You Are Your Samskāras🔗

15.9 The living entity, the spirit, leaves one body, takes another body and gets new eyes, ears, nose, tongue and sensing body according to the saṁskāras it had in its causal layer and enjoys the new mental setup.

15.10 Fools can neither understand how a living entity can quit his body nor what sort of a body he enjoys under the spell of gunas, the attributes and moods of nature. Only those whose eyes are trained by knowledge can see these things.

'The living entity, the spirit, leaves one body, takes another body and gets new eyes, ears, nose, tongue and sensing body according to the saṁskāras it had in its causal layer and enjoys the new mental setup.'

Here Krishna reveals another secret. He says, 'You create a body according to the saṁskāras in the causal layer.'

There is an Indian science called sāmudrikā lakṣaṇa śāstra, the technique of studying body features. By observing our physical body structure, experts can read and reveal our mental setup. They know the relationship between mind and body.

Krishna says that we create our sensory organs, according to saṁskāras in our causal layer. Krishna says that living entities create all five senses through the mind or mental setup. This happens not only when we take another body. Everyday when we wake up from deep sleep, our senses are recreated. If we change our mental setup, within a short time, our face changes.

Our 'mind' is the intelligence spread all over our body. It is the intelligence that resides in our cells. Each cell carries genetic intelligence. Body and mind are not separate entities. It is just body-mind or mind-body, one system. Within this body-mind system, scientists say that every moment of your life thousands of cells die and thousands of new cells are created. This is a constant process that Nature, the universal intelligence, dictates. It does not happen because of us; it happens in spite of us.

In a period of a little under two years, every part of our body, every cell in our body, gets renewed. Our body as it was a year ago is not the body it is today. Our present body is not the body it will be a year from now. This is not fiction; it is a proven scientific fact.

Then why do we behave the same way as we have for years? Why do illnesses plague us for years, even though the cells are no longer the same?

Each cell as it dies, leaves behind a memory that the newly created cell follows. That is the saṁskāras within us. The saṁskāras ensures the continuation of a pattern despite complete changes in the body-mind system. This saṁskāras are more powerful than the rest of the body-mind system. It decides and drives.

The deep sleep we go into everyday is a rehearsal of our death process. We die and are reborn. Our subtle body leaves the gross body and returns reenergized if we allow it to. It is in our hands to maximize this process of rejuvenation that happens automatically everyday.

Through meditation we can clear our saṁskāras and be reborn. We can change our features, our character and behavior, all by reprogramming our saṁskāras.

That is why people radiate grace after they start meditation. Beauty is created by make-up. Grace is radiated by meditation. Grace makes the occupant feel at home. It soothes the atmosphere. Beauty creates excitement. Beauty moves the other person into rajas (restlessness). Grace creates calmness, satva. Grace puts the other person in energy.

People reminisce about great masters like Ramana Maharshi and say that He imparted wisdom through silence. It is the enlightened master's grace that penetrates the other person's energy and changes that person's saṁskāras.

All that we need to do in an enlightened master's presence is just be, be open and silent and allow the master's grace to penetrate us. There is nothing that we need to do. The master's grace does whatever is needed.

One version of the great Indian epic Ramayana says that when princess Sita, the leading lady of the epic, entered the court of King Janaka, her father, all the great kings, monks and mystics stood up automatically. This was not protocol. The grace

she radiated caused this response in them. Beauty can create only temptation in the other person. Only grace can create respect. The grace radiating from Sita's being made everybody stand up.

Zen Buddhism says that if we can walk on a lawn without killing the grass or creating a path with our footsteps, we are eligible for sanyās. I doubted this. I thought it was impossible. After all, the whole body weight is there. How can grass bear such a load and not leave imprints?

Once I went on a safari in South India. I sat on an elephant and the caretaker came along with me. It was evening. It became dark. The caretaker had no torch or light. I asked him how he would find his way back home. He replied, 'I have created a path by my daily walk that I can follow even in darkness.'

I asked about the elephant because it traveled with him everyday. He said, 'The elephant's feet do not create a path. The elephant and other animals do not destroy grass as they walk over it.' I started calculating the load exerted by one foot of the elephant. At the least, it works out to four times that of an average man. However, it did not create a path. It did not kill a single blade of grass. In spite of the physical mass, there was no damage to the environment.

