Natural Attributes 2

We make countless decisions based upon engraved memories. We repent and suffer later on. Suddenly we shout and after ten minutes, we repent. 'Why did I shout? I always wanted to keep a smiling face. I wanted people to acknowledge that I have a smiling face. Why did I shout?' We repent. We made a sudden decision. We reacted suddenly due to these engrams.

We will see later how engraved memories disturb, torture and twist our decisions*.* Krishna says that we should ask our being how we missed the reality. Why are we deluded by engraved memories?

Krishna speaks of sattva guna samskaras that lead us to bliss and peace, rajas guna samskaras that lead to restlessness and violence and tamasic samskaras that lead to depression. He further explains how these samskaras influence our decision-making process.

Let us say our radio suddenly stops working properly and we simultaneously connect with frequencies from three channels. One channel is playing an advertisement for a cosmetic product. The second channel gives instructions for farming. The third channel is playing a comedy drama. It sounds like this to us, 'Please spray a little bit of pesticide. After that wipe your face clean. Now brush your teeth properly and put on a little more pesticide. Finally jump up and down and laugh flailing your arms and legs.'

If we try to execute decisions based on these mixed, crosswired instructions, we end up in difficulty. Similarly when we try to work with different types of engrams, sattva, rajas and tamas and all three cross each other, they create hell in our lives. Please understand that intelligent people collect arguments to arrive at a judgment while most of us collect arguments to support a preexisting judgment.

If we look into our life, how many times have we accepted mistakes? Of course, to even look into our lives and see how many times we have erred needs intelligence. We usually react out of arrogance or guilt. We say, 'So what if I made a mistake?' We brush it aside. This is one kind of attitude, the attitude of might is right. The other is suffering from guilt.

Please understand that an unintelligent man never feels guilty. Of course I tell you to drop your guilt as well. That is in a different context. Only an intelligent man who thinks of dharma (righteousness) suffers from guilt. Only he feels guilt. A person who only lives and feels at the instinct level never feels guilty. An Arjuna or a Yudhishtra feels guilty. A Duryodhana will not feel guilty.

A person at the intellect level suffers guilt. Someone at the level of intuition goes beyond guilt. He understands the truth as it is. Krishna speaks of how to handle these three gunas properly and use them to the maximum. Getting the maximum out of them is an intelligent process.

A small story:

A young child swallowed a coin and was taken to the doctor. The doctor used different methods to no avail. The nurse also tried, still the coin didn't come out. A friend standing nearby made an attempt without success. A passerby observed this and offered his assistance. The doctor asked, 'What can you do?' The passerby said, 'Give me one moment.' He spoke to the child and came back smiling with the coin. The surprised doctor asked, 'I am a doctor. I could not take the coin out. How did you do it?'

The passerby said, 'I am a con artist. I can extract money out of anybody.'

Krishna gives tips and techniques to get the maximum out of the three gunas. Before entering into these three layers of engrams, samskaras related to sattva, rajas and tamas, let me illustrate how we are caught and how these

engrams work. Then, we will enter into each technique.

These are the seven energy layers of our body-mind system. These are seven parts of our being. The first is the physical body, our flesh and bones.

Next is the pranic layer, the energies of prana, vyaana, udaana, apaana, and samaana, or the five air movements that take place in our body-mind system. The third is the mental body. This is where inner chattering continuously takes place. A continuous recorder goes on as inner chatter inside us whether we are standing, sitting or doing nothing. Sometimes we open our mouth and chatter. At other times, we close our mouth and continue to chatter. Whether we open our mouth or not, talking continues. This is inner chattering or the mental body or chanchala, which means inner movement.

The fourth is the etheric body. This is the space where our intense emotions and painful experiences are stored. Usually intense emotions are of pain and suffering. We do not know any other intense emotion. If we do, we are a spiritual person.

When we look into life, we see that pain gives such an intense feeling. When we are depressed or in pain, we become intense and our whole mind is centered. Our mind does not move towards anything else.

