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The physical heart is well known to be the
pumping station of the blood. Also it is that
which receives on the one hand the venous or
impure blood, and that which sends out on the
other hand the arterial or purified blood. These
two processes are very complementary and they
are very much similar to what has been suggested
to be done in the purification of the mind
itself, that is to say, on the one hand, there
is necessity to remove all impurity in our
thoughts and on the other prevent all impurity
from entering into our thoughts. This analogous
nature of the processes facilitates the unity of
the physical, vital and mental levels of man.
The meditation on the heart impels the processes
of cleaning of all the solidity or grossness or
impurity that has settled in our system in the
form of obstructions. Usually they appear as
black spots or areas in the regions affected:
this of course is to be seen only by the inward
vision in the course of inner observation. The
heart as the centre of the mind or manas is well
known since it is the heart that throbs and
warms up or is gripped in fear. Modern
psycho-physiologists aver that this is due to
the activity of the adrenal glands and the
sympathetic autonomous nervous system which is
the activated sector of man in all emotions.
The meditation on the heart is also necessary
for, it is for man at least the point of
greatest importance. Some think that one should
meditate on the Kundalini at the Muladhara
chakra (sacral plexus): some others that the
meditation should be on the centre or middle of
the eyebrows (bhru-madhya), and still others
that it should be done at the crown of the head
(brahma randhra or sahasradala). All these are
not so very rational as the natural procedure at
the heart. We all know that when we declare
ourselves we clasp or tap our chest region,
especially the right side; since obviously we
all call that with the affirmation of 'I'.
However, this is not counselled by Sri Ram
Chandraji, who with the Gitacarya, Sri Krishna
claims that the Divine Lord rests in the heart
(physical).
With such a natural centre for meditation it
is better to start. The meditation on the heart
begins to shatter the solidity which has crept
into the senses thanks to the wrongly directed
ideas and thoughts of different kinds. It is
owing to the senses (indriyas) and manas taking
wrong turns and getting solidified that we begin
to lose the powers of discrimination. Meditation
centres the entire force at one point, namely,
the heat, which is the natural physical centre.
This heart should not be confused with the
anahata-chakra of the six centres of
tantra-yoga. It is the Centre of individual mind
which by this meditation is gradually tamed to
leave its habit of wandering about. Thus the
individual mind is directed into the right path.
Shri Ram Chandraji speaks about the necessity
"to go back through the downward motion to the
condition from which we had come down". This
requires a brief explanation. The descent from
the higher or Ultimate Centre is a downward path
upto the formation of the physical heart. The
going back by the downward motion means the
reversal of the entire motion from within the
heart by the utilization of the Central force to
form a region, so to speak, round the heart
region. This formation leads to the expansion of
the centres located in our body. The Central
force begins to activate them so as to make them
glow, for they have lost this power of
luminosity as the solidity increased. This is a
new method indeed for it is not mentioned in any
literature as to how the downward motion of the
central force makes the covering over the entire
Heart Region and makes the centres which had
formed previously and made non-luminous, become
luminous again. These centres of the Heart
Region are invaluable, for it is the glow of
this heart that makes one realize the readiness
of the abhyasi for spiritual growth. When the
Master transmits this Central force on to the
heart of the abhyasi his heart becomes glowing
with jyoti or light, and he experiences the calm
and lightness of the Infinite Central force
itself.
Since the blood from the heart moves over the
entire body it may well be said that the Heart
Region extends from the toes to the crest of the
head (shikar). The Heart Region consists of many
fibres of different hues and colours, and we are
all the time with them. It is the experience of
the abhyasi that he sees several kinds of
colours, such as yellow, red, green and blue,
and these refer to certain points which have to
be transcended on our return journey to the
Centre.
As the several knots or granthis within the
Heart Region begin to glow during meditation, we
begin to pass towards the Centre. At the
beginning we have to cross the different stages
of the Maya or power. In the Reality at Dawn
Shri Ram Chandraji has drawn a diagram of the
several circles which begin to form, from the
Centre towards the outermost ring or circle.
