VERY LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT THE HUMAN MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS
So little is known about the human mind and consciousness by psychiatrists and psychologists, and who has you. They have barely dipped their big toes in this vast ocean of the mind, and most of the analysis, like Freudian or Jungian analysis, is more hit and run, and they call it psychoanalysis. Did you know that one of the highest suicide rates in the world is among psychiatrists? So, if they are in such a muddled state themselves, how are they going to help others?
I do not know if I ever told you this before, but when I was about eight years old, a very holy man who was called a Sufi passed through my village. I went to see him and chatted with him because, since I was about four, I have been interested in who or what I am, where I come from, and where I am going. After long chats, I asked this Saddhu, as they are called, “Give me a spiritual practice,” and the spiritual practice he gave me was this. “Draw rings. Just circles.” And I drew so many circles that we could plaster this whole High Leigh with the paper on which I drew circles. I thought this was absolute madness, drawing circles. How was it going to help me? But only later, in retrospect, did I realize it was a very valuable practice. Because if you, as a boy, can draw a perfect circle with your free hand, then your mind becomes more and more concentrated. I cannot do that anymore. I am getting too old.
THERE ARE VARIOUS SECTIONS OF THE MIND THAT ALL FUNCTION TOGETHER
There are four sections of the human mind; we will call them sections for the sake of explanation. They do not operate independently, but they operate together.
Manas is the lower mind that is subject to sensory inputs and could be called the conscious mind. The lower mind is subjected to sensory input. Seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and hearing. Man is governed mainly by these five senses: seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and listening. Manas, which is the lower mind, is influenced by the sensory inputs. These five senses influence everything you do. Seeing will influence your thoughts. Hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling all influence your thoughts, but those thoughts are the sensory input into the lower mind.
The lower mind cannot function on its own. These impressions you get are sent to what we call the Chitta, which is the memory box —or, we can call it, the subconscious mind. Because of all the sensory inputs you have, they create impressions in the subconscious mind, which activate and motivate actions performed through the conscious mind.
Yet the subconscious mind requires identification because this is only a memory box from which the conscious mind draws impressions. The subconscious mind is like a box of pigeonholes, where specific files are put. So, if you see a dog, that very act of seeing will transmit the impulses to the subconscious mind, where that impulse will be compared to a dog that you have seen before, and then only the recognition occurs that that is a dog. Otherwise, you will not know if it is a dog, a cat, or a mouse.
But this is still not enough. The subconscious mind transmits itself to the ego or the individual “I”. These sensory inputs of the conscious mind are transmitted to the subconscious for comparison; once compared, they must be identified with the ego sense. For without the ego sense, no one could really live.
Even the most perfected Master must have two percent imperfection in him, otherwise he would lose all sense of individuality. He would not be able to eat. He would not be able to sleep. He would not be able to go to the toilet or perform any biological function. So, a tiny percentage of that sense of individuality remains. When a highly realised man, a Spiritual Master, leaves the body, the little 2% of the ego self dissolves, and the person merges into Divinity.
That is still not enough. The ego sense will still require specific guidance, and that comes from Buddhi, which is intellect. The function of the intellect is to weigh the pros and cons. And when the Buddhi or intellect weighs the pros and cons, it transmits it back to the ‘I’, the ego, and how it will fit in with your personal individual ego. You might like lamb, you might like chicken, you might like cabbage, or this or that.
It is because of the various impressions that are there and the Buddhi that is analysing it and transmitting it to your individual self with its likes and dislikes. Then it gets back to the memory box, pulls out the file, and says, “Ah, this is okay, chicken is fine, curried chicken or roast or whatever.” And that is submitted to the conscious mind, where your five senses will start enjoying it.
