Sat-darshana Bhashya (translation)

Verse 1.

सत्प्रत्ययाः किनु विहाय सन्तं?
हृद्येष चिंतारहितो हृदाख्यः ।
कथं स्मरामस्तममेयमेकं ?
तस्य स्मृतिस्तत्र दृढव निष्ठा॥

Without something that exists, can there be notions of existence?
Free of thoughts, it is there, the Inner being, named the Heart.
How then to conceive it is the question --It, the one inconceivable.
To conceive it is but to be it, in the Heart.

Commentary.

“Without something that exists can there be notions of existence?" From the question itself the answer is clear that without existence there can be no notions of it. Many are the notions of existence that are formed, having as their basis and pressupposition existence which is one. Existence is the common basis of all the varying and contradictory notions which are occasioned by objects without or thoughts within. Themselves varying, they unite in suggesting the one that exists. In order that ’existence’ satta may not be mistaken for a class concept signifying a class of existences in this world of name and form full of various groups or objects the singular ’existence and the plural ’notions’ are used to suggest that this world of name and form with its numberless groups and endless species of objects has for its source and support something which is variously called the Real, the one Existence, the Self, the Infinite, the Brahman, that which is the essential truth of the Vedas and the subject of intimate experience. It is because of this sumething that is present everywhere, within and without, that whatever is visible, whether real or not, occasions and suggests the notion of ’Is’. This something that exists and that we call Brahman forms the basis of all existences and therefore is present everywhere.

Though its presence is everywhere, yet the Heart hrdayam is stressed as its special seat. “Free of thoughts it is there in the heart, the inner Being named the Heart”. How is it that Brahman is said to be present in the Heart while it is really omnipresent? Though it is really present everywhere, it is luminous in the Heart of every living being as its own Self. And every one is concerned with his own self first before he proceeds to consider existence outside himself. Since it is direct, natural and easy to realise this Allpresence, the Brahman, in one’s own self through the I-notion of which it is the basis, it is taught that Brahman is present in every being as one’s own self. By one’s own self is meant the subject of the intimate experience and awareness ’I am’. Where there is this experience that is called the Heart. Therefore when we find in the second line "It is there, the Inner Being", the sense is clear that the Real Existence or omnipresent Brahman of the first line is the inner being in every one, everyone’s own self. In a piece of focussing glass, the solar rays which are free and everywhere are focussed into an intenser light and heat. On this analogy is to be understood the special luminous appearance of the omnipresent Brahman in the Heart as one’s own self, in the form of the experience and awareness ’I am.’

The Sanskrit term hrdayam connotes that it is a centre, a locus of the soul. Literally it means ’the self is here. If then a centre is affirmed of the self in the bodily existence, such a centre is necessarily spatial and apprehended by the intelligence as subject to space. The doubt may then arise if the self is limited by and dependent on anything but itself. To remove such a doubt, the self itself is named the Heart. The self is not merely in the Heart but it is the Heart itself. For it is the free eternal self which is centred in the living being as the Heart, the real ’I’, the self-being, and is rightly viewed as located there unattached to his selfbecomings as mind, life and body. This unattachment means freedom from the movement while giving support to it. Therefore it is stated that Brahman the Real Existence is the Heart itself, the centre of the self, but it can also be viewed by the external mind as self in the Heart-centre. Thus the sense is clear that the Heart and the self in every individual are identical, for the reason that both refer to the same intense root-consciousness of self-being, to the same supreme awareness.

From the universal view-point also, Brahman is the Heart, the Self-centre, as it is the self of all that it has become. Brahman is the essence and secret of all existence and hence may be truly called its Heart. Again men who have realised the Self hold that the Self is the basis of the I-notion, the root source of mental movement such as that of the knower and the known, and is hence termed the Heart. Really the I-thought is the root of all thoughts.

Then the doubt arises that since all thoughts spring from a common centre, the root-thought ’I’ and are thus intimately related to the self, the latter undergoes modification in its mental becomings and being thus subject to ceaseless change is liable to ultimate disappearance. To obviate such a doubt it is stated that He in the Heart is free of thoughts, cinta-rahita. Here the word cinta connotes all mental becomings. The Self in the being’s centre, the Heart, while it is the support and source of all mental movement retains its radical unchangeability as the Self; and because it is Brahman that is glowing in the Heart as the radical I-consciousness, its persistent continuity which supports the notion of personal identity remains unaffected by the ceaseless flow of thoughts arising from it as part of a general movement of its becoming which is of the character of incessant change. Therefore the statement is unexceptionable that the Self which is in the Heart and which is also the Heart is eternal and not at all subject to the mutations of mental movement. Even as the source of all mental becoming it remains the eternal and changeless Self.

