by Jayaram V

The purpose of this essay is to introduce to you to the significance of the heart in Hinduism in different planes or dimensions of existence, not just as a physical organ in the body but as a spiritual entity and representative of God and Soul in the micro and macrocosms of creation.

For many people the heart is simply an organ that pumps blood to various parts in the body and keeps it alive. For some it is a symbol of love. They would say, “I have given my heart,” or “Your heart is mine, etc.” The physical love you experience is usually tinged with desire and its source is usually the lower chakras. Your love elevates to the extent you elevate your thoughts and to the extent you purify your mind and body. When it emerges from the heart chakra it becomes pure, selfless, giving, forgiving, unconditional, expansive, soulful, and liberating, but before you reach that stage you have to build your inner strength and sattvic resolve.

The five dimensions of the heart

In Hinduism the heart has a great significance both as a place where the soul rests and as a representative location of the abode of Brahman. It is the hub and the center of life. As the center or hub of all movements and actions, it has the following five dimensions.

1. In the physical body the heart is the deity that houses the soul. It has five openings through which it nourishes the organs with prana and keeps them alive. It also has several veins (hits) which extend not only to the other parts in the body but also beyond. The heart is also plays an important role in procreation since a part of its energy said to go into the formation of semen.

2. In the breath body, it is the cave into which the soul descends at the time death along with the breaths. It has hundreds or thousands of arteries called hita (means) through which energy (prana) flows. Through one of them the soul travels to the top of the head and from there escapes into the mid-space (antariksham), or the space between the heaven and the earth.

3. In the mental body it is the mind itself which is responsible for all your thoughts and emotions, and different states of consciousness. Since the soul rests in the heart during sleep, it is also the source of your dreams and deep sleep state. The Yoga Sutras (3.34) says that by concentrating and meditating (samyama) on the heart the knowledge of consciousness (citta-samvit) ensues.

4. In the intelligence body it is the connecting link that opens your eyes to the truths of your existence and helps you discern truth from the illusions and ignorance to which you are subject. Since the Self resides in the heart, it partakes its essential nature, which is intelligence.

5. At the highest level, in the bliss body, as the abode of the Self, the heart is responsible for your experience of self-absorption and bliss, beyond all duality and delusion. It happens when you withdraw your senses into your mind, your mind into your intelligence and your intelligence into the Self, which is the source of all these.

Thus, the heart has many dimensions in the macrocosm and microcosm of God’s creation. In the cosmos, the heart is where Brahman resides as the center and support of all existence. The only way one can enter it is through the heart of Brahman, which is possible only if you connect your heart to his heart through duty, knowledge, devotion, surrender, service, identification, sacrifice and silence.

The heart as the seat of divine love

According to Hinduism, the heart is the connecting link between the heaven and the earth. It is where you experience the love of God, express your love for him, or enter the dream state or deep sleep state. It is the secret cave in your body where you come face to face with the very secret of your existence. Your heart is also your vulnerable spot, and unless you protect it well you can succumb to negative emotions, and through them, to astral attacks. It is therefore important that you fill your heart with love and positive energy.

The Narada Bhakti Sutras declare that God is of the form of love and eternal bliss, and so is the Self. He who attains it becomes eternal and blissful. We do not experience the love of the Self because we are cut off from it by our own illusions and duality. The love of Isvara, the manifested God and the Lord of the Universe, which emanates from his heart is without duality and without an object, like an infinite ocean of love in which nothing else exists.

It is more intense and powerful than any human being can image. It is not love for any specific thing or being, but love that radiates in all directions and touches anyone and everyone who comes into contact with it, just as the light radiates from the sun as its very essence and touches everything in its path. His love is so intense and yet so tender and vulnerable that no human being can sustain it for long. God’s love also makes him vulnerable to the love of his devotees and come out of his strong shell of detachment and indifference. However, since it is pure love, no evil can touch it or stand before it.

Here is an important lesson for everyone to learn. If you want to stay free from negativity, you must fill your heart and mind with love and compassion of the purest kind. Unless there is love in your heart, you cannot experience the love of God or for that matter, the love of anyone else. At the lowest level the heart manifests as desire, at the intermediate level as love and compassion, and at the highest level as devotion, bliss, and unconditional love, which is not of this world.

