Talks With Ramana Maharshi | The Heart | Do Guru’s Feel Pain | Ramana’s Appearance | Chadwick’s First Darshan | Saints Turn Into Light | Somerset Maugham | Mercedes D’Acosta | Ramana’s Teaching According to Adi Da | Published from the Ashram | The Seer and The Seen | Mandukya Upanishad | Three States of Consciousness | The Five Great Elements | India and Peru | Ramana’s Will |
The following excerpts are from ‘A Sadhu’s Reminscences of Ramana Maharshi by Sadhu Arunachala (A.W. Chadwick),
Publisher: Sri Ramanasramam, Tiruvannamalai, 1961.
Alan Chadwick, a retired British military officer was one of the first European devotees of Ramana Maharshi. He came to his Guru in November of 1935 and stayed until Ramana’s passing in 1950 (April 14, 1950 at 8:47 p.m.). He had the remarkable experience of being intimate with Ramana on a daily basis which gives this book it’s unique insight into the day to day life of this great Sage of Inida.
Sadhu Arunachala passed away in April 1962.
p. 96
Bhagavan used to say that the ego-sense arose in the Heart. This Heart is not the physical organ or even one of the Yogic Chakras but a point about one and a half inches to the right from middle of the chest. Some people pretend that Self-realization was to be found at that point. But how is that possible? Can there be a physical spot where Realization is located? Surely it is all-enveloping. The idea is that when a Sadhu returns from a state of deep Samadhi the first point of outer consciousness of which he is aware is this point in the so-called Heart.
At this point the transcendental experience drops away and the ego again takes possession. So looking back it almost seems to him as though Self-realization was found there as it was his last point of consciousness. Talking in exactly then it is possible to say that Realization was found in the Heart.
See more on the Heart: Heart and Mind
18th June, 1936
205. Mr. Cohen had been cogitating on the nature of the Heart, if the ‘spiritual heart’ beats; if so, how; if it does not beat, then how is it to be felt?
M.: This heart is different from the physical heart; beating is the function of the latter. The former is the seat of spiritual experience. That is all that can be said of it.
Just as a dynamo supplies motive power to whole systems of lights, fans, etc, so the original Primal Force supplies energy to the beating of the heart, respiration, etc.
D.: How is the ‘I’ – ‘I’ consciousness felt?
M.: As an unbroken awareness of ‘I’. It is simply consciousness.
D.: Can we know it when it dawns?
M.: Yes, as consciousness. You are that even now. There will be no mistaking it when it is pure.
D.: Why do we have such a place as the ‘Heart’ for meditation?
M.: Because you seek consciousness. Where can you find it? Can you reach it externally? You have to find it internally. Therefore you are directed inward. Again the ‘Heart’ is only the seat of consciousness or the consciousness itself.
D.: On what should we meditate?
M.: Who is the meditator? Ask the question first. Remain as the meditator. There is no need to meditate.
See more on the Heart: Heart and Mind
Talks With Ramana Maharshi | The Heart | Do Guru’s Feel Pain | Ramana’s Appearance | Chadwick’s First Darshan | Saints Turn Into Light | Somerset Maugham | Mercedes D’Acosta | Ramana’s Teaching According to Adi Da | Published from the Ashram | The Seer and The Seen | Mandukya Upanishad | Three States of Consciousness | The Five Great Elements | India and Peru | Ramana’s Will