hindu religion

In my previous article, I had concluded stating that if we want our understanding of the Bhagavad Gita to be perfect, one must understand it as Arjuna understood it. We now begin our journey through the vast ocean of knowledge that is the Bhagavad Gita.

There are five basic truths that Bhagavad Gita addresses

They are as below:

1. Īśvara – Supreme Lord, the supreme controller, the supreme soul

2. Jīvas – the living beings that are controlled, spirit souls.

3. Prakṛti – the material nature

4. Kāla – Time

5. Karma – Activity

Can anyone point the odd one out in the above? No? Well, it so happens that the Supreme Lord, the spirit souls, material nature as well as Time are all eternal. Karma, activity, is the only one which is temporary. (Amusing, isn’t it? It takes 4 eternal entities to create something that is temporary!)

Now, let’s see how these topics are addressed.

Srimad Bhagavad Gita establishes the superiority of Īśvara above everything else. And Lord Krishna is established as the Supreme Controller of everything that is there, throughout Gita. Krishna himself declares it in Chapter 10, verse 8:

ahaḿ sarvasya prabhavo
mattaḥ sarvaḿ pravartate
iti matvā bhajante māḿ
budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ

“I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.”

In fact, Arjuna understood this perfectly. And that is the reason why we should try to understand Bhagavad Gita in a submissive mood, as a devotee of Lord Krishna, accepting him as the Supreme God (even if just theoretically), because otherwise the import of his teachings will be lost. We will see this in detail when I start addressing the chapter contents later on.

Next in line come the Jīvas, the living entities or spirit souls. While the subject of Īśvara is dealt in detail only at a later stage, the subject of the spirit soul is dealt with by Krishna in Chapter 02, verses 11 to 31. It is explained in Bhagavad Gita, as well as by the Acharyas, that each of us is a spirit soul (atma), infinitesimal sparks that are qualitatively the same as Īśvara, God. But just as a water droplet from the ocean of water cannot compare to the ocean itself even though being qualitatively same, we cannot compare ourselves to God in any manner. We are subordinate to the Supreme Lord and as such do not have the capabilities attributed to him.

Then we come down to Prakṛti or material nature. Bhagavad Gita clearly establishes that material nature is completely controlled by the Supreme Lord.

In Chapter 09, verse 10, Krishna states this:

mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ
sūyate sa-carācaram
hetunānena kaunteya
jagad viparivartate

“This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kuntī, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.”

Previously, he also states in Chapter 07, verses 4 and 5:

bhūmir āpo ‘nalo vāyuḥ
khaḿ mano buddhir eva ca
ahańkāra itīyaḿ me
bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego — all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.”

apareyam itas tv anyāḿ
prakṛtiḿ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāḿ mahā-bāho
yayedaḿ dhāryate jagat

“Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.”

Here, Krishna states that he is the Lord of the material nature and makes a clear distinction between himself and his energy. He also states that the living entities, the Jivas, are part of his superior energy whereas material nature is part of his inferior energy. Now, since the Jivas are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, they have the tendency of trying to lord over the material nature. The only problem is that they are not the Supreme Lord and hence cannot exercise full control over it.

While we stay on the topic of material nature, I wish to clarify an important point. What we are in, is part of material nature. It is real. But because material nature continually manifests and unmanifests itself under the effect of yet other energy of the Lord, Eternal Time, its manifestation is considered to be temporary. But its manifestation, this world and countless others, is never illusionary or false.

So, that brings us neatly to our next item: Time. Krishna mentions in Chapter 10, verse 30 that “kālaḥ kalayatām aham”, meaning “of the subduers I am Time”. As energy of the Supreme Lord, Time wears down everything. We see time only in relation to existence and movement in the material nature, whereas it does not have an end or a beginning. Since this is very difficult to understand at the outset, we will deal with this as and when we encounter it during the course of our study.

Last in line is Karma or activity. It is not activity performed just now. It includes everything from time immemorial, and by the laws of which our enjoyment and suffering are determined. Karma is affected by all the eternal entities. Activities arise due to the effect of combinations of 3 mode of Material nature (Goodness (Sattva), Passion (Rajas) and Ignorance (Tamas)), along with the influence of time. Karma, though its effects can stretch across millennia, is still temporary as we do have the ability to change our karma and hence the reactions to our Karma, based on perfection of our knowledge. Chapter 05 of Bhagavad Gita talks about Karma and Karma Yoga in detail and I will present that in due course of time.

