Drop Your Conditioning

A small story:

On the last day of the school term students brought gifts to their teacher. The first student presented the teacher with a nicely wrapped gift. The student's father owned the local bakery. The teacher looked at the package, shook it and asked, 'Is this a box of pastries?' The child said, 'Yes.'

Next, a student, whose father was the owner of a clothing store, presented a beautifully decorated gift and again the teacher shook it close to her ears. She then asked, 'Is it a dress?' The child said, 'Yes.'

Another girl came up with a nicely wrapped box. Her father owned a liquor store. The teacher shook the box. She noticed that the package was leaking. She dipped her finger in the leaking fluid and asked the girl curiously, 'Is this some kind of beer?' The child said, 'No.'

The teacher dipped her finger again in the fluid, tasted it carefully and asked, 'Ah, this tastes quite exotic. What is it? Is it some kind of wine?' The child again said, 'No.'

Then the teacher said, 'Alright, I give up. Please tell me, what is it?'

The child said in a worried tone, 'It is a puppy.'

The moral of this story is simple: please don't put anything in your mouth unless you know what it is. At least, do not make major decisions based on your past experiences. Our past experiences are stored in our unconscious as engraved memories or engrams. They will only mislead you. In Sanskrit, these engraved memories are called saṃskāras.

We make faulty decisions when we make major decisions through engraved memories or saṃskāras. The teacher thought that the gift was a bottle of beer or wine since the student's father sold alcohol. In the same way, time and again, we make decisions driven by our engraved memories. The first two decisions of the teacher were correct. The first girl's father was in the business of selling sweets and the teacher guessed that the gift was a box of sweets. Then the second child's father owned a clothing store and the teacher guessed that the gift was a dress. Since the third child's father owned a liquor store, the teacher assumed that the gift was a bottle of alcohol!

Before we put anything into our mouth, be sure to know what it is, else it can lead to a lot of trouble.

This whole chapter of Bhagavad Gita is about engraved memories in our mind.

Engraved memories or engrams are the memories stored in our unconscious that drive almost all our actions. Even though we act upon them, we rarely know or understand where these decisions that force us into action come from since these memories are deeply embedded in our unconscious mind.

We tend to think that our actions are based on a logical sequence of thoughts. However, almost all our decisions have neither logic nor awareness. I will show you later the dynamics of how our mind works.

Modern psychology tells us that almost 90% of our mind is unconscious. This means that we typically use 10% of our conscious mind. In other words, our conscious mind drives only 10% of our thoughts, words and actions. The rest is driven by the unconscious.

We have no control over how our unconscious mind functions since we are unaware of what happens there. Many unconscious memories are based on fear and pain. They rise up in moments of trauma or difficult situations. They influence decisions with no awareness on our part.

Scientists say that only a small fraction of what we perceive through our senses gets consciously recorded. Science says that we are only aware of 5%, perhaps less, of what we see or hear.

A real incident:

Our Bidadi āshram is located about an hour's drive from Bangalore. In the early days of this āshram, I traveled almost everyday from Bidadi to Bangalore. One day I told the driver to take me to a particular place along the way. I explained to him that it was near a mosque, a Muslim house of prayer.

The driver was confused. He insisted that there was no mosque on the route that we normally took everyday. I tried to explain but it was of no avail. Finally, I mentioned another landmark, a Hindu Hanuman temple. He immediately understood and his face lit up with joy and understanding.

'Master, why didn't you tell me that first?' he exclaimed, 'Of course I know where you want to go now!'

This Hindu temple was a small structure compared to the mosque. We traveled past both buildings everyday. Yet, this person was aware of only the Hanuman temple because of his personal preferences and he had no memory of the mosque.

All that we perceive is not true; all that we do not perceive is not unreal. It is a simple truth that what sinks in is only a fraction of what our five senses perceive. The rest goes directly into the unconscious. Yet this does not mean that these perceptions and the memories of these perceptions are forgotten.