Here a difficulty presents itself. If the Self, the Heart is beyond thoughts i.e., does not admit of being approached by thought, how can we have any conception of it? "How to conceive it is the question.” It must be admitted that it cannot be conceived. It is inconceivable. Itself the source of mind, it is not to be measured by mind, for it is subtler than the mind to which it gives rise. In the first place it was stated by implication and suggestion that the Real Existence, the Brahman of the Upanishads, is omnipresent and is the basis of all existence, subjective and objective, giving birth to the basic notion of ’Is’ both in the inner and in the outer world-being. In the next line it was affirmed that as that Brahman or Reality has become the Heart of all beings, shining as their distinct self, it is to be discovered as one’s own self in the Heart, as the innermost being. To impress the idea that though there are so many distinct individual beings the Self is really one in all of them, it is stated as ’the One, Inconceivable’. is the one Self that apparently has become the distinct selves of the individuals that are its formations. It is inconceivable in the sense that it cannot be thought of in terms implying a relationship such as that of the knower and the known, as it is the Absolute, absolved of all the relatives, which however result from its own power to become.

If then the One Supreme Self of all our selves dwells in our own inner being, the Heart, and yet is beyond, though behind, all our thoughts, how are we to contemplate it? The fourth line gives the answer, "to conceive it is to be it, in the Heart.” To be in a settled poise in the Heart, the Self-centre, which needs no outside support and does not depend upon any thought or object for its self-awareness is the only way to contemplate it. Obviously such a state cannot be connoted by the term conception. The suggestion is that conceptual thought must deepen and reduce itself into a direct perception in order to become a true mould and reflection of the real self-awareness.

It must be borne in mind that just as objective existence is the basis and support of all the objects therein, and in the subjective being the I-thought is the root of all thoughts, even so the Self’s experience ’I am’ is the root of all experiences, while yet it is unseized by the movement of thoughts of which it is the basis. Therefore when the diverse thought-forms are forged into a homogeneous unity and assume the form of a single movement, that of the Ithought which is the persistent basis of all thoughts, the uncreated Self-awareness that is always there giving birth and support to the I-thought in the Heart-centre becomes a living experiences to the mental movement itself.

Meditation upon or contemplation of self lies then in a single ceaseless thought-movement directed to the self, a movement, steady and constant, strengthened by the idea that the Self is there as a radical awareness in the Heart, as one’s own innermost being from which all thoughts arise and to which they all return. This is called the “Spiritual art of the Heart,’ Hridaya Vidya. Thus this verse, after affirming that Brahman the Reality is the Heart of all and is in the Heart of everyone as the self, beyond the range of the senses and independent of the mind and other instruments, to be realised only by direct experience, proceeds to point out the path of meditation which is of the nature of awareness—an awareness which in graded terms is a union of the diverse thought-movements with the single I-thought, of the mind with the self, of the self with Brahman, the Supreme Being.

Thus of the four sentences in the verse, the first asks a suggestive question to create interest in the search for the Truth, the Real that is present everywhere; the second gives the answer that the mental search for it in the external is both tedious and futile, that it is here in the self, is one’s own inner being named the Heart and that the search for it there is easy, natural and direct. That third sentence raises the question, "If the mind cannot reach or compass it, what is the way to know it?" And the fourth gives the answer that the divergent thoughts must be turned to a single thought-movement directed to the idea of the self and thus by what is called hrdaya vidya, the training and moulding of the mind to harmonise with the real nature of the self, true knowledge of the self is gained.

In this connection it is appropriate to give an English rendering of the Sanskrit verse of Shri Maharshi which puts in a nutshell the substance of the hrdaya vidya, the mystic path of the Heart.

[^101]

[^101]: Ramana Gita Ch. II. हृदयकुहरमध्ये केवलं ब्रह्ममात्रं हमहमिति साक्षादात्मरूपेण भाति । हृदि विश मनसा स्वं चिंंवता मज्जता वा पवनचलनरोधादात्मनिष्ठो भव त्वम् ।“In the Heart’s Cavity, the sole Brahman as an ever-persisting ’I’ shines direct in the form of the Self.

Into the Heart enter thyself, with mind in search or in deeper plunge; Or by restraint of lifemovement be firmly poised in the Self.”