That is why Zen Buddhism says we are eligible for sanyas only when we can walk on the lawn without killing a blade of grass. The negativity, arrogance, violence, negative saṁskāras in our causal layer, makes us feel heavy on earth. If we feel heavy around our navel area, we carry negative saṁskāras. The feeling of heaviness is not connected to our weight. It is due to imprints in our inner space. A person who feels light radiates grace from his being and he never creates a path on a lawn. He never kills a blade of grass by his walk.

Zen says we are spiritually evolved souls only when our feet do not create a path, when we float while we walk, when we do not go against nature.

Man is the only animal who has gone against nature.

A small story:

A man wanted to do away with his wife and her pet cat. In India, there used to be no way to divorce one's wife. So he decided to get rid of atleast the cat. He took the cat ten miles away in his car, dropped it off and returned home. Just as he entered his house, the cat also arrived. He was shocked.

The next day he took the cat and traveled forty minutes away. He reached a thick forest he had never seen before. He abandoned the cat there.

He started his return trip and reached home. To his utter amazement, the cat was standing at the doorway.

The third day, he took the cat, blindfolded it, put it in a sack, drove a very circuitous route, left it in a certain spot and started driving back. He drove for one hour and then called up his wife and asked, 'Dear, is the cat at home by any chance?' The wife replied that the cat had just returned. The man said, 'Please can you somehow find out how to get home. I have lost my way.'

Animals are one with Nature. It is human beings who have gone against Nature, who have lost their way.

Here Krishna says, we create our senses according to our saṁskāras. This happens not only when we die and take birth; we redesign our senses to suit our saṁskāras everyday, when we wake up too. If we wake up with the right mental setup, we will have our senses accordingly and for the whole day we can enjoy it. If on the other hand, we get up with negativity, we suffer.

The few moments immediately after we wake up are crucial. Whatever we feel will be reflected the rest of the day. If we radiate joy, our whole day will be joyful. If we are irritable, our whole day will be irritable.

Sufi masters practice a beautiful meditation everyday. Just as they wake up, when their subtle body is settling into their gross body, they practice this meditation:

While still lying down and with eyes closed, run your hands over your head saying with great awareness and belief, 'I love my head and hair. They are so beautiful. I am so grateful to the universe for having given me such a beautiful head and hair.'

Continue throughout the rest of your body. Touch each limb, each part of your body with great love. Express love to that part, express appreciation to that part, to its beauty and grace and express gratitude to the universe for giving you such a beautiful body-mind.

Continue throughout your body down to your feet and toes. Finish by touching your toes with great love and feeling, 'I love my toes. They are so beautiful. I am grateful to the universe for giving me such beautiful toes.'

Do this with awareness everyday at least for twenty-one days. You will be amazed at the changes that happen within your body-mind. You will develop grace and equally important, you will learn to love yourself, which means that you can love others without difficulty.

Krishna further says, the type of senses we create determines the type of sensory objects we enjoy. If we create positive senses, we enjoy a positive life. If we create negative senses, we suffer a negative life. The type of senses we create determines what type of objects or pleasures attract us, and we experience that.

Our senses, intelligence and our body-mind system create the energy field around us. This energy field attracts similar energy fields. If we are negative, if our perceptions are negative, we attract people with negative mindsets and descend into a vicious cycle. However, if we convert negativity into positive emotions and positive perceptions, we attract like-minded, positive people.

This is extremely important in spiritual progress. It is easy to make progress and evolve when we are with a master. However, when we get into the company of people who are not following the path, it is easy to slip from our path.

Shankara says, ‘satsaṅgatve nissaṅgatvaṁ.’ Good company, the company of like-minded people who seek the truth, helps us become unattached. This is the starting point and it is crucial. That is why Buddha created the sangha, the institution, and Christ created the group of disciples, to carry the torch. The master’s institution is as important as the teachings of the master. The institution is the fuel that keeps the Truth burning and alive.

That is why I am keen to create ashrams or communities where like-minded people can live together and grow in spirituality. The energy created in this process cannot be created in the external world. We can be idealistic and say that we can meditate anywhere; however, in reality, spirituality thrives either in aloneness or in like-minded communities. Like energies attract one another and enhance one another.

Krishna provides a wonderful punchline in the middle of this chapter.

‘Fools,’ He says. Krishna uses the Sanskrit word mūḍhaḥ that means ‘fool’. Fools can neither understand how a living entity can quit his body nor what sort of a body he enjoys under the spell of guṇa, the attributes and moods of nature. Only those whose eyes are trained by knowledge can see these things.

