Hridaya- The Spiritual Heart
n Sanskrit, there is a word, Hridaya, that can be interpreted as “spiritual heart.” More literally, it translates from its root words: hri, which means “to give”; da, which means “to take”; and ya, derived from yam, which means “balance.” Therefore, Hridaya is “that which gives and takes in perfect balance.”
Hridaya should not be mistaken for the emotional heart, which is driven by impulse and feelings such as lust and heartbreak, nor is it the anatomical heart that allows life to exist in this physical form. Rather, this heart is said to be deeper and more ancient than the physical and emotional body. It is described as being unattached to the ego, the aspect of our being that is true and absolute.
I have been thinking a lot lately about the emotional impulses and influences of life and mind. How real the feelings of confusion and judgment can feel when they are alive in your mind and sensational experience. Likewise, it is easy to identify these feelings as our personality or identity. These identities extend beyond emotions and tap into perceived visions of success and failure, merging life experiences into our identity rather than viewing them as simple experiences. I can liken this to a cloud that covers the sun. Logically, we know the sun still exists beneath the clouds, but all we can focus on is the darkness of the cloud. Likewise, the experience of love or hate can become all-encompassing and overwhelming.
Hridaya is often referred to as the ‘spiritual heart.’ It is the heart that is forever giving and receiving. It's the heart that is not affected by emotions. It remains unaffected by love and betrayal, happiness, sadness, or joy. It is the heart that holds its strength beyond the fluctuations of life. Sometimes, in English, it is referred to as the soul—the part of us that cannot be broken or jaded. It is the ever-living heart that holds the entire soul and the entire universe within it.
“The only beauty that lasts is the beauty of the heart.” - Rumi
When we sit in the spiritual heart, we can truly rest. The whole experience of existence continues too flow as we sit effortlessly from this space. Nature is a perfect example of this giving and receiving. Nature seems not to create stories or boundaries about what it can take and how it needs to give. Nature understands that the cycle of life, to watch rocks around and reform as sand, or rain to fall only to be received by vegetation to grown, the sun gives heat and this water transforms to water vapor to return back to the clouds and the cycle continues. Our breath understands nature and effortlessly piurs breath out gifting to nature knowing the next breath in we will receive. Imagine if all expressions of giving and receiving where so easy! That we gave with benevolence and authenticity without fear of lack and received with open arms and heart without guilt or shame. So what happened? how did we become this self serving and at the same time self deprecating society resistance to opening up beyond our own mind?
In many cases individual and generational trauma, stress and pain stops us from this effortless flow of giving and receiving. Learning miss trust and violent behaviour (mental emotional and physical) from child hood and even beyond tends to lock us into fight / flight/ or freeze response. Trauma disrupts own nature of reperosity forcing the nervous system to find hyperarousal and often find a stuckness in either Fight or flight (sympathetic) or dorsivagal shut down ( parasympathetic).
I believe there is a certain amount of somatic healing that needs to take place to find safety again in the nervous sytem and physical body in order to feel safe enough to feel beyond the happenings of life. The Ego is every thing that we identify with and is certainly not the villian, i fear that taking the aproach to release the ego in deep meditive practices before tending to the aspects of us that need nurturing and healing will promt us to attach to disosiation instead of finding the toatlity of heart (or soul). My teacher Roshan once said that in order to become selfless we must be selfish. I (at the timee) found this icredibly frustrating, looking around at the world thinking how the devil could yoga philosophy sugest that there needs to be more selfishness in this selfish world? I know understand the message behind this teaching is to be honest with your own needs so that you are stable and healthy in order to ed=effortlessly pour love. Have you heard the saying ‘have a cup so abundant and over flowing that you can give from your sourcer not your cup’ ?
