Frame of Human Existence- Subconcious Mind Part 2

I shall now continue with my earlier post about sub-conscious mind. The sub-conscious mind , though hidden from the human conscious mind, does make it’s presence felt occasionally in our lives.

How many times you have experienced that you think about a person, a long lost friend or maybe some work colleague who you haven’t talked to in a long time and you get a phone call almost immediately. Isn’t it amazing  that someone whom you weren’t in touch for such a long time should call you at the exact moment that you have thought about that person. It isn’t mere coincidence. The most interesting part is that if you make a conscious effort to remember that person and wish that he or she will call you or remember you, it never happens.  So what is happening here? The subconscious mind which is at all times in synchronicity with the Universe – the Super conscious, sends a signal to the sub-conscious mind of your long lost friend or colleague. Their sub-conscious mind picks up your signal and creates an urge within them to get in touch with you. And voila, out of the blue you get your phone call! Since the same effect is not observed when we are using the conscious mind, the conclusion is obvious that the subconscious mind is using a channel which is not linked in any way to the conscious world. This channel has been instrumental in fulfilling a human being’s most deep rooted desire. Have you ever noticed that this effect is much more pronounced when a person is remembered together by a group. Inevitably, whenever I meet my college friends and discuss about some old friend, out of the blue we get his call. Again, the reason is obvious. Instead of one subconscious mind, when several subconscious minds send the signal of remembrance to another subconscious mind, there is a resonance resulting in stronger and faster urge for getting in touch.

Have you read the best selling book by Rhonda Byrne “The Secret”?The book talks about the power of the “Law of Attraction” . According to the law of attraction, we attract into our lives whatever we wish for and think about. As told by Paulo Coelho in his path breaking novel “The Alchemist”- when you really desire for something, the whole Universe conspires to make it happen for you. It is a very simple and powerful concept. In life, we attract what we think about. However, according to me, “The Secret” failed to differentiate between desires and thoughts. Rhonda Byrne assumed that whatever mind desires, it thinks about the same. However, desires may be conscious as well as subconscious . Rhonda Byrne failed to differentiate between the two. Another very important area in which her book has failed is it’s inability to differentiate between the conscious mind and sub-conscious mind. People have told me that they religiously follow the tenets given in her book regarding the law of attraction. Yet it has failed to make an impact in their lives. If one understands the “Frame of Human Existence” , the reason for this failure is self-evident. The failure is not because people are not using the law of attraction as given in the book. The failure is because they are not using the power of sub-conscious mind in applying the law of attraction. Using the conscious mind will not activate the law of attraction in your life. You need to use the sub-conscious mind for unleashing the powerful forces of the law of attraction in your life. And that is why I say that Rhonda Byrne has erred by not differentiating between the conscious and subconscious desires. Unless you are a person who has a highly developed understanding of the sub-conscious mind and which you have trained and perfected by repeatedly meditating and synchronizing your sub-conscious with the Super-conscious, you have no way of controlling the execution of attainment of your desires. You need to reach at the core of your soul to set the law of attraction into motion. Like the churner which churns the buttermilk at the very bottom to whip out the butter from it, the fulfillment of desires will only come by touching the core of your existence – the subconscious mind! Using the conscious mind for utilizing the law of attraction is like skimming the surface without touching at the core.

Can we get access to the sub-conscious mind?

This is a question which we will discuss in the next post.

Frame of Human Existence- Subconscious Mind

Before I begin on the sub-conscious mind, I would like to thank all my friends, colleagues and well-wishers who have been spreading the word about my blog and sending in so many hits. Keep visiting and commenting and I promise I won't stop posting. ;-)

Today I would like to put some light on that part of mind which is always in the dark. It is that secret vault that, when unlocked, can turn an ordinary mind into an extra-ordinary mind and an ordinary life into an extra-ordinary life. If you study the lives of the greats, the idols who have walked on this planet, you will find one common factor which contributed to their success. This common factor was their mastery over their sub-conscious mind. Have no doubt- the key to eternal and lasting success in this world is unlocking the powers of your sub-conscious mind.

