Patanjali: To know the Mind, focus on the Heart

(By practicing Samyama on the heart, knowledge of the mind is acquired)

Samyama is a particular practice of focus and absorption

Obstacles: The Knots or Granthi

Rudra Granthi transcend action to attain wisdom centered in the mental bodies of knowledge or jnana:
Manomaya and Vijnanamaya Kosha: these forms of knowing still retain attachment to I-consciousness or ego

3.

The knot lies in attachment to knowledge as my knowledge located in the Ajna Chakra (between the eyebrows), the seat of knowledge and the customs
station for passage to higher forms of awareness.
The obstacle is attachment to I-consciousness; keeping ones awareness of self as a drop, holding back from the ocean
This is a high level of achievement, going beyond diversity to perceive unity; but with that comes powers and attainments, which can reinforce a sense that I have
attained this

2.Vishnu Granthi the feeling of desire and fear, which is transcended to act for the good
centered in body of prana: Pranamaya Kosha faith, love & compassion
The knot lies in attachment to the cosmic good and the desire to help humanity with attachment to traditions and idealism our
way
This knot is located in the Anahata Chakra (heart), which is also the seat of the prana, which controls the mind and emotions
The heart chakra is the seat of faith, love & compassion, which can present obstacles so far as compassion forms attachments not to
desires or sense objects, but to the good, and to a desire to help humanity.
One adopts the vow of the bodhisattva to relieve the world from suffering but by doing so gets caught up in the world of doership.
A person at this level sees the unity in diversity, but gets caught up in diversity; though he is disciplined and one-pointed, he is still
restless with the desire to do something.
Practice: pranayama as loosening sense of doership

Rudra

Vishnu

1.Brahma Granthi feeling of separateness centered in the physical body: Annamaya Kosha

This knot is located in the Muladhara Chakra, concerned with ones security

Related to the experience of name and form. A person at this level sees only diversity and is restless with desire and fear.

Because of this knot, it is hard to meditate well because of restlessness and the inability to become one-pointed.

Practice: purification (physical practice yoga)

Brahma

The Heart Chakra

Hope

Anxiety

Repentence

Endeavor

Shiva

Indecision

Posessiveness

Fraudulence

Arrogance
Shakti

Lustfulness
12 Petals of the Outer Heart

Incompetence
Egoism

Discrimination

Energy flows to and

from the petals with
the inhalation and
exhalation, activating
the 12 Vrittis

representing movement of
energy in the 12 directions
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Inside of the Heart Chakra there is an additional 8 petaled lotus situated to the right of the physical heart.
In its center is a spiritual or etheric heart known as Hrit Pundarik or the Heart Lotus.

Untouched by physical impurities, it is

the seat of the self and waking
consciousness and in the dream state.
It can only be reached when the
Sushumna starts working which is
awakened through directing the
breath or prana into the Sushumna.
The stalk of this lotus is associated
with Chitrini, the pure or Sattvic
quality of the Goddess associated with
the central layer of the Sushumna, the
Chitra Nadi.

The Layers of the experience

of the Sushumna are
influenced by the Gunas
the qualities of action and
experience

Pingala

Ida

Right Nostril
Sun

Left Nostril
Moon

As the Sattvic layer of Chitra

Nadi is experienced, the
Heart Lotus becomes active
Sushumna experienced as Tamas (inertia)
beyond time
Vajrini the Sun experienced as Rajasic (active)
poison

Chitrini the Moon experienced as Sattvic

(illumination) nectar
Brahma Nadi or Brahma Dvara at the end of
Chitrini: passageway of awakened Kundalini
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East (Purva)

In the waking state, the physical

heart works, but the spiritual
heart remains dormant.

The experience of these wakeful

desires and emotions changes as the
energy flows in the direction of
different petals, activating the mental
modifications (vrittis) connected with
them.

Desire to do
holy deeds
Dullness,
Laziness

Charity
Tyaga acts of renouncing
Vairagya mature detachment

North (Uttara)

Anger,
Cruelty

Sexual
desire

In the dream state, energy from the

spiritual heart flows towards the 8
petals of the Lotus, generating desires
and emotional states that are
experienced in the waking state.

South
(Dakshina)

Renunciation

Movement

Desire to do
Bad Deeds
Happiness,
joy,
playfulness:
Lila
West (Paschim)

Within the Lotus there are the

layers of the Sushumna: from
fire, to sun, to moon, to the
radiance at the center (Brahma
nadi), where pure renunciation
is experienced.
From that center, the pure
virtues arising from
renunciation radiate out and
express themselves through
the pure petals of the heart.
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The seed sound (Bija Mantra) of the heart Chakra is Yang

the sound of the air element.

The Kundalini, represented in the heart as a beautiful goddess (for the first time), undoes the second knot, Vishnu Granthi

Within the heart, the pure sound of Aum is

visualized as a pure, clear light.
That light is experienced as the sound of
Aum, the Anahata Nada or sound of the
heart, and the sound is experienced as light.

It is represented by the black antelope or musk deer, which is a symbol of the heart itself.
The deer is restless, leaps with joy, and is caught by mirages and reflections.
A special quality of the musk deer is that it is enchanted by the smell of musk. Not realizing that the fragrance arises
from its own navel, the deer runs everywhere in search of that smell until he gets exhausted and lays down to rest.
Curling up, the deer realizes that the smell is coming from his own navel.
Graceful and gentle, the deer represents the nature of the heart chakra. The eyes of the deer symbolize purity and
innocence, and the deer is said to die for the sound of pure sounds the inner sound or Anahata Nada, the
sound of the heart.
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