[Advaita-l] On the forms of Guru

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:09:38 -0700
> From: sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] On the forms of Guru
> 
> Dear friends
>  
> Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi did say that there is the spiritual Heart on the right hand side whereas the physical heart is (generally) on the left hand side of a person. Ishwara stays in the spiritual heart, which is nothing but the chitta, which in turn is the  Manas, Buddhi and Ahankar taken together and this is also the Antahkarana. This is the Guhasaya for Ishwara. One who has cultivated the Sattva guna (or when there is more Sattva guna than the other two gunas) then one can have a glimpse of the Pure Atman reflected in the Chitta.
>  
> Regards,


Dear Sri Bhattacharjya,

 

Less than two days ago, I posted a small excerpt about Ramana Maharishi,
which made it clear that this "heart on the right side" description is itself
only meant in a manner of speaking. Here is another snippet for your perusal
and for others who are interested.

 

>From http://sri-ramana-maharshi.blogspot.com/ (posting of Mar 18, 2010)


In Maharshi’s Gospel (Book 2, Chapter 4) he states that
people ‘cannot help thinking in terms of the physical body’
and ‘it is by coming down to this ordinary level of
understanding that a place is assigned to the Heart in the
physical body’. Therefore, the description of the Heart as
a downward-facing lily-bud that must be made to face
upwards and blossom, is only figurative and not literal,
and it is given only for those whose minds are much
inclined to raja yoga, which abounds with such figurative
descriptions.


Now, I do not claim to be well-read in the literature associated with Ramana
Maharishi, but it seems to me that to reiterate "Ramana Maharishi said the
spiritual Heart is on the right side of the chest" completely misses the point
of what he was conveying. Moreover, to ignore that Ramana Maharishi uses
the word Heart in a very different way in different contexts is to miss the
forest for the trees.

It seems clear that Ramana Maharishi was always drawing the attention
of his disciples and devotees away from dehAtma-bhAva and that he only
wanted them not to confuse his usage of the word Heart with the physical
organ. So, to persist in the intermediate adhyAropa done for the purposes
of teaching and to ignore the apavAda is to completely misunderstand him.
Of course, that is only my opinion and others are free to make their own
conclusions.

 

I do not wish to continue on this thread, but I definitely want to clear the
deliberate misconception about my respect for Ramana Maharishi that has
been thrust upon me on this forum.

 

Regards,

Vidyasankar

     
 		 	   		  
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