The first thought with which we get up from our bed plays a major role in our enjoyment throughout the day. What is our first thought usually? First we feel awake. We feel our body. Then it may be the fear that we must go to our office or

it may be the greed to finish some work. At the stroke of the thought, fear or greed, our body jumps out of bed. We connect to our body through fear or greed.

Krishna says that if we catch our body with fear or greed, we attract more and more fear or greed throughout the day.

There are many gates to enter the body. Never enter through the fear or greed gate. Get up with a spiritual thought. Remember your master or favorite God. Practice it consciously for a few days. Then it will become your routine. Don't connect to your body with fear or greed; you will attract more and more greed or fear.

Let your first thought be spiritual. Remember your master or God or anyone divine and thank Him. Thank Him for the extended life. Everyday that you wake up is an extension to your life on planet earth. Thank divinity for the grace, for the extension.

Waking up from bed is not our birthright. Of course, birth itself is not our right. It is a pure gift from Existence. Be grateful to the Divine for this day and extension here.

If we wake up from bed with spiritual thoughts, that consciousness stays with us the whole day. If we are made to get up from bed by material thoughts, we start our day with irritation. The entire day we carry the same irritated mood.

When we are in deep sleep, we are in touch with the causal layer. While waking up, we travel along the other three layers and reach the physical body. The three layers are like a shopping mall with various saṁskāras. According to our causal layer, we pick up the related saṁskāras and contact our physical body and design our senses accordingly.

Just for twenty-one days, wake up with a spiritual thought and check your face. It will be changed. Your eyes will have a new look.

I am not putting forward a theory. I have experienced this. A few hundred thousand people around the world practice these words. From that authority, I tell you, this is a vibrant technique.

Don't contact the body with tamas or rajas (depression or restlessness). If you get up with greed or fear, you design a body that radiates greed or fear and thereby attracts incidents that put you in greed or fear.

When you travel from the causal layer to the physical body, pick up satva (peaceful or blissful) saṁskāras. Have a spiritual thought as the first thought. Think of your master or God or anything that gives you a spiritual memory. That is why in India, ancient mystics tell us to meditate early in the morning. At least for a few seconds be in a blissful mood. Your inner space will be fresh and new.

Krishna says, ‘Only those whose eyes are trained by knowledge can see the truth of this science.’ The whole thing is before you. He says fools cannot understand and only those with eyes of knowledge, can see. The choice of being a fool or a man with eyes of knowledge is left to us. The choice is completely ours.

Q: Swamiji, you talked about the importance of ashram communities in spiritual development. What about people who cannot live in such communities? Can they progress?

Not everyone in ashrams becomes enlightened. Conversely, there is no condition that one must live in an ashram to become enlightened. Enlightenment is our natural state. We just need to understand and accept it.

It is therefore important to understand what stands in the way of this realization. If we are enlightened, why don’t we feel that? Why don’t we feel we are God? Why don’t we feel that we are a part of this universe? Why don’t we feel the universe will take care of us without any effort on our part?

We create a barrier between ourselves and the universe. We feel we are separate. We are like the wave that thinks that it is not part of the ocean. Time and again, the wave is consumed into the ocean and rises again; yet it feels separate. We rise from this universe and we return to this universe and yet we feel separate.

We reinforce this feeling of separation by forming attachments. We form attachments to people, objects and events and build walls between us and others, as well as between us and our true nature. As long as we live in the world of materialism, which is built on the foundations of such attachment, it is difficult to break away. We create reasons for these attachments. A mother says, ‘I need to care for my children’; an employer says, ‘I need to look after my employees’; a leader says, ‘I need to direct my followers.’ These are games we play to postpone

the reality. All these happen automatically within the groups that we define as well as all around in the extended world around us.

An ashram, a spiritual community, allows us to let go of these attachments. The presence of a master and the company of like-minded people direct us away from external sense-based attachments. We move from attachment to the external world to attachment to the master. With the master's guidance, we learn to let go of that attachment as well.

An ashram does not insulate us from the realities of the world. The ashramites deal with many responsibilities to do with the outer world. They learn to be financially savvy and they are trained in skills ranging from photography and computers, to writing and sculpting. Yet, all these are underpinned by the understanding of learning to live without expectations of results and without attachments.

This is what Shankara means when he says that good company focused on the ultimate reality, leads to nonattachment; nonattachment leads to a state of no desires; such a state of no desires leads to an undisturbed mind; and an undisturbed mind leads to liberation.

The ashram community is a good place to start the journey.