MULADHARA CHAKRA

This is part VI of kundalini series. Muladhara chakra is at the tip of our spinal cord. This chakra is to be visualised red in colour. Tamo guna will be predominant when we associate with this chakra. Our mind will be totally associated with worldly things such as desires, attachments, ego, anger etc. We tend to believe that we are not in a safe environment and will have a sense of insecurity and self sympathy. Irrespective of this chakra being bad or good, we have to cross this chakra to reach the higher ones. This is also called as root chakra and in order to have a deep root, we have to strongly develop this chakra. In the posting ‘the inner voice’ we have learnt the initial steps to move the kundalini from perineum to the coccyx or mooladhara chkara. Now we will try to retain the kundalini in mooladhara chakra for some time. In addition what we have seen in ‘the inner voice’ we have to perform one additional exercise. It is better that we go through the process again adding this additional exercise. Please ensure that you have a learned Guru by your side while doing the exercises described below. You should not do this on your own, as improper procedures will cause damage to your nervous system. Sit comfortably, keep your spine erect, bend your head slightly backwards, slightly push your shoulders backwards, and ensure adequate space in the arm pits. Breathe normally a few times and settle down. Do fast breathing in quick successions through the nose a few times. When you do the fast breathing, ensure that your stomach bloats with inhalation and pushed inside with exhalation. Come back to normal breathing and relax. Now with deep inhalation, do moolabhandha, bloat your stomach, and slightly push your head backwards. Hold your breath for a few seconds and your comfort level is the criteria for holding your breath. When you hold your breath for long, you will be short of breath and the uniformity of the breath will be lost. Holding breath for long is not important. Then start exhaling slowly and steadily, release moolabhandha, pull your stomach towards you, bend your head forward, so that your chin touches your chest. Remain in this stage for a few seconds. Come back to normal position. Again inhale as said above, hold for a few seconds, exhale stay in this position for a few seconds and come back to normal position. Repeat this a few times. Whenever you inhale, by pushing your head backwards, you have to ‘literally’ pull kundalini energy from your perineum to coccyx. After a few rounds of breathing described earlier, relax and sit quietly. Start meditating on your coccyx area visualizing the kundalini energy in deep red colour. If your kundalini becomes active in this area, you will see the area pulsating and you can feel the pulse with your hand in your coccyx area. The coccyx area will be warmer than the perineum. This means that your kundalini energy has moved into your base or root chakra which is called muladhara chakra from perineum. Close your eyes lightly and continue to meditate concentrating on this chakra as deep red in colour. At one stage you will be able to see red colour all-round. Once this red colour is distinctly visible to you, be with the red colour for some time. Then visualise kundalini going back to her house at the perineum. The pulse at the coccyx will stop once the kundalini moves to perineum. The red colour will gradually vanish. The heat in the coccyx area will move to the perineum area. Now you have awakened the kundalini from her house and made her stay in the base chakra for some time, then made her go back to her house at the perineum. Slowly get up from your seat, stand for some time and carry on with your work. You may be possibly feeling very thirsty and drink as much water as you can. Ensure that your stomach is empty before proceeding with this meditation.

AWAKENING THE KUNDALINI

This is part V of kundalini series. The kundalini energy has to start it’s ascending from coccyx, the tip of our spinal cord. This is called the base chakra or, muladhara chakra. There are six chakras in our body. These chakras are visualized in the spinal cord, which traverses through our back and ends just above the neck. The spinal cord ends in medulla oblongata, which is the connecting link between the spinal nerves and nerves of the brain. Kundalini while ascending faces blocks in three areas and these are called brahma granthi, Vishnu granthi and Rudra granthi. Granthi means knots. At these blocks, she faces resistance making her ascend difficult. She has to penetrate these blocks to proceed further. When she reaches the top of the head, she conjoins with Shiva, makes us to enjoy the bliss and then returns back to her house at the perineum. Her ascending can be felt by her noise, pressure and the heat she generates in the respective areas while crossing each of the chakras. Chakras, though do not exist in the form of wheels, they do represent as bundle of nerves, muscles and glands. Each of the chakras has distinct colour. VIBGYOR represents the basic colours. They are Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. All these chakras are identified with these colours because each colour represents a quality. When kundalini reaches a particular chakra, the qualities pertaining to the colour of that chakra will be predominant in us. The kundalini traverses through spinal cord. There are two minute nerves called vajrini and citirini running through the spinal cord. Kundalini ascends to the higher chakras from the base chakra through citirini. In medical terminology, citirini is called posterior medial sulcus or central canal. This begins from the medulla oblongata and ends at sacral area. Sacra area is the area between our hip bones. We have to consciously move the kundalini through the central canal situated in the spinal cord. There are two main nadis running parallel to the spinal cord and crisscrossing each other. They are ida and pingala. The spinal cord is called sushumna. But due to the gravitational pull, kundalini will not ascend that easily. Even if she reaches higher chakras, she tends to come back to the lower chakras due to the gravitational pull of the earth. When you throw a ball towards the sky it comes back much faster than the force with which it was thrown into the sky. In the same way the descending of the kundalini is much faster and easier than her ascending. Dedication, practice, concentration, will power and above all perseverance are some of the important requirements for kundalini meditation. Muladhara, swadishtana, manipura, anahata, vishudhi and ajna are the six chakras from the base of the spine and they are represented by the six colours viz. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. This is in reverse order of VIBGYOR. Red colour represents our attachments, desires etc pertaining illusion or maya. The violet colour is the colour of the divine, where all earthly things are destroyed. The other colours are in between these two and accordingly manifest in the form respective qualities. There are two other important chakras, one is sahasrara or top head chakra and another is back head chakra. These two are not identified with chakras as they are beyond the levels of human perception. They are connected to the divinity of the supreme order, more so with sahasrara. Sahasrara is identified with all the colours of VIBGYOR. Whenever kundalini moves up from one chakra to another, our nature and outlook also undergo changes. From muladhara, the earthly chakra, when kundalini moves to sahasrara the supreme place of divinity, we also become divine and enjoy the bliss. The main factor that prevents a man becoming divine is ego and this is totally destroyed when kundalini reaches sahasrara. In our regular breathing, we breathe through either left or right nostrils. Our breath will be more pronounced in any of the nostrils at a time. By controlling and regulating our breath kundalini can be awakened. Secondly, the cosmic energy that enters our body through sahasrara directly goes to the house of kundalini and wakes her up. So there are three factors that awaken the kundalini. One is our mind, two is the cosmic energy and three is prana, our breath.

THE INNER VOICE

This is part IV of kundalini series. Kundalini moves to and fro from perineum to coccyx frequently. Though kundalini can be effectively moved by focused mind, she can also be moved by certain physical actions or postures. Any sort of pressure in and around the perineum makes the kundalini to move from perineum to coccyx. Bending and stretching exercises are highly useful here. In our day to day life the external opening of the rectum is contracted and relaxed a few times a day. Sphincter muscle around this area makes this contraction and relaxation possible. The moola bandha is an exercise or yoga that describes this action. The contraction of sphincter muscles makes the kundalini to move from perineum to coccyx, because of the pressure applied to the pelvic cavity. Once sphincter muscle is relaxed kundalini comes back to perineum from coccyx. This activity happens normally in the human body and that is why without any great involvement of the mind, kundalini shunts between perineum and coccyx. There is yet another reason for the kundalini to go back to perineum. Kundalini is also subject to gravitational force. Coccyx is slightly above the perineum and due to the natural gravitational pull kundalini comes back to perineum. The kundalini moves from perineum to coccyx and back with sound. This sound can’t be heard under normal circumstances. Just close your ears to block the external sound with your thumbs. Look for some sort of humming sound or sound of a conch. You can realise some sound within. This is shabdhabrahman, the origin of sound which is the modification of OM. This is the inner divine voice. This initial sound will undergo reformation due to persistent practice. At later stages you will be able to listen to your inner divine voice clearly and distinctly. However it depends upon the movement of kundalini. At this stage you know the nature of kundalini and its location. Let us begin our practice at this stage. I suggest that you do the stretching exercises we have discussed earlier, whenever you sit for kundalini meditation. Sit in the posture which we have discussed in our earlier postings. Inhale and exhale deeply. When you exhale, your stomach should contract and when you inhale your stomach should expand. Please do not be under the impression that the air we inhale goes to the stomach. The inhalation of air enters only the lungs. By making your stomach bloat or expand you ensure the movement of duodenum, the importance of which we will discuss later. Come back to normal breathing. Now focus your attention on your perineum. Visualise kundalini energy in the form of bright light. Visualise and move the kundalini from perineum to coccyx. When you visualise this movement, do this moola bhandha for a few seconds and release. Repeat this process as many times as you can. When you are able to synchronize moola bhandha with your mental movement of kundalini, you can proceed to the next step. Inhale deeply synchronizing with moola bhanda, hold your breath for a few seconds, visualizing the movement of kundalini from perineum to coccyx. Please do not hold your breath not more than a few seconds. Your comfort level of holding the breath is very important. Synchronization is important in this practice. First synchronization is between deep inhalation by bloating the stomach, moola bhandha and movement of kundalini from perineum to coccyx. Second synchronization is between holding the breath with stomach remaining bloated, concentration at coccyx visualizing kundalini energy there, continuation of moola bhandha. The third synchronization is between, exhalation with stomach being pulled back, releasing moola bhandha, visulalising kundalini moving back to perineum. After practicing this for a few times, close your ears with your thumbs and listen to the sound and find out the difference before commencement of the practice and after completion of the practice. Before you proceed to the next stage, the inner voice should be stronger than before.