These comprise 23 circles which are
concentrically drawn forming even like those
which are observed when anything is thrown in a
pool of water - the circles or rings go on ad
infinitum from the Centre giving us an
impression of a Cakra-vartana, circular movement
of a wheel. As we have stated, it is even here
to be presumed that every circular movement (or
concentrical movement) comprises the twisting
wavy movements also forming infinite number or
innumerable number of knots or points of twist.
One passes through all the knots untying them or
unwinding the threads. Meditation is a subtle
and powerful force of the Centre which helps the
return ascent towards the Centre itself
gradually and naturally.
Shri Ram Chandraji mentions that no practice
of Hathayoga can bring about such a result. The
Hathayoga practices have hardly a clear
conception of the metaphysics or physics of this
descent from the Centre or the formation of the
knots. Its extraordinary method of cleaning and
controlling the body and subduing it by means of
postures (asanas) and bandhas (bindings) and
even breaths (kumbhakas) leads undoubtedly to
spectacular control over the autonomous nervous
system. That is of course remarkable. It truly
establishes the ancient dictum that mind moves
matter (mens agitat molem). Hathayoga does not
really use the Ultimate or Central Force to
effect the ascent and untie the knots beyond a
particular point. This point Shri Ram Chandraji
says is the Ajna cakra (the centre between the
two eye brows). We can infer that the force of
thought utilized by the Hathayoga is of this
level alone and not beyond it. The ineffectual
activity of the Ajna cakra thought becomes
evident when we find also that all the so called
miracles, capacities and abilities are of the
region of Maya or power, and one does not
transcend Maya at all. It is in respect of lower
being a power of great value but a delusive one
in so far as it makes one believe that it can
lead upwards.
So far as the importance of utilizing the
Central force in meditation and in doing it at
the heart, there is always a danger of limiting
our view of the Heart to the physical heart made
up of flesh and blood.
Usually whenever we speak or think of the
heart, it is this physical heart that we refer
to. The Heart Region is that which covers both
the inner and the outer which have resulted
after the emergence of the First Mind - the
higher worlds or brighter worlds obviously
belong to the region of the First Mind. The
Heart Region which is thus very vast is
described by Shri Ram Chandraji as containing
all the knots or cakras, and all com-munications
with higher worlds. All establishment of
relations with the Superconscious states as well
as deep sleep states is possible in this region
itself. Shri Ram Chandraji makes this statement
because some persons think that they can avoid
dealing with this region itself. He speaks of
the Heart Region as the 'main artery of God',
which means that we cannot reach God except
through this region.
Bodily consciousness or that one is the body
alone arises here in this region, and the body
is being identified with the functioning of the
heart, stopping when it stops or rather dying
when it stops. It is the chief concern of the
human being to maintain this body, and thus it
happens that one lives for the sake of the body
rather than that the body exists for true
living. This is an inversion or rather the
putting of the cart before the horse. All the
circles that man has put round himself are so
many bondage rings owing to the preoccupation
with the maintenance of the body. Shri Ram
Chandraji states that the very form of the body
in its solid form or condition is verily due to
the hammering out of the rings into this form of
roundness etc., and congealing it into solid
condition of bones, muscles, nerves, glands,
blood etc. The thought or ideas which are truly
forces begin to be in a subordinate position.
Instead of these ideas being really for the
experience of the true state, man has developed
new ideas which are inversions of the original
and begin to subserve the ends of the body and
its several parts or sections. Ideas become
ineffective when they are sought to be worked
out against the interests of the body. The whole
world knows how all ideas which are conforming
to the solidity of the body and its greater
preservation are accepted, whilst the contrary
ideas that seek to make the body, an instrument
of dharma and moksha (dharma sadhana) are said
to be nonsense. That is also one of the major
reasons why the modern age is witnessing the
triumph of economics over philosophy. Politics
which was the philosophical sociology has today
become a handmaid of economic distribution and
production of goods which seek to protect the
body as such and pamper to its enjoyment and
pleasure.