Have you experienced bliss to the same extent or depth that you have experienced pain? No, all we know is pain. We cannot intellectually understand the three bodies beyond the etheric body. They can only be experienced spiritually through meditation.

The pranic layer is the body filled with desires. Mental body is filled with 'I should have' or guilt feelings. The etheric body is pain. Understand these three. Desire, guilt and pain are the feelings of the experiences stored in these layers.

When emotions, desires and feelings arising out of these three attributes are pure, they are called sattva, rajas and tamas. Usually, they are impure. They are mixed with each other. We should know how to purify them. If we can purify our desires, we will be liberated. Please understand that we cannot live without desires. We can only cleanse and purify the desires, directing them

towards the right path. Without desires, we can't breathe. Even inhaling and exhaling cannot happen without desires. We cannot live without desires. Desires must be handled properly. Desires must be straightened. That's what we need to work towards sattva.

Next comes guilt or rajas. Our restlessness is created by thoughts like, 'I should have done that.', 'I should have lived like that.', 'Because I did not, now let me do it.' 'I should have reacted in a certain manner; however, at that time, I did not have the intelligence. Let me teach him a lesson, I know what to do now.' This is how restlessness or rajas operates.

The third is pain. Whether we do right or wrong, we know how to make it painful. Whatever it is, we know how to create suffering through tamas.

The first four mind-body layers are influenced by the three gunas. The mind cannot experience the remaining three layers beyond the fourth level. They can be experienced only through meditation. In the fifth layer, the causal body, we sleep soundly without dreams. It is called karana shareera, the energy layer that we experience during deep sleep. The sixth layer is the cosmic layer, filled with joyful memories and the seventh is the nirvanic layer or the bliss body.

Just remember the first four layers of physical, pranic, mental and etheric energy. That's enough, because we will work only on these. Krishna has already spoken about the physical layer. Now He works on the other three gunas - sattva, rajas and tamas. Sattva is the second layer of prana, rajas is the third layer of manas and the fourth layer is the etheric layer of tamas. In the next chapter when Krishna explains about the other layers we will understand those.

As I was saying, sattva is related to desires and the prana shareera. When our desires change, our prana flow or our airflow changes. For example if we are caught by lust, or an intense desire, our inhaling and exhaling becomes intense. The prana going in and coming out increases. With any desire, the prana flow totally changes. If we are in a silent, peaceful mood, the prana flow will be so mild, we will not know prana is flowing.

Understand that this pranic shareera is filled with desires. What should we learn about sattva, about this pranic layer?

Whether we believe it or not, we are Gods. We are pure Consciousness. Whatever thoughts we create in our pure Consciousness gain power. This space exists in all of us and is called Self, atman, or inner Divinity. Whatever thoughts we create in this space, the deeper they are, the more power they get from this Consciousness. It is like placing a slide in front of the bulb in a slide projector. That slide becomes reality on the screen. This inner Self is also light and any slide we create in this area becomes reality in the outer world.

But, the problem is we create self-contradictory desires. We suffer with our desires because of this. Whether our desires are fulfilled or not, the resulting suffering is inevitable. If the desires are fulfilled, there

will be emptiness and if they are unfulfilled, there will be restlessness. In both cases, we move towards tamas. Why?

Why should we suffer because of desires? First, understand self-contradicting desires. For instance, if we want to get rid of a headache, normally we create an engram that continuously says, 'I should get rid of this headache. I should get rid of this headache.' We think the same word constantly in our unconscious. By continuously thinking that we want to get rid of the headache, we will never be able to get rid of it. When we repeat a word, in this case 'headache', we give power to it. The headache intensifies instead of disappearing.

It is a subtle understanding. Whatever words we repeat unconsciously become reality in our body, mind and in our world. It is because we have power to give life to any word. If the words 'Let me get up and go', come to our mind, with those words, immediately our body will move, we will stand up and go.