Meaning and significance

The Sanskrit word for heart is hrid or hrdayam, which is usually translated as the mind, the soul, the heart, the chest, the bosom or breast. It is also used to refer to the emotional state of love, or affection, or the essence of things. Since it has a spiritual and philosophical significance, it is also used in conjunction with other words as epithets of gods or to denote certain physical or mental states. For example, Shiva has the epithet of Hridayanath, the lord of the heart, and Parvathi, Hridayeswari, the goddess of the heart.

Although, I have not found this explanation anywhere, I believe hidden within the word hrdayam is its generic meaning as the source of emotions. There are two root words, hr+udayam in hrdayam. Hr means any impelling emotions such as anger, fear or guilt, and udayam means dawn. Therefore, it appears that the word hrdayam has an unintentional or coincidental connotation as the seat or cause of emotions.

Descriptions of heart in the Upanishads **

The heart is mentioned in the Upanishads as an internal organ, and mostly in a passive sense as the location where the Self is present or where the Self gathers up the breaths before departing from the body. Very rarely it is classified as an organ but mostly as a location and as a symbol of heaven, which is self-supporting. It is a very important location in the body, just as the light is to the sun and the world. In the body it is the abode of the Self and the heaven itself, which connects the beings to the gods, the Sun and the moon, and does not require any further support (Br.3.9.25). It is also the safe haven for the Self when the body is asleep or when it journeys to the higher worlds upon departing from the body.

The following statement by Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4.1.7) sums it up all, “The heart, O Emperor, is the abode of all things, and the heart, O Emperor, is the support of all beings. On the heart, O Emperor, all beings rest. The heart truly, O Emperor, is the supreme Brahman. His heart does not desert him, who, knowing thus, worships it.” In the earlier Upanishads, we find descriptions of the heart as heaven. In the latter Upanishads we find references to it as both the divine city of Brahman (Mun.2.2.7) and the cave in which is hidden the Self. Sometimes it is also described as the golden sheath that houses the Self.

By all means, the heart in the body is not of this world. Its source is in the heaven. If the body is the Asvattha tree, the heart is where its roots are located and its branches in the organs. And if the body is the wheel, the heart is the center where the arteries in the body are yoked together like spokes (Mun.2.27). Because the heart is not of this world, it is through the heart you speak to the gods and reach out to the Supreme world, with your mind and speech. These ideas are affirmed and reaffirmed in several other Upanishads.

According to the Chandogya Upanishad (3.18.2), in the body of the Universal Being (Vaisvanara, if his chest is (comparable to) the sacrificial pit, his heart (becomes comparable to) the sacrificial fire. The essence of that heart is space (akasa) or heaven. “As far as this (outer) space extends, so far is that space in his heart (extends). Both the earth and the heaven are inside it, both fire and air, both the sun and the moon, both the lightning and the stars. Whatever there is of him, and whatever is not, all that is contained in it.”

You also come to know why the heart is called hrdayam. It is because the Self is located in the heart. “Truly, the Self is in the heart,” so goes a sloka (8.3.3) in the Chandogya Upanishad. “Of that, this is the etymological explanation. Hrdayam means hridi, in the heart, and ayam means this is. Hence it is called hrdayam. He who knows this goes day by day into the heavenly world.”

The Brihadaranyaka (5.4.1) provides a different explanation, “This is Prajapati, this heart. This is Brahman. This is all. This has the triple syllables. They are ‘hr’ ‘da’ and ‘yam.’ Hr is one syllable. To him who knows this, his own people and others make offerings. Da is one syllable. To him who knows that his own people give. Ya is one syllable. He who knows this goes to the heavenly world.”

The same Upanishad (Ch.3.12.4) compares heart to the subtle body. It is the body of the Purusha in us where the breath rests. “That which is the body of the Purusha, truly, is that which is the heart in the Purusha, for it is in the heart the breath rests but not beyond.”

According to Shankara, the six syllables in the Gayatri meter symbolize the six organs of Purusha, namely, “Speech, Purusha, the Earth, Body, Heart and the Breath.” In the same section, we further hear that the space which is outside the body is Brahman, and it is the same which is located in the heart. The heart has five openings (according to Mundaka seven), through which five kinds of breath travel in the body and keep it alive and nourished (Ch.3.13). Its eastern opening is Prana, southern opening is Vyana, western opening is Apana, northern opening is Samana and upper opening is Udana.