(Phew, that was a heavy dose? Well, that is required as a foundation to proceed further. So, I will take a more relaxed pace from now.)

So, the next question anyone should ask is

How does one go about getting this knowledge perfectly?

If you want to learn or earn a degree in physics or nuclear medicine, I think you would pretty much know how to go about it. One has to go through 14 years of schooling, 4 years of college, another 2 years as post grad, and probably a Ph.D, before one can be considered as an expert in that field. Now, it so happens that for learning Spiritual science, there is a process to be followed. One must be humble in searching for the truth, must be able to identify a bonafide Guru, render service to him and inquire from him submissively. If you are wondering “Oi… hold it! That’s all? Are you sure you aren’t making this up?” well, here’s what Krishna says in Chapter 4, verse 34:

tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā
upadekṣyanti te jñānaḿ
jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ

“Just try to learn the truth by approaching a spiritual master. Inquire from him submissively and render service unto him. The self-realized souls can impart knowledge unto you because they have seen the truth.”

There. Satisfied? But note that I never said this is easy, since most of us (including me) fail miserably in the first criteria, which is humility. It is only by the mercy of our teachers that we are somehow dragged in to a higher level of understanding, regardless of whether we are taught modern science or Spiritual science.

(For a detailed description on the process of gaining knowledge in the Vedic methodology, please have a look at the article “Descending Knowledge” which I posted on my blog a while back.)

What made Arjuna lose his composure before the battle? What did he lament about? How does that relate to our current times? These I will address in the next article.

What is happiness?

If you ask anyone, ‘what is happiness?’ I am sure that the answers that you would get from most people would be similar. Good health, nice family, enough money, time to enjoy the little pleasures of this world, love, peace… it is not hard to imagine what would make people happy. Everyone in this world aspires to be happy all the time. The only problem is what WE define and seek as happiness, once gotten, doesn’t last forever. A few hours or days at best, that’s all. And then the rigors of the material world seize and engage us.

We use so many tools to aid us in our search for happiness, good health and why, even immortality! As a result of that relentless endeavor, modern science has enabled us to do so many things seemingly better than before, compared to natural alternatives. Life has become so dynamic that many people started professing that ‘change’ is the only constant in this world.

All these attempts at improving our condition of life, all the progress that we made, ignore the four other constants that come by nature in material life: Birth, disease, old age and death. Whatever efforts we make to improve our lives, and to be happy, the four constants always manage to get the better of us. And with death, everything comes to a very efficient end.

An intelligent person begins to think as to why he is forced to suffer, when all he wants is to be happy. A natural progress of that thought process would lead to questions like where did I come from, what am I doing here, where I would go after death and culminates in asking the most fundamental question which forms the basis of Vedic philosophy:

‘Who am I?’

The Vedas and associated Vedic scriptures offer great insight in to life’s mysteries. These ancient treasure troves of wisdom and knowledge, being coeternal with God and infallible in their own right, direct us to change our attention from the temporary towards the permanent, from matter to spirit, from the body to the soul.

They teach us that our endeavors to be happy through gratifying our senses would lead to only misery. They also inform us about our original spiritual nature – that each of us are not the body but infinitesimal spiritual sparks, Spirit Souls, that are not of this material world and that the only way to have eternal happiness to revive our natural relationship with the Supreme Soul, God, of whom we are all part and parcel of, yet different.

The Vedic knowledge was primarily transmitted orally in the previous ages. In order to make the Vedic knowledge easily accessible to the people in the Kali Yuga (the present age), the great literary incarnation, Sage Vyasa, compiled the entire knowledge in to principally the 4 Vedas, 108 Upanishads, 18 Puranas and 2 Itihaasas (epics, namely Ramayana and Mahabharata).

Understanding the Vedas, which are compiled in exquisitely perfected Sanskrit, is a nightmare even for the most erudite scholar these days. Learning Sanskrit itself would take close to 12 years of study and then one has to study the various siddhantas (philosophies) and Bhashyas (commentaries) as expounded by the great Acharyas of the past, to grasp even the basics of complex texts like Vedanta Sutras.