A modern writer of the Oxford Movement, Peter
Howard, wrote a fine book called Ideas have
Legs, in which he showed the dynamic return of
ideas to their legitimate role only when ideas
are for the divine life. Ideas must be seen to
have real nature only when they refer to the
Ultimate Divine. Pseudo ideas are those which
dominate the world of solids and grossness and
forge wings of bondage in the name of security
of the body. It is, as it were, a King or
President of a State is held in protective
custody in the castle which he built for being
free.
Modern Idealism which considers ideas as
forces or as Ultimate Realities is unfortunately
unable to see that all its ideas are forced into
patterns of sensory experience or economic
dialectics or logistical dance of opposites
arbitrarily constructed or invented by
idealistic philosophers. Today our great
difficulty in putting across real thought is due
to the fact that ideas themselves have been
congealed into solid jargons that have lost all
capacity to lead to the real factors of the
genesis of ideas.
Shri Ram Chandraji clearly shows that the
entire mind of man is filled with ideas but
these ideas are ideas of portions of the body,
such as liver, lungs, intestines and stomach or
abdomen and so on. So also we have ideas of
physical feelings as to how these organs feel or
act or what they need. All these ideas are those
which spring up from the heart. In a sense we
can say that our heart is like the Buddhist
alaya-vijnana or the receptacle of all
impressions which are of solid objects and
organs. Thus the present content of the heart is
just these physical bodily ideas and no more.
The consequence is that we are being governed by
these ideas alone; and all our actions proceed
from these ideas and are regulated by these.
Therefore, we are said to be caught up in the
karma cycle or determined by karma.
But it is the subtle condition of the heart
that we have to note. The heart, being the main
artery of God through which the idea of creation
is working, is in invisible motion. Truly, each
individual heart is also a unit uniquely issued
out of the Centre. The power that is working at
the Centre is also manifested as the units.
Though the same superconsciousness is working in
a limited way, the word 'limited' does not mean
that it is necessary for it to be that.
Limitation is not due to anything from above. It
is what has resulted from the individual
solidification owing to the identification with
the body or with the ideas of the body which are
its rings of bondage or limitation.
Shri Ram Chandraji describes the emergence of
the units from the Centre as a shower of fire -
sparks forming a vast circle, a view which is
echoed in the Upanishads (visphulinguvat). The
whole universe is thus a projection or throw
out, thanks to the invisible motions under the
Centre. Each unit, however, develops its own
individuality whilst yet retaining the nature of
the invisible motion of the origin. Surely also
it can be said that these units are eternal in
the sense that they are permanent till the final
dissolution or withdrawal. Problems of concern
are raised by those who wish to up hold the view
that the units though withdrawn into the Centre
emerge as such at the next creation. This is a
point which is more a logical one than a
practical one, for it is to explain the karma
problem of the net creation. As the
Kathopanishad says the soul or unit exists even
at the final mergence in latent condition. The
meaning of 'exists' is, however, logical, since
we cannot think of the extinguishment of the
soul when it begins to emerge. The question is
again one of its becoming bond again after
having attained freedom in the previous creation
(srshti). There is also another problem posed
whether pralaya is itself liberation, for, since
in any case it will happen one need do no
abhyasa to attain it much earlier. If we answer
these in one way there arise other sets of
problems. It is advisable to defer these
questions of pseudo-philosophers till certain
major results have been attained.
In any case, in spiritual life the most
important thing is to achieve pralaya for
oneself or one's dissolution. This appears to be
quite a shocking proposition. To ask any one to
commit suicide is sheer folly. However, after
the first shock-effect of this advice, let us
ask ourselves what it really means to know the
Ultimate, which is our goal and what it means to
realize it or rest in it. It means that one
would merge oneself in it and live and move and
have one's being in it, oneness with it or even
one's losing oneself in it. Practically, then,
the dissolution of both the individual and the
universal or at least of the individual in the
universal spirit or Godhead or the Beloved, even
without a trace of oneself is the goal aimed at.