You must have often heard- the mind has immense potential, an average human mind uses not even 10% of it’s potential and such other assertions. Those assertions are indeed true. Today, several mind power trainers claim to have devised specialized training programmes. Anybody who undergoes this training will be able to unlock the unused potential of the mind – goes the refrain. Some do succeed to a certain extent and do unlock certain areas of the minds. However, they are missing the leaves in counting the trees.

True potential of any individual can be unlocked only by discovering the sub-conscious mind. This  is a highly personal journey. You may have at your disposal all the trainers and aids of the world. However, to discover the sub-conscious mind is possible only by you yourself. Nobody else can do this for you. So what exactly is the Sub-Conscious mind? It is that part of the human brain which is not normally available to the conscious mind. The question arises -then who is it available to normally? Any Guesses? Of course- THE SOUL!  Doesn’t it make sense? It is that secret doorway through which our body is in constant touch with the Universe, the Super-conscious, the White light. Our Sub-conscious is the gateway to greater consciousness. And who else but our soul would link us to this repository of the entire knowledge of the world. Our sub- conscious is that hidden channel in our mind which connects our body to the soul and is thus directly linked through the soul to the super-conscious.

In the heavenly scheme of things, there is a reason that one normally can not tap into his or her sub-conscious mind as easily as one can into the conscious mind. The reason why one doesn’t have access to the subconscious mind on a regular basis is that we as humans can only handle so much information at a time. Every life is unique and should be led uniquely and not be affected by our earlier lives. However, the information of our earlier lives is always present in the sub-conscious mind. A trained hypnotist can easily uncover our past lives using the Past Life Regression Therapy(PLRT). For those unaware about PLRT, it is a proven method by which a trained practitioner can lead you back to remember your past lives and important events. Dr. Brian Weiss, a  renowned psychiatrist  is a well known exponent of PLRT and has written several books on the subject. He used PLRT to help his patients recover from past life traumas which were affecting their present lives. I know it sounds like a lot of hocus pocus but if you will just google PLRT, you will find  that a lot of respected practitioners of psychology are today using PLRT to treat their patients. And the results speak about the efficacy and authenticity of this. We will talk more about PLRT in future blogs.

So how do we get to tap into our sub-conscious mind? The answer is meditation. What is meditation? It is attuning your mind so that it is in synchronization with the Universal Energy. Theories of physics like Quantum Theory has proved that every particle that has mass vibrates at a certain frequency. This frequency can be changed by applying energy to that particle. When we meditate, we are consciously trying to match the frequency of our brain waves with that of the Universe. I mentioned Alpha waves before. Actually, our brain has five types of waves:

1.       Alpha

2.      Beta

3.      Gamma

4.      Theta

5.      Delta

The modern science can measure these waves. Just pick up any EEG (Electro Encephalography) Report to find out about them. When you are meditating , your brain generates Alpha, Theta or Delta waves depending upon the power and intensity of meditation. The East has always placed great emphasis on the powers of meditation for bringing about awareness or awakening of the soul. As you increase your power and concentration of meditation, you start getting more and more in touch with your soul, eventually setting off on the path of self-realization.

We shall continue with the topic of Subconscious mind in the next blog too…

Frame of Human Existence- Super Conscious

Today ,we will talk about the Super-conscious. 

