D.: Is the jīvanādi an entity or a figment of the imagination?
M.: The yogis say that there is a called the jīvanādi, ātmanādi or parānādi. The Upanishads speak of a centre from which thousands of nādis branch off. Some locate such a centre in the brain and others in other centres. The Garbhopanishad traces the formation of the foetus and the growth of the child in the womb. The is considered to enter the child through the fontanelle in the seventh month of its growth. In evidence thereof it is pointed out that the fontanelle is tender in a baby and is also seen to pulsate. It takes some months for it to ossify. Thus the jīva comes from above, enters through the fontanelle and works through the thousands of the nādis which are spread over the whole body. Therefore the seeker of Truth must concentrate on the , that is the brain, in order to regain his source. is said to help the yogi to rouse the Kundalini Sakti which lies coiled in the solar plexus. The rises through a nerve called the , which is imbedded in the core of the spinal cord and extends to the brain.
If one concentrates on the there is no doubt that the ecstasy of ensues. The , that is the latencies, are not however destroyed. The yogi is therefore bound to wake up from this samādhi, because release from bondage has not yet been accomplished. He must still try to eradicate the vāsanās in order that the latencies yet inherent in him may not disturb the peace of his samādhi. So he passes down from the sahasrārā to the heart through what is called the jīvanādi, which is only a continuation of the . The sushumnā is thus a curve. It starts from the solar plexus, rises through the spinal cord to the brain and from there bends down and ends in the heart. When the yogi has reached the heart, the samādhi becomes permanent. Thus we see that the heart is the final centre.
Some Upanishads also speak of 101 which spread from the heart, one of them being the vital nādi. If the comes down from above and gets reflected in the brain, as the yogis say, there must be a reflecting surface in action. That must also be capable of limiting the Infinite Consciousness to the limits of the body. In short the Universal Being becomes limited as a jīva. Such reflecting medium is furnished by the aggregate of the of the individual. It acts like the water in a pot which reflects the image of an object. If the pot be drained of its water there will be no reflection. The object will remain without being reflected. The object here is the Universal Being-Consciousness which is all-pervading and therefore immanent in all. It need not be cognised by reflection alone; it is self-resplendent. Therefore the seeker’s aim must be to drain away the vāsanās from the heart and let no reflection obstruct the Light of Eternal Consciousness. This is achieved by the search for the origin of the ego and by diving into the heart. This is the direct method for Self-Realisation. One who adopts it need not worry about nādis, the brain, the , the parānādi, the , or the six centres.
The Self does not come from anywhere else and enter the body through the crown of the head. It is as it is, ever sparkling, ever steady, unmoving and unchanging. The changes which are noticed are not inherent in the Self which abides in the Heart and is self-luminous like the Sun. The changes are seen in Its Light. The relation between the Self and the body or the mind may be compared to that of a clear crystal and its background. If the crystal is placed against a red flower, it shines red; if placed against a green leaf it shines green, and so on. The individual confines himself to the limits of the changeful body or of the mind which derives its existence from the unchanging Self. All that is necessary is to give up this mistaken identity, and that done, the evershining Self will be seen to be the single non-dual Reality.
The reflection of Consciousness is said to be in the subtle body (), which appears to be composed of the brain and the nerves radiating from it to all parts of the trunk, chiefly through the spinal column and the solar plexus.
When I was on the Hill, Nāyana (Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni) once argued that the brain was the seat of the , because it consisted of innumerable cells in which the vāsanās were contained and illuminated by the light of the Self which projected from the heart. Only this set a person working or thinking.
But I said, “How can it be so? The must be with one’s Self and can never remain away from the Self. If, as you say, the vāsanās be contained in the brain and the Heart is the seat of the Self a person who is decapitated must be rid of his vāsanās and should not be reborn. You agree that it is absurd. Now can you say that the Self is in the brain with the vāsanās? If so, why should the head bend down when one falls asleep? Moreover a person does not touch his head and say ‘I’. Therefore it follows that the Self is in the Heart and the vāsanās are also there in an exceedingly subtle form.