The importance of heart in the body extends beyond superficial symbolism. The heart is vital to life and existence upon earth, because it is also the physical location for the Self in the body. This is affirmed by the teachings of Sandilya (3.14.3). “This is my Self within my heart, smaller than a grain of rice, than a corn of barely, than a mustard seed, than a grain of millet or the kernel of a grain of millet.” Since the Self resides in the space in the heart, it is also the source of intelligence and where perceptions rest (Br.3.9.20). Even faith (sraddah) rests upon heart only (Br.3.9.21).

The heart is thus a very important location in the body which houses both the breaths and the Self. Because of its subtle nature, it also keeps a connection with the dream world and the heaven. Through that the Self travels into the astral world during sleep and to the Sun or the Moon upon death. It is facilitated by numerous arteries called hita (energy channels), which extend from the heart all the way to the heaven (Ch.8.6.2). Just as a path between two villages extend from this to that, “They start from that sun and enter these arteries; and starting from the arteries, they enter the sun.” The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad(4.2.3) is even more graphic, “Just as the hair are a thousand fold, so become the arteries called hita that are established in the heart. Through them flows that which flows.”

The heart is thus a connecting link between the heaven and the earth and between the microcosm and the macrocosm. What protects people from harm when they are asleep and defenseless is also the heart (Ch.8.6.3). When a person is deeply asleep, he enters the arteries of the heart and there no evil can touch him. “When one is thus fully asleep, resting and serene without seeing any dreams, then he happens to enter these arteries. Then no evil touches him for he has attained the brilliant light.”

The idea is reaffirmed in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (2.1.18) by Ajatasatru who confirms it to Balaki. The heart is the place where a person rests when asleep. It is also the doorway to the dream world (Br.2.1.19). “Now, when he falls asleep, when he does not know anything, by the seventy two thousand arteries called hita, which extend from the heart to the entire body, he travels and rests in the body. As a boy, as an emperor, as a great Brahmana may rest, having attained the supreme bliss, so also he rests in the body.”

The heart is the door to the dreams and the heaven because during creation it was from the heart that the mind was separated and from the mind the moon (Ait.1.1.3). So also, during the formation of the body the moon entered the heart becoming the mind (Ait.1.2.4). Since the heart is the location of the Self, it is also the source of intelligence (Ait.3.3). “That which is the heart and the mind, That is consciousness, perception, discrimination, intelligence, mental brilliance…”

According to the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.9.22) the heart is where life begins and comes into an end, and where gods assemble to unite in the body during birth and disperse at the time of death. “Upon what does the semen rest? Upon the heart, he said. Therefore, they say of a newly born who resembles his father, who appears as if he has sprung out of his heart, that he is made out of his heart. It is in the heart does the semen become established.” And when he dies, he goes up by the same arteries to the Sun or to the other worlds.

Since the heart is the abode of the Self, all the deities descend into the heart when a person is about to die and join the Self (Br.4.4.1). “That Self when becomes weak and benumbed, as it were, then the breaths gather around him. Taking with him these effulgent ones he descends into the heart. When that person in the eye withdraws from all sides, then he becomes unconscious of forms.” The Chandogya (8.6.6) explains what happens later, “Hundred and one are the arteries of the heart; one of them goes to the top of the head. Passing through that one attains immortality; the others serve as the means for going in different directions, yes in different directions.”

The process of liberation also begins from the heart because it is where the Self, of the size of the thumb, is held in bondage with the knots of desires (Katha.2.3.15-17). They have to be cut asunder and the Self should be patiently separated from the body “as one separates a blade of munja grass from its midrib.” Then “the mortal becomes immortal even here.”

According to the Mundaka Upanishad (1.2.11) the heart must be tranquil, as the mind, to achieve liberation. The heart must be pure to experience the highest bliss (Pain.3.9). For that the mind should rest in peace, with the senses withdrawn into the mind and the mind into the heart (Sv.2.8). “Having established the mind and the senses in his heart, a wise person should cross, by the boat of Brahman, the streams of fear.” If he persists by the grace of Siva he will be able to “perceive Him as majestic and become free from sorrow.”

Since the Self is located in the heart and mind is the doorway to the heart, it is only through the heart and the mind that we can know the Self (Sv.4.20). One must focus upon the heart, having made it pure and without passions (Kai.6-7). “Focusing upon the center of the lotus of the heart, which is without passion and pure, and meditating in the center upon that which is pure without sorrow, unthinkable, unmanifested, infinite in form, auspicious, peaceful, eternal and the cause of Brahma,” the sages attain Him, the Supreme Lord.