The word Super-conscious should not confuse you. Often we call something super when we assume it to be above or superior to whatever we are comparing it with. Super-conscious here means an amalgation of the conscious, intelligent Energies called the Souls. Souls exist. They however don’t exist in the traditional senses of the term where we define existence as occupation of a certain time and space. Since the souls don’t exist as we humans define existence, the superconscious, which is an amalgamation of the souls, also doesn’t exist as we humans define it. It however pervades through the infinitesimally smallest part of every living and non-living thing on the earth. It is the prime mover- moving things according to the grand scheme of things. Variously called as the Life energy, Universal force, etc., it is what the major religions of the world call as the GOD.  The Super consciousness is that conscious, intelligent energy which is the source of all souls, events, matter in the world. It is the defining force which manifests itself through all living , non-living,  mass and non-mass of the world. Our ancients knew about the presence of this fantastic mover of the world and were in total awe of it. Since one could never come close to understand it’s true nature but only stoically bear  the effects on their lives, they held it in total reverence and prayed and worshipped to it to turn it into an ally and  keep themselves out of harm’s ways. If you will read the excellent book by Karen Armstrong – A History of God, you will see that God was initially revered as a mean, scary, revengeful icon who often sided with the people who worshipped him and punished the rest. Each ancient tribe believed in the superiority of it’s God or Gods over that of the others. The first task after vanquishing a rival tribe was to establish their own Gods as captor’s Gods. This is how the ancient religion of Judaism developed. The idea of Monotheistic religions, that there is only one God, came much later into being after the advent of Christianity and Islam. This bring us to a very important question related to the basic foundation of all world religions.

Is there really only one God?

The answer is both yes and no. God by definition is a Super-conscious vital energy. This energy is composed of the sumtotal of all Conscious energies called Souls. So, it is the sum of the parts which makes it whole. Imagine viewing a beautiful painting of a lady from a distance. What do you see? A beautiful picture of a person. Now, as you come closer, slowly the brush strokes that made the painting start manifesting themselves. So what really is the truth? The complete portrait  of the person whom you saw or the brush strokes that have made it into a picture. If you view from one angle, it is ONE. If you view from another angle, it is SEVERAL. The choice is yours to make. It doesn’t make one iota of a difference to the Super-conscious whether you consider it single or several!

So what exactly is happening in the Universe? The Souls which form together the Super-conscious are at all times connected to this Super-conscious. Yes, at all times. Whether they are part of an incarnation or whether they are in between incarnations or whether they have reached the end of their incarnation cycles – this link with other souls is maintained at all times. Just imagine a huge closed system in which all the Souls are going about their business of learning and giving lessons from and to each other. You could call this system the Super-conscious. It is continuously evolving. With each Soul’s every bit of learning, the Super-conscious is further evolved. The reason is simple- Super-conscious is Souls and Souls are Super-conscious. Singular to Plural, Plural to Singular.

In my next post, I will talk about the Sub-conscious mind- our link to the Super-conscious.

Frame of Human Existence- Soul

We begin now with defining the basics of the "Frames of Human Existence". The next few blogs will be dedicated to defining and explaining the underlying fundamental terms which though you may have heard countless times, but never sought to be explained to you. It is essential to understand these terms because unless we understand the basics, we can’t go ahead to the advanced concepts.

We. are.an.infinite.being 

When I use the word infinite, it is not in the sense of numbers. Rather, I mean that we are beings that have no finiteness to us. Humans are having infinite capacity and capability to experience. We are restricted only by our thoughts and actions in exercising this infiniteness.Across time and space, we always were, always will be. And the reason that we are infinite is that we possess SOUL. It is that link between us and the universe which ensures our infiniteness.

What are Souls?

A Soul is a conscious, intelligent energy that is indestructible and is the  basis of all humans on earth. Every person has a unique individual soul assigned to him or her. This assignment isn’t something done by any external authority. It is the soul which chooses to be linked to a particular human body. It chooses this human body based on the lessons it wants to learn or give (to other souls) at that particular juncture.

Fundamental Fact: 1. Souls don’t take birth only to learn lessons but also to give lessons.

