11 May 2011 —
Question
Q178: Knowledge and Heart?
Question 178:
Amma says:
“It’s not enough to get spiritual knowledge with the mind. It has to be brought into the heart. Only then can we truly absorb it”.
How do you understand this?
Please make your answer brief and clear (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
to me, the heart is the center, the core of our being. if we deeply absorb spiritual teachings, and make them a part of us, they go the the heart.
it’s interesting… because if I say how I understand I have to use the mind… so my goal actually is to be able to experience it. Do I experience spiritual knowledge? Honestly, not yet. But I’m working on it everyday and pray Amma that She is always with me guiding me and showing me the right path… in any moment of my life. JAI MA!
I have spiritual knowledge, such as that all beings are ultimately one, that our true nature is beyond birth and death, that we are all the same absolute consciousness. However, in my daily life, I experience much hatred, anger, and fear. So my knowledge remains a belief, and has not yet fully entered my heart and transformed who I am. I pray to Amma that one day it shall.
Yes when we imbibe the spirituality in our day to day life and think as the whole unviverse is one and only one.
I think it means constantly walking the talk (not just now and then) – i.e the mantra possibly can just be knowledge if unused, but constant mantra repetition from the heart for example – this then is absorbed more deeply
It’s like falling in love, or being in love. One can read thousands of novels and poems about it, can watch the sweetest and most romantic movies… as long as one does not experience it, one will never truly know what falling in love / being in love feels like, and what it does with a person. Similarly, spiritual knowledge must be experienced, must be felt. Only reading the books will do nothing.
Intellectually all Amma’s children know that our life is not meant for worldly pursuits only, but to gain the higher knowledge which is continuously showered by our beloved Amma. However, this cannot be practical until we bring this awareness from our rational head (intellect) to compassion filled hearts. Then only we will be able to absorb and imbibe the spiritual knowledge completely and make progress spiritually.
Knowledge means the knower is separate from the known. We are not separate from existence — we ARE it. It is our suchness — how can we know it?
well said.we are not separate from our existence,how can we know it?we can know it through spirituality..that is why it should be felt and realized.Relazation doesnt become reality unless our ego is surrender.
“Bhidyate hrdaya-grantih chidyante sarva-samsayah”
this is a famous sutra which we can see in Mundukopanishat,srimad Bhagavatam,and Drgdrsya Viveka.The knot of the heart are cut asunder with the knowledge of Bhraman and all doubts(spiritual)are resolved.This is the litteral meaning of this sutra.Doubts is the product of knowledge.So we can understand from this famous Sutra,that the knowledge and heart is interconnected.Here the Supreme,infinite,Unconditional Bhraman alone appears as the finite and conditioned Jiva.Bhraman is knowledge .ie the very Self. We can also say it as Heart.The one who knows is knower and that which is known by the knower is the known.The knower is the subject and known is object.The knower is “I”theSelf(ATMA)and the known is not -Self(Anatma)The knower and known are different from each other.But we are not different the knowledge which is our Ture nature.It is one without a second and then how can we know it?
How I understand this is, is that understanding spiritual knowledge is like licking a picture of an icecream cone. You can’t taste the essence of the icecream cone through the picture of it. Similiarly you can’t absorb the essence of spirituality through the mind. The heart is where you can taste, feel and act on the spiritual knowledge. The heart is where it is absorbed.
the mind is always trying to become knowledgeable. It is always collecting information and avoiding transformation. Information is a way of avoiding transformation. You go on collecting… you can become a walking encyclopedia, but still you will remain the same, exactly the same. It is very difficult to go beyond knowledge, beyond the claim of knowledge. It is the last step in the journey. The moment a person goes beyond knowledge, he becomes enlightened. Knowledge is not a bridge: it is a barrier. The moment the barrier disappears, you suddenly find that you have always been home. You had never left it. You had not gone anywhere
Basically, the mind and heart are totally blind,
To be very frank, every step Guru’s Light we need.
There are dangers of fiery lusts lurking everywhere,
Let the knowledge be turned pragmatic now and here.
As AMMA’s Divine Knowledge mildly showered for the mind.
From AMMA’s Heart, let Her Love flow as kind cooling wind.
Like all of Amma utterances, they are packed with great and potent spiritual import, so to talk about and discus about them seems almost to be diluting them or adding verbiage. In olden times people would receive the teaching just in this form – short utterances or sutras, which the disciple would then contemplate on deeply to extract and absorb the full meaning behind the few words given.
…When Amma speaks of bringing spiritual knowledge away from the mind and to the heart, it refers not to locations in the physical or astral bodies, but an unfolding of awareness away from the enfolded confines of our closed and unreceptive ego, to a more expansive vision based not on distinction and division but on mutuality and commonality. Further, to absorb means to become one with the knowledge.
…There is no sense of having come home, or of being away, for there is no time in this state – a complete absence of any limited entity.
Meditation is the way to transformation and how we bypass the mind and bring Mothers message into our hearts. Namaste
Because the mind is the intellect which is the Ego too,,, whereas the heart is pure Love where God resides…
Be a “Amma” and not just a “scholar”. Your preaching or knowledge has little effect until it is practiced.