WE PAY SO MUCH ATTENTION TO SENSORY INPUTS TO THE LOWER MIND
The lesser the ego, the lesser the value of sensory inputs would be, and by lessening the value of the sensory inputs, you do not become attached. You reach the stage of non-attachment. I might have said to you sometimes that if there is a King’s feast on a table and there is a dry piece of bread, of course, I will choose the best. But if there were only a dry piece of bread there, I would not have any regrets whatsoever, because I would know that the molecular structure of that piece of bread is the same as the molecular structure of a King’s feast. After all, when it comes to, for instance, tasting, what happens is only four inches from there to there, four inches, and people die and kill themselves for those four inches. For once, it goes down the gullet, and it all gets mixed up. That is tasting. The same thing happens with smelling. How far does your smell take you? You smell some lovely perfume now, and in five- or ten-minute time, that smell is gone, and you will forget the smell until you come across the same perfume again, and you will remember the scent of Jasmine or Roses or whatever because of the impression that has been created.
So, all these sensory inputs are so temporary, and the leading cause of suffering and misery is that we pay so much attention to them in the lower mind. For example, you want to see beautiful things all the time, but if you really have control over your sight, you will find everything to be attractive. I cannot see any ugly person at all. To me, everyone is beautiful.
I do not know if I told you this story of a friend of mine. I had a tree in my garden that was very awkwardly shaped, and he said to me, “Why do you not have the tree cut down?” And we chatted a bit. Then I explained to him, “Just look very carefully at the shape of that tree. Does it not look like abstract art?” He appreciated that, and I like teasing, so about two weeks later, when we met again —just to play the fool with him —I said, “You know you are right when you told me to cut off that tree, and I am going to have it done.” So, he said, “No, no Gururaj, you do not, it is a beautiful tree.” Attitude and perspective can only come about if you can change the sensory input of the five senses.
The same thing applies to hearing. In his room, my young son has his little turntable, and he plays the records. To me, it is just ear-shattering. But then I look at it differently. I said to myself, “It is ear-shattering to me, but so pleasurable to that boy of fifteen, sixteen. So, who am I to deny him that pleasure? Let him listen to it.” But I told him one thing, that “Son, when I come home and when you hear me coming home, turn it down a bit. And suppose you do not want to turn it down a bit; it is very easy to get a sheet of asbestos —you know, you get those blocks. In that case, you must have seen it, acoustic tiles which are very inexpensive, so do up the door with the acoustic tiles so that the sound does not travel or disturb your mother or me or anyone.”
Sometimes I want to put on my kind of music, and I like the classics, as well as Eastern and Western. I like the Eastern Ragas. I have composed many, many songs. But apart from that, then of course in Western music, I would like Beethoven, Bach, Wagner, Mozart, and all that. These youngsters do not like this kind of music, so I went to buy a pair of earphones. So, I could put on my music and have my earphones on. No disturbance to anyone. This comes from consideration. We are so selfish that we never consider another person.
For example, you will see this every day. A man is walking down the street when he slips on a banana peel and falls. Everyone who sees him fall starts laughing —hah, hah, hah, hah. I would not laugh. I would feel hurt. Because I would feel his hurt as my own, and all these things are governed by sensory input. So, through our meditation and spiritual practices, we have to develop an automatic and spontaneous way in which these are not subdued but controlled and viewed in their proper perspective. Then you find nothing jarring and see nothing wrong. The whole world is beautiful. Divinity created everything, or everything is a manifestation of Divinity, so how could it be ugly? Even if a person swears at me, that is hearing, I will say, “Look, he swore at me.” If he were a total stranger who did not know me, he would not swear at me. But because he is a friend and he knows me, he swore at me. So, I would not take my mind to the curse words he might have used, but I would take my mind to the friendship.
