this world?

They are generally called ‘upAsakas’. There are several categories among them.

They all have something in common. They all know that this world or this body is not the end of it all.

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The NaaDis of the heart - Part 3 of 20

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He has been thinking of the Atman, as his life, the supreme life.

Without even recognizing it as bhakti, but with a great attitude of bhakti, he has been doing his SAdhanA for the purpose of dissolving the ego.

By this process, it dissolves and dissolves and reaches such an emaciated slender state, that it enters the small gate of the heart which is the locale of the Atman, converges into the Atman, unifies with it and itself gets extinguished.

And immediately he becomes a mukta.

However, his life (PrANa) has not left him. He is living and he is also a mukta; that is why he is called a JIvan-mukta. Then in due time one day his body dies.

Why should he live after reaching the mukta state, and when does his life part with him – these are questions into which we don’t need to enter at present.

Mostly the opinion is that he lives in order that his *prArabdha* may exhaust itself.

When it thus exhausts itself, then life also leaves.

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The NaaDis of the heart - Part 2 of 20

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I said “other than JnAni”. So what is the case of the JnAni?

Other than the JnAni, who are those that are not destined for a rebirth?

The prANa of the JnAni does not go anywhere outside at the time of the fall of the body.

There is no mokSha which he has yet to get.

And in the same way, there is no mokSha which has to be obtained at some time after death, for him.

Whenever he got his jnAna, that is, the Realisation of Brahman, then itself, his antaHkaraNaM (the mind of the jIva) has been extinguished and he has been released from MAyA; so he becomes a mukta, a JIvan-mukta then and there.

Thus he has been ‘released’ even when being in the body and the prANa does not have to go anywhere after the fall of the body, for mokSha.

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The NaaDis of the heart - Part 1 of 20

Isn’t it strange? From that very heart things take place – even those which are not related to Love!

That is Ishvara’s mysterious MAyA shakti! All this because, the heart is the locale for the ego.

The nADis that control and monitor the jIva’s personal matters of life start from there and proceed to the other organs giving them the life-force, as we have seen earlier.

Several semi-flesh nAdis go forth from this heart in all directions. Among them are those which end in one of the nine Gates. (*nava-dvAra*).

For all those who have to take another birth – in other words, for ninety-five percent. of all the people, life leaves through one of these gates.

Besides these nine there is a gate of the size of an atom at the top of the head. For all people life enters into the foetus through that gate.

But at the time of death of all those who have to have another birth, life leaves not by that gate but by one of the other nine gates.

For those who do not have to be born again, other than the JnAni, life leaves only by the gate at the head.

That is what is called “kapAla-mokShaM”.

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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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