MOVING KUNDALINI

This is part III of kundalini series. We have been talking about energy. We say that kundalini is energy. Therefore it is important for us to understand about energy. Every human body is made up of three gunas viz. satwic, rajas and tamas. The human body is again three fold. They are Casual body or karana sarira, subtle body or sukshma sarira and gross body or sthula sarira. These bodies are different from the five sheaths. Casual body is the jiva, subtle body is mind and gross body is the matter, the physical body. Casual body is the origin of gross body. The importance of mind is emphasized by identifying it with a separate body, as mind is the cause for consciousness. The three gunas mentioned above work with subtle body and therefore associated with mind. Depending on the condition of mind any one of the three gunas predominates. If your mind is tamed and trained, it will not look at rajo and tamo gunas. When your mind is associated with satwic gunas, subtle body becomes endowed will all good qualities. Casual body as said earlier is the foundation for the other two types of bodies. We can never see or feel this body. Subtle body again cannot be ordinarily seen. But it can be seen with clairvoyant eyes. It can also be felt by means of vibrations. This subtle body is also called energy body as this body is responsible for deriving, storing and withdrawing energy. The level of energy depends upon the association of the mind with gunas. The three gunas are identified with nature. The nature is nothing but sun (light), air, water and earth (food). For our sustenance we require all of them in different proportions and the predominance depends upon the nature of the mind. If your mind identifies with tamo guna, you take more food, which leads to dormant activity. If your mind identifies with satwic guna, all gunas are in appropriate proportion required for right sustenance. Therefore the gunas in right proportion provides appropriate natural energy to the subtle body which is also called energy body. The subtle body stores the energy in the form of kundalini in the perineum. This is the formation of kundalini. This is the reason why mind alone is authorized to knock at the doors of the house of kundalini. We should understand at this stage that mind is the sole reason for creating and storing energy in the form of kundalini. Mind is also responsible for concentration and consciousness. Mind therefore has got several roles to play in human life. But controlling our mind is in our hands and that is why we are talking about training and taming of the mind. Kundalini exists in the form of subtle energy and can be moved up and down by utmost concentration. Let us take an example. Hold a magnet beneath a paper and spread some iron scrap over the paper. Now move the magnet, the scraps will also move along with the movement of magnet. In the same way we can move the kundalini by focusing our entire attention on it. You can also confirm this by a simple test. Place a small sheet of paper on a table and by single pointed focus, move the paper. You will be able to move the paper after persistent practice. The paper moves on two counts. One is your will to move the paper and two when you focus on the paper your energy gets connected to the paper and because of your will to move it, it ultimately moves. It is like an electric locomotive. The locomotive can move only if it is connected to the electric energy. So when you need to move something, you have to bring some other force. Kundalini in her static form is like an electric locomotive without electricity. It needs the energy of mind to make a move.

FINDING KUNDALINI

This is part II of kundalini series. The first thing to do in kundalini meditation is to remove negative thoughts. Negative thoughts produce negative energies in our body. Though we may not be able to physically see the energy in our gross body, the sheaths are affected by negative energies. Negative thoughts arise out of anger and hatred. Spicy food, smoking and drinking affect our subtle body by causing damages in the energy level. The next important thing is the strength of the body and its flexibility. When kundalini starts ascending it derives a lot of energy and when it explodes, almost all the energies of the subtle bodies are siphoned off. Unless the physical body is flexible, she experiences difficulties while ascending. This leads to energy blockade and consequent disease. It is therefore important to control our mind as well as the environment. We have seen earlier that individual consciousness merges with universal consciousness. Universal consciousness is beyond the ordinary range of human experience or understanding. Individual consciousness is a mental act performed entirely within the human mind. Universal consciousness is Paramatma and individual consciousness is jivatma. Jivatma is associated with mind and therefore naturally identified with forms. Paramatma is also called purusha, prakasha and Shiva. Jivatma is called prakrti, vimarsha and Shakthi. Both are formless forms and we have discussed about this earlier. Without prakasha conjoining vimarsha, creation does not take place. Vimarsha is drawing its energy only from prakasha for its activities as vimarsha is the creation of prakasha. In human creation, individual consciousness is derived from universal consciousness. This universal consciousness exists in the house of kundalini. Only mind has got the power and authority to draw from the universal consciousness. The extent of consciousness drawn by the mind from the house of kundalini where universal consciousness is stored is called individual consciousness. Mind is not in a condition to draw the entire universal consciousness because of maya or illusion. That is why we have taken pains to study about mind and intellect in detail earlier. Universal consciousness or individual consciousness are subtle in nature and cannot be seen. But they can be felt and realised. We can feel and realise this because they are stored in the form of energy. This energy is in the form of light, sound and heat. Irrespective of your practicing meditation, you can always realise the heat in the house of kundalini. This place is warmer than any other part of the body. This energy is called kundalini. Kundalini is always referred as feminine gender as she is the vimarsha form. When we knock at her door with the aid of single pointed concentration to wake her up, she responds with all laziness in the world and walks up to the entrance gate of her house to find out who had woke her up. The house of kundalini is situated in the perineum of the human body. It forms the floor of the pelvic cavity. But she does not cross the gates of her house. She moves up and down between her house and her house gates. The house gate is called coccyx. This is the base of our spinal cord. Let us understand coccyx. This is situated below the sacrum. Coccyx is a small terminal appendix that is located at the distal end of the sacrum. This is covered by thick membranes and serves for the insertion for various muscles of the region. This is formed by four or five atrophic fused vertebrae. This is the starting point of our spinal cord. The perineum is connected to coccyx through various nerves and membranes. Therefore universal consciousness is stored in the perineum area and is called Kundalini.

ALL ABOUT KUNDALINI

The concept of kundalini is extremely complicated. Understanding the concept itself needs a lot of patience and dedication. A considerable time need to be spent on practice. No amount of explanation is good enough to understand the concept. The experience of kundalini may not be the same between two persons. This is basically because of the level of energy is not the same in everybody. The energy level of a person depends on various factors such as food, exercise, meditation, thoughts, habits etc. One needs to have many positive qualities, a flexible body, self control, etc. All these will produce positive energies in our body. These are some of the minimum requirements, even to have a look at the word kundalini. Kundalini energy if properly aroused becomes kinetic and explodes like a thunder accompanied with lightning. It is always advisable to practice it in the presence of a learned Guru. Practicing on your own will lead to serious nervous and mental complications. Therefore you are sincerely advised not to try on your own any of the procedures described herein. We will discuss about kundalini through a series of articles commencing from this posting. Kundalini is the energy generated when individual consciousness merges with universal consciousness. Normally the kundalini lies at the base of our spine. To be precise, it lies in the centre place between the organs of excretion and procreation. In our discussion we will call this place as the house of kundalini. In any individual the body temperature is maintained due to the activities that take place in and around this place. The door of the house of kundalini is to be knocked repeatedly to wake her up. Kundalini is considered as shakthi, the feminine form of vimarsha. In her desire to conjoin with Shiva, the prakasha form, she has to traverse through a path. As she is the supreme form of action, she traverses the path with a roaring sound. You can visulaise a racing car crossing a point with a thundering sound. If a human made and human run car can produce such a speed and sound, it is left to your imagination to visulaise the power of kundalini. Kundalini is the kinetic energy and generally dormant in her house. When she is in her dormant form she is in the form of dormant energy and when she is awakened she transforms into kinetic energy and then into dynamic energy. She rises only if she gets her kinetic form. While ascending she faces certain blocks that are not so easy for her to penetrate. Secondly, she will not traverse through a path full of dirt. She has got a liking only for clean and serene environment. Normally, efforts are taken by individual consciousness to clean her path of travel. When she ascends, she is the master and all activities of individual consciousness come under her control. Kundalini can be awakened only if your law of karma permits. Kundalini energy is manifested and does not exist in reality. Manifestation of kundalini can take place only through a properly trained mind and intellect. Concentration of mind is the basic criteria in kundalini meditation. If concentration of the highest order is not developed, enjoying the bliss of kundalini is a distant dream. Kundalini is the combination of psychological and physiological activities. It is a short cut to divinity.