One word can make us do whatever we want. Words that appear in our mind are important. Words that appear in our mind are mantra (sacred sounds). When put together, all the words that appear in our mind form our life, especially the words that we repeat unconsciously.

For example, if we observe what happens when we brush our teeth in the morning, our mind is somewhere else. For example, when we are in a shower, the mind is elsewhere. Sometimes we sing. Especially when we take a coldwater shower, we automatically sing to divert our mind. Cold water showers and singing are closely connected. Since nobody is watching us in the bathroom, we talk or sing freely.

Sometimes people even argue with themselves loudly in the bathroom.

One man was standing near the bathroom when his wife came out. He asked, 'Who were you arguing with?'

She said, 'I was talking to myself.'

He asked, 'Why were you arguing?'

She said, 'I know what I was doing, so stay out of it.'

He continued, 'I can understand that you were talking to yourself, but why were you arguing with yourself?'

She said, 'You know me. I don't accept stupid logic. That is why I was arguing with myself!'

We play games. We continuously talk without knowing what's going on. We utter the same words when brushing our teeth everyday of the week. The moment we brush our teeth, we have the same trend of thoughts. When we shower, we have the same type of thoughts. If we observe closely, we will realize this.

Thoughts that we repeat unconsciously are more powerful than words we use consciously. We create many thoughts, so many samskaras that are self-contradictory. 'I should get rid of this headache' is a self-contradictory thought. When we repeat those words we remember the

headache as well. By remembering the word 'headache' again and again, we bring back that memory and we bring back that headache into our mind. How do we expect to get rid of the headache then?

If we constantly repeat, 'I should get rid of this headache,' we bring that memory back every time we utter the word 'headache'. We bring that whole file of suffering back to our mind. How can we get rid of that headache? Instead, create a samskara such as, 'I should become healthy' again and again. Then we can remember the idea of health.

Whatever mantra or word we use, that dhyana or meditation automatically happens in our unconsciousness. If we use the word 'headache' again and again, we will be meditating on headache again and again. If we use the word 'health', again and again, we will be meditating on health again and again.

That is why in all meditation, in the dhyana of gods, we have dhyana sloka. Before meditating, we recite a dhyana sloka, the invocation verses. In these verses we verbalize what we wish to visualize.

Verbalization of visualization is the dhyana sloka. Now, if again and again we verbalize the word headache, headache, headache, what do we visualize? We visualize the person who gives us a headache, or what we feel like when we get a headache. We will continuously visualize the headache scene and that mood.

Whatever we visualize again and again will be inscribed

or engraved in our memory, in our inner space, in our inner being. If we have a disease, please never create and repeat a word that carries the name of the disease. For example, never say, 'Let me get rid of this heart problem. Let me get rid of this diabetes. Let me get rid of this high blood pressure. Let me get rid of this headache.' Use straight words, not selfcontradictory words. If we have pain or an illness, use words like 'Let me become healthy.' Words create a visualization and energy of what we want to happen.

Always use these words, 'Let me become healthy.' Never use words like, 'Let me get rid of this back pain.'

Never use self-contradicting engrams. The more we use self-contradicting engrams, the more we engrave that disease into our inner space. The more we engrave, the more powerful they become. Please do not abuse the inner space or iccha shakti (power of creation). The pranic layer is our iccha shakti. It has energy to make things happen. It has energy to fulfill our desires. Do not waste iccha shakti by creating self-contradicting thoughts or selfcontradicting engrams.

Self-contradicting thoughts corrupt our whole sattva space. When you go home today, spend just ten minutes to do this exercise. Sit for ten minutes with yourself and write down the thoughts that come to your mind regularly. Then see where you are creating selfcontradicting engrams and edit them, clear them. Don't bring self-contradicting thoughts into your mind.

