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The Soul and its Mechanism - Soul, Ether and Energy
The physical body itself is often regarded as an atom in the body of the human kingdom, and in this case the Kundalini energy, localized as it is supposed to be in a center at the base of the spine, would be a positive nucleus, with the other atoms of the body regarded as electronic in nature. The vital body, or body of ether, is the medium [101] for the expression of the life soul, that sentient vivifying duality which we call prana. This dual energy has two positive centers in the vital body and consequently in the physical - one in the heart, where feeling and sentiency are claimed to be centered, and another in the head where the mind and the spiritual consciousness find expression. Dr. Rele says that "Prana proper is located between the larynx and the base of the heart." "The heart more than the head occupies the attention of the thinkers of the Upanishads. It is there that the vital breaths reside. Not only the five pranas, but also eye, ear, speech, and manas originate from the heart. The heart and not the head is the home of manas; and the former therefore is the center also of conscious life. In sleep the organs of the soul remain in the heart, and there also they gather at death; 'through the heart we recognize forms,' through the heart we recognize faith, beget children, know the truth, on it speech also is based, while the further question on what the heart is based is angrily rejected. Not the organs however alone, but all beings are based upon and supported by the heart; and even setting aside the actual definition of the heart as Brahman, it is yet the empirical home of the soul, and therefore of Brahman: - 'here within the heart is a cavity, wherein he resides, the lord of the universe, the ruler of the universe, the chief of the universe.' The heart is called hridayam, because 'it is he' who dwells 'in the heart' (hridi ayam, Chand. 8.3.3.), small as a grain of rice or barley; an inch in height the purusha dwells in the midst of the body, as the self of created things in the heart." [102] - Deussen, Dr. Paul, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, pp. 286, 287. "Similarly numerous passages in the later Upanishads celebrate Brahman as 'implanted in the cavity of the heart.' The identity of the atman in us with the atman of the universe is expressed by the tat tvam asi of Chand. 6.8-16, and also by the etad vai tad, 'in truth this is that,' of Brih. 5.4, which is probably an imitation of the other. The same formula is found twelve times in Kath. 4. 3-6. 1, in a prose passage appended to the verses. The highest bliss, according to Kath. 5. 14, consists in the consciousness of this thought. We quote in this connection only Kath. 4.12-13: An inch in height, here in the body The purusha dwells, Lord of the past and the future; He who knows him frets no more, - In truth, this is that. Like flame without smoke, an inch in height The purusha is in size, Lord of the past and the future; It is he today and also tomorrow, - In truth, this is that. - Deussen, Dr. Paul, Philosophy of the Upanishads, p. 170. As here the purusha is compared to a smokeless flame, so in imitation of this passage, in S'vet. 6. 19, it is likened to a fire whose fuel is consumed; while in S'vet. 5. 9, the contrast between the atman within us and the atman in the universe is pushed to an extreme: Split a hundred times the tip of a hair, And take a hundredth part thereof; That I judge to be the size of the soul, Yet it goes to immortality. [103] The description of the atman as a smokeless flame in the heart has been developed in the Yogi Upanishads into the picture of the tongue of flame in the heart, the earliest occurrence of which is perhaps Mahan. 11. 6-12." - Deussen, Dr. Paul, Philosophy of the Upanishads, p. 171. The Scriptures are full of references to the fact that Atman, the self, is found in the heart, from whence it expresses itself as the life principle through the medium of the blood. The soul nature, or the rational mind and the self-conscious individual expresses itself in the head and from that position governs the nervous system: "It has now been proved, that the highest centers are located in the cortex of the brain, where knowledge of action and sensation is manifested. These centers are both receiving i.e. sensory; and directing i.e. motor, and have their subsidiary centers in the two large swellings called the basal-ganglia in each hemisphere of the brain. They are known as thalamus and corpus striatum. The first one is auxiliary to the chief sensory center and the second one auxiliary to the chief motor center in the cortex of the brain. Normally, the auxiliary motor centers are more or less under the control of the will... The Yogi is concerned with the subsidiary nerve centers in the thalamus. The normal function of the thalamus is to receive sensations from all parts of the body, which are relayed to it through the spinal cord, before they reach the chief center. As this is the highest reflex center in the brain and as all impressions ascend to it, it is called the Udana-prana. The last relay in the cord, from which it receives impulses, is from that portion of the cord, [104] called the Bulb, which is on a level with the root of the nose. Udana-prana is, therefore, said to rule the portion of the head above this point. The Yogi, by a conscious control over the Udana-prana, suppresses all incoming and outgoing sensations into it, and this is necessary to prevent the distraction of the mind which he is anxious to control." - Rele, Vasant G., The Mysterious Kundalini, p. 70.
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