Cutting the Tree Down🔗

15.3 The real form of this tree cannot be perceived. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is.

But with determination one must cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment.

15.4 One must then seek that place from which having gone, one never returns, and surrender to the supreme Being from whom all activities started in ancient times.

Krishna speaks further about the causal body where saṁskāras are stored. He is an extraordinary scientist. A scientist can honestly search for the truth; he can give up his own faith and belief for the cause of this search and is courageous enough to express the secrets, which he discovers step-by-step.

We see these qualities in Krishna. He is honest in His expression or search. He is ready to give up His small understandings for the bigger truth. He is ready to give up yesterday's truth for today's updated intelligence.

We can't wait for a train by looking at last year's timetable. Krishna continuously updates Himself. Lastly, He is courageous to open up the secrets in public. He is not worried about copyright and intellectual property rights.

The ancient vedic society in India believed that knowledge was free. The idea of copyright did not exist. Krishna is courageous enough to open up all the secrets.

He beautifully says, 'narūpamashyeha tatopalabhyate.' No one can perceive the real form of this tree. No one can understand where it begins, where it ends or where its foundation is. However, with determination one should cut down this tree with the weapon of strong will and detachment.

No one can see what one has stored in one's causal body. It is like Pandora's Box. All the saṁskāras stored in the causal layer reveal themselves one by one. When we erase four of them, ten will surface. What is inside nobody knows. Only one thing is possible. All the saṁskāras can be cut by a strong will of detachment. With a strong will, with intelligence, the entire causal layer can be cleared.

People ask a master to show them how to get rid of saṁskāras. Only strong will and intelligence can do that. Do we ask the master's help to take our hands out of the fire? No! We know fire burns. So we withdraw our hands immediately. We ask the master only because the understanding is not there.

If the understanding is present, right action follows. If right action does not happen, be very clear that the understanding has not happened. Similarly, saṁskāras are dangerous. All that is needed is intelligence and a strong will of detachment.

Krishna explains that after cutting the tree of saṁskāras, surrender to the space of eternal silence, from where there is no coming back. This is the space in which the whole of Existence is established.

Freud and Jung based a lot of analytical work on the concept of identity or ego, parts of the brain and the body-mind system. I use these terms differently from psychologists and as synonyms. Identity is a collection of memories that define your belief of who you are. Identity or ego shapes your personality. All our decisions are driven by our personality, which in turn is the collection of memories, beliefs and values.

Almost all the information stored by the identity is in the unconscious regions of the mind. We do not know what is stored here. Ninety percent or more of our sensory perceptions are stored in our unconscious mind. We will go mad if all this information is grasped by our conscious brain.

One's identity is the collection of one's saṁskāras, past memories and desires that are stored in the unconscious mind. This is in the causal layer of our energy. Through deep and focused meditation, we can access this unconscious causal layer and dissolve the saṁskāras stored here. Once done, we no longer return as the same person. We are free of saṁskāras and liberated.

During the Nithyananda Spurana Program, the LBP Level 2, we meditate upon this causal layer using darkness as the guiding force. Metaphorically, this represents the unconscious that we are normally unaware of.

The spirit that leaves the body goes through a comatose state when it passes through this causal body layer. As long as the spirit has not crossed this layer, it can return to the body. This is the power of saṁskāras. These engraved memories or desires can pull the spirit back. That is why sometimes after many years in a coma, people return to consciousness. They are pulled back by unfulfilled desires. However, once the spirit crosses the causal layer, it cannot return to the body. It must move on to the next layer, the cosmic layer.

Once we access this point of dissolution of saṁskāras and move on to the cosmic layer, we no longer operate unconsciously at the behest of our stored memories. We move into a state of intuition, as opposed to our earlier state of instinct. We are no longer in an ignorant wakeful state, but in the truly awakened state of consciousness.

Numerous techniques are used to unlock the unconscious: hypnosis, mind control, visualization and so on. When we play with the unconscious, or subconscious as it is also termed, we are truly playing with the unknown. When we explore in this region without the support and awareness of meditation, we often experience results that we didn’t expect and are not equipped to manage. That is why it is said, be careful what you wish for, it may come true.

Subconscious or unconscious activation of the mind without awareness has disturbing results. When studying the alarming increase of adults blaming parents for childhood sexual trauma, many accusations were found to be untrue; they were the result of psychiatrists planting these ideas into clients while treating them. Hypnosis may or may not discover hidden truths; however, in the wrong hands, it can plant harmful memories in the unconscious.

Bringing awareness into the unconscious through the super-conscious meditative route is the only correct way to dissolve accumulated saṁskāras.

Q: You say that your use of the term ‘ego’ is synonymous to Freud’s usage but not the same. Please explain.

I am no expert on Freud. He studied many mentally ill people and formed conclusions which he applied to everyone. His theories have misled a lot of people. I wish he had studied enlightened people to arrive at a balance instead of basing his conclusions upon disturbed individuals.

Freud and his contemporary, Carl Jung, talk about id, ego and superego. Originally these were referred to as 'It,' 'I' and the 'Over-I' in German. These words 'id' and 'ego' are not Freud's words. They are the words of translators.

According to Freud, 'id' or 'It' was about instinct-based pleasures. It was about the primal emotions of fear and greed. It is mostly the unconscious. Superego or 'Over-I' is the conscience based upon societal, religious and political conditioning and conditioning, a sort of controlling father figure. It is the societal morality that governs us. Ego or 'I' is the self, the identity that mediates between the id and the superego. Ego according to Freud is partly conscious and partly unconscious. This is a simple explanation.

Actually, the expression of ego may be conscious, but what drives this expression is the unconscious. You can use any word you want, but the master uses 'ego' to represent not merely the 'I' but also the 'mine'. Together they form what you think you are. Many of us think that the concept of 'mine' arises from the realization of 'I'. No. Your first needs are the survival and pleasure needs that define your 'mine'. These arise from the mūlādhāra cakra - the base energy center.

Based on what you see as your possessions, you define your identity. You decide what you wish to be. The expression of 'I' starts from your svādiṣṭhāna cakra. So 'Mine' is about greed, arising from mūlādhāra. 'I' is about fear and insecurity, arising from svādiṣṭhāna.

A master refers to 'ego' as a combination of 'mine' and 'I'. Ego has two faces, the outer face and the inner face; ahaṅkāra and mamakāra. What you project to others as to who you are is who you wish to be for the outer world. This is ahaṅkāra. This is projected as more than what you are. You are yourself an illusion. Ahaṅkāra is a greater illusion.

Mamakāra is who you inwardly think you are. You always underestimate yourself. You may say, 'That is not true, I have high self-esteem.' That self-esteem, is most of the time born out of insecurity. It is a defensive wall against society. You become a prisoner behind that wall. It starts to breed only subtle violence.

If you truly had high self-esteem, wouldn't you accept that you are God? Why not? I say that you are divine. My mission is to prove to you that you are God, not to establish that I am God.

Instead you believe your religion that calls you a sinner. Do you understand what sin is? Sin is ignorance. It is ignorance of the truth that you are divine, that you are God. Society and religion don't allow you to realize that because if you do, they cannot have much control over you.

Religions wish to rule you through fear and greed. Fear of hell and greed of heaven are the tools of stick and carrot that they use to manipulate you. Society likes that because without such controls, you will be unmanageable. You will be too free.

So they condition you from birth. They are the superego, the Over-I, the Big Brother watching over you so that you are under their control. The conditioning that they impose on you through parents, elders and environment, create saṁskāras in you. You are kept in bondage by these saṁskāras.

In this chapter Krishna explains the nature of this bondage and how you can break away and become liberated.