It may be true that this does not utterly happen
until the final creative pralaya. All these are
to be matters of verification (anubhava). Shri
Ram Chandraji does not enter into the
metaphysical problems to say that the soul is
eternally distinct or entirely dissolved or lost
as such. However, whilst suspending the answer,
it can yet be taken that our goal is to attain
union or laya in God and not to preserve our
separateness or the world's separateness, or to
dissolve all of them in an Absolute as such. It
is best to take it that whatever the status of
the relationship in pralaya or reemergence, it
is one of indissoluble oneness or inseparability
between the Centre and the units.
The Heart is peculiarly separated from the
First Mind and Centre owing to the limitation
imposed by the grossening or heating of the
particles and the formations of cakras or
brackets of resistance, which interfere with the
free flow. As already stated, the Heart Region
extends from almost top of the head to the feet.
Shri Ram Chandraji reveals that this vast region
has in its upper portion certain functions and
the lower half has also certain functions. The
need is to purify these areas.
Taking the Centre of the Heart Region we find
that it falls about the physical heart. The
discovery of Shri Ram Chandraji is of the two
points A and B in this region. The point A is
given in actual measurement to be located within
the physical heart itself. "Measure from the
left nipple to the right two fingers width. Then
proceed to measure downward three finger widths.
This is the point A. Measure two finger widths
downward from it we have the point B".
Shri Ram Chandraji locates it at the lower
part of the left lung. These two points, in a
sense, can be seen to be in the upper part of
the fleshy region of the heart. Master Shri Ram
Chandraji states that the upper part of this
heart is the brighter one and the lower part is
the darker one.
These points A and B have to be constantly
kept cleaned. The cleansing is a process done by
the transmission of thought power by oneself or
by the Guru (preceptor). It is clearly a case
for the concrete prevention of extraneous
impulses which begin to settle in the heart as
so much dirt and dust in the form of particles.
The two processes are complementary.
The ancient Jains used to call these two
processes of prevention and throwing out of the
dirt and the unwanted nirjara and samvara. The
entry of karma particles makes for old age. It
also means and it makes for heaviness. And the
prevention of their entry makes for non-aging
nirjara. The other process is for throwing out
the already entered particles, which is very
good or the best for the self (samyag-varaniya).
Similarly, it can be shown that the ancient
bhakti schools proposed two basic practices
called anukulya samkalpa (willing the helpful to
love of God) and pratikulya-varjana (getting rid
of the impediments to Realisation). These two
processes are now given a physical basis in the
heart at the two points where they can be
prevented and thrown out. The individual may
meditate on the heart at these two points and
imagine their purification by an act of will.
This, of course, needs strenuous vigilance
(abhyasa) demanding attention to the acts of
throwing out and pushing out at points A and B.
The tapasya of the ancients was a process of
heating of the system to throw out the dirt and
karma-matter, and it is even said that the
purification is done by the pudgala getting out.
Master Shri Ram Chandraji has stated that
these impurities and unwanted elements pass out
of us in the form of smoke through the back.
In any case, the purification must be centred
on these two points A and B. The same is more
easily and quickly achieved when we utilize the
Superconscious force of the Master through
transmission by him directed to the removal of
the dirt-disease.
This is one of the reasons why abhyasis
interested in progress are counselled to get
individual sittings from the preceptors or Shri
Ram Chandraji himself, as their own will-power
is neither developed nor pure.
Shri Ram Chandraji has stated also that the
portions of the Heart, upper and lower, which
are bright and dark respectively, and the points
in the upper region A and B, recur in the Higher
Regions also i.e., of the Upper part of the
Heart Region (in or above the forehead) and in
the Mind Region and the Central Region as well.
However, they do not occupy the same portions
there; there is the inversion of the portions
according to the principle of invertendo. In the
Anant ki Or (Towards Infinity) Shri Ram
Chandraji mentions as many as 13 knots
(granthis) and not all of them belong to the .
When the purification of the points A and B
is done with the help of the Master's
Superconsciousness or its transmission, there is
hardly any room for the incidence of egoism
which attends all individual effort. I have
mentioned this in the article on the subject in
the Natural Path 1960 April number.