The parikrama is an ancient ritual of reverence for Hindus and Buddhists. Circling the sacred — stupa or temple, or a sacrificial fire, tulsi plant or peepal tree — is a form of meditation in motion. A parikrama can also be a pilgrimage, an arduous quest where bodily privations prepare the mind for spiritual enlightenment, the circuit now describing an entire town — as prescribed for Benaras, or a mountain, Kailash, or a river, Narmada.

The notion of a parikrama as a small journey that may encompass larger truths lies at the heart of Hartosh Singh Bal’s book Waters Close Over Us. Bal travels along the Narmada, tracing the river’s sacred geography through history, reflecting on the streams of thought that have grown along its banks. His musings dwell on Advaita philosophy (Sankara’s legendary debate with the Mimamsa school is believed to have taken place at Mahishmati in the Narmada valley 1200 years ago), 19th century Quaker missionary debates in Hoshangabad, as well as contemporary controversies over large dams and development. Bal is as much a time traveller as a man driving along the river in a car.

The intertwined themes of renunciation and sacrifice spiral double helix-like through the book. The narrative starts on the Amarkantak plateau, the river’s source, which is dotted with ashrams of ascetics. Bal finds the sadhus disappointing: intellectual wimps compared to the Adi Sankaracharya, they are incapable of grappling with muscular metaphysical problems. Later in the book, Bal visits Swami Rajneesh’s birthplace in Gadarwara — a town midway between Jabalpur and Hoshangabad — and his tone becomes snidely disapproving. To him, Osho is a charlatan and his philosophy of detachment amid worldly pleasures debases the idea of renunciation beyond retrieve.

According to Bal, a similar slide of the sacred into sophistry can be seen in the career of the idea of sacrifice. In 1822, a British officer witnessed the death of a young man who offered himself to the god Kal Bhairava, flinging himself down from the cliffs of Mandhata Island at Omkareshwar onto the river’s rocks below, as crowds of worshippers cheered and prayed. The act is savage and splendid at the same time. The officer praised the youth whose ‘strength of faith and fortitude would have adorned the noblest cause’. From that courageous act of self-immolation, we have now descended to mass murder, as unnumbered farmers and forest-dwellers are forced into a living death by the dams on the Narmada. Their sacrifice, and the dubious gains for which it was made, roils the gentle melancholia that flows through the book into angry eddies.

Bal sojourns among Gond and Pardhan storytellers and musicians whose myths and legends recount past glories when Gond kings ruled large parts of central India in the 16th century, before losing ground to Rajput and Mughal chieftains. Today, those tales are being retold, history and language revived and Gond religion reinvented in order to regain power, not least through the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP). If this electoral initiative signifies a born-again Gond identity, it must grapple with Hindu nationalists for the souls of Sdivasis. According to the Sangh Parivar, Sdivasis are Hindus who got lost in the forest; they have organised public ceremonies of mass ‘ghar vapasi’ (homecoming) to bring them back. Gond and Hindu origin stories flirt with each other, as do their political counterparts.

The storied landscape that is the Narmada valley has caves with 9000 year-old paintings of hunting and battle and those that sheltered Buddhist monks more than 2000 years ago. Even such venerable relics are not safe from harm: the insult of casual visitors who leave graffiti and empty beer bottles behind or the cultural crime of a sadhu who says, “The painting here was spectacular. Two hundred men wielding shields and spears stood there, two armies facing each other. I had it painted over.”

Waters Close Over Us is a lament. It mourns the decline of intellectual debate and the dominance of self-righteous know-it-alls who deny tolerance and respect to those who differ from them. The damming of the Narmada and the destruction of ancient cave paintings bring the parikrama full circle: the river and the civilisation it spawned are both dying. I found this view overly bleak and numb to the sense of joy and meaningfulness that suffuses everyday life in the valley. But the arguments in Bal’s erudite, elegantly-structured book are still well worth thinking about.

Waters Close Over Us: A Journey Along the Narmada; Hartosh Singh Bal, Fourth Estate/HarperCollins India, Rs.