EVERYONE IS NOTHING ELSE BUT DIVINITY PERSONIFIED
Like that, in every way of life, one can view things in a totally different manner. There is no sure thing in one’s life that does not teach one something. Everything is a teaching, and you can only receive the teachings if you are aware. When you become more and more aware, you can see things from a totally different perspective. You stand down here in the street, and you will only see a particular portion of the street. But climb up the hill and you will see the whole town. Your perspective changes. Down here, the street is dirty, and you say, “Ah, what a filthy place this, Timbuktu is.” But you climb up the hill and you see how beautiful it is. At night, for example, all the lights of London, all those bridges going over the Thames, so beautiful, so lovely. You look at the Architecture. I do not know how many times you would just stand and look at a building —stunning architecture. So much art has gone into planning and the masonry and whatever, instead of the modern buildings of new cities that are nothing but matchboxes. There is character, there is beauty. But it is up to us to appreciate that beauty.
When we start appreciating people’s outer beauty, we also begin to learn to enjoy everyone’s inner beauty, and everyone’s inner beauty is Divine. Everyone is nothing but Divinity personified, and when we can see that, then we love everyone. “Love thy neighbour as thyself.
THE MAINTENANCE OF THE EGO SELF HAS ITS OWN LITTLE IMPORTANCE
Let us get back to the subject. So, the sensory input is sent to the lower mind. It goes on to be planted in the subconscious mind as impressions. So, when you leave this physical body, the only thing that will go with you are these impressions, these thought forms which can also be called your subtle body, because your subtle body is composed of thought forms, and those very thought forms will regulate your next birth. So, if the thought forms are good, then after you leave this physical body and are in another dimension, those thought forms formulate themselves, evaluate themselves for you to be born again. This is so simple, it is so logical. Why is one child born in miserable circumstances or ill or sick or maimed, while another child is born in wealth and riches and happiness and all that? That old Guy up there that I know so well, He is not unfair. That is for sure. It is you yourself; it is your own karma that controls your destiny, and your karma is shaped and reinforced by the impressions of the subconscious.
The maintenance of the ego self, as I said earlier, has its own little importance. The ego self cannot be destroyed. You find many of these Eastern theologies that try to impress upon people that you must become egoless, which is an impossibility because if you become egoless, you will have no recognition of your personality. You will not even be able to go to have a wee because you are unconscious of it all. It is that individuality that gives you some sense of consciousness. And the lesser the ego, the finer the consciousness, and the greater the awareness.
AWARENESS IS A THING WHERE YOU JUST KNOW
Awareness is a thing where you just know. It defies all analysis of the Buddhi, the intellect. You just know. You come to a fork in the road, and you will just take the right turn instead of the wrong turn. That is awareness, because the mind that we are talking about is not a separate entity from the universal mind. In reality, there is only one mind, and your mind is as vast as the entire universe. Still, you have no recognition of its vastness or universality because of that individualisation of the ego.
I ALWAYS TAKE THE MOST PROFOUNDEST TRUTH AND REDUCE IT TO THE SIMPLE FORM
Am I being clear? I am trying to be very simple. When I speak to psychiatrists, doctors, and psychologists, the terminology, of course, would be different, more technical. Because the more you talk to them about it technically, the more they think that you know something. I always have a principle; I could take the most profoundest truth and reduce it to the simplest form.
Many years ago, I took up journalism, and I was also the Editor of the Aryan Voice, which used to specialise in Religion, Philosophy, and Culture. I mean not one particular religion or philosophy, but generally, world religions, world culture, world blah, blah, blah. When I took up this Journalism course, the Lecturer gave an example in the first lecture. He said, “Scintillate, scintillate, carbuncle, nebulae.” I said, “Oh my God, scintillate, scintillate, carbuncle nebulae.” It really means, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.” So why not say “Twinkle, twinkle little star.” Why this scintillate, bintillate, fintillate, all that nonsense?