Of the texts that form the Vedic scriptures, Srimad Bhagavad Gita, which is found in Mahabharata, is the most important section. It is the essence of all Vedic knowledge. It is also called Gitopanishad, and is the consolidated description of the most intense, hair-raising dialogue between the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and his dearest friend, the warrior-archer, Arjuna. Running in to 700 verses over 18 chapters, it is described in much simpler Sanskrit, which leaves absolutely no room for interpretation and logical debating which is allowed by the Vedanta sutras.

This dialogue starts with questions asked by Arjuna, who is feeling very confused, dejected and sad on the eve of a great battle against his cousins, the Kauravas and their army. Arjuna is one of the ‘Mahajanas’, and being a friend to the Lord, he is above all ignorance. But the Acharyas explain that he was put in to this situation specifically to enquire about problems of life so that Sri Krishna himself can explain it for the benefit for future generations, namely, us.

(It is to be noted that this great dialogue was spoken on the eve of battle, in the middle of two armies standing ready to fight. It lends credence to the practicality of such a philosophy, much against a common belief that any spirituality or philosophical pursuit is meant for practice only in peaceful times or in a forest away from common day to day works.)

The spirit with which one should hear and accept the teachings of Srimad Bhagavad Gita is shown by Arjuna in the course of his discussion with Lord Krishna. When a physician gives a medicine, you take it only by following his directions. Similarly, the instructions given in Bhagavad Gita are to be taken only as Lord Krishna means it and not as per one’s own whim and wish. The perfect example for such a proper acceptance is shown by Arjuna himself. In the second chapter, verse 7, Arjuna surrenders:

kārpaṇya-doṣopahata-svabhāvaḥ
pṛcchāmi tvāḿ dharma-sammūḍha-cetāḥ
yac chreyaḥ syān niścitaḿ brūhi tan me
śiṣyas te ‘haḿ śādhi māḿ tvāḿ prapannam

“Now I am confused about my duty and have lost all composure because of miserly weakness. In this condition I am asking You to tell me for certain what is best for me. Now I am Your disciple, and a soul surrendered unto You. Please instruct me.”

Here’s how Arjuna accepts Lord Krishna’s instructions, in chapter 10, verse 12 thru 14:

arjuna uvāca
paraḿ brahma paraḿ dhāma
pavitraḿ paramaḿ bhavān
puruṣaḿ śāśvataḿ divyam
ādi-devam ajaḿ vibhum
āhus tvām ṛṣayaḥ sarve
devarṣir nāradas tathā
asito devalo vyāsaḥ
svayaḿ caiva bravīṣi me

“Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest. All the great sages such as Nārada, Asita, Devala, and Vyāsa confirm this truth about You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me.”

sarvam etad ṛtaḿ manye
yan māḿ vadasi keśava
na hi te bhagavan vyaktiḿ
vidur devā na dānavāḥ

“O Kṛṣṇa, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the demigods nor the demons, O Lord, can understand Your personality.”

So, to conclude, one must understand the teachings of Bhagavad Gita as Arjuna understood it. Only then, that understanding is considered perfect. Only when one hears it in a submissive mood, in devotion to the Supreme Lord, one can understand the teachings of Bhagavad Gita as understood by Arjuna, which is to say, correctly and perfectly.

What do Arjuna and Lord Krishna talk about? What subject matters does Bhagavad Gita address? How does one go about getting this knowledge perfectly? These I will address in the next article.

Imprints of sins & its dissolution

You must be knowing by now that all our experiences through our 5 senses get recorded in the energy particles & get stored in the genetic centre. Already stored experiences before one’s birth is called sanchit karma. This karma makes one’s prarabtha karma from the day of birth up till now & the 2 karmas together makes the real personality of a person. This is the ahamya karma which shows one’s future. The purpose of this life is to enjoy & at the same time clear off the karmas. Now, how do we know that we have sin imprints? Disease in one’s body & 3 impurities (ego, sin imprints & maya) in our thoughts show that we have sin imprints.

There is the cause & effect for every action we do. So if we suffer then we are sure to know that we had done a bad deed. Sow good & so shall the reap.

God + 3 impurities = Man

Man – 3 impurities = God

So far what is stored is done without our knowledge. So to avoid further storing, one needs certain awareness in whatever one thinks , speaks & acts. How do we clear off the past karmas? This is through expiation, dissipation & dissolution. Let us see all the three in detail.

Expiation: Whenever one does even a small mistake & if he regrets for it , the first thing he should do is to ask sorry to the concerned person & make him forgive for the wrong thing done. This will not create karmas. For example,  we might shout at a person not knowing the truth of his mistake done & when we come to know it, we feel bad & so to avoid guilty feeling, ask him excuse at once. There are certain people who will not forgive & that has to be ignored.

