July 7 Utilise the Subconscious Mind

The mental processes are not limited to the field of consciousness alone. The field of subconscious mentation is of a much greater extent than that of conscious mentation. Messages when ready, come out like a flash from the subconscious mind to the surface of the conscious mind, through the trap door in the subconscious mind. Only ten per cent of the mental activities come into the field of consciousness. At least ninety per cent of our mental life is subconscious.

We sit and try to solve a problem. We fail. We look around. We try again and again but we fail. Suddenly the idea dawns that leads to the solution of the problem. The subconscious processes were at work. The subconscious mind is your constant companion and sincere friend. Even in sleep it works without rest. It arranges, classifies, compares, sorts the facts and figures and works out a satisfactory solution.

With the help of your subconscious mind you can change your vicious nature. By cultivating healthy, virtuous qualities you can overcome the vicious nature. If you want to overcome fear, mentally deny that you have fear. Concentrate your attention on the opposite quality, the ideal of courage. When courage is developed, fear vanishes by itself. Positive overpowers negative. You can establish new habits, new ideas, new tastes and new character in the subconscious mind, just by changing the old ones.

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All actions, enjoyments and experiences leave their impressions in the subconscious mind, in the form of subtle impressions or residual potencies. Samskaras are the root cause for life and the experience of pleasure and pain. Revival of samskaras induces memory. The yogi dives deep inside and comes in direct contact with these samskaras.

He directly perceives them through inner yogic vision. When you desire to remember something you have to exert. You have to go down to the depths of the subconsciousness and then pick up the right thing from a curious mixture of multifarious, irrelevant matter. 

July 6 How Impressions are Formed

An experience in the sense plane sinks into the depths of the subconscious mind. There it becomes a samskara (an impression). The impression of an experience is formed in the chitta (subconscious mind), at the very moment that the mind experiences it. There is no gap between the present experience and the formation of the samskara in the subconscious mind.

One specific experience leaves one specific samskara and the memory of this specific experience springs from that particular samskara only, which was formed out of that particular experience.

When you first perceive an orange and taste it, you get knowledge of an orange. A samskara is formed in the subconscious mind at once. At any time this samskara can generate a memory of the object, the orange, and knowledge of the orange. Though the object and the act of knowing are distinguishable, yet they are inseparable.

Samskara is also known as 'residual potency'. When all vrittis or thoughts die away, the frame of the mind remains with the samskaras. This is termed the 'potential mind'. All samskaras co-exist in the mind. Vrittis slowly subside, leaving traces in the mind. These traces are samskaras. From them springs memory.

If you have yogic vision, you can vividly notice the marvels that take place in the mental factory of an individual. You can see how the vritti arises in the mind-lake. You can see how it subsides. And you can see how a samskara is formed. You will be struck with wonder. Samskaras are like forces - they either aid or inhibit one another.

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The sum total of all samskaras is known as karmasaya (receptacle of works) and this is called sanchita karma (accumulated works). When a man leaves the physical body he carries with him his astral body of seventeen tatvas (elements) and the karmasaya, to the mental plane. Karmasaya is burnt in toto by the highest knowledge, obtained through asamprajnata samadhi (the non-dual super-conscious state).

July 5 Waves of Ganga

Experience is never possible without consciousness. Anything that is eternal must be infinite and unlimited. Consciousness is unlimited; the consciousness of limitation shows that consciousness is greater than limitation. Perfection is the attainment of immortal life or pure consciousness. The enquiry of "Who am I?" leads to Self-realisation (Brahma jnana). Divine wisdom can be attained only by those who are endowed with purity. Tear the veil. Realise the reality.

Pain is the effect of not having what is wanted, or having what is not wanted. Brahman is secondless. There is no pain or want in Brahman. Therefore pain is impossible in the Absolute. Contact is the mother of pain. The Absolute can have no contacts and therefore no pain. Brahman is free from all wants and desires because it includes everything in itself. Therefore it is an embodiment of bliss.

Bliss is not an attribute. It is the very constitutive essence of the Self, or Atman. As the Self is absolute in nature, its bliss is also absolute. This is the same as Brahman.