When you go into all that scintillation and fintillation, then you really start fluctuation. Your mind goes haywire. Therefore, I try to put things in the simplest terms possible. The Professors do not do that. If every Professor of philosophy, and there are thousands and thousands of them in the world, if they really knew what they were talking about, they would all be self-realised men. But they are more mixed up than we are here, that is, as far as the intellect, the Buddhi goes. Because they speak from the intellect, while I would speak from the heart, my personal experiences, and my personal cognitions, if I talk to you of God, I would never do it if I did not know God. If I did not, I would not talk about it. Have I ever spoken to you about how that shirt was made? Never. Because I do not know how to make a shirt. So why should I talk about it if I do not know anything about it? Anything we discuss must come from personal experience. Something like food, you first eat food, then you digest the food, and then you assimilate the energy of the food so that it permeates every cell of your body. Food is only worthwhile eating if it gives you the energy in every cell of your body.
EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IS PERMEATED BY THE SPIRIT
Through our meditational practices, we find greater control over the sensory inputs by which the majority of people — 99.999 percent — are ruled. In other words, they are not masters of themselves; instead, sensory input masters them. This naturally all works together. Sensory input from Manas, the lower mind, flows into Chitta, the memory box, which is the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is made up of all kinds of impressions created by experiences, and this, that, that. But here is the most beautiful part of all, and listen to this very carefully, it is essential. The Atman permeates your mind; you can call it Atman in an individualised way, or the Brahman, or the spirit. So, the Divine Spirit within you is permeating your entire mind.
There is one significant blockage, and that is the Buddhi, the intellect. But when this intellect is cleared up through meditation and spiritual practices, like you clean up a dirty window, then the full force of the spirit shines through, and when the whole spirit shines through, because of the clarity here, it will destroy the impressions which is darkness. It will expand the ego.
By expansion, I mean taking a piece of opaque rubber and, as you extend it, having it become transparent, and because of that transparency, the spirit shines through into the ego, which, together with the memory box and your sensory inputs, influences the ego.
So I am trying to show you that the spirit permeates everything and everyone. They are. It goes through every facet of yourself. The only thing is for us to cognise it, recognise it, realise it, and live it.
DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD, BUT LIVE GOD
When the power of the spirit shines through, all the dark crevices of the lower mind will be so controlled by these inputs that the ego will become more transparent and lucid and not blocked up. The impressions will be removed. Like our popular saying, “If it is dark, you do not analyse the darkness, you switch on the light and darkness disappears.” That happens to the subconscious mind. When the subconscious mind, the ego sense, the lower mind, and the intellect are totally permeated by Brahman, then your actions will always be good. Then I will tell you, “Do not believe in God, but live God,” and you will live God very spontaneously.
I will give you an example when I arrived in London, and my hosts there asked me the next morning, “Gururaj, did you sleep well?” To let them worry less, I said, “Yes, I slept very well.” Meanwhile, I did not, because there were so many things I had to go through, so I did not really want to sleep. But it was worrying my conscience so, so much that, although it was a little white lie and not causing anyone any harm, it was bothering me —the conscience was bothering me. So, an hour or two later, I told my host and hostess that “I am very guilty of one thing, I told you a white lie this morning, I did not sleep well last night, but this afternoon I am going to have a kip.” So, I had a few hours’ sleep in the afternoon to catch up.
WE ALLOW PURE CONSCIOUSNESS TO PENETRATE EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES
All is conscience, the entirety is conscience. The conscience of the lower mind is grosser. The conscience of the subconscious and the ego sense is a bit less gross, and the spirit, or the Atman or the Brahman, is pure consciousness. So, we allow pure consciousness to penetrate every aspect of our lives. Everything is consciousness.
I have read a few books. I usually pick up a book, flip through a few pages, and know precisely what is in it. I do not need to read further; it is a waste of time. People like psychologists talk of an altered state of consciousness. There is no such thing. Your consciousness never alters. It is forever pure. But because of the blockages, you might call your perception impure, but really speaking, everything is nothing but purity. That is why, for example, in the Scriptures it is said, “Do not hate the actor but the act.” Something like that. My apologies, Anton. He is a Shakespearean actor by the way, and there, over there, David is a director. We have some wonderful people amongst us —psychologists, professors, and psychiatrists —and all of them.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1983 – 03
