Discourses on Efficacy of Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga - Heart Region

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.