The latest research shows that when psychiatric diseases are analyzed and publicized, millions of people

across the world immediately start suffering from that disease. As long as we don't name the disease, people don't suffer from that disease even if they have it. The moment we inform them that these are the symptoms of the disease, this is what the disease is called, everybody thinks, 'I am suffering from this disease.'

Many people in good health experience symptoms of illness described by medical studies. Almost all of us feel giddy at one time or another, more often if we tend to get angry easily. This does not mean that every attack of giddiness relates to a blood pressure problem. Many people wake up sweating in the night. It does not mean that they are experiencing heart attacks. Yet once it is drilled into them that these are symptoms of dangerous diseases, they become neurotic. They turn into hypochondriacs. They become nervous wrecks.

This is a dangerous game. We should not let words created by pharmaceutical research companies about various diseases create doubts in us. This idea, 'I think I also have this problem,' gets created when we listen to disease reports and commercials. Immediately we create an engram that says, 'I have this problem; I should get rid of it.' By the time we repeat these words ten times we have the problem.

We continuously allow ourselves to be exploited by what we hear and see. People who don't know the truth of the mind and consciousness are influencing us. All these problems arise because they do not know that pure joy of inner space is possible.

Let me make a bold statement that no medicine or chemical can help our mind. All anti-anxiety medicines, all anti-depression medicines are consolations. First, we visualized that we suffered from depression and now we visualize that we have taken some medicine.

Let me share another important secret. It is a business secret. Many people say, 'Master, some person has done some black magic on me. Some people have laid a spell on me. Someone has put an evil spirit behind me. Some evil being possesses me.' There are many people who exploit this fear in others, cashing in on this fear. All negativity has only one power, our faith in it.

All negativity such as black magic or evil or demonic acts, has only one power and that is our faith in it. Our faith in them gives them power. Because we believe in them, we connect all the incidents and make trouble for ourselves. And then we struggle to free ourselves. When people come to me with these fears, I say, 'There is nothing, don't worry. There is no problem.'

Then they think, 'This Master is young. He doesn't know much. Let's go to an older person who will give us some counter-spells, some talisman, someone who will do some exorcism and remove this negativity and remove these blockages.'

They think I don't know anything. So what can I do? I give them some talisman and say, 'You don't have to pay. Just put this under your pillow and you will be healed. You will be cured.' The talisman, the yantra, has nothing in it. I am clear that the yantra has nothing in it. The person has created an idea within him. He has this negativity. By

giving him the yantra, I create an idea in him that he doesn't have any negativity. It is like using one thorn to remove another thorn. There is nothing else.

I say to people, 'Don't think that by having these yantras something will shower from your house roof. Nothing can shower from your house roof except rats!' These are antidotes for their negative faith. They already created faith that they have these problems. Now I am consoling them. I say to them honestly, 'You created this trouble and now I am your help to undo it.' All negativity has one power, our faith in it.

If the person who exploits these fears takes money for it, that's fine, we can earn back that money. The danger is that he creates an engram in us. He creates a samskara that continuously haunts us. For anything and everything, we run to him like slaves. It is better to be caught in the hands of the ghost than in the hands of sorcerers. At least, the ghost will trouble us once in a while; however, this person will exploit us completely.

With the ghost, we have mental suffering. With this person, we have mental and economic suffering! The big problem is that not only does he take our money; he also creates an engraved memory in the form of fear in us. With every small sound we hear at night, we think, 'I think that the effects of that talisman is over. Now I must get a new talisman.'

People in this business also give out talismans that need to get it recharged! After a couple of months, we must take it back to be recharged. I was surprised: a rechargeable talisman! All we need is an advertisement!

I saw an advertisement in a newspaper. A man is standing in a pose as if he is granting blessings and he claims to be an Atharvana Veda scholar. He is continuously releasing big advertisements. I was surprised because this scripture of Atharvana Veda is not about these things. This scripture is pure science to improve our life. It is a pure science to handle our mind blissfully. No scripture teaches exploitation of others.

