Sun Detox - The Heart Cleanse
- Shradha Mohan
- Oct 11, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 5, 2023
11/10/2023
Shradha Mohan
Part I
What is at the centre of the Karmic circle?
What if I told you listening to your heart is the smartest thing you can do for your physical and mental health and well-being?
Art by Elena Serebriakova
Our hearts bear most of the brunt of our habitual lies, untruths, and negative emotions. Every time we go against our hearts, we cause hurt; by causing the hurt, we sin against it and create a karmic cycle. The heart is the centre of our Karmic circle. It is where it all begins.
“If you want to keep your karmic baggage to a minimum, listen to your heart. It’s that simple.”
If you want to keep your karmic baggage to a minimum, listen to your heart. It is that simple. But, like most simple things, it is not easy to accomplish. It takes courage to live under the dominion of heart in the way it takes courage to love or to make peace by sacrificing a victory.
Demystifying the Heart
What is it that you hold the closest and in the highest regard? And what carries you? Indian scriptures mention “धार्यती इति धर्म/Dhāryati Iti Dharma” The word Dhāryati comes from the root word Dhārana, which translates to - wear, maintain, uphold or carry. Dharma popularly translates to the word religion. Religion is an insufficient word to define the Sanskrit word Dharma. Cosmic law or justice (other popular translations of the word Dharma) is closer to the real meaning of Dharma. In its most unadulterated translation, the word Dharma means manner, principles or attributes, but even that doesn't carry the full import of the word Dharma in the above Sanskrit phrase, word Dharma here translates most accurately to a set of laws and principles one lives by. Those laws and principles can be elementary or advanced, shared or individualistic, but they always align with the cosmic laws. Thus, “धार्यती इति धर्म/Dhāryati Iti Dharma translates to “What (one) carries is Dharma”. But its other connotation is "what carries (one) is Dharma".
“...ancient sages in their twilight language are signaling that it is but your heart that guides your soul, it's your heart that takes on your karma, and that ‘the heart is a guru’.”
Dharma is the cosmic law. It is justice. It is the personal law that guides your conscience. For this reason, the scriptures gave Yama, the deity who presides over the judgment of our actions, the title of Dharmarāj (the king of cosmic law). Yam (यं), the presiding symbol at the centre of the Anāhata Chakra (Heart Chakra), resembles Yama's name.
Indian scriptures also mention that the heart is the seat of the Guru. Once again, the English words teacher, guide or preceptor are insufficient to describe the Sanskrit word Guru. Guru is a cosmic entity that guides your soul in life and in the afterlife. Guru is your North. It frees you. It takes on your Karma. By defining the heart as the seat of the Guru, ancient sages in their twilight language are signalling that in the absence of a physical Guru, it is but your heart that guides your soul, it's your heart that takes on your Karma, and that the heart is a guru.
“that even in the absence of a material witness there are many cosmic witnesses that record all our actions. And the cosmic witness who resides in our hearts is above all of them.”
In the epic, Mahābhārat, King Dushyant while on an adventure in a forest, meets and marries a divine nymph, Shakuntalā, but there's no one to witness the marriage. Shakuntalā and King Dushyant consummate their marriage. When leaving the forest to go back to his kingdom, Dushyant promises Shakuntalā to return to take her to his kingdom with fanfare suitable for an empress, but he never returns. Shakuntalā gives birth to their child, Prince Bharat, whose name would go on to define Mahābhārat. One day, along with her (now-grown) son, she decides to go to King Dushyant to get her son, Prince Bharat, his rightful place as the heir to the emperor. At King Dushyant’s court, in the presence of thousands of people, Shakuntalā calls him out for refusing to remember their marriage. After telling the emperor in his own court that he is akin to a mustard seed and she, a mountain, she goes on to mention that "even in the absence of a material witness, there are many cosmic witnesses that record all our actions. And the cosmic witness, who resides in our hearts, is above all. Our hearts witness everything. And going against the heart is sin.”
“The heart is your true religion. You uphold it, and it will carry you through.”
In India, you will find many mystic healers reporting the colour of the heart to have turned grey and blue when a person falls sick from a heartbreak or emotional trauma. In Western world, people believe that the hearts of people who have sinned turn black. Such folk beliefs and sayings are rooted in intuitive knowledge that our heart takes on our Karma.
In astrology, the Fifth house is the house of progeny, knowledge, and heart, and the Ninth house is the house of Dharma, higher education, and Guru. The Ninth house, being fifth from the Fifth house, is the house of higher education. The Fifth house, which is ninth from the Ninth, is the house of the Guru of Guru, of Ishta Devatā, of higher Dharma. Which leads us to believe that Dharma (significance of 9th house) is the higher education, and the heart (significance of 5th house) is the higher Dharma.
Sun is the presiding energy of the Fifth House, the presiding planet of the Fifth zodiac, and the presiding deity of the heart. Interestingly, Yama, Dharmarāj is the progeny of the Sun. Sun, the dispeller of darkness, who has an unflinching sense of duty, is personified by the heart. One dispels darkness, the other absorbs our gloom, and both emanate hope.
Our hearts tell us everything. The king of cosmic justice speaks to us through our conscience. Conscience is the ultimate qualifier of sin and virtue. Conscience is the qualifier of our merits and actions. Our heart, where the conscience resides, carries us through the world. It is one of the foremost things worth bowing down to. The heart is your true religion. If you uphold it, it will carry you through.
Part II