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Annihilate the ego. Reach the goal here and now. Take the inner essence and attain perfection. Relax not the keen vigilance against your most subtle foes   egoism and desire. Where can you see the Lord? I found the Lord where 'I' did not exist.

Where there is no sense of 'I', there is liberation. It is bondage to have the sense of 'I' and 'mine'. Identify with the all-pervading soul (Atman). You will attain immortality. This is the secret of eternal life.

With the growth and expansion of your inmost being, you attain greater perfection and fulfilment of yourself, and bliss is the result thereof. Purge yourself from self-seeking and egoism. Escape from space time limitations. Lose all sense of separateness. Unite with Brahman or the Absolute. The practice of the presence of God will cause the ego veil to dissolve.

Divine love will now manifest and eternal bliss will flow in. The Lord's grace is ever upon sincere, selfless souls.

July 4 On Vritti

4 July

The mind-stuff is chitta. It is a mental substance. Vritti or thought wave is a modification of the mind stuff. It is a process. Just as waves and bubbles arise from the surface of the ocean, so also these vrittis arise on the surface of the mind ocean. Just as the sun's rays emanate from the sun, so also these mental rays (modifications of the vritti), emanate from the mind sun. Just as the sun merges itself into the horizon at sunset, by collecting all its rays, so also you have to merge in the sun of suns, absolute consciousness, eternal peace, by collecting all the dissipated mental rays and dissolving the mind itself.

The function of the vritti in the mind is to cause the removal of the cause of ignorance covering objects. Gross ignorance is enveloping all objects. When it is removed, then perception of objects becomes possible.

Through its own effort the mind assumes the shape of any object, and concentrates upon itself. When the mind thinks of Brahman, the sole ultimate thought of Brahman is formed. Be vigilant. Watch the mind and its activities. The object does not bind you - it is the vritti, the identification with the vritti, that causes attachment and bondage.

If you become one with the mind, body and vrittis you get various sorts of miseries and sufferings. The whole universe is created by the vrittis alone. If these mental thought waves subside you can attain the absolute state of highest peace and bliss. Just as soap cleanses the physical body, even so japa (repetition) of any mantra, dhyana (meditation) and kirtan (chanting), together with the practice of yama and niyama (discipline), cleanse the mind of all impurities. Just as you nourish the physical body with food, even so you will have to give food for the mind and spiritual food for the soul.

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Only when the modifications cease do you enter the silence. Realise this. Close the eyes, draw in the senses, still the mind, silence the thoughts, sharpen the intellect, purify the chitta, meditate on Om and chant it with feeling. Enter the silence. Silence is Atman, the centre - it is in the heart cave. When the mind runs from one object to another, the state in the interval, wherein you become mindless, is Brahman.

July 3 How to Cultivate Right Thinking

3 July

Every thought has an image, form, dimension, weight, shape, colour, etc. Thought is as much matter as a piece of stone. A table is a mental image plus some external something. Whatever you see outside has a counterpart in the mind. The pupil is a small round thing in the eye and the retina is another small structure in the eye. How is it that the image of a big mountain, seen through that small aperture, is cast onto the mind? How does the big form of the mountain enter a tiny hole in the eye? This is a marvel of marvels. The image of the mountain already exists in the mind. The mind is like a big, vast sheet of canvas cloth that contains all the pictures of the objects seen outside.

Thought moves and passes from one man to another. Thought readily influences people. A man with strong thoughts can readily influence people with weak thought. Telepathy is a branch of occult science wherein the yogi can transmit messages to any man in any part of the world.

A thought of anger or hatred sends arrows from the mental factory towards the person aimed at. It harms the individual, sets up discord and disharmony in the thought world and comes back again to the sender and harms him also. If one can understand the effect and power of thought, he will be more careful in the manufacture of his thoughts in his mental laboratory.

Develop the faculty of producing only satvic (pure) thoughts by protracted mental discipline, dietetic adjustments, repetition of good hymns with meaning, good company, the study of divine books, japa (repetition of God's name), meditation, pranayama (yoga breathing), prayer, etc. A good man can help his friend, even though he lives a long way away, by good thoughts alone. Do not allow evil thoughts to enter your mental factory. Always watch your thoughts. Avoid useless thinking. Conserve your mental energy.