Many memories of experiences are recorded even though we are unconscious of them. These memories strongly drive our actions. Surgeons have recently understood that patients on the operating table under anesthesia actually record whatever happens around them. This is not fiction. Famous doctors have written books about this. They caution others to be careful about what they say or do in an operating theatre since the patient may not be unconscious after all.

As an example, doctors discovered the source of an accident victim's problem, years after the incident. The man had crashed his car into a tree and became unconscious. Some witnesses called paramedics to rescue him from the damaged car and he was transported by ambulance to the hospital. As they lifted him out of a car, the paramedics talked about their day-to-day problems. One guy said that he had just left his girlfriend because she was trying to push him into a committed relationship. The words he used were, 'Life is too short to waste it this way.'

The accident victim heard this remark while he was unconscious and it deeply embedded itself in his memory. This caused him serious trouble in his relationships for

years. He typically broke away from commitments without knowing why. This problem caused him serious trouble in his career as well. Finally, he sought treatment and was cured when the memory of this experience surfaced. The source of his troubles was a conversation that entered his memory space though he was technically unconscious.

In fact, many powerful memories do not remain at the conscious level. They go directly into the unconscious. We do not recall that memory. Yet, it powerfully impacts us and influences our decisions and actions. The influence is based on the emotional perception at the time of the experience. What we term perception is not the experience we perceive through the senses; perception is how we respond emotionally to the experience. This response is a conditioned response.

In this chapter, Krishna explains how we respond to perceptions. In this chapter, called Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yoga, Krishna explains the three different guṇas (attributes) to Arjuna. How we act, actually I can't say we 'act': how we 'react' to every situation is based on these three guṇas. This is how we create more and more karmabandha (bondages arising from our actions), which results in more and more trouble for ourselves.

Q: Master, I am not clear how the conscious and unconscious minds work. Can you please explain how THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM helps in creating awareness?

There are two things in you: hardware and software. Your mind is the software and your brain is the hardware. Within the mind, within your software, there are two parts: conscious zone and unconscious zone. Conscious zone is what you normally call the waking state though 90% of the time your thoughts and actions in this state are activated by your unconscious! We shall look at these in detail later.

The conscious zone is the software; the unconscious zone is the virus! The conscious zone can be cleansed by teachings. The unconscious zone can be cleansed by meditation. Now, the hardware, the brain, needs to be then tuned to hold the changes in the software, the new experience that is created through the changed software. This can happen by the blessings of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, by dīkṣā (initiation) from him.

When you clean the conscious and unconscious and create an effect, the hardware may not be able to hold and sustain that effect from day one. If THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's initiation happens, the hardware also changes to hold that effect. In the absence of a living THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, constant meditation and teaching can change the hardware. Hardware is like grooves created out of saṃskāra (stored memories) in the brain. Once the new software happens, the hardware slowly changes. However if you wish to immediately change the hardware, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's presence is the right thing. Straightaway it changes the hardware.

Sometimes, without even changing the software, the hardware can be changed and the person will immediately radiate the correct software's quality! This happens when a disciple is completely open to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM or if he is in love with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM for no reason. Sometimes a disciple falls in love with THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM for no reason. He may not be attracted to his teachings or meditation techniques; he simply falls in love. In that case, without delay, the hardware can be changed. Those kinds of disciples radiate the quality of the teachings and meditation without going through all of them. They do not have to go through all these things, yet straightaway the result will be seen.

As of now, your hardware and software are outgoing towards the outer world. If you do the chakra meditation camp, the Life Bliss Program or Ananda Spurana Program, the software suddenly becomes ingoing. It will go in towards spirituality, towards a cleansing process. The cleansing of the conscious portion happens through the teachings and the meditation cleanses the unconscious portion.

However, even if the software turns inside, the hardware will not be able to handle it. Then the hardware tries its best to retain its grooves. If the software is strong and stays in the same tune, the hardware slowly changes. However, if the dīkṣā, the energy blessing from THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, is immediately given after the teaching and meditation, the hardware changes and holds the new software. It gets prepared to hold onto the new experience. This concept must be understood so that you bring in enough awareness to allow the transformation to happen in you.