India is probably the only country where a religious day is linked to a practice of gold buying. It is the Akshaya Tritiya festival day and we are talking tons of gold here. According to estimates, Indian consumers bought about 20 tonnes of the precious metal on this festive day in 2010. However this was much lower than the buy in 2009 due to soaring prices. India, the world’s largest consumer of the yellow metal, bought some 45 tonnes of Gold in 2009. So what makes Akshaya Tritiya a day for GOLD?

According to gold industry pundits, in 2011 GOLD is all set to offer fourth best returns to investors in last 10 years as it has so far gained 18 per cent in price since the festival day last year. For Indians buying gold is a popular activity on Akshaya Tritiya day, as it is the ultimate symbol of wealth and prosperity. According to the Hindu calendar, this most auspicious Akshaya Tritiya day falls on Friday next week. This year the date of Akshaya Trithiya is Friday May 6.This day is important to both Hindus and Jains. According to the traditional panchang Akshaya Tritiya falls on the third day (Tritiya) of the new moon of Vaishakh month (April-May) every year.

Akshaya in Sanskrit means one that ‘never diminishes’ (a—kshaya) and the day is believed to bring good luck and success. Hindus believe they can get lasting prosperity by buying precious metals on the day. Akshaya Tritiya is traditionally earmarked for beginning new ventures, for investing and purchasing valuables especially gold, jewellery and diamond. It is no surprise Indians buy gold on Akshaya Tritiya as it is considered very auspicious and a safe investment. It is also believed that any meaningful activity started on this day would be fruitful.

Economically this day is quite productive for marketers as they cash in on the festivity to boost their sales. Marketers indulge in high voltage advertisement campaigns especially the jewellery stores. In fact people in India and overseas book jewellery in advance and take delivery on Akshaya Tritiya day. It’s a day of frenzy buying for all precious metals especially gold. Sales on Akshaya Tritiya day usually increases four to five times compared to normal days. Traditionally the preference for customers is to buy light-weight jewellery, diamond jewellery but today’s economic superpower India sees several buyers preferring diamond jewellery purchases.

According to Hindu astrology, the entire Akshaya Tritiya day is auspicious. So there is no need to look for an auspicious time i.e. no ‘muhurat’ required on this day. This is the only day in any year when the Sun which is the lord of the planets and Moon which is the lord of creativity are in exaltation meaning at their peak of radiance. Astrologically this is extremely auspicious. That also makes this day one of the most popular dates in Hindu calendar for marriages and partnerships.

It is also believed that people born during this time shine bright in life due to the exaltation of Sun and Moon in the native’s horoscope. Many greats were born during this period like Basaveshwara, Ramanujacharya, Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Chinmayananda and Lord Buddha.

Glance through the annals of ancient Indian heritage and one finds that on this tritiya day of Vaishaka month many significant things of great spiritual importance happened. According to Jain legends, this day is auspicious as people from Ayodhya bought gold and jewellery to offer to their Tirthankara Rshabhdev who was the King of Ayodhya centuries ago. Jains, even today, observe long term fast to commemorate their first Tirthankara Rshabhdev and break their fast on Akshaya Tritiya day with sugar cane juice as Rshabhdeva broke his fast with that juice after 1 year.

According to the ancient Hindu religious texts like the Puranas, this day marked the beginning of the “SatyaYug” or the Golden Age – the first of the four Yugas. It is believe that on this day Lord Krishna gave Draupadi a bowl – akshaya patara (where food came in abundance) when the Pandavas were in exile. Traditionally this third day in the bright fortnight of Vaishakh is also the day of the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu ~ the ‘preserving’ manifestation of God in the Hindu Trinity.

On this day of Akshaya Tritiya, Maharishi Veda Vyas along with Lord Ganesha started writing the great epic Mahabharata. It is also the day the most sacred river of the Hindus, Ganga descended to earth. On this day Sudama visited his childhood buddy Lord Krishna with a hearty gift of a handful of beaten rice (poha). The good returns (prasad) he got in return for his devotion to the Lord is a classical story told in Hindu households. On such a day associated with Lord Krishna the story of Sudama’s offering is mentioned along with Lord Krishna’s affirmation in his Holy Gita ~ “Whoever offers a leaf, a flower, a fruit or even water with devotion, that I accept, offered as it is with a loving heart “.

Thus, many are the reasons for Akshaya Tritiya to be considered a wish fulfilling day. Any worship performed or daan (donation) given on this day is considered extremely good karma. Good karma is considered meritorious and is supposed to bestow beneficial results.

Happy Akshaya Tritiya day everyone.