Patanjali: ‘To know the Mind, focus on the Heart’
(“By practicing Samyama on the heart, knowledge of the mind is acquired”)‘Samyama’ is a particular practice of focus and absorption
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1.Brahma Granthi – feeling of separateness — centered in the physical body: Annamaya Kosha• This knot is located in the Muladhara Chakra, concerned with one’s security
• Related to the experience of ‘name and form’. A person at this level sees only diversity and is restless with desire and fear.
• Because of this ‘knot’, it is hard to meditate well because of restlessness and the inability to become one-pointed.
• Practice: purification (physical practice — yoga)
Obstacles: The ‘Knots’ or Granthi
Brahma
2.Vishnu Granthi – the feeling of desire and fear, which is transcended to act for the good — centered in body of prana: Pranamaya Kosha — faith, love & compassion
• The ‘knot’ lies in attachment to the cosmic good and the desire to help humanity — with attachment to traditions and idealism — ‘our’ way
• This knot is located in the Anahata Chakra (heart), which is also the seat of the prana, which controls the mind and emotions• The heart chakra is the seat of faith, love & compassion, which can present obstacles so far as compassion forms attachments – not to
desires or sense objects, but to the good, and to a desire to help humanity. • One adopts the vow of the bodhisattva to relieve the world from suffering – but by doing so gets caught up in the world of doership.• A person at this level sees the unity in diversity, but gets caught up in diversity; though he is disciplined and one-pointed, he is still
restless with the desire to do something.• Practice: pranayama – as loosening sense of doership
Vishnu
3. Rudra Granthi – transcend action to attain wisdom — centered in the mental bodies of knowledge or jnana: Manomaya and Vijnanamaya Kosha: these forms of knowing still retain attachment to I-consciousness or ego
• The ‘knot’ lies in attachment to knowledge — as ‘my‘ knowledge — located in the Ajna Chakra (between the eyebrows), the seat of knowledge and the ‘customs station’ for passage to higher forms of awareness.
• The obstacle is attachment to I-consciousness; keeping one’s awareness of self as a drop, holding back from the ocean• This is a high level of achievement, going beyond diversity to perceive unity; but with that comes powers and attainments, which can reinforce a sense that ‘I’ have
attained this
Rudra
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The Heart Chakra
Shiva
Shakti
Energy flows to and from the petals with the inhalation and
exhalation, activating the 12 ‘Vrittis’
Hope Anxiety
Endeavor
Posessiveness
Arrogance
Incompetence
DiscriminationEgoism
Lustfulness
Fraudulence
Indecision
Repentence
12 Petals of the ‘Outer Heart’representing movement of energy in the 12 directions
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Inside of the Heart Chakra there is an additional 8 petaled lotus situated to the right of the physical heart.In its center is a spiritual or etheric heart known as ‘Hrit Pundarik’ or the Heart Lotus.
Untouched by physical impurities, it is the seat of the self and waking consciousness and in the dream state.
It can only be reached when the Sushumna starts working — which is awakened through directing the breath or prana into the Sushumna.
The stalk of this lotus is associated with ‘Chitrini,’ the pure or Sattvic quality of the Goddess associated with the central layer of the Sushumna, the ‘Chitra Nadi.’
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Sushumna — experienced as Tamas (inertia) — beyond time
Vajrini — the Sun — experienced as Rajasic (active) — ‘poison’
PingalaRight Nostril
‘Sun’
IdaLeft Nostril
‘Moon’
The ‘Layers’ of the experience of the Sushumna are
influenced by the Gunas — the qualities of action and
experience
As the Sattvic layer of Chitra Nadi is experienced, the
Heart Lotus becomes active
Chitrini — the Moon — experienced as Sattvic (illumination) — ‘nectar’
Brahma Nadi or Brahma Dvara — at the end of Chitrini: passageway of awakened Kundalini
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In the waking state, the physical heart works, but the spiritual heart remains dormant.
In the dream state, energy from the spiritual heart flows towards the 8 petals of the Lotus, generating desires and emotional states that are experienced in the waking state.
The experience of these wakeful desires and emotions changes as the energy flows in the direction of different petals, activating the mental modifications (vrittis) connected with them.
Desire to do holy deeds
Dullness, Laziness
Anger, Cruelty
Desire to do Bad Deeds
Happiness, joy,
playfulness: Lila
Movement
Sexual desire
Charity
East (Purva)
South (Dakshina)
West (Paschim)
North (Uttara)Renunciation
Vairagya — mature detachment
Tyaga — acts of renouncing
Within the Lotus there are the layers of the Sushumna: from fire, to sun, to moon, to the radiance at the center (Brahma nadi), where pure renunciation is experienced.
From that center, the pure virtues arising from renunciation radiate out and express themselves through the pure petals of the heart.
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The “seed sound” (Bija Mantra) of the heart Chakra is “Yang”— the sound of the air element.
The Kundalini, represented in the heart as a beautiful goddess (for the first time), undoes the second ‘knot’, Vishnu Granthi
It is represented by the black antelope or musk deer, which is a symbol of the heart itself.
The deer is restless, leaps with joy, and is caught by mirages and reflections.
A special quality of the musk deer is that it is enchanted by the smell of musk. Not realizing that the fragrance arises from its own navel, the deer runs everywhere in search of that smell until he gets exhausted and lays down to rest.
Curling up, the deer realizes that the smell is coming from his own navel.
Graceful and gentle, the deer represents the nature of the heart chakra. The eyes of the deer symbolize purity and innocence, and the deer is said to die for the sound of pure sounds — the inner sound or Anahata Nada, the
sound of the heart.
Within the heart, the pure sound of ‘Aum’ is visualized as a pure, clear light.
That light is experienced as the sound of Aum, the Anahata Nada or sound of the
heart, and the sound is experienced as light.
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