I had earlier written about navigating the proverbial Heart v/s Mind conflict situation. This refers to a logic v/s emotional dilemma. ‘Heart’ is used in these situations to mean the emotional or illogical desire. Cultivating a ‘sense’ of the situation is the solution. The sense of the situation goes deeper than both logic and emotion. And as per this ‘sense’ of the situation and of life we can make our choice.
“Once you get an understanding of the person you are, then for a lot of situations there is good level of clarity about the course of action. I call this a Sense about things. A sense about how the world works, a sense about the situations around you and about you yourself as a person. This sense only develops over time when you do the right things. One needs to invest in ones self, invest in really getting to know others and the world in general. Generally spirituality leads to an increase in depth of perception and from this perception a sense of things emerges. This sense of things allows you to understand and manage situations in a more comprehensive manner. So there should be no split of you between heart and mind – a more comprehensive awareness and understanding is needed to make a sensible choice.”
Read the blog about navigating the heart v/s mind situations.
But there is also another “heart” referred to in spiritual teachings
“All truth in the universe will manifest in your heart, if you are sufficiently pure.” – Swami Vivekananda
There are many references to the ‘Heart’ in spiritual literature, especially older ones. And it is usually encouraged to follow the heart, listen to the heart, find truth in the heart etc…
It is important to understand that this ‘Heart’ does not refer to the emotional or illogical component of the mind. In the spiritual context the heart is considered paramount but it does not mean Emotions or other Illogical aspects.
It is why on the topic of emotions Vivekananda will say very different things,
“Emotions many times drag us down to the level of animals”
Emotions are considered tricky for a sadhaka. It is never to be understood as the paramount ‘Heart’.
And this is specifically important for the urban population, because their “emotional” situation is a psychological mess. They are totally cut off from nature and earthy things. And their life also often is too materialistic which create very silly emotional situations. And if a misunderstanding makes them value this psychological mess more – that would be detrimental.
My experience on this spiritual ‘Heart’ only happened after coming in touch with Ramana Maharishi and my tryst with Tiruvannamalai.
He has spoken in detail about the Heart.
That which rises as ‘I’ in the body is the mind. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought ‘I’ rises first, one would discover that it rises in the Heart. That is the place of the mind’s origin. Even if one thinks constantly ‘I’, ‘I’, one will be led to that place. Of all the thoughts that arise in the mind, the ‘I’ thought is the first. It is only after the rise of the “I-thought” that other thoughts occur.
The word ‘Origin’ in the above context gave me a slightly different meaning. So I wasn’t able to really grasp what he was saying. Once I was part of a casual banter between the various sadhakas in Tiruvannamalai. And one fairly old resident of Tiruvannamalai used the word ‘Source’ instead of Origin, and that really gave me a better picture of it.
In the spiritual context when people say “Heart” they are referring to the “Source of the being” or Source of the mind.
So a better way for us to understand this term “heart” is via the English proverb “heart of the matter”. This doesn’t refer to the emotional aspect. It refers to the crux of anything.
What is our source?
Of our mind. Of conflict. Of pain. Of happiness.
The crux of the matter.
And when we reach the crux of any matter we figure out a solution. We figure out what is needed in that situation.
Sadhguru’s “Doing What is Needed”
A while back I realised that when Sadhguru Jaggi says, “do what’s needed”, it is this same thing.
I often wondered, how do I know what is needed? In any situation, how can we fathom “what’s needed”. Also wouldn’t one person’s understanding of what is needed differ from another persons? But surely the “need” of the situation would be objective and not subjective.
Well, over time, I have come to understand that first we need to get to the source of the matter. Understand the crux of it. Once we do that then the natural response is to address the crux of it with whatever is needed.
Usually, people are confused or they are missing the crux of the situation. And that is why their response to situations can often worsen it. They end up creating more chaos and karma over things rather than finding solutions. So they can’t do what is needed, because they don’t grasp the situation well enough to understand what is actually needed.
It is of value that Sadhguru significantly redefines old spiritual terms so people don’t get convoluted. Because a large number of people have become emotional fools because they misunderstand the spiritual term “heart”. They keep glorifying their fluffy emotions as a sign of their spiritual advancement. So to cut it all aside and talk about “doing what’s needed” is a very good way to bring back the proper teaching. Hopefully, people would then drop their emotional focus and instead start working in a different (possibly more sensible) direction. [Nothing wrong with emotions. But giving undue importance to them is silly and ineffective.]
And yea, our overall perception of situations would vary as per individual karma… So each persons evaluation of a situation and solution would be different.
My spiritual base has been in Sadhguru’s teachings so naturally any insight I gain, eventually gets correlated with what he has said….
I was telling a Ramanasramam person too, that when I read Ramana’s teaching, I probably understand it quite differently from most conventional Indian people. Because they come from the conventional religion framework. While I come from the SJV framework, which is significantly different in nomenclature and words. (The real truths and experience is always One).
Summary,
Be wary of emotional and psychological traps. The supreme “heart” referred to in spiritual literature is not these emotional tangles. But rather it is about the source of you (and your mind). Get to the crux of matters. And the crux of who you are. And do what is needed.