Now this could be confusing to you. Most people think  that a soul is only something which ensures that we keep breathing. This is because we often hear that when somebody dies, their soul leaves their body. In fact, experiments have been done in which dying people were kept in sealed Glass chambers. At the point of their death, a crack has been observed in the glass chamber along with noticeable weight loss in the body of deceased. Such experiments lend credence to the fact that Soul is an independent mass carrying entity which also carries some kind of substance(air?) inside itself, as it needs to break glass to move out of the sealed chamber. However, soul is not something which is residing inside your body. It is loosely connected to you. The accepted seat of connection between the human body and soul is the Hypothalamus. Just as the student needs to come back home after a grueling session at school to rest and recuperate for the next day’s learning, a soul too yearns to get rejuvenated periodically by reconnecting fully with it’s home- the Super-consciousness. According to Pranic healing traditions, this is done naturally by the soul when the human mind i.e., our consciousness goes to sleep. My sister who is a pranic healer tells me that right when we fall into a deep sleep, our soul leaves our physical body, often accompanied with a lurch. Presumably, it is going away to get recharged and recuperate by connecting with the Universal Energy- the Super-consciousness. Same thing happens when we go into a deep meditation. In fact, scientists have measured that our brain emits Alpha waves both while sleeping and while under meditation. So, technically, meditation and sleeping activate or work on the same areas of brain- essentially our hypothalamus. Hypothalamus has always been considered the seat of sub-conscious mind.

Soul decides key Life lessons : Soul is a conscious, intelligent energy which is just doing it’s job i.e., keeping you and your life experiences on a path of pre-programmed broad contours. In these contours are well-thought out preplanned life turning points, which have been decided in conjunction with other souls that share the same time and space. Thus, learning takes place for all the souls together. This is very much like the role-playing sessions enacted in modern day management classes for case study. It helps the souls(students) to appreciate the nuances of their mutually dependent and independent aspects of relationships and learning takes place for each twist and turn in the journey called life  that they go through together.  Each soul learns from it’s interaction with other souls, in this journey.

You might be interested to know when the soul enters the human body. Well, the soul makes the choice of a particular human experience for a particular incarnation and after searching for the right parents, enters human body just at the time of conception . Some might turn skeptical and ask that what will explain that abortions or miscarriages take place even before the human body has come out from the womb. What was the purpose of those souls by entering such fetuses? Well, the answer lies in my Fundamental Fact 1. Souls entered such to-be-aborted fetuses not for themselves but for the souls of their parents and other related souls. They wanted to give lessons of coping with grief and pain to the other souls. Have you heard the story of Ganga and King Shantanu? One-by-one she killed all her newborn infants by drowning them in river until the last one ,whom King Shantanu saved by intervening just before she was throwing him into river. She revealed to him that she was in fact saving them from living the curse of Sage Vashishta . The story goes like this- Once the eight Vasus ("Ashtavasus") visited Vashishta's ashram accompanied by their wives. One of the wives took a fancy to Nandini, Vashishta's wish-bearing cow and asked her husband Prabhasa to steal it from Vashishta. Prabhasa then stole the cow with the help of the others who were all consequently cursed by Vashishta to be born in the world of men. Upon the Vasus appealing to Vashishta's mercy, the seven Vasus who had assisted in stealing Nandini had their curse mitigated such that they would be liberated from their human birth as soon as they were born; however, Prabhasa being chief protagonist of the theft, was cursed to endure a longer life on the earth. It was this Prabhasa who took birth as Devavrata (Bhishma). So, her infants were all in fact Vasus who had been accursed to be born as humans on earth and they had requested Ganga to be their mother and save them from the accursed life on Earth. This infant who was saved by Shantanu  went onto become the great Bhishma. This is a classic story that explains very nicely the concept of the soul deciding to enter a particular life to fulfill it’s karma, even if for a short span.

Origin of the soul: As Lord Krishna very clearly told Arjuna in Geeta:
Nainaë chidhanti éàstràni nainaë dahati pàvakaã
Na chainaë kledayantyàpo na éoçayati màrutaã.
Translation: Weapons do not cut It, fire does not burn It, water does not moisten It, and air does not dry It.’
The soul is immortal. It has no end nor any beginning. The reason is -it emanates from the Super-consciousness, goes through it’s cycles of incarnations and eventually becomes a part of the Supreme souls known as Masters. A Soul always exists. Period. Thus, the soul is a  consciousness which is a fragment of  the Super- consciousness (also  known as God, Source, Creator )  and was, is and will be for eternity linked across space and time with the Super-consciousness.
In next blog, I will talk about Super-consciousness.