KNOWING ATMAN

We now know that atman is covered by the five sheaths. These five sheaths have been mistakenly identified earlier as the atman. Now we know that atman is different from these sheaths. Mere knowledge of atman is not enough and it is to be explored and experienced. Vedas, Upanishads and other scriptures tell us various means to identify the atman. They have taught us the path and we have to walk along the path to reach the atman. Walking on the path is extremely difficult and high level of dedication and sacrifice are necessary. More than anything else, we need to know what atman is. Upanishads teach us to understand and realise atman. Though atman is beyond description, at least we need to have some basic information. Atman is one and it does not have a second. It is all alone. It is self illuminating. Only by deriving light from atman everything else is visible. Even the sun gets its light only from atman. Some people are of the opinion that there are two types of atman. One is paramatman (para+atman) and another is jivatman (jiva+atman). This is not right. Since atman does not have a second, there cannot be more than one atman. This atman exists everywhere. It is smaller than an atom and bigger than the biggest. At the most we can compare jivatma and paramatma to individual consciousness and universal consciousness. Universal consciousness is everywhere and individual consciousness is part of it when it exists in an individual. Merging of individual consciousness with the universal consciousness is known as prayer. Prayers have tremendous effect only when we pray with concentration. When you concentrate on something and ask for it, the first step is really to ask for it with confidence that you will certainly get it. When you pray without confidence and faith, your prayers will never be answered. A prayer without faith is waste of time. There is confusion about jiva and atma. Jiva is soul and is subject to transmigration. Atma is God and not subject to change. We have already seen that for creation, two things are necessary. Prakasha form is static and vimarsha form is kinetic and only from this combine creation is taking place. Atma is the prakasha form. It is static. It will not move and it has not act to do. Jiva is the soul and is the vimarsha form. At the time of death, soul leaves our body and merges with atma which is present everywhere and enters yet another body. This is the process of transmigration of jiva or soul. The soul enables the body to undergo changes and happiness or sorrow for the body is determined by the karmas. Karma is the rule of the Lord. Sufferings or enjoyment is determined only by karma. God never breaks his law. That is why it is called law of karma. Therefore, the jiva or soul acts according to one’s karmic account. When everything is decided by karma and jiva what is the purpose of atman. Atman is like electricity. Without electricity passing through the cable lights will not burn. Having soul alone is like having a light fitting without electricity. Electricity does not burn but it makes the light fitting to burn. In the same way, atman does not act, but it makes the soul or jiva to act. You cannot see the electricity and you know it only as a form of energy. In the same way, atman cannot be seen but can be known. Atman should be explored and realised within our own self. When we break the sheaths of maya, and start exploring within, there we can realise the atman. Atman within us is called the Supreme Self. In order to differentiate between our physical body and the atman, and in order emphasize that these two are not the same, atman is called as the Supreme Self. Atman is just witnessing the activities of the soul. It neither gives direction nor participates in any of the actions of the soul and soul acts only as per the law of karma. Atman does not have the qualities of good and bad. It does not make a person good or bad. The quality of the person is determined by the law of karma. Law of karma influences the mind, mind influences our intellect and intellect makes our sensory organs to do good things or bad things. By your action you are known as good or bad. Except atman every other thing is subject to modification and ultimate decay. That is why the things that are subject to decay are called maya or illusion. Atman is all alone and ever illuminating. We will subsequently discuss in detail about realising atman within.

THE VEDIC BIRD

During our discussion about the sheaths, we have come across a reference to vedic bird. Let us now understand this vedic bird. I am calling this as vedic bird because this is mentioned in Rik and Yajur Vedas. The actual name used in Vedas is suparna or the golden bird. The shape of a bird is used as fire altar in agnisayana. Agnisayana is a huge vedic fire ritual spread over a period of twelve days. Why rishis have chosen the shape of a bird to perform this ritual? The shape of the bird is conceived to carry the yajamana of the ritual to the heavens. yajamana is the one for whom the ritual is performed. These rituals are highly expensive and the person who finances this ritual is called yajamana. Yajamana means the boss. He is the boss of the ritual. Mostly these types of rituals are performed for the benefit of the people in general, engaging several learned scholars well versed in all the four Vedas. Those days kings used to fund these types of rituals and such kings are called yajamana. The construction of a huge altar for the agnisayana is mainly for the purpose of restoring Prajapati, the golden man supposed to be the creator of this universe. It is said that Prajapati sacrificed his life for the creation of the universe. Prajapati’s boey is said to be mortal and his breath – prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana are said to be immortal. The significance of this agnisayana is to resurrect Prajapati, who is initially manifested beneath the fire altar. The agnisayana altar is of five layers constructed with specially made bricks. The first, the third and the fifth layers are also filled with pebbles to enable Prajapati to breathe. From non-ritualistic point of view these three layers are considered as earth, air and akash. The second and the fourth layers represent fire and water. Now you can correlate the five sheaths or pancha koshas with these five layers. Prajapati, who is also called purusha is identified as the atman. We have seen that this atman is covered by the five sheaths or koshas representing the five basic elements. If you want to look at this bird from the non-ritualistic view, you can call this as your mind which is capable of taking you to higher planes. From the ritualistic point of view this bird is considered to carry the yajamana of the ritual to the heavens. Yajur Veda says that the bird’s head is Trivrt or Stoma (the verses in the Vedas that give protection to the yajamana), its eye as Gayathri (the famous Gayatri mantra for seeking noble mind and thoughts), its body as Vamadeva Saman (verses of sama vdea), it’s both the wings as Brhat and Rathaantara (both are names of melodies in Sama Veda), its tail as the place for conducting this yajna, its limbs as meters (number of letters in a mantra. This is also called chantas and Gayatri meter is supposed to be the best), its hooves as the masters of knowledge, its name is Yajur mantras and the bird is called as garutman (possibly meaning the bird garuda. Garuda is one of the vahanas used by Lord Vishnu, who is the ultimate authority for any yajna.). One of the soma oblations in this yagna is Gayatri mantra. Interestingly the gayatri mantra finds a place in Yajur Veda next to the verses on Suparna, the vedic bird. Gayatri mantra finds a place both in Rik and yajur Vedas. Finally a request is made to this bird to go to the heaven and then fly to the world of light, carrying the yajamana. The five of its parts viz. its head, trunk, left wings, right wings and tail are mainly identified with five basic elements and manifestation of these five elements such as organs of action, sensory organs, organs of perception, five sheaths etc. Generally this bird is identified as purusha, a human form and the nature of the bird (flying) is identified as the mind. We can conclude by saying that the vedic bird is symbolic representation of a human being, and its activity as the manifestation of the five basic elements.

THE BLISS

This is part XIII and concluding part of our series on understanding our physical body. We will now begin our discussion on the sheath of bliss which is the last of the five koshas or sheaths or coverings. We are just a step away from the supreme atman. Let us understand bliss. Bliss is a stage wherein your joy is radiated. You are totally happy only when you do not need anything. Bliss is a stage wherein you do not have desires and attachments. Your happiness is ruined when you do not get what you wanted. Bliss is full of joy, calm and peace. What is joy that we are talking about here? This joy is not derived out of a physical action but derived from our inner search. This joy is not external but purely internal and realised only internally. The sheath of bliss is more illuminating than the sheath of knowledge as the sheath of bliss is next to the self illuminating atman. You have already crossed the four sheaths and crossing the last hurdle is not difficult. The only difficulty is you lose your patience when you are about to cross this last stage and become restless out of anxiety. All these –difficulty, patience, stage, restlessness, anxiety – are caused by the mind only. You undertake a long journey and during the last half-an-hour or so you become so exited and would like to alight as the first passenger. In the same way you become so excited while crossing this last sheath as you are about to reach the destination. Excitement has no place in self realisation. Bliss cannot function independently and it has to depend upon buddhi for its existence. Please remember buddhi functions on the basis of inputs given by the mind. Therefore bliss can’t be experienced by everybody. It depends upon the status of your mind and your activities. If you perform noble and virtuous deeds, you can enjoy the bliss. If your acts are noble, bliss is derived automatically without your effort. When you feed a poor and hungry man, you can see the happiness in his face while he is eating. The joy derived by you on seeing his happiness is bliss. His happiness is not bliss, as he is happy because his desire has been fulfilled. This is temporary as he will again feel the hunger. You have provided food to him expecting nothing in return from him. That is why your happiness is bliss. Please also remember that the bliss you enjoy here is also temporary, as this is derived out of one of your actions. Bliss can be perennial if all your acts give you internal happiness without expecting anything in return. Normally bliss manifests fully when we are in the state of deep sleep. Only during deep sleep all other sheaths cease to function and bliss alone is active. In the other two states viz. awake and dream, bliss will not totally manifest as mind continues to receive inputs. In your deep sleep state bliss is not influenced by mind as your mind at this stage is resting. Your anger and joy are derived from your mind. Mind is agitated both in joy and anger. You are under the impression that the cause of your anger or happiness is due to objects, as desire is only for an object. In fact object is not the cause but your mind is the cause, as mind is the source for thought. As long as the mind is agitated, it obstructs the manifestation of happiness, citing some reason or other. Nobody remains always happy because of the obstruction by the mind. That is why mind need to be tamed. When the obstruction is there, happiness is not radiated. Joy and happiness are only a miniscule of bliss. But remember that bliss is next to the illuminating atman. Therefore bliss appears more radiant than intellect. Finally, bliss also depends on mind. Bliss does not always manifest. Bliss is wrongly considered as atman because it is next to atman. Remember one basic fact. If anything is associated with the products of prakrti in the form of three gunas, then it is subject to change. If anything is subject to change then, it is not atman. Since all these five sheaths are subject to modification, we can now confidently say that these sheaths are not atman, but form as a covering around the self illuminating atman. What happens when we cross these five sheaths? We have crossed these five sheaths by means of elimination process. We have eliminated all these five sheaths as they are subject to modifications. Once we cross these sheaths, we have crossed all the obstacles and we are able to witness the shining atman from a distance. After our discussion on these five sheaths, we can conclude that atman is self illuminating, not subjected to change, not subjected to transmigration, not depending on any other source for its existence, being present without any activity and just witnessing our actions, etc. We need to know more about atman as our main aim is to explore atman within. With this we conclude our series on understanding our physical body. For comments and feedback please write to me at feedback@manblunder.com

