the Heart on the right

On one occasion, for example, I [Papaji] heard him tell a visitor that the spiritual Heart-centre was located on the right side of the chest, and that the 'I'-thought arose from that place and subsided there. This did not tally with my own experience of the Heart. On my first visit to the Maharshi, when my Heart opened and flowered, I knew that it was neither inside nor outside the body. Based on my own experience of the Self, I knew that it was not possible to say that the Heart could be limited to or located in the body.

So I joined in the conversation and asked, 'Why do you place the spiritual Heart on the right side of the chest and limit it to that location? There can be no right or left for the Heart because it does not abide inside or outside the body. Why not say it is everywhere? How can you limit the truth to a location inside the body? Would it not be more correct to say that the body is situated in the Heart, rather than the Heart in the body?'

I was quite vigorous and fearless in my questioning because that was the method I had been taught in the army.

The Maharshi gave me an answer which fully satisfied me. Turning to me, he explained that he only spoke in this way to people who still identified themselves with their bodies.

'When I speak of the "I" rising from the right side of the body, from a location on the right side of the chest, the information is for those people who still think they are the body. To these people I say that the Heart is located there. But it is really not quite correct to say that the "I" rises from and merges with the Heart on the right side of the chest. The Heart is another name for Reality and it is neither inside nor outside the body; there can be no in or out for it, since it alone is. I do not mean by Heart any physiological organ or any plexus or anything like that, but so long as one identifies oneself with the body and thinks that one is the body, one is advised to see where in the body the "I"-thought rises and merges again. It must be the Heart at the right side of the chest since every man, of whatever race and religion, and in whatever language he may be saying "I", points to the right side of the chest to indicate himself. This is so all over the world, so that must be the place. And by keenly watching the daily emergence of the "I"-thought on waking, and the subsidence in sleep, one can see that it is in this Heart on the right side.'

~ from Nothing Ever Happened, volume one of Papaji's biography by David Godman