THE LEGEND OF THE HEART

The heart, or Antaḥkaraṇa, is the internal organ of a being. It is the Self, or soul; the seat of thought and feeling, thinking faculty, mind, and conscience of a being. In Vedānta, the word Antaḥkaraṇa, meaning heart, describes the four parts of our inner mind. These parts are Buddhi, which is our intellect; Manas, which is the part of the mind that wavers; Ahaṃkāra, which is our sense of self or “I-ness”; and Chitta, which holds our thoughts and memories. Antaḥkaraṇa, or the soul in all its senses, external and internal, the inner and outer of a being. It is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms Antara, or within, and Karaṇa, or organ, that causes. It is the internal and spiritual part of a being, the seat of thought and feeling—the mind, the heart, the conscience, and the soul. The Sanskrit dictionary defines it as a conscience. It is a cognitive process that elicits emotion and rational associations based on an individual's moral philosophy or value system. Conscience differs from elicited emotion or thought because it stems from associations based on immediate sensory perceptions and reflexive responses, such as those in the sympathetic central nervous system. People often describe conscience as causing feelings of remorse when they commit an act that contradicts their moral values. The Upanishads are the subject matter of Vedanta. Vedanta teaches about the Absolute Existence, or Cosmic Self (Brahmān), and liberation (Moksha) of the individual soul (Ātman). 

1. Outline

In pursuit of one's own liberation, one should always inquire about the origin and nature of the human heart, or Antahkarana, according to Yoga-Vasistha (3.98.1-3.98.3). It suppresses earthly bondage and longs for liberation. The heart, or Antahkarana, being fixed in the Brahmān, or Cosmic Self, becomes purified of its worldly desires and attachments, and it perceives that self, an expression of the Cosmic Self, in itself, which transcends all imaginations of the mind. Yoga-Vasistha says the heart's power to bond or free itself from the world's desires and troubles secures the world's sedateness. Swami Sivananda asserts that the Antahkarana represents the heart and mind, ready to receive divine light through Karma Yoga. The Antahkarana is an internal organ comprising the mind, intellect, ego, and subconscious mind. It takes on four forms, or Vritti Bheda, based on the functions it performs: Manas, or the mind; Buddhi, or the intellect; Chitta, or the subconscious mind; and Ahamkara, or the ego. Antahkarana can be prepared for divine light, according to Swami Sivananda, through Karma Yoga, which is selfless service to humanity without attachment or egoism; through serving religious or social institutions with the spirit of Karma Yoga; and through controlling anger with patience, enquiry, self-restrained love, and meditation. Sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda elucidates that between the Ātman and the organs of sense, a connecting link is necessary. If we fail to acknowledge the internal organ, we may experience either perpetual perception or perpetual non-perception. The former occurs when the Ātman, the senses, and the object, which are the three causes of perception, come together, and the latter occurs when the effect does not follow the conjunction of these three causes. But neither is the truth. Therefore, we must acknowledge the existence of an internal organ that processes attention, non-attention, perception, and non-perception. He says that the Antahkarana (inner psychical instrument) is a broad term that includes the intellect, the ego, the memory, the subconscious, and the conscious mind. Due to its various functions, the Antahkarana assumes various names, such as a judge in a law court, a president in a society or association, a chairman in a meeting, and a storekeeper in charge of goods. 

2. Scriptures

The Srimad Bhagavad Gita (6.14) states that the vigilant yogi, with a serene, fearless, and unwavering mind, should meditate, sitting and thinking of Me, having Me as the supreme goal, while withdrawing the mind from everything else.

praśhāntātmā vigata-bhīr brahmachāri-vrate sthitaḥ

manaḥ sanyamya mach-chitto yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ (6.14)