Dissipation: Do good deeds so that the stored bad karmas doesn’t come out to make our life a miserable one. This can be explained by an example. Normally recorded audio or video cassettes , if it’s recorded with a movie can be over recorded with some good lectures of a master, nice music & so on. What was recorded cannot be seen or heard when played.

Dissolution: This can be done through meditation. The more we go deeply to lower frequencies thoughts get reduced & for a moment we experience thoughtless states. When one gets this experience, many of his karmas are erased. This is again compared to a cassette which in order to make it blank is made to simply “play record” & everything in the cassette is erased , but nothing is recorded. So through meditation many karmas(imprints) are made to dissolve or erased through thoughtless states in meditation. What we need is constant awareness or watchfulness to ourselves instead of unnecessarily watching others.

The 6 major bad qualities are strong desire (passion), anger, miserliness, immoral sexual passion, vanity & vengeance. All these qualities arise only when one is in beta level, as normally everybody will be in this level due to their constant thinking of some matters or problems that come across their life. The level swings from beta to alpha according to our thoughts & emotions. So it is in our hands to see that we don’t go beyond a certain level. (To know further about various levels read part 7)

The six qualities, if we are aware of , can be changed into 6 good qualities & they are satisfaction, patience, charity, chastity, equality & forgiveness. If one is satisfied in life with what they have, they will not feel jealous with others, out of greediness for more money & many unwanted happenings can be avoided. That doesn’t mean one should not have ambitions. Once you achieve or earn a lot of money, one should not go on for more money or increasing their properties. Until one knows about himself he will not have satisfaction in life. His expansion goes in hoarding money, increasing knowledge & gathering more & more properties. Once he knows his true self, outward requirements becomes little. Then satisfaction comes in life all the other good qualities comes automatically & we know the way to lead a peaceful & enjoyable life.

Strong desire changes into satisfaction.

Anger into patience.

Miserliness into charity.

Immoral sexual passion into Chastity.

Vanity into equality.

Vengeance into Forgiveness.

Worries should be completely eradicated as it slowly kills you. It is a slow poison. When we have lots of expectations & desires in life & if they are not fulfilled, first it turns out as disappointment & when we keep on thinking about the same thoughts, it gets stagnated & turns into a physical disease & mental worry. There will be an imbalance in the energy level because of the thoughts. The chewing of the same thoughts which affects you , will avoid the flow of fresh energies & the body becomes too weak to be active even to do the daily routines. We won’t feel hungry & slowly the body becomes diseased.

There are many kinds of problems that we come across.

Problems that can be inborn: For example child born with deformity. One can’t do anything other than accepting it.

Problems that could be ignored: For example nagging from elderly people. Just ignore them.

Problems to be kept in abeyance , knowing the fact that they will be solved by the society or by the law of nature in due course: Under this category comes most of the problems. These problems cannot be solved by an individual effort but by nature & community when the time comes. One simple example is marriage of a girl being delayed. Only time will answer or solve to certain problems & we have to wait patiently instead of brooding over the matter.

Problems that could be solved immediately: For example buying loan & decision to take at the time of operation. Decisions should be taken at once as the conditions should not worsen by delaying.

If one can keep the mind calm always , then any problem could be solved effectively before it turns out into a worry. If the mind is well balanced you can understand the circumstances, accept the situation & then face the reality without hurting your body & the mind. So, for everything, whether it be desires, anger or worries, the best solution is meditation & introspection.

I would like to conclude this chapter explaining about how I eradicated my worry of not having a child. Actually my spiritual journey started before this problem taking shape into a worry. I had an expectation that I might get a child because of my interest in spirituality & practicing the sadhanas regularly. The more I went deep in spirituality, I felt that to be without a child is not at all a big issue to be worried. I knew that the purpose of life is not to give birth to children alone but to put an end to ones karma & get back to the original place from where the conscious started its journey.

If I had taken this as a life long worry, then I wouldn’t have progressed in spirituality & I would be physically & mentally diseased. I totally understood this & I accepted my situation & I faced it rather happily. Also I always enjoy with my relatives’ & friends ‘ children thinking they are my own & I experienced “detached attachment”. I would be very attached to them but at the same time detached, so that I don’t worry later about their not being with me always.