KNOWLEDGE IS NOT ATMAN

This is part XII of our series on understanding our physical body. The atman can be realised within, with the help of knowledge and bliss. We are currently discussing knowledge and bliss will be discussed next. Due to the influence of buddhi or intellect, soul and atman are considered as the same. Soul transmigrates and atman exists everywhere. Without atman soul cannot exist, but atman does not depend upon anything for its existence. In fact, everything depends upon atman for existence. Atman is the God. The intellect, due to the influence of misinformed mind considers soul as atman. Intellect at this stage is badly affected by delusion or maya. That is why it considers our body as atman. It searches for atman everywhere, except looking for in the place where it can be identified. You should not get confused on this point. Atman exists everywhere and we know it is smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest. Atman is there everywhere, including those places where the invisible air cannot penetrate. This illusion is caused as the five sheaths superimposed on atman are identified by the buddhi as atman. The cause of this illusion is called avidya. Once avidya is removed, buddhi realises the truth. Avidya can be removed by exploring inwardly. We have to explore our inner self because we know based on our discussions that atman is covered by the five sheaths or pancha kosha. Though atman exists everywhere, and you can realise atman everywhere, it is better to find the atman in your inner self as otherwise you have to use your sensory organs. That is why in Sri vidya cult, Lalithambigai is worshiped at the centre of Sri chakra after worshiping several deities beginning from the outer avarana. After crossing nine avaranas (avaranas can be interpreted as coverings or sheaths. They are like koshas) only you can worship Lalithambigai. Our physical body is compared to Sri Chakra. Avidya can be removed by knowledge. This knowledge is not the knowledge that you acquire by reading this article. Books do not give you the knowledge that is needed to drive away avidya. But what you read currently, will certainly tell you how to acquire the right knowledge and the ways and means of getting it. You are not given a university degree without passing out in practical examinations. Practical examinations are held to confirm that you know to implement whatever you have learnt from the books and lecturers. So practice is considered necessary. In the same way, in order to have complete knowledge you need to undergo practical sessions called meditation. Meditation means acquiring real knowledge. It does not mean controlling your breath, sitting erect for hours together, your posture etc. In a true meditation, after having plugged your sensory organs, you have to explore your inner self. When your consciousness is nearing the ever illuminating atman, your physical body starts radiating. Knowledge is an important component for exploring within. Your knowledge is considered as supreme only when your ego is removed. Knowledge is subject to change. For example, from avidya it can become vidya. It is like an illiterate becoming a literate. Secondly knowledge is not always available to you for use. In your deep sleep, knowledge does not function. Thirdly, it has to depend on mind for its functioning. Fourthly it is not self illuminating. Therefore we are negating this buddhi also as atman. We have already negated our gross body, sheath of air and mental sheath as atman. Out of the five sheaths we have so far considered four and the last is anandamaya kosha which will be discussed in the next posting.

SOUL AND GOD

This is part XI of our series on understanding our physical body. Atman is super imposed by these five sheaths or koshas. All these coverings are not pure like the atman. As a matter of fact the purity of atman cannot be compared to anything in this universe even in the wildest of dreams. Because of the coverings that are placed one above the other atman in its purest form appear to be modified. Shankara draws a comparison to the fire that takes the shape of an iron rod when put in fire. Fire has no shape but still it attains the shape of an iron when the rod is heated. In the same way the atman undergoes modifications when superimposed by these sheaths. At least such a modification is felt by the mental sheath and sheath of knowledge. In fact nothing can change the atman and atman never identifies itself with other objects. It is the supreme prakasha form that cannot be divided as it is the minutest of the minute forms. Such a supreme form cannot undergo changes under any circumstances. Therefore it is only our buddhi feels so. Our buddhi is under the control of maya or illusion. Due to the impact of wrong interpretation by buddhi, we feel that the impact is on our atman. It is like the reflection of the sun in hundred pots full of water. Sun is one, and on seeing the sun in all the hundred pots, can we say that there are hundred suns? In the same way atman is one, and because of its illuminating nature, its reflection is felt everywhere. This reflection of atman is wrongly interpreted as the functioning of the atman, as atman does not function. This concept is beautifully explained by Krishna in Gita. He says that atman appears to be divided but not actually divided. Taitttriya Upanishad in its Bhrgu valli also says that everything is born out of Brahman and Brahman is the source of this world. This is the reality and therefore nothing can modify the Brahman or atman. Maya with falsified authority and brute force is presenting the atman as the one with modifications. We also tend to believe in the presentation of maya and we come to the conclusion that atman is also susceptible to changes. In the same way jiva is also falsely identified with atman. Jiva is soul and atman is God. Don’t we pray that may his soul rest in peace. You cannot ask God to rest in peace. You can only pray for the jiva or soul of a person to rest in peace. Identifying the soul as atman is again the role played by the maya in collusion with mind and intellect. We also know that mind gets information from the sensory organs. Intellect plays an important role in controlling the sense organs. The one that is not bound by time and space is atman. The intellect plays an extremely crucial role. We have come to a stage where we can differentiate between maya and the real. We know the effects of maya. We are yet to understand the reality. When we do not know what reality is, we start our search for reality. We begin this search by questioning and investigating. Our questions need answers and for investigation we need intelligence. This is derived from the sheath of knowledge. If the knowledge is under the influence of impure mind, how can you find your answers? This stage is called avidya, the stage of spiritual illiteracy. An illiterate man can become a literate man. You have to have determination to become so. You need to have will power. All these are provided by mind and mind’s quest for knowledge is provided by this sheath of knowledge.

INTELLECT AND MOON

his is part X of our series on understanding our physical body. Since buddhi is part of jiva, it is susceptible to the influence of previous births. Every desire of ours whether accomplished or not, leaves an impression in our mind. These impressions always crave for its manifestation. If you are not able to control your craving, your mind starts controlling your intellect and result is misery. If you are able to win over the cravings, your intellect becomes the master. Buddhi is transparent and atman is placed closer to it. Because of the transparent nature of the buddhi, mind mistakes buddhi as atman. This mistaken identity by the mind makes you to think that atman is self. In fact mind only identifies buddhi. This situation leads you to believe that you have realised the atman. This is an illusionary self realisation. If you have realised the atman, you will not be reading this. These types of articles at the most show you the way to the atman. They cannot show you the atman. Your professor can teach you, but it is you who have to write the examination. If you are a realised person your mind and intellect will always be with atman. If I am a realised person, I will not be writing this article. All realised persons will always identify themselves with atman. This is the stage great yogis are in. You do not feel the hunger, you do not get sleep and you are so addicted to such a brightly illuminated atman, you never move your consciousness from the atman. Individual consciousness is getting identified with the universal consciousness. This is samadhi. There are different stages of samadhi about which we will discuss later. We identify somebody as having a brilliant brain. This brilliance has come only from the illuminating atman. Though all the sheaths receive the rays of light from the ever illuminating atman, buddhi is more effulgent because its proximity to the source of light. We are not training our intellect not to concentrate on our sensory organs. What happens is that buddhi is always focusing outside our body through our sense organs, of course with the help of mind. Instead of focusing outside the body, if it focuses inside, or if it turns its attention inwardly or looks within, there it sees the illuminating atman. Therefore unless buddhi is trained to look within, we cannot attain self realization. Upanishads confirm that atman is an infinite entity identified with buddhi and appears in the form of light in the midst of heart. Adhi Shankara confirms this in his master piece Vivekachudamani. Here we should not take the literal meaning for the heart. If you take the literal meaning of the heart, then it means that atman is only in the heart. Atman exists everywhere and hence it is called universal consciousness. Here the heart means the centre of our personality. In fact this reference is not required in this context. But rishis have chosen to identity a place for atman, otherwise persons like you and I will find it difficult to realise it. Therefore it is evident that we have to cross buddhi to realise atman. It is because of the light emitting from atman buddhi appears consciously perceived as intelligent. None of the sheaths we have discussed so far, including the sheath of knowledge has the ability to function on their own. Since buddhi is closer to atman buddhi draws its light from atman. Atman is like the sun which is self illuminating. Buddhi is like the moon which is not self illuminating. But the moon gets its light from the sun and illuminates. Moon also illuminates the earth, though not to the extent of the sun. In the same way buddhi shines with the help of the self illuminating atman. Buddhi then illuminates other sheaths with the light drawn from the atman.

LAW OF DIVINITY

This is part IX of our series on understanding our physical body. So far we have discussed about three sheaths viz. physical body, sheath of air and mental sheath. Now let us discuss on sheath of knowledge, which is called vijnanamaya kosha. We have seen in the earlier part that mind needs knowledge. This knowledge is called buddhi or vijnana in Sanskrit. Though knowledge and intelligence are broadly the same there is a subtle difference between the two. Knowledge is about knowing something. You know that a pen can write. Knowing about the pen is knowledge. Knowing about how the pen can be utilized is intellect. Pen can be used for drawings, writing articles, scribbling or any such purpose. Those who have knowledge about pen can utilize it but how it is utilized is intellect. There is huge difference between scribbling and writing a scholarly article. Knowledge functions on the basis of information received from the organs of knowledge. Organs of knowledge are eyes, ears, mouth, nose and skin. These sensory organs convert the information they gather into subtle forms viz. light, sound, taste, smell and touch respectively. These subtle forms are called tanmatras. These tanmatras are transmitted to the brain. We know that buddhi one of the components of anthakkaranam, the other three being manas, Chitam and ahankaram or ego. This buddhi along with tanmatras form the sheath of knowledge. The supreme self is covered by these five sheaths. If you want to reach out to the atman or Brahman we have to cross these sheaths. Sheath of knowledge is closer to atman as we have already crossed three, presently discussing about the fourth and yet to cross one more which is called bliss. Being closer to the atman, the effect of atman is being felt by the sheath of knowledge. This is like seeing the rays of light when you are nearing the end of a tunnel. Buddhi is controlled by mind and the sensory organs. When this is the situation, we have no salvation as mind functions on the inputs received from the sensory organs. The inputs from the sensory organs are only desires, anger, attachment etc. On the other hand if you control your mind and sensory organs with buddhi, salvation is waiting for you. Since buddhi is closer to atman, it will not provide worldly inputs to the mind. Buddhi is more subtle than mind, because of its closeness to atman. Therefore, intellect becomes more powerful than thought. If we make our buddhi as the guiding factor for self realisation, instead of mind, emancipation is much faster. However, buddhi cannot act independently. In the divine system rules and regulations are laid down very clearly and also strictly followed. Unless these laws are understood and followed meticulously, you can attain the desired result. The law of divinity is that buddhi cannot overlook mind and act through the sensory organs directly. Yet another important law of divinity to be remembered is that we are bound by our karmas and karmas are accumulated as per Newton’s third law. The knowledge of sheath is also superimposed on our physical body, like the other two, sheath of air and mental sheath. Atma starts its first connection with intellect. But please remember that atman will never act on its own as atman is only a witness. It neither commands nor acts. When ego is identified with intellect, it is called jiva. It is in this jiva our karmic account is placed. Karma is like a heart to a man. Jiva is the cause for all our activities and jiva acts as per our karmic account. Karmic account is like a bank account. All good things will happen if it is in credit balance. You will suffer from miseries if it is in debit balance. If the balance is zero, your duty in this earth is over. You have no more rebirths.