Sage Vasistha in Yoga-Vasistha adopts tales and fables as part of his discourses with Sri Rama to elucidate his points. Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha, 3.98.5-3.98.20), through his discourses with Sri Rama, describes a long, open, and dreary desert, known as Ramatavi, that was quite still and solitary, devoid of any inhabitants, and so vast in its extent that it spanned a league. In it stood a man of a tremendous and gigantic figure, bearing a sorrowful visage and a troubled mind, and possessing a thousand arms and a thousand eyes. With many clubs and maces in his many arms, he struck his own back and breast and ran away. Then, using his own hands to strike himself swiftly and forcefully, he fled a hundred leagues away, fearful of someone grabbing hold of him. Thus, as he struck, cried, and flew away on all sides, he became tired and spent, feeling a lank in his legs and arms. After travelling a considerable distance from the original location, he arrived at a grove of plantain arbour, shaded by the cooling moonbeams, where he sat for a while with a smile on his face. After exiting the plantain grove, he continued to run and exercise in his usual manner. As he hurried back, he stumbled into a large, dark ditch, exhausting every muscle in his body. Rising from the ditch, he entered a plantain forest, and coming out of that spot, he fell into another ditch and then into another Karanja thicket. Thus he was falling into one ditch after rising from a thorny furze and repeatedly beating himself and crying in secret. Sage Vasistha beheld him going on in this way for a long time, and then I, with all my force, rushed forward and stopped him in his way. Sage Vasistha questioned him, asking, "Who are you, sir, and why do you act in this manner?" What is your purpose in this place, and why are you wailing and bothering yourself over nothing? He said he is nobody, O sage! Nor do I engage in any actions similar to those you are describing. You struck him, my greatest enemy, and you watched and persecuted him, to his great sorrow and delight. Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.98.44–3.98.45) describes to Sri Rama this vast desert that is still in existence, together with these sorts of men therein, and that place is well known to you, Rama, as the common range of mankind.  Sage Vasistha reemphasises that this dreadful desert is this world, filled with thorns and dangers on all sides. It is a dark desert amidst a thick spread of darkness, and no body that comes herein finds the peace and quiet of his heart, except such as have acquired the divine knowledge, which makes it a rose garden to them.

To Sri Rama’s question What is that huge desert? Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha, 3.99.1-3.99.5, 3.99.33) answered that the great desert is neither distant nor different from this wilderness of the world. That which bears the name of the world is a deep and dark abyss in itself. Its hollowness is unfathomable and unaffordable, and its unreality, which appears as reality to the ignorant, is referred to as the great desert previously mentioned. The large-bodied men you observed roaming through the desert recognize them as the minds of humanity, enslaved to the world's sorrows. The representation of a man with a thousand arms and eyes symbolises the covetous mind, which yearns for everything and tries to grasp it with numerous hands. Those deep and dark pits were none other than the pits of hell, and the plantain groves, of which I have told you, were the gardens of paradise.  Know these, Sage Vasistha argues, to be the seats of those minds that long for heavenly joys, and the dark pits to be the abode of hellish hearts, which can never get their release from those darksome dungeons. Those who, having once entered the plantain grove, do not come out any more from it, know them to be the minds of the virtuous and fraught with all their virtues. Those who had fallen into the Karanja thickets, Sage Vasistha says, were unable to extricate themselves from the thorns; know them to be the minds of men that are entangled in the snares of the world. Some minds that were enlightened with the knowledge of truth got released from the snares, but the unenlightened are bound to repeated transmigrations in different births. The souls that are subjected to metempsychosis have their rise and fall in repetition, from higher to lower births, and vice versa likewise. The thick thicket of Karanja brambles represents the bonds of conjugal and family relations; they are the source of various human desires, which are springs of all other woe, difficulty, and dangers. 

3. Remarks

The true reality, according to Yoga-Vasistha (3.99.4), is obtainable by the light of reason only and by the knowledge of one object alone. This one is complete without its union with any other; it is one and only by itself. Sage Vasistha (Yoga-Vasistha 3.99.6) personified Reason as their observer, and he alone was able to discern the folly of their minds through his guiding reason. Only he (Sage Vasistha in Yoga-Vasistha 3.99.7) can awaken those drowsy minds to the light of reason, just as the sun's enlivening rays open the lotus buds to bloom. Sage Vasistha contends in Yoga-Vasistha (3.99.8-3.99.9) that his counsels prevailed on some minds and hearts, which have received them with attention and have turned them away from earthly broils to the way of true contentment and tranquillity. However, some individuals, due to their profound ignorance, ignored his advice, ultimately succumbing to his reproofs and rebukes.

-Asutosh Satpathy