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Pujya Dr. K.C. Varadachari - Volume -1
 

Sri Ramchandra's Rajayoga: New Darsana : Part-2 :Psychology

Knots : Granthis

  
The ancient Vedic and Upanisadic thinkers have mentioned about the knots or granthis. The most prominent of these is said to be the hrdaya granthi or the heart-knot. This has to be broken or cut, and then alone one is said to be free. The usual meaning for this is that our attachments produce knots of affection, and these prevent our getting dispassionateness. Renunciation, Vairagya, is thus said to help in the cutting of this knot. In fact if one pierces the hydra granthi one's doubt are said to get dissolved. This is the role of knowledge, in addition to the former role of affection. Hrdaya granthi therefore is a very important obstacle and has to be cut.

There are tow others who consider that there are three knots, the knot of Brahma or creative faculty, of progeny, the knot of Visnu, the attachment to live on for ever or preserve oneself; and the knot of Rudra-the fear of death which produces its own kind of attachment. These three knots are usually placed at the navel plexus, the Cardiac plexus, and the Ajna centre, the plexus at the middle of the eyebrows. When the susumna Kundalini pierces through these three knots and rises to the highest place at the crown of the head, one begins to be free from attachment to the three worlds, the bhuh, bhuvah and svar, the terrestrial, the middle and the celestial worlds.

The origination of the knots is nowhere given. They may be considered to be the points of intersection of the three levels of being, and they produce divisions and distinctions between the levels of experience. One has to pass from one to the other if those experiences are to take place. Sri Ram Chandra, in his book "Anant ki Or" has revealed how these knots form the original thought-force or energy as it moves out centripetally in the form of vibrations and waves.* As vibrations they have the sound, and as waves they have light. These two properties are there, becoming grosser and grosser, and becoming many rayed as they move out from the Centre, and thought-energy itself becomes more and more energetic as it moves out from the centre. So much so, we are aware of energy or force more than thought in grossest manifestation of matter as particles.

The movement of the waves is always wavy, and that means that which is above becomes below and that which is below goes above. There is thus a kind of inversion. Secondly this kind of property is present in all cases of movement whether it is upward, or downward, sideways or angular, or inward or outward. The ancients have indeed mentioned that prana, or energy, or force, moves in five ways; downward, upward, sideways, rotatingly and inward, prana, apana, udana, samana and vyana. May be there are sub-divisions of these movements to explain the grossest formations, or to maintain the several organic systems, namely, the bone, muscle, blood, nerve, hormones, respiratory etc., also called upa-pranas. The inversion takes place in all cases. This inversion itself creates knot at the points of inversion, and thus the speed of the movement gets impeded. Thus there is a gradual slowing down of the movement, and this slowing down creates grossness and materiality. At each point of inversion there is, thus, the emergence of a new element of property.

All the several evolutes of the Original Thought-Energy can be shown to have come into being through a series of inversions, thanks to such wavy movements and vibrations, and later of particles of atoms. Thus Sri Ram Chandra shows that the knots are important points which also perform another function-they do not permit a return or back flow, and there is a kind of entropy tending to the maximum in these fields of movement-and not merely in terms of the Second law of thermodynamics.

The general law of inversion then operates, and not only do we have knots but also inversions; and thus in the organism that has grown out of these movements, vibrations, and degrees of loss of speeds and inversions, we must presumably be aware of the fact that in the several systems of cells, circulatory system, neural path and organs, there could be discerned the several systems of organization.

Sri Ram Chandra has, in his "Efficacy of Raj Yoga", clearly shown that the several centres at the Heart, the Forehead, the Crown of the Head and the Central Region, have their localizations of functions inverted. He has shown that what is below in the one centre gets reversed in the higher centre, and so on. Thus there will be resemblance between alternate points or centres.

There is also another possibility. The bundle of waves moving might interlace, and thus we can have complexity within the knot. Thus many think it is necessary and inevitable to cut these knots rather than help their loosening so that the knots cannot become so tightened as to interfere with the free flow of energy. The interruption of the force from flowing easily down to the very end is one of the other causes that makes for loss of awareness and consciousness, and the consequent feeling of misery and enfeeblement, leading to death.

The knots, then, are to be carefully loosened so that the primal current may be enabled to flow freely from the Centre to the periphery thought all the concentric rings of evolution of the body.

Thus he presents a picture of the body other than what we have been given, even in the scriptures.

There are any number of knots, but Sri Ram Chandra gives an account of only fourteen knots. The crossing of each one of the knots, according to him, in the return march to the centre, gives us experiences of subtler and subtler kinds. Our consciousness becomes superfine, and increasingly so as the Centre is reached. The change from one knot to another is marked, and so also man's awareness of the universe around him.

The first step is the attainment of santi, which is the loss of forward process. This is the knot of Cit and acit, which are interwoven here. It appears that there is an general law that the poison and its medicine are very near each other. In fact, in homeopathy, the potentised condition of poison is the poisons cure, on the basis of similimum. When we begin to experience this mixed condition, we try to go beyond it. So one has to move upward to the awareness.

The second knot is that of jnana or knowledge. One experiences facility at the beginning, then takes on the knowledge of that place or knot called technically sarupyata (which is as it were the attainment of immanent are intuitive knowledge of the knot) and then become one with it (laya).

The third knot is said to be the seat of Atma. Here we perceive the light of the Atman. This may be called the seat of the atma. With this we cross over the first avarana or sheath.

Sri Ram Chandra holds that this granthis are like sheaths, or coverings, or bodies, and one passes from one to the other. The fourth granthi is like a wheel in rotation. This grants illumination.

The fifth granthi is the place of water. One gets absorbed in this experience of exceeding freshness and peace.