I enjoy myself with my cooking, reading spiritual books, watching programmes in TV spending time surfing the net , visiting friends & relatives & I never feel bored. All the while I keep watching myself so that my harmony within me is not at all disturbed. If I get disturbed I at once introspect & get rid of any unwanted thoughts.

Anger is an emotion, where a large part of your energy is being wasted from your body. You tremble, face becomes red, gives a lot of pressure to your body, your heart beats fast, your energy whirls very fast & it converts into enormous amount of magnetic waves & goes out of the body . The result is -your body becomes very weak.

What happens to the thought waves which are magnetic waves sent out at the time when you express anger? For this you have to know about “The theory of Waves”. Any wave will first clash with another wave, which comes from the person with whom you are angry, then it reflects, refracts, interpenetrate & interact with the other wave which it comes in contact . The thought waves that one sends first affects his body & then the waves reflects on the person & the refracted waves goes to the persons with the same frequency thoughts & affects them. The waves goes within the person (interpenetrates) & there will be a wave which will always be interacting between the two persons.

Anger rises within a person & chemical reaction takes place in the body. It affects the internal organs like the heart, pancreas & due to it diseases connected to those organs can be diagnosed. So the root cause of diseases are tension & anger & worry. Normally we get angry with persons in close circles, mostly with family members.. Anger doesn’t stop with one person alone, it continues with persons & form a chain. e.g.

When a person gets angry at home with his wife & goes to the work place, it will continue there & he will show it to his staff & he in return will go to his house & shouts at his wife & the wife shows it to her child. Thus the waves affect so many persons. It gets linked with so many persons & we cannot blame anybody.

A person who becomes a terrorist is not to be blamed as so many thought waves which express violence in some form induces the person who is sensitive to such waves & makes him a terrorist. In the same way a person who commits suicide also is induced to such depressed waves & in a fraction of a second he commits suicide. Since we are all linked together not only through thought waves but with energy & conscious, the reason for certain bad happenings none is to be blamed. That’s why we are asked to think good always.

Waves move fast & affect the whole world. Now, find out how each one of us are the cause for things happening around us. Can any particular person be blamed after knowing this fact? So each one of us should take the responsibility for whatever is happening around & change ourselves to become a better human being & change this world into a better living place. Thought pollution is worse than the air pollution.

The only way to have a nice relationship with any person is to bless the person. Bless them when you are peaceful, that will have a good effect & slowly you will have a harmonious relationship with the person. If you practice meditation, bless them after the meditation.

In introspection we have:

1. Analysis of thoughts,

2. Moralization of desires,

3. Neutralization of anger,

4. Eradication of worries.

Under analysis of thoughts one should know the 10 steps of thoughts. They are:

1. feeling,
2. need,
3. zeal or effort,
4. action,
5. result,
6. enjoyment,
7. experience,
8. research,
9. realization &
10. Conclusion.

Any thought, that arises first is due to some kind of a feeling physically or mentally. Once the feeling forms, for e.g. If it is a physical feeling, it might be hunger, thirst, pain or even sexual feeling & that is due to an imbalance in the body energy , the need for satisfying it comes to balance the energy level. Then we take an effort to fulfill it which automatically will lead to do an action & we know the result after the action is performed as enjoyment, which becomes an experience. So when we think back it is a research & through it we know the solution for the feeling & that is the conclusion we make.

So, now through experience we know that when we are hungry we have to get something to eat, which should be something healthy, instead of something tasty. What we do is, eat just to fill up the stomach. Again if we have a strong desire to get things like buying a car or building a house. we first think in terms of need & then make effort as to what one should do & then we put in action to fulfill it. If we have fulfilled it without getting loans, the result will be enjoyment. Instead if we buy loan then the result will not be enjoyment until the loan is over. This is how one should analyze the thoughts. Thoughts come as desires, when not fulfilled it leads to anger & worry. That’s why we need to introspect.

Normally it is said that desires had to be eradicated, but it is not so. One cannot live without desires. It should only be moralized.

How do you moralize you desires? Let’s analyze this with an example. Your desire is to buy a car. To fulfill this desire one has to see that no problems occur to self, or anybody in the present or in the future. This is a very important point one should bear in mind always. If one buy loan & and not able to pay the loan, then there is problem for both the persons. This will lead to the other person’s anger & sometimes lead to enmity . These are simple examples that any normal person on the safer side will see that such things doesn’t happen. Desires increase day by day & all the desires will not be fulfilled in this life time. So in that case we have to keep desires that can be fulfilled & will not harm anybody . This is how we can keep our mind free of unwanted desires.