To cultivate sublime thoughts always keep yourself occupied in doing virtuous deeds and in the study of religious books. Destroy random thinking. Think of only one subject and its different aspects. When you do this never allow any other thought to enter the conscious mind. Again and again withdraw the mind to the subject on hand. Then take up another thought when you have exhausted the previous one.

By this practice you will develop organised thinking. The mental images will gain intense strength and force; they will become clear cut and well defined. In ordinary persons the mental images are undefined.

July 2 - The Mind Becomes the Body

The body with its organs, is no other than the mind. The physical body is the outward manifestation of the mind. Mind is the subtle form of the physical body. The mind, contemplating on the body, becomes the body itself. Then, enmeshed in it, is afflicted by it. All bodies have their seat in the mind. Should the mind be paralysed, the body will not evince any intelligence.

The mind performs all actions very speedily in the linga sharira (subtle body) and fluctuates thereby. But the gross body knows not anything and is inert. Should this gross body be dissolved, the mind quickly assumes a fresh body. This physical body is the mould, as it were, of the mind. It is made by the mind for the outpouring of its own energy, for its own enjoyment. Thereby it gains different experiences of this world through the organs of knowledge or perception.

The body is really our thoughts, moods, convictions and emotions objectivised, made visible to the naked eye. Every cell in our body suffers or grows, receives a life impulse or a death impulse, from every thought that enters the mind. You tend to grow into the image of the thing you think about most. When the mind dwells on a particular thought, a definite vibration of matter is set up. This tends to repeat itself, to become a habit.

The body follows the mind and imitates the changes. Every change in thought makes a vibration in your mental body and this, when transmitted to the physical body, causes activity in the nervous matter of the brain. And this activity in the brain and nerve cells causes electrical and chemical changes in the body.

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Vedanta also adds: "See and feel Brahman everywhere. Ignore the names and forms." This teaches you to develop atma bhava (feeling that the Self is all) or Brahma bhava (feeling that Brahman is all) by vichara (enquiry) and right thinking and meditation.

When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, a mental state or bhava, corresponding to the nature of the idea comes in. Think of your enemy - the inimical bhava will manifest. Think of mercy and universal love - prema (love) bhava or karuna (compassion) bhava will manifest. Think of universal service - seva (service) bhava will manifest. Think of Lord Krishna and his lilas - Krishna prema bhava will manifest. Feeling always accompanies thinking; it is like fire and heat - inseparable.

July 1 - Mind and Matter

Mind is not a gross thing, visible and tangible; its existence is nowhere seen; its magnitude cannot be measured; it does not require space in which to exist. Mind and matter are two aspects, or subject and object of one and the same all full Brahman   who is itself neither and yet includes both.

Mind precedes matter; this is the vedantic theory. Matter precedes mind; this is the scientific theory. Mind is immaterial only in the sense that it has not the characteristics of ponderable matter. It is not immaterial in the sense that Brahman - pure spirit - is.

Mind is the subtle form of matter. Hence it is the prompter of the body. Mind is made of subtle, pure (satvic), atomic matter. Mind is all electricity. It is formed of the subtlest portion of food.

The soul is the only source of intelligence; it is self-evident; it shines with its own light.

The organs or mind and senses derive their principle of activity and life from the soul. By themselves they are lifeless. Hence the soul is always the subject and never the object. Mind is the object of the soul.

It is a cardinal principle of vedanta that that which is an object for a subject is non intelligent. Even the principle of self-consciousness is non intelligence - it does not exist by its own light; it is the object of apperception to the soul.

Mind is composed of coarse or fine matter, according to the needs of the more or less unfolded consciousness connected with it. In the educated it is active and well defined. In the undeveloped it is cloudy and ill-defined.

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Absolute consciousness is common to all. It is one. All the workings of the mind are presented to the one common consciousness which is the witness of the mental vrittis. It is the mind that limits man, who is in reality, identical with Brahman.

This identity is realised when the veil of ignorance is removed. For Brahman, the mind is an object of perception. Atman directly cognises all the phenomena of the mind - desires, imagination, doubt, belief, shame, intellect, fear, etc., - and yet remains quite unattached and unaffected.