“When the are projected from the Heart they are associated with the Light of the Self and the person is said to think. The vāsanās which lie imbedded in an atomic condition grow in size in their passage from the heart to the brain. The brain is the screen on which the images of the vāsanās are thrown and it is also the place of their functional distribution. The brain is the seat of the mind, and the mind works through it.”
So then this is what happens. When a is released and it comes into play, it is associated with the light of the Self. It passes from the heart to the brain and on its way it grows more and more until it holds the field all alone and all the vāsanās are thus kept in abeyance for the time being. When the thought is reflected in the brain it appears as an image on a screen. The person is then said to have a clear perception of things. He is a great thinker or discoverer. Neither the thought that is extolled as being original, nor the thing, nor the country which is claimed to be a new discovery, is really original or new. It could not manifest unless it was already in the mind. It was of course very subtle and remained imperceptible, because it lay repressed by the more urgent or insistent thoughts or vāsanās. When they have spent themselves this thought arises and by concentration the Light of the Self makes it clear, so that it appears magnificent, original and revolutionary. In fact it was only within all along.
This concentration is called samyamana in the Yoga Sastras. One’s desires can be fulfilled by this process and it is said to be a . It is how the so-called new discoveries are made. Even worlds can be created in this manner. Samyamana leads to all siddhis. But they do not manifest so long as the ego lasts. Concentration according to ends in the destruction of the experiencer (ego), experience and the world, and then the quondam desires get fulfilled in due course. This concentration bestows on individuals even the powers of creating new worlds. It is illustrated in the ‘Aindava Upākhyāna’ in the ‘Yoga Vāsishtha’ and in the ‘Ganda Saila Loka’ in the ‘Tripurā Rahasya’.
Although the powers appear to be wonderful to those who do not possess them, yet they are only transient. It is useless to aspire for that which is transient. All these wonders are contained in the one changeless Self. The world is thus within and not without. This meaning is contained in verses 11 and 12— Chapter V of ‘Sri Ramana Gita’. “The entire Universe is condensed in the body, and the entire body in the Heart. Thus the Heart is the nucleus of the whole Universe.” Therefore Samyamana relates to concentration on different parts of the body for the different . Also the Visva or the Virāt is said to contain the cosmos within the limits of the body. Again, “The world is not other than the mind, the mind is not other than the Heart; that is the whole truth.” So the Heart comprises all. This is what is taught to Swetaketu by the illustration of the seed of a fig tree. The source is a point without any dimensions. It expands as the cosmos on the one hand and as Infinite Bliss on the other. That point is the pivot. From it a single starts, multiplies as the experiencer ‘I’, the experience, and the world. The experiencer and the source are referred to in the . Two birds, exactly alike, arise simultaneously.
When I was staying in the Skandasramam I sometimes used to go out and sit on a rock. On one such occasion there were two or three others with me including Rangaswami Iyengar. Suddenly we noticed some small moth-like insect shooting up like a rocket into the air from a crevice in the rock. Within the twinkling of an eye it had multiplied itself into millions of moths which formed a cloud and hid the sky from view. We wondered at it and examined the place from which it shot up. We found that it was only a pinhole and knew that so many insects could not have issued from it in such a short time.
That is how (ego) shoots up like a rocket and instantaneously spreads as the Universe.
The Heart is therefore the centre. A person can never be away from it. If he is he is already dead. Although the Upanishads say that the functions through other centres on different occasions, yet he does not relinquish the Heart. The centres are simply places of business (vide “Vedanta Chudamani”). The Self is bound to the Heart, like a cow tethered to a peg. The movements are controlled by the length of the rope. All its wanderings centre round the peg.
A caterpillar crawls on a blade of grass and when it has come to the end, it seeks another support. While doing so it holds on with its hind-legs to the blade of grass, lifts the body and sways to and fro before it can hold another. Similarly it is with the Self. It stays in the Heart and holds other centres also according to circumstances. But its activities always centre round the Heart.