MIND NEEDS KNOWLEDGE

This is part VIII of our series on understanding our physical body. Karma is the law through which God acts. Law of karma is very simple. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, Newton’s III law. The three types of gunas also play their role in influencing the mind. Mind is the cause for all attachments, attachment to our body, attachment to wealth, attachment towards family etc. Attachment is nothing but bondage. Mind makes you to become a bonded labourer. Mind can be pure and impure depending upon the inputs it receives from the sensory organs. When the mind is pure with satwik qualities, self realisation is possible. With the other two gunas viz.rajas and tamas mind becomes impure. Wherever there is impurity, divinity will not be there. This is why our physical body should be kept clean. A single action alone cannot determine the quality of mind. It is only the frame of mind that counts. If the frame of mind is inflicted with qualities of rajas and tamas you will not get liberated from the bondage of birth and death. If your mind is endowed with satwik qualities, it paves way for liberation. Again liberation in this birth or in future births depends upon karmic account. The first lesson the mind should learn is discrimination, discrimination of good and bad. A good mind should be capable of discriminating effectively and willing to renounce. Renouncing means not taking credit for what you have done. When there is renunciation, no demand arises. When mind is endowed with the qualities of discrimination and renunciation, individual consciousness moves to universal consciousness. Individual ego is destroyed and we identify ourselves with others’ happiness. We identify ourselves with every other living being. When we are able to identify ourselves with every living being our individual consciousness is transformed into universal consciousness. Universal consciousness is the Brahman. All along our mind was enjoying all the sensual pleasures. The impressions of such pleasures will always be there in the mind. Such a mind will always have a tendency to manifest on these impressions. So, the control of the mind is of paramount importance. A mind is said to be free only if all its impressions are wiped out. A free mind is a pure mind. When the mind becomes pure, it removes all the blocks and veils in realising the Self. When the mind removes the blocks and veils, the concept of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ goes. With this our miseries and sufferings also go. We get liberated from the cycle of birth and death. With all these discussion, we would have come to a conclusion how bad and wicked is our mind. Then the question arises as to how to make our mind good and noble. Mind can be made good and noble by providing it with knowledge. What mind can do with this knowledge? Mind converts this knowledge into wisdom. This wisdom enables the mind to discriminate between good and bad. What we are discussing here is the spiritual wisdom. Spiritual wisdom enables the mind to distinguish between maya and real. Real is the Brahman. We have to negate mind as Brahman as mind is subject to changes. Mind depends upon sensory organs for its functioning. In spirituality Brahman is always the subject. Therefore mind becomes an object. It is obvious that an object cannot become a subject. Our aim is to know the Brahman. The Brahman can be known only by the mind. The mind needs knowledge to identify the Brahman. How does the mind get knowledge? It derives knowledge from the sheath of knowledge.

TRANSFORMATION OF MIND

This is part VII of our series on understanding our physical body. The mind has two components. One is knowledge and another is ignorance. When you are associating with worldly pleasures, you derive worldly knowledge, but you are ignorant about Brahman. That is why it has been repeatedly said to control the mind. This universe, our relatives, our likes and dislikes and anything associated with this universe appears to our mind as real. In fact our mind fails to understand that all these are perishable and develops attachment. This illusion is created by maya. Unless we win over maya, it is not possible to know the Brahman. We have already discussed under mind that mind gets impressions. Only when these impressions are destroyed, it is possible to realise the Supreme Self or Brahman. In an individual it is called mind and in the cosmos it is called mahat. We have seen earlier that mahat means supreme intelligence. Mind is a component of space and time. This space and time is called as citta akasha in Sanskrit. When space and time unites, we see the reality. When we separate them, we see only illusion. Let us take an example. You drive a car. You drive at a speed of 100 KMs per hour. In other words, you take one hour to cross 100 KMs. This is a case where space and time unites. In one hour time you have travelled a space of 100 KMs. So this is real. In the second case, you are ready with your car and you also know a place which is 100 KMs away, but not commenced your journey. Your travel has not commenced therefore it is not real. A thing that is not real is illusion or maya. Therefore space and time have to act in unison to understand the truth. Here by truth we mean the Brahman. Citta akasha is space and time. Therefore something exists in citta akasha. From citta akasha one has to move towards cid akasha, the pure consciousness of the Brahman. We talk about subject and object only when we are awake. In our dream state also our mind works on subject and object. But in deep sleep there is no subject and object. There is nothing but void during our deep sleep. During our deep sleep our mind cease to function. There is no space and time. This can be explained by a simple example. In a class room the professor will be discussing on a boring subject. When you are not attracted either to a subject or to an object, your mind tends to think about something else that is of great attraction to you. When you are not listening to the professor, your mind travels elsewhere. Your sense organ is totally shut off from your class room. Your ears are blocked. They can’t carry any inputs to your mind. Without any inputs your mind ceases to think about your class room. In the same way, if you block all your sense organs and prevent any inputs to your mind, your mind will be void and this void is Brahman. This is because Brahman has no second. In void nothing exists except void. Our mind is capable of creation and destruction, capable of creating bondage and attachment as well as liberation. Therefore our mind is capable of doing both positive and negative things. The mind once enjoyed worldly pleasures will at a later date become disgusted with such enjoyments . At what point of time this transformation takes place depends upon one’s karmas. This series may be boring. This is mainly because of the complexity of the subject involved. A number of Upanishads talk about these subjects. Volumes and volumes have been written on mind and body. These two play a very important role in self realisation. Without understanding the basics, it is not fair on our part to proceed further. This will tantamount to appearing for a degree examination without ever attending a school. To understand this philosophy of sheaths or coverings or koshas , repeated reading is necessary. I want to emphasize on this because, when we take up kundalini meditation and self realization, the words and phrases used so far will be repeated again and again. Explaining and interpreting these words and phrases every time will take us away from the subject of discussion. This I am sharing with you out of my own experience.

MENTAL SHEATH

This is part VI of our series on understanding our physical body. Next to the sheath of air, there is mental sheath or manomaya kosha. Mind and prana are interconnected. We can control our mind with the help of pranayama. Mental sheath is beneath the sheath of air. Again this has to depend upon the gross body for its function. As we have discussed in the series on mind, mind receives inputs through the sensory organs, which are placed in the gross body. We gain knowledge only through our sense organs. Since there is a very close relationship between mind and sense organs, mind is called the sixth sense organ. The sixth sense does not function effectively in other living beings. Birds and animals cannot think like us as their sixth sense is not fully developed. Ego starts from mental sheath. Only because of mind we are able to identify persons and things. Mind unless properly trained considers everything as its own. It takes credit for our achievements. Illusion or maya enters at this stage. Mind feels very comfortable in the company of maya. Mind and maya joining together starts creating havoc for us. Our sufferings begin from this point. The first two sheaths, physical body and sheath of air did not differentiate between Rama and Krishna. Rama and Krishna are identified by our sensory organs but not differentiated. Identification is different from differentiation. Sun and moon are identified as planets. Identifying Sun as a hot planet and moon as a cool planet is differentiation. Differentiation talks about quality. Sensory organs can identify but they do not have capacity to differentiate. Only by conjoining with mind they can differentiate and discriminate. So mind is the cause for such discrimination. Knowledge is gained from the mental sheath, which is subtler than sheath of air. Always subtler forms permeate the gross forms. For subtle mental sheath, sheath of air is gross. So, mental sheath which is subtler than the sheath of air permeates the sheath of air. Any disturbance in the mental sheath causes serious mental aberrations. When the mental sheath is weak, our gross body becomes weak. Differentiation and discrimination are the main components of knowledge. Through the gain of knowledge we are able to establish communication with each other. Only because of the mind you are able to communicate and the necessary inputs are provided by sensory organs. Your eyes see the sun as bright and your skin feels the heat of the sun. Our desires are generated by our mind with the help of the sensory organs. As long as mind generates desires our sensory organs are very active. Mind, desire and sensory organs are interrelated. You see a beautiful piece of art. You see the art through your eyes. Your eyes give necessary inputs to the mind and mind in turn creates desires. You develop a desire to buy that piece of art. You have to speak to the seller. Your mouth, another sense organ is used to negotiate with the seller. Therefore the traffic between mind and sensory organs is always a two way traffic. As you grow old, the sensory organs gradually lose their power which in turn produces fewer desires or no desires. You acquire knowledge about worldly things when you are young. There is nothing wrong in acquiring worldly knowledge as this is required for our existence. In the process of acquiring worldly knowledge you fail to recognize the provider of the knowledge. You get addicted to worldly pleasures and worldly knowledge and you do not have time and mind to think about the Supreme intellect. By the time you decide to know about Brahman, your physical and mental sheath fail to cooperate with your mind.