In the next chapter we will deal with Neutralization of anger.

So far, it’s all about understanding Who or what is God? – God is the space or conscious, or Intelligence.

In all these chapters I haven’t mentioned anywhere about love. We say God is love & love is God. Where does this quality come in space?

I had said that this Consciousness has another quality – Totality or wholeness or oneness other than Force & Intelligence. It is this totality which is omnipresent & binds together everything in the Universe . This quality is love. If there isn’t this binding, love cannot be felt in the human beings. I have many a time put this question to myself why on earth did this Intelligent evolved? Why can’t it simply stay like that? The answer I got is there is the force which made it to evolve. If there isn’t intelligence & if there is only force, then this Universe would have functioned without any control & the Universe itself would be in a total collapse.

My Guru explains how we are bound in the space with a simple example. When a sponge is put in the water, the sponge absorbs the water & there is water in and around it. In the same way the whole Universe with all the living beings is soaked in space. A scientific truth is that 99.00001 % of all the living beings are space, i.e Intelligence is a whole lot in the physical appearance & the body is only a tiny part. We are ignorant of this & use the physical body to the maximum in a wrong manner & make it worn out soon. So it is in our hands to take care of the body & use the intelligence fully to solve problems, take the right decisions without unnecessarily getting tension, needn’t fear, needn’t be dependent on any one ,except to the intelligence which protects & guides us all the time.

Understanding this is the 1st step. To put it into practice in our life is the 2^nd step.

How do we put into practice?

Its only meditation which helps to bring the mind under control. The mind is a chatter box, non stopping going into the past or to the future. Why can’t it be in the present for a while.

Meditation helps us to be in the present. How does this happen in meditation?

Thoughts are of 4 frequencies. They are Beta wave, Alpha wave , Dheeta wave & Delta wave.

Beta wave – the normal conscious mind, frequency will be between 13 to 40 cycles /sec. Normally any person will be in this frequency & when one is angry it will slowly rise to 20 & above. At this state the outward situation easily traps anyone to get angry, tensed, irritated & they will always be stressful.

Alpha wave – sub conscious mind, between 8 to 12 cycles/sec. It is the peaceful state in 8 & if one is in this state for a very long time there is chance of one to go below. If one is above 10, there is chance of him to go to beta wave. It’s again in our hands to maintain in the peaceful state where our intelligence will function in better way.

Dheeta wave – unconscious mind, it is in this level all the previous births & whatever is done unconsciously is recorded & it is between 5 to 11 cycles/sec.

It is very difficult to pass this state & go beyond to reach the delta wave as once we do meditation & go deep the imprints below come above as it is stimulated. Only then do we see so many sufferings in one’s life & we say God is testing & we have to face such situations with patience. Once we transcend this it will be easy to experience the no mind state.

Delta wave – super conscious mind, between 1 to 4 cycles/sec. This is the place where the enlightened persons are almost with the Totality, showing love & fully in aware of what is happening around them very clearly. When one is in 0, they are in total awareness, pure conscious & this is the no mind state. Normally when one is in this state, either the person is dead or in coma, but a man under meditation can be in this state in full awareness. This is the real samaadhi state, where he is sama means equal to aadhi ( beginning).

Even though one experience the different levels one cannot sustain in it very long as the outward situations will stimulate & one will be pushed again to the alpha level. When one is not at all affected by any situations & is very calm, then he can stop all his sadhanas. He will know the secrets of this life & he is said to be a self realized person. In the next chapter we will deal with how thoughts arise & the different steps of mind & which will help in introspection.

The 5 states of consciousness:

1. Static state – non-functioning, pure consciousness & Intelligence.

2. Functioning state – expression is energy particle (Sakthi), Universal magnetism & Panchaboothas.

3. First sense to the fifth sense – from plants to the animals & the conversion of magnetism into feeling, light, sound, smell & taste.

4. Sixth sense – mind, finding the root of it as God, Self realization.

5. Reunion with God – to be always one, with God.

Through the evolution process a perfect human being comes into existence, with all the panchaboothas, which are the same energy particles. The energy particles within the body keeps rotating with its centre in the mooladhar chakra – sexual gland(earth).The centre for the blood circulation is heart & for the air circulation it is the lungs & for the body heat, the centre is the brain.