In fact, the first jyotisha sutra (Vedic astrology) states that intuition happens only to a person whose inner space is pure, who does not expect benefit or return in the form of money, good name or goodwill. So never go to people who engage in these mantra and yantra, spells and talismans. Also understand that evil entities have only one power, our faith in them.

Now, when we create self-contradicting thoughts, we start believing them. Especially when they name a disease in psychoanalysis, it is like the fashion business. In the fashion business, every week they launch a new dress. Similarly here, every month they invent a new disease.

By repeating that negative idea, by meditating on the symptom, we start creating that symptom in us. It is a dangerous game. Don't be caught in that game. We disturb the sattva, the pure space of our being, by creating self-contradicting thoughts. So write down your major thoughts and desires and analyze them. Observe how many thoughts are self-contradicting. This is the first step.

Next, let us see how two desires contradict one another. We want to lead a peaceful life and we want wealth. With wealth comes responsibility as well. Either decide to take responsibility and be happy with that responsibility or decide to relax and accept whatever happens.

Only one thought should be strengthened when two desires conflict. When we have both, we have a selfcontradicting mental setup. In the sattva space, in the sattva energy, when we create self-contradicting engraved memories, we are automatically thrown towards rajas.

Let me describe what Krishna says about rajas. The mode of passion is born of unlimited desires and longings. This is a beautiful verse.

Krishna says, because of this, the embodied living entity is bound to doing results-based actions.

He talks about desires and longings. What is the difference? Desires and longings - raga means desire; trishna means craving, longing. What is the difference? Some memories have our emotional support whereas some memories have been inserted into our being by advertisements.

Advertisements are not only on TV or in a movie. If our father repeats something again and again, that is an advertisement. If our mother says again and again, 'This is right, this is right. This is for us, this is for you,' that becomes an advertisement. Some desires have our mental support. We feel these will give us fulfillment; we feel these are our genuine needs. Some desires have been sold to us by someone else. That is the difference between desires and longings.

Desires are ours and longings have been given to us by society. They are a social conditioning. Desires are inborn. They are our nature. If we fulfill desires, we feel fulfilled and relaxed. With longings, the moment we fulfill them, we will feel empty. This is the difference between desire and longing. Desire gives us fulfillment. Longing gives us emptiness.

Krishna shows us how self-contradicting desires lead us to rajas. When desires contradict each other, we get confused. We fall into rajas, restlessness. When the information about an object comes into our system, it passes through chakshu, chitta, buddhi and then goes to the ego. On its way, before this file reaches ego, it passes through the unconscious space of engrams that write their opinions on this file.

Let us say ten engrams write a decision saying, 'I want to sit and listen to the discourse.' and another ten engrams write, 'No, let us go watch a movie. Today is a weekend.' Ten engrams write one decision on the file, and the other ten engrams write another decision. By the time the file reaches the ego, we are confused. As a result of these contradicting opinions from our engrams, we have inner restlessness.

The more engrams, the more time it takes to make a decision. We will suffer and be in a dilemma. Man is a dilemma. Continuously we think, 'I should have done

this, or I should have done that.' Dilemma is due to too many engrams.

Dilemma is what Krishna calls rajas and restlessness. In rajas, we have tremendous anger, violence and inner restlessness. A person caught in rajas shouts at others and experiences an irritable mood. He has a poisonous tongue. He waits to vomit out his irritation and anger at others.

Once we remove the rajas engrams, we can make one thousand decisions without getting stressed. The file will go straight to the ego without interruption. To make a decision we don't need to cross three hundred tables like an Hindu Government office. There will be two or three tables. One says, 'Yes', the other says, 'Okay'. By the time the file reaches the ego, there will not be many differing opinions. It can decide instantly and send the file back for action.

The process will be easy. Making decisions will be easy and our time and energy will not be wasted. That is why Krishna says that when we don't expect the result, when we don't think of karma phala (result of the work done), we can do the work intensely.

