The Heart

Sage Vasishtha

RAMA asked: Lord, what is the heart that is spoken of by you?

VASISHTHA continued:

O Rama, two aspects of the heart are spoken of here: one is acceptable and the other is to be ignored. The heart that is part of this physical body and is located in one part of the body may be ignored! The heart which is acceptable is of the nature of pure consciousness. It is both inside and outside and it is neither inside nor outside. That is the principal heart and in it is reflected everything which is in the universe, and it is the treasure-house of all wealth. Consciousness alone is the heart of all beings, not the piece of flesh which people call the heart! Hence, if the mind, freed of all conditioning, is gathered into pure consciousness, the movement of prana is restrained.

By any one of these methods, propounded by the various teachers, the movement of prana can be restrained. These yogic methods bring about the desired results if they are practised without violence or force. When one is firmly established in such practice with simultaneous growth in dispassion and when the mental conditioning comes under perfect restraint, there is fruition of the restraint of the movement of prana.

During the practice one may use eye-brow centre, the palate, the tip of the nose, or the top of the head (twelve inches from the nose); thus the prana will be restrained. Again, if by steady and persistent practice the tip of the tongue can touch the uvula, the movement of prana will be restrained. Surely, all these practices appear to be distractions; but by their steady practice, one reaches the absence of distractions. It is only by such steady practice that one is freed from sorrow and experiences the bliss of the self. Hence, practise yoga. When through practise the movement of prana is restrained, then nirvana or liberation alone remains. In it is all; from it is all; it is all; it is everywhere: in it this world-appearance is not, nor is this from it, nor is the world-appearance like it! He who is firmly established in it is liberated while living.

He whose mind is firmly established in peace through the practice of yoga has the right vision of the truth. To see that the supreme self is without beginning and without end, and that these countless objects are in fact the self and no other, is the right vision. Erroneous vision leads to rebirth; right vision ends rebirth. In it there is no subject-object (knower-knowable) relationship; for the self (consciousness) is the knower, knowledge and the knowable too, and the division is ignorance. When this is directly seen there is neither bondage nor liberation. When the sage rests in his own self, with his intelligence firmly established in the inner self, what pleasures can bind him in this world?