Through the 5 senses the energy particles transforms as magnetic waves & passes through the body & we get (feeling) touch sense, light waves through the eyes – eye sight, sound waves through the ears, smell through the nose & taste in the tongue. The excess of magnetic waves passes through the brain & comes as thought or mind. So the extension of the energy particles as magnetic waves is mind.

I had already said that energy particle records everything. So whatever is our experience that we sense, see, hear, taste & smell is recorded in the particle & get stored in the centre, which is the genetic centre or nucleus, space, intelligence& conscious. Since the recorded particles keeps rotating &touches the genetic centre & comes above, it brings whatever is stored there as magnetic waves & goes through the brain as thoughts.

In the genetic centre, the whole evolution process is recorded. So our ancient Rishis found out the truth that reaching that place is only through the divine process, meditation. In the beginning they start the meditation in the agna chakra, – pituitary gland between the eye brows. It is the master gland which controls the other glands or chakras. The centre which is in the mooladhar has to be brought to the pituitary gland. It takes approximately 12 yrs.

In between there are the other chakras, swathishtana – adrenal glands(water), manipooraha – pancreas(fire), anaahatha – thymus(air), vishukthi – thyroid(akash).

Through strong penance, following chastity & pranayama they bring the energy centre to the higher chakras. It takes 2 yrs to bring the energy from one centre to the next centre. Some might fall sick & die. Only very rare Rishis cross all these & bring it to the agna & thuria – pineal gland. What one calls us Kundalini Sakthi is nothing but these energy particles. Though some quantity keeps rotating & circulates all over the body, the majority lies dormant.

When this Sakthi awakens & goes through the tiny hole that is in the centre of the back bone to come up to the agna chakra .It is like a cobra spreading its hood. That’s why snakes play an important place in Hinduism & is worshipped.

So the Conscious travels evolving into the panchaboothas , goes through the process of transforming into the 1^st sense plants to the 5^th sense , animals. I had already stated that, in between there were so many species in the ocean & in the earth.

(Refer the previous parts of this series – Understanding the concept of God)

The question now arises if man evolved straight away from the monkeys or whether there was any missing link between the monkey & the man.

There are a lot of similarities between a man & a monkey. So far, the animals walked with 4 legs & they were horizontal. Only in the monkey do we see it walking with 4 legs, but it uses its front legs as hands. It uses it to climb the trees & holds fruits in it hands & eat the food. Slowly its backbone which was horizontal evolves to become vertical & it develops into chimpanzees & orangutan which are very similar to a man.

A sculpture of Yazhi in a temple

My guru’s in sight says that the monkeys had a cross breed with another animal which had the face of a lion & the body of a man. This breed was called as Yazhi & since this became sterile, there was no chance of it to exist in many numbers & it extincted. If you see in the temples there are sculptures of this yazhi. Moreover, monkey is herbivorous & man coming from it also should be a vegetarian. Since man eats birds & animals there is a chance of monkey & yazhi, which is carnivorous, joining together to become a perfect human, who is a vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian.

So now if we have a comparison between Dasavathar & the evolution, we will come to know that the 1^st Machavathara is a living being in the water.

An artistic interpretation of Matsya (macha)avatar

The 2^nd, Koormavathar, tortoise with all it’s 5 senses lives in the sea & the land.

An artistic interpretation of Koorm Avatar

The 3^rd, Varahagavathar is again an animal which borrows the earth to get its food.

A temple sculpture of Varaha Avatar

The 4^th Narasimhavathara is the missing link before the man.

Ancient narasimha avatar sculpture in a temple 

The 5^th Vamana is a perfect human with manas (mind) who is described as a dwarf. So probably the humans were short statured.

A sculpture of Vamana avatar in a temple

The 6^th is the Parasuramavathar who always goes around with an axe to show that man works with it to cut trees for his living.

An artistic impression of Parasurama Avatar

The 7^th, Ramavathar, to show that a leader comes to take care of the people.

An artistic impression of Rama Avatar

The 8^th, Balaramaavathar, with his plough tells that agriculture played an important role then.

An artistic impression of Balarama Avatar

The 9^th, Krishnaavathar is an enlightened man who is considered as a God.

An artistic impression of Krishna Avatar

About Kalkiavathar my guru hasn’t said anything. What next? It is about you & me & how mind begins to function within us.