SHEATH OF AIR

This is part V of our series on understanding our physical body. The gross body is not permanent. The form of the gross body differs from person to person. This is called appearance. The gross body of Rama is different from Krishna. The appearance of Rama is different from Krishna. The gross body of Rama or Krishna did not exist before they were born and will not exist after their death. Therefore gross body and appearance of a person is formed by birth and cease to exist after death. The existence of gross body is only for the limited period of time between birth and death. During this limited time the gross body grows in size till a certain point of time and starts shrinking thereafter. So, the gross body is subject to change. What we are looking for is the one that does not change with time. The one that is not susceptible to change is Brahman and Brahman alone. Every other thing is subject to change. A table is here today and after 50 years the table will not be in the same position as it appears today. Change is there for both living beings and non living things. Brahman has no destruction and perception. Therefore what we are looking for is that which has no destruction and perception. To understand the Brahman, leave alone the realisation of Brahman, we have to negate one after another. We can negate something that is known to us and about which we have knowledge. Therefore to negate knowledge is necessary. To acquire knowledge, our gross body is important. The process of self realisation starts from our gross body. Unfortunately we always identify ourselves with our gross body and do not think about subtle bodies located beneath our gross body. As long as we continue to identify ourselves with our gross body, we have to undergo only miseries in life. This is because we are identifying ourselves that is going to be non-existent at a later date. It is said that body is a good servant but a bad master. If our body becomes our master there is no salvation for us. This is the reason why we are straining our nerves to understand our gross body. Next to our gross body is the sheath of air. That is next to annamaya kosha there is pranamaya kosha. This sheath is the first among the subtle bodies. This sheath of air is not visible to our eyes. The sheath of air supplies prana to our gross body for its nourishment. Without prana the gross body dies. Hence prana is called as the vital energy. Prana is a modification of the element of air and therefore, sheath of air is identified with the basic element of air. The sheath of air cannot independently exist without the help of gross body. It has to depend on something else for its existence. Therefore prana cannot be Brahman. We have so far negated gross body and sheath of air as Brahman. We are not calling them as Brahman because they are subject to change and depend on another for their existence. Gross body depends on food and sheath of air depends on gross body for its existence.

GROSS BODY AND EARTH

This is part IV of our series on understanding our physical body. We have discussed about the five sheaths or coverings which are called as kosha in Sanskrit. They are gross or physical body followed by sheaths of air, mind, intellect and bliss. For the sake of convenience we will use the terms gross, air, mind, intellect and bliss representing the respective sheaths or kosha. It is interesting to note in Hindu mythology the numeric five attains great importance. This is because every activity in this universe is associated with the five basic elements ether or akash, air, fire, water and earth. Therefore these sheaths are also identified as five. In Lalitha Sahasranamam nama 428 is pancha-kosha-nthrasthita meaning Lalithai is in the form of these five sheaths. Lalithai is prakasha vimarsha maha maya swarupini and She is in charge of every action that takes place in this universe. Therefore, She is said to be the cause of these five sheaths as She is the cause of everything that is existing in this universe. Our body is not an exception to that. Even the Supreme creator Shiva is identified with the numeric five. Shiva mantra consists of five Sanskrit alphabets - Na-ma-shi-va-ya. The whole universe is controlled by the numeric five. Upanishads say that first akash was created, from akash air was created, from air fire was created, from fire water was created and from water earth was created. So, the first of divine creations is akash and in our human form mind is represented by akash. Therefore we can understand the greatness of mind both in creation and destruction. Now, let us first take up our gross body. The five organs of action called karmaenthriams are in the gross body. These organs are mouth, hands, legs, organs of excretion and organ of procreation. Apart from these five organs of action, five sensory organs are also in the gross body and they are called jnanaendriyams. They are ears, nose, eyes, mouth and skin. Physical actions are performed by the organs of action and intellect is gained from the sensory organs. Organs of actions are responsible for the activities of sensory organs. Unless you walk to a temple, your eyes cannot see the deity there. Unless you go to a music hall, you cannot listen to the music. The five organs of actions and five sensory organs are placed in the gross body. Without their help we cannot understand anything. Without seeing an elephant, you cannot know an elephant. Without smelling the rose, you cannot understand the pleasant smell of a rose flower. Mouth is classified under both because it has dual function. Through the mouth we eat and we know food is responsible for keeping our gross body alive. Through the same mouth speech comes out. The organs of actions and senses either work in unison or function one after another. If you clap with both hands, you hear the sound of clapping. Both the action of clapping and the knowledge of sound realised by the ears are in unison. In the case of walking to temple to see the deity, first you walk and then only you see the deity. This is the case of sensory organ functioning after the functioning of the organ of action. Therefore without gross body nothing works and we cease to exist. Without the gross body other four sheaths do not have any work to do. Gross body is nourished by food and water we consume. That is why the gross body is called annamaya kosha. Annam is food. Since gross body is associated with earthly matters, it is identified with the element of earth.

SHEATHS OF INTELLECT AND BLISS

This is Part III of the series on understanding of our physical body. Next to manomaya kosha is vijnanamaya kosha, the sheath of intellect. We have seen in the earlier posting that manomaya kosha or the sheath of mind converts the inputs into knowledge and intellect. This converted component is called vijnanamaya kosha. This is next to manomaya kosha. This also has the human form as this is also placed beneath the gross body or annamaya kosha. The vijnanamaya kosha is again divided into five and fitted into the parts of the vedic bird. Dedication or sraddha is the head of the bird. Understanding vedic derivatives like Upanishads etc which is called rta or morality is the right wing of the bird. Truth or satyam is its left wing. Yoga is its trunk and mahat is its tail. Mahat is also known as hiranyagarbha and can be called as the supreme intellect. How this sheath of intellect works? Different people have different intellectual levels. This is mainly because of the level of presence of the five components viz. dedication, understanding, truth, yoga and mahat. Committing virtues or sins purely depends upon the sheath of intellect. The most important component of vijnanamaya kosha is dedication. Without dedication, others will be of no use. If all the five viz. dedication etc work in unison, you develop a high level of intellect. When they are not working in coordination with each other, the level of intellect goes down. This is the reason for somebody being highly intelligent and others being not so intelligent. Next to vijnanamaya kosha is anandamaya kosha, the sheath of bliss. This is the last of the five sheaths. This is beneath the vijnanamaya kosha and has a human form like other koshas. This is again divided into five that fits into the body parts of the vedic bird. Happiness and joy, which is called as priyam as the bird’s head, pleasure of getting what we love which is called modha is its right wing, happiness of enjoyment which is called pramodah is its left wing, bliss which is called anandah is the trunk of the bird and Brahman is its tail. Anandamaya kosha is the product of manomaya kosha. The mind discriminates what is good and what is not good, what is happiness and what is unhappiness. Therefore, you know what is good that can be enjoyed. Happiness and enjoyment is there before you, but do you enjoy it and feel the happiness of enjoyment? Let them be real or illusionary, but it is there before you for a grab. You can’t simply take it and you need a catalyst to make you to enjoy. This catalyst is ananadamaya kosha. If your vijnanamaya kosha is functioning efficiently, then your mind decides which is happiness and joy that is eternal. Otherwise, your mind identifies worldly or materialistic pleasures as the source for your enjoyment. Your ananndamya kosha acting as a catalyst concentrates only on these temporary pleasures then you associate yourself with these perishable pleasures. By associating yourself with such temporary worldly pleasures, you forget about the everlasting bliss. You are happy with such worldly enjoyments and pleasures for some time, as these are not permanent in nature. You realize your mistakes and repent for your past actions when you are not able to continue with your enjoyment. But, by the time, everything would be too late. Having known about the five sheaths of our body, let us now proceed to understand how they function one after another and also together in controlling our activities.