When we don't expect or worry about the result, we work beautifully because there are fewer engrams. We will not suffer or be tortured by engraved memories.

In the next verse Krishna talks about tamas.

He addresses Arjuna, 'Oh son of Bharata, know that the mode of darkness, tamas, is born out of ignorance. It is the delusion of all embodied living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep, which bind the conditioned soul.' This is a beautiful explanation of tamas.

If there are more samskaras or engrams, the file does not reach the ego easily. In fact, the file may not reach the ego. A powerful engram may make the decision. It is similar to a 'non application of mind' in legal terminology.

Why does this happen? Why do you decide unconsciously and regret later?

This unconscious zone is filled with negative memories and restlessness. All our past memories and past thought patterns, samskaras or engrams, are stored in this zone as files. So many files are stored in this zone without any logical connection between them.

This is what happens. When the file takes a quantum leap to this zone, it does not reach the ego properly for a decision because this zone is where all the data that causes restlessness in you is stored. It is as if your computer hard disk is loaded with high-resolution photographs and there is no further scope to work on your hard disk. Like that, when your unconscious is loaded with past thought patterns and memories, it becomes inefficient and makes superficial, illogical decisions.

Take this example: According to data that you have collected, smoking is injurious to health. It is not good for your body or mind. You can hold onto this decision

as long as you are in the conscious level. But once the mind takes the leap to the ego, the engrams instruct you to smoke; you simply decide to smoke! The conscious process says, 'No, it is not good for health.' Yet the unconscious process just makes the decision and you execute it! It is a pure instinct-level decision.

When we have more engrams, we don't know what decision will come out. It is like a Pandora's box. We don't know what will come out since the inner space is full of engrams and samskaras. We are at the level of an animal. We act on instinct.

When there are only a few engrams, it is like not having three hundred tables for the file to have to move through. There are only a few tables, similar to a private corporation. This is the human level or level of intellect.

When there are no engrams, there will be no need for the file to drop into the unconscious zone for a decision. It straightaway meets the buddhi and ego after the mind. There are no blocks. The time taken for the unconscious process will be less than the conscious process. We will be intuitive or at the level of God.

The level of an animal is the level of instinct; the level of man is the level of intellect; and the level of God is the level of intuition. The level of instinct is the level of tamas; the level of intellect is the level of rajas; and the level of intuition is the level of sattva.

In sattva, our mind works continuously and we make decisions, yet we do not become tired. We can be active for twenty-four hours and yet remain peaceful. This is what I call action in inaction and inaction in action. Krishna says we will be centered when we are in sattva. Though lots of activity go on around us, we will remain utterly relaxed.

The whole thing is dependent on one thing: our engrams or engraved memories. The number of engraved memories determines whether we are caught in sattva, rajas or tamas. These three are not enlightenment states. Enlightenment is beyond these three.

If we are caught in tamas, we need to move towards rajas. If we are caught in rajas, make the move towards sattva. If we are caught in satva, it will automatically lead us to enlightenment. How do we do this?

Krishna speaks of tamas. 'Know that the mode of darkness, born of ignorance, is the delusion of all embodied, living entities. The results of this mode are madness, indolence and sleep which bind the conditioned soul.'

For example, we create a self-contradicting desire in the sattva level. Because of that we create restlessness in the rajas level. When we feel too restless, we drop everything. We decide not to take any responsibility and we sleep instead. We fall into tamas.

Tamas is not only sleep or depression. Not taking enough responsibility is also tamas. For example, we are in tamas if we studied to become a doctor and we do not practice our profession out of laziness. If we don't practice for some other reason, that is fine. However, if we are avoiding because of laziness, we are in tamas. Don't drop out from anything due to tamas. If we drop out because of a spiritual reason, that is different. Some people drop out to meditate, go on a pilgrimage or to do spiritual work. That is fine. However, we are caught in tamas when we drop out due to laziness or for no reason at all.