Shri Ram Chandraji also mentions that sages
(rishis) usually descend in the Upper region of
the heart, and that is why several abhyasis
begin to have vision of rishis. This is what is
meant by saying that the rishis descend at that
point or part of the heart. Several saints have
had visions of the rishis like Narada, Vyasa,
and others, and it must be presumed that they
descend at this Region of the heart. However,
the real experience of the Godhead in the Heart
should be sought at this upper part; and many
seem to experience a flame or jyoti. But the
true experience will lead the abhyasi to higher
levels. It is, as it were, one is led by a
Superconscious Personality. Or a Superhuman
Personality leads one upward.
The ascent from this Heart Centre to the
upper Heart Centre follows on the aspiration of
the individual having been awakened. The course
taken up is not the usual route spoken of by the
tantric system of Sat-cakras (six centres). It
must be made clear, as already pointed out, that
whatever may be the value of these six-centres,
it is not with the Kundalini our journey is
linked up.
The ascent of the Kundalini through the six
centre, Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipuraka,
Anahata, Visuddha, Ajna, is not shown to be the
way of getting rid of Maya or crossing the Maya.
They are centres of power used by some yogis for
obtaining aisvarya, lordship etc. As pointed out
by Gurdieff and Ouspensky they are kunda-buffers
which impose illusion firstly on others, and
secondly, on oneself. But to the person who has
gone beyond the First Mind of God or reached the
Central Region it is possible to experience the
kundalini and the powers of the several centres
pertaining to them in the natural way. It is
naturally wakened up at that level of
attainment, says Shri Ram Chandraji.
Shri Ram Chandraji states that the route to
be followed to the Ultimate in the Heart Region
follows broadly a different path. Meditation on
the heart brings about all-round improvement. It
is the essence of the earth element (prthvi
tattva) which has all other elements in it
collectively. "Heart contains in essence all the
five tattvas with their specific centres in it.
That means that everything found everywhere is
contained in it collectively, nothing being
predominant. For this very reason meditation of
heart brings about an all-round improvement.
Next comes the point of atman, then the third
the point of fire, and the fourth that of water,
lastly the fifth that of vayu".
The experience of these five centres or
travel of them leads to the performance of the
Panchagni vidya, these five points as if being
thought of as five fires. This is of course
different from the Upanishadic vidya by the same
name.
The higher region of the heart is reached by
the travel to the same through the five fires.
The knots at these centres are untied by the
process of reversal or loosening the strain by a
pull down as when we untie a knot. As we untie,
the loosening itself helps the quiet flow of the
vibrationary or vibrating energy. This is a
rather long path and Shri Ram Chandraji has
perfected this path. This passage which used to
take ages for many to pass and which even some
of most advanced souls of the modern day have
not crossed could be effected by Shri Ram
Chandraji in the shortest possible time.
It is also suggested that by cleaning the
point B the corresponding points B in the higher
regional centres of the Heart as well as those
in the Mind Region get cleaned. The points in
the higher centres are called A1 and B1, and A2
and B2 and A3 and B3 and so on. The
superconsciousness travelling in these regions
are called D, and D1, D2, D3 and so on. D means
divine consciousness and D1, D2, D3 are
superfine conditions of that divine
consciousness operating in the different
regions. The divine consciousness is not uniform
but reveals levels of refinement. However, it is
least infected or affected with any obstructions
and impediments or impurities. The transmissive
power of the Master's D3 consciousness is such
that it operates in such a way in the regions
below as to remove all obstructions of
impediments in the abhyasi receiving it within
himself or in a way identifying himself with the
Master as his perfect instrument or servant.
Whatever you think constantly or repeatedly
located at this point A, you will form your fate
accordingly. If you meditate at this point (B)
thinking you are becoming devoid of all sensual
things, the result will follow in the shortest
possible time. Thus A is the point where things
or samskaras try to enter and B is the point
through which one can throw out these and those
that have already entered. D: points of divine
or super consciousness.
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