SHEATHS OF PRANA AND MIND

This is part II of understanding our physical body. In the earlier part we have discussed about the gross body. We now begin our discussions on our subtle body. The subtle body is classified under four categories, the first being pranamaya kosha. Prana is vital breath, the breath we inhale and exhale. If we can say that annamaya kosha is the product of earth element, then pranamaya kosha is the product of air element. Pranamaya kosha is connected to the five organs of action viz. mouth, hands, feet, organ of procreation and organs of excretion. These are called karmaenthriyas. This pranamaya kosha is just beneath the physical body, the annamaya kosha. This is a sheath of air. If you assume that balloon is the physical body, the air inside the balloon is pranamaya kosha. The prana is again divided into prana, vyana, apana, samana and udana. These five types of prana occupy different parts of our body. Prana is the air that is inhaled occupies the head. Vyana fills the entire body and represents the whole body. Apana is the air that we breathe and circulates below our naval area. Samana is the air that digests food and represents stomach area. Udana is the air that gives us balance and represents the areas of head and neck. Because of udana, our body is grounded by gravitional pull. Prana is compared to the head of a bird, apana is its left wing, vyana as it right wing, samana is its trunk and udana as its tail. In Vedas a bird is always taken as an example and the reasons for this will be discussed later. Mind can control prana with the help of pranayama or breathing exercises. Only because of prana, we are able to survive. That is why prana is called as life force or vital energy. Pranamaya kosha supplies required prana to annamaya kosha. Therefore pranamaya is subtler than annamaya. We cannot physically see the air in the balloon and in the same way we cannot physically see the annamaya kosha. All our physical actions are controlled by this pranamaya kosha. The main ingredient of pranamaya kosha is prana. Prana is the life force. This prana is modified into vyana, apana, samana and udana. Therefore prana is modified and performs its duties. Since it is subjected to modification cannot be treated as atman, as atman is not subjected to modification. When the physical body dies, prana leaves the body immediately. Only because of prana, our sensory organs function. Next to pranamaya kosha is manomaya kosha. This is the sheath of mind and is found beneath the pranamaya kosha. Therefore this too has a human form. Manomaya kosha is also not visible to our external eyes. How manomaya kosha works? This is connected to our mind. This is the cause for our ego. This identifies Krishna and Vincent. This mental sheath or covering performs with the aid of organs of perception viz. hearing, touch, seeing, taste and smell. Let us analyze with an example. In annamaya kosha the external ear is embedded. With the help of the pranamaya kosha the ear receives the waves of sound. These waves of sound are given as input to the mind about which we have discussed in detail in our series on mind. Conversion of sound as input to the mind is done by manomaya kosha. Mind in coordination with manomaya kosha converts the inputs as knowledge and intellect. Vdeas are classified under manomaya kosha. Learning of Vedas requires phenomenal mental strength by way of an extraordinary memory power. This is because of their huge volume and tough pronunciations. So, reciting Vedas from memory is the work of the mind. Chanting of Vedas improve the positive vibrations of a place mainly because of its pronunciations. Yajur Veda is the head of the Vedic bird, Rik veda its right wing, Sama veda its left wing, the ritual part of Vedas is called brahmana and this is represented by its trunk and Atharvana Vedas is represented by its tail. Thus all the Vedas are classified under manomaya kosha and each Veda as in the case of prana is represented by the body parts of the vedic bird.

UNDERSTANDING OUR PHYSICAL BODY

This is Part I of the series titled understanding our physical body. The human body is broadly divided into two categories, one is called gross or physical body or sthula sarira and another is subtle body called sukshma sarira. What appears to our eyes is the gross or physical body. The subtle body is not visible to our physical eyes. Our gross body is nourished by our food intake. The subtle body is again divided into four. They are called koshas which means sheaths or layers or coverings. They are pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vijnamaya kosha and anandamaya kosha. The self illuminating Atman inside our self is covered by these layers or coverings. A clear understanding of these coverings will enables us to go beyond these layers to realise the Atman inside. Identifying Atman with our self is self realisation. Our gross or physical or sthula body is visible to our eyes. Each one of the physical bodies that exists has a name like Krishna, Vincent, Mohamed, Sita, Lakshmi etc. With the help of these names we are able to find out who is who i.e. we are able to identify physical bodies with the help of these names. Our physical body needs nourishment for its growth, which is derived from the food and water we consume. Food is called annam in Sanskrit. Therefore our physical body is also called annamaya kosha. With this annamaya kosha there are five koshas or coverings for the Atman and understanding these koshas is called pancha kosha vidya. Knowledge and intellect are the basic criteria for self realisation. That is why we have now taken up the study to pancha kosha vidya. Let us first take up our physical body or annamaya kosha. The physical body is made up of external layer of skin (twak), internal layer of skin (charmam), flesh, blood, bones and filth. Without these six, a physical body cannot exist. If this physical body is not provided with food, it perishes which is called death. Death is only for physical body, about which we will discuss later. If we do not have a healthy physical body, we cannot withstand the entry of powerful divine energy that we are seeking. The physical body always grows. When a baby is born, it requires only a minimal food. When the body reaches youth stage, maximum food is required and at the old age, the intake of food is gradually reduced and finally the body dies. When the physical body perishes, it perishes once for all. The physical body of a person named Krishna will be no more after its death. Therefore the physical body is not permanent in nature. The atman does not undergo change along with the aging process of the physical body and therefore, physical body cannot be called as atman. Since this is not atman, we should not attach importance to our physical body. But at the same time, the external portion of the physical body is to be kept neat and clean as we know that atman is inside this physical body. It is like keeping clean the places around sanctum sanctorum. Of course, we will discuss this later in detail. At the same time, the various external parts of the physical body are to be controlled. We have dealt with this subject in detail in our series on mind. Only with the help of mind, our sensory organs can be controlled.

WISDOM KNOWLEDGE AND MIND

This is part VII, the concluding part of mind series. The first thing is to control the sensory organs. Secondly, do not identify with your thoughts and just be a witness. Positive affirmations make things happen. Therefore you should not give room for negative thoughts. If negative thoughts enter your subconscious mind, your negative thoughts will become a reality. Unnecessary talks and chats affect our thoughts. Try and learn to talk less. Thoughts are closely associated with mind. So thoughts have to be pure. By associating with pure thoughts, your mind also becomes pure. This is the preliminary stage. As you progress, your mind should stop its actions. Generations of thoughts should also cease. When no thought exists and when your mind is without worldly impressions, the gates of divinity have been opened for you. Such a situation can be obtained only by an effective meditation. Attaining this stage is a precondition for kundalini meditation. In such a situation, instead of intelligence and knowledge being infused before transmitting the inputs to your subconscious mind, the mind itself becomes the source of knowledge and wisdom. This is not just worldly knowledge and wisdom. This is the knowledge of Atman that exists everywhere. How to realise that this wisdom and knowledge are divine? Since your mind has become inactive and thoughtless about worldly things such as attachments, greed, lust, desires etc. the remaining thing is atman, as atman prevails everywhere. When mind becomes inactive, the concept time viz. past, present and future is lost. The qualities of three gunas satwic, rajas and tamas are lost. When time and gunas are lost, the illusion or maya is also vanishes. When maya vanishes, duality also goes. When duality goes away you are able to realise the Supreme Brahman or Atman. This Atman will not give you anything as it does not act. It is only a mute spectator. There will be no more rebirths for you. Your sufferings come to an end and you merge with the Supreme. From what we have discussed above, it should be clear that it is essential to tame our mind and become its master. Otherwise, mind will become our master and put us into difficulties. The secret of detachment lies in taming our mind. Breathing exercises help in keeping the mind under your control. That is why great importance is attached to pranayama. The practice of taming the mind should be commenced as early as possible. As you grow old, your worldly attachments also grow. Beyond a certain point you may not be able to control your mind at all. Your attachment starts with your father and mother, then wife then your children, then your grand children and it goes on like this without an end. That is why you should start the practice of detachment at an early age. It does not mean that when you are old you cannot develop detachment. As a matter of fact when you are old, you gain more wisdom and knowledge by experience. With the aid of wisdom and knowledge you can control your mind. But we should not forget that practice makes a man perfect. With this we close our discussions on mind. For clarification and feedback you can mail me at feedback@manblunder.com

CONQUER YOUR MIND

This is part VI of mind series. We have seen that mind is broadly classified into two parts. One is conscious and objective mind and the other is subconscious and subjective mind. Conscious and objective mind works with maya or illusion. Subconscious and subjective mind works with atman. When we talk about subject and object, are we not recollecting our discussions on prakasha and vimarsha forms? Please visit http://www.manblunder.com/2009/02/finding-god-viii.html for details. You are right; we are almost there, closing in towards our destination. A thorough understanding of the mind enables us to identify the prakasha vimarsha maha maya swarupini. What is required is the right and proper inputs to our mind. If the inputs are right, mind will have proper ground for training. Mind can be trained in the way you like, provided you become its master. You can become a master only if you know its intricacies. Mind is full of complexities; therefore to acquire complete knowledge of mind is difficult. You can’t win over your enemies unless you know their strength and weakness. In the same unless you understand your mind’s strength and weakness, you can’t conquer your mind. This is the reason why we are taking so much of pains to understand mind. The first step towards conquering the mind is control your sensory organs thereby cutting off unwanted inputs to the conscious mind. Bad association gives bad inputs to our mind. Rituals are prescribed in ancient scriptures only to prevent our mind from wandering. Mind should have a proper direction. Any bad influence causes bad impressions in our subconscious mind which ultimately result in bad actions. The influence of bad actions affects our karmas. Whether good or bad, our karmas affect our jiva which continues its transmigration. One of the main aims of self realisation is not to be reborn. Therefore our mind has to be always pure and serene. Generation of thoughts is another problem. Mind and thought are interrelated. Therefore you have to be watchful on the kind of thoughts that are generated. Do not associate with your thoughts, be a witness to it. Let us understand this with an example. What is the difference between associating with a thought and being a witness to a thought? We have discussed about a music concert earlier. Let us take that as an example here. Thought arises because of an action. You listen to the music. When the music is good, you enjoy the music. Even after you leave the concert hall you think about the soothing music. In this case you are a witness to your thoughts. If you want to become a musician by yourself, you are associating with the thought. In the first case you are not influenced by your thought and in the second case you are influenced by your thought. To become a musician you have to learn music, the process is time consuming and your main area of activity gets diverted. It is a vicious circle, one leading to another. That is why associating with the thought is dangerous. Being a witness causes nothing. You simply enjoy your thought and this enjoyment costs you nothing.

OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE MIND

This is part V of mind series. We have seen earlier that conscious mind receives inputs through our sensory organs. How do our sensory organs collect their information? The information they collect are mostly from objects. Eyes see objects. Ears hear the sound produced by objects. Skin feels the touch of the objects. Nose realises the smell from the objects. Our mouth chews the objects. This is how sensory organs gather their inputs from the objects. Therefore we can say our conscious mind is connected or associated with objects. Hence, the conscious mind is always objective in nature. In the case of our subconscious mind it does not receive inputs from objects, whereas it receives inputs only from the conscious mind. Conscious mind does not just transfer the inputs it received from the sensory organs. Inputs received by the conscious mind based on the objects get processed and modified as subjects and then fed to the subconscious mind. What is the process and modification done by the conscious mind? Conscious mind receives only raw and fresh inputs. Such raw inputs are processed, modified and packed and sent to subconscious mind. During this process, intelligence and emotions are added as preservatives. The packs thus received by the subconscious mind are unpacked and stored in the subconscious mind itself. It must be remembered that we need intelligence to recognize atman in our self, which is otherwise called self realisation. This intelligence is provided by the subconscious mind. Hence subconscious mind is subjective in nature. It is subjective because this modification takes place within the mind itself. The subconscious mind becomes very powerful as it stores the processed and ready to use materials. It is like a computer hard disc where all the information is stored, ready for retrieval at any time. It is you who provide inputs to your mind like providing data to the hard disc. The hard disc accepts whatever the data you provide, whether your data is right or wrong. In the same way your subconscious mind accepts whatever the data provided by your conscious mind. Subconscious mind does not have the capacity to evaluate its inputs. But inputs to the mind through the sensory organs have been already analyzed and evaluated by the conscious mind. We can now fairly understand the functions of mind and also its power. Mind is the most powerful tool of all the creations. That is why pages and pages have been used to discuss about the mind. Mind attains great importance because it is the mind that needs to be tuned to realise God. God exists everywhere and we just need to realise this fact. Why we are advised to go to temples or any other places of worship? Why we are advised to study the epics? Why we are advised to perform mantra japas? Why we are advised to sing or at least listen to songs in praise of God? Why we are advised to take bath in holy rivers? Why we are asked to light incense sticks in places of worship? Why idols of Gods are adorned with flowers? For all these questions and for many more such questions, the answer is the same; for providing positive influence on our sensory organs. When your conscious mind receives positive inputs from the sensory organs, these positive inputs are processed and endowed with knowledge and emotions and stored in your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is now highly energized and ready to act and act decisively. We will continue to discuss more about mind in subsequent postings.

CONSCIOUS AND SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

This is part IV of mind series. Mind can be classified broadly under two categories. They are conscious mind and sub-conscious mind. Conscious mind receives information through the sensory organs. This means conscious mind is the knower and perceiver. It recognizes sensations and thoughts. Conscious mind can receive inputs only through sensory organs. It comes to a conclusion based upon the inputs and uses its own reasoning and intelligence. Let us take an example. You went for an evening musical concert. You enjoyed the music. How do you know that you enjoyed the music? Because you were physically present in the concert and your sensory organs, in this case ears passed on the musical notes to the mind. Mind by using its reasoning and intelligence decides that the concert was good. That is how you came to know that you enjoyed the music. None of your organs can decide the quality of the music. Only mind can decide that. You go to concert of the same performer after a month. Your mind already knows that this artist’s music will be good. So you are going to the concert with a predetermined notion. In other words, you mind has already decided that the concert is going to be good, as it has already experienced his music. In reality the concert may not be that good like the last time. In other words, you mind already has impressions of this artist’s music. There are two aspects to be noticed here. First, your mind thinks positively, therefore the concert will be good. Secondly, your mind thinks positively based on its impressions. Unless you have an experience you cannot have impressions. In this case your mind has prior experience about the concert; therefore it has the impressions of the artist’s performance. In future also, whenever you attend this artist’s performance, your mind will always predetermine the quality of the performance. When an act is repeatedly done, it becomes a habit. Habit is result of subconscious mind. As we have seen earlier, for subconscious mind there are no inputs but only impressions. When impressions are deeply embedded in your subconscious mind, it supersedes the conscious mind, simply on the basis of its seniority and experience. When your subconscious mind begins to act, either good or bad, it is difficult for you to control it. When we are not able to control our conscious mind, how we are going to control our subconscious mind? It is extremely difficult as subconscious mind leads to addiction, the unconquerable enemy. It is difficult to find a habitual smoker stopping the habit of smoking. Therefore, subconscious mind should have the impressions of good ideas and habits. Only subconscious mind decides your destiny. Subconscious mind is the product of conscious mind. Without conscious mind, subconscious mind cannot exist. Conscious mind arrives at a conclusion based on reasoning and intelligence, but subconscious mind does not have reasoning and intelligence. Therefore subconscious mind does not know what is good and what is bad. It can only act and acts decisively. The inputs to the conscious mind are given by the sensory organs and inputs to the subconscious mind are given by the conscious mind. We have already discussed how conscious mind receives inputs based on our association. But certain activities are controlled only by subconscious mind, without the influence of the conscious mind. For example beating of heart is controlled directly by your subconscious mind. Even if your conscious mind wants to stop the heart beat, it cannot do so. Conscious mind cannot boss over the subconscious mind, as conscious mind is junior and less experienced than the subconscious mind. We will continue our discussions on the mind in the next posting.

TAME YOUR MIND

Ego is the worst enemy for mind, followed by lust and greed. You should never allow your ego to dominate. “I” ness is an addiction. A mind influenced by ego, destroys truth, destroys love, destroys kindness, and destroys charity. You will consider ego as the supreme. Instead of universal consciousness you attach importance to “I” consciousness. “I” consciousness is an illusion or maya. In this stage you consider yourself as a separate and distinct entity from God, the universal consciousness. Unfortunately this is the stage in which most of us live. Why we should tame our mind? Is it not a fact that we enjoy all worldly pleasures through our thoughts and mind? Yes, we enjoy every bit of worldly pleasures through our mind only. When your mind is happy it makes your physical body to enjoy the happiness. Mind cannot enjoy the end result of happiness and it always acts through the organs of action or sensory organs. When you are too happy, you get tears in your eyes. You get tears because the mind acts through your eyes. In a nail biting cricket match, you automatically move to edge of your chair due to the influence of mind which feels the excitement. That is why I have said earlier, your association plays a vital role in influencing your mind. Association can be with an event or place or people or action. Association can be for a longer duration or for a shorter duration. Such associations do not modify the influence on your mind. But an association for a longer period leads to addiction. Addiction is extremely difficult to get rid of. Any bad association will make your mind wicked. An association with thieves makes you a thief. Second biggest issue with the mind is suspicion. Doubting about an anticipated end result certainly will not give you the result you wanted. Affirmation is the greatest boon to mind. When you are repeatedly affirming on a positive result, you can be rest assured that the result will be certainly positive. We should tame our mind so that it continues to retain its original identity, identifying itself with the supreme Atman. Right from our birth, our mind is influenced by so many factors both good and bad. All these influences leave impressions in our mind. When we tame our mind in such a way that it is not influenced by our experience, then mind retains its original identity. Taming can be done only by training. So we have to train our mind. First step is to cut off all the inputs to the mind. The inputs to the mind are given by our sensory organs. To control the inputs to the sensory organs self control is important. For an effective self control you have to have a great will power. Where do you get this will power? You will be surprised to know that you derive will power only from your mind. How is it possible to control your mind by a product derived from the same mind itself? Will power is a product of the mind that is not influenced by the sense organs. There are no external inputs and the inputs are only internal and these inputs are generated by mind itself. This is called subconscious mind. We will continue our discussions on mind in the subsequent postings.

INPUTS TO MIND

This posting is part II of mind series. Mind receives information from our sense organs and gives information to organs of actions like hand, legs etc. It is like two way traffic. The input received by mind is modified and evaluated based on reasoning and the decision of the mind is conveyed through the organs of action. Let us take an example. Somebody is yelling at you. Your mind is patiently observing and evaluating the situation. The velocity of the yell increases. Your mind will wait till a point of time. Beyond the level of tolerance it communicates its decision through your sensory organ say mouth which makes you to yell back. If it does not find improvement, it directs your organ of action, in this case hands to hit the yeller. At every stage mind evaluates the situation through the inputs it receives. The verdict of the mind may not be the same in everybody. If the mind is well tuned in a person, it may not give command to retort. The mind of a yogi will not respond to this situation at all. Rearing mind and child is one and the same. The child learns from what it observes. If you quarrel in the presence of a child, it will learn the art of quarrelling. In the same way mind also gets impressions from the sensory organs and acts. Like a child mind is to be carefully nurtured. The ashtanga yoga which we have discussed earlier is connected to the mind only. Every anga or part or limb ultimately leads to controlling the mind. To tame the mind you have to first tame your sense organs. Withdrawing the mind from the sense organs is meditation. The inputs into the mind should not be allowed. There are several ways of cutting off these inputs. For example, if you move away to a secluded place, there is not much of work for the sense organs, though your mind will continue to work. It is not right to go to forest just for controlling your mind. One has to learn to control the mind amidst day to day activities. Another dreadful enemy of mind is ego. When ego is destroyed, you do not gain experience. When you do not have experience you do not get impressions in the mind. Ego as such is not bad, but identifying ego with “I” is bad. If you realise ego as your atman, then ego is not bad; as a matter of fact it is good. When mind is controlled, your thoughts are also controlled as they are interdependent. Becoming thoughtless is the penultimate stage to self realisation. At this stage, your mind in co-ordination with your body is getting ready to realise self illuminating atman inside. Becoming thoughtless will not lead to a blank mind. Mind cannot become blank. If it is blank how will you recognize the illuminating atman inside? There is also a famous saying that an idle mind is a devil’s workshop. So mind always needs something or other to ponder about. That something should be atman. Let us learn how to control our mind.