16th March, 1938
Talk 474.
There was some reference to the heart. Sri Bhagavan said: The yog a sastras speak of 72,000 nadis, of 101 nadis, etc. A reconciliation is effected by others that 101 are the main nadis, which subdivide into 72,000. These nadis are supposed by some to spread out from the brain, by others from the Heart and by some others from the coccyx. They speak of a paranadi which is said to rise up from the coccyx through the Sushumna [?] to the brain and descends to the heart. Others say that the Sushumna ends in Para [?]. A few advise seeking realisation in the head (Sahasrara [?]); a few between the eyebrows; a few in the heart; others in the solar plexus. If realisation amounts to gaining the Paranadi, one might enter it from the Heart. But the yogi is engaged in cleansing the nadis; then Kundalini [?] is awakened which is said to rise up from the coccyx to the head. The yogi is later advised to come down to the Heart as the final step.The Vedas say: "The Heart is like a lotus turned down, or a plantain bud."
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"There is a bright spot atom-like, like the end of a grain of paddy."
"That spot is like a flame and in its centre, transcendental Brahman is seated." Which is that Heart? Is it the heart of the physiologists? If so, the physiologists know best.
The Heart of the Upanishads is construed as Hridayam, meaning: This (is) the centre. That is, it is where the mind rises and subsides. That is the seat of Realisation. When I say that it is the Self the people imagine that it is within the body. When I ask where the Self remains in one's sleep they seem to think that it is within the body, but unaware of the body and its surroundings like a man confined in a dark room. To such people it is necessary to say that the seat of Realisation is somewhere within the body. The name of the centre is the Heart; but it is confounded with the heart organ.
When a man dreams, he creates himself (i.e., the ahamkar, the seer) and the surroundings. All of them are later withdrawn into himself. The one became many, along with the seer. Similarly also, the one becomes many in the waking state. The objective world is really subjective. An astronomer discovers a new star at immeasurable distance and announces that its light takes thousands of light years to reach the earth. Well, where is the star in fact? Is it not in the observer? But people wonder how a huge globe, larger than the Sun, at such a distance can be contained in the brain-cells of a man. The space, the magnitudes and the paradox are all in the mind only. How do they exist there? Inasmuch as you become aware of them, you must admit a light which illumines them. These thoughts are absent in sleep but rise up on waking. So this light is transient, having an origin and an end. The consciousness of `I' is permanent and continuous. So this cannot be the aforesaid light. It is different but has no independent existence. Therefore it must be abhasa [?] (reflected light). The light in the brain is thus reflected knowledge (abhasa samvit) or reflected being (abhasa sat). The true knowledge (Samvit [?]) or Being (Sat [?]) is in the centre called Heart (Hridaya [?]). When one wakes up from sleep it is reflected in the head, and so the head is no longer lying prone but rises up. From there the consciousness spreads all over the body and so the superimposed `I' functions as the wakeful entity.
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The pure light in the brain is suddha manas (the pure mind) which later becomes contaminated and is malina manas, the one ordinarily found. All these are however contained in the Self. The body and its counterparts are in the Self. The Self is not confined in the body, as is commonly supposed.