Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahamkara - Part 12

CHITTA

Chitta is termed as the mind-stuff or mental substance. It is the ground floor, as it were. From it proceed the three Vrittis, viz., Manas, Buddhi and Ahankara.

We sit and try to solve a problem and fail. We walk around, try again and again fail. Suddenly an idea dawns on us that leads to the solution of the problem. The subconscious processes were at work.

You repeatedly fail at night to get the solution for a problem in arithmetic or geometry. In the morning, when you wake up, you get a clear answer. This answer comes like a flash from the subconscious mind. Even in sleep, it works incessantly without any rest. It arranges, classifies, compares, sorts all facts and works out a proper, satisfactory solution.

Sometimes, you go to sleep at 10 p.m. with the thought, "I must get up at 2 a.m. in the morning to catch a train". This message is taken up by the subconscious mind and it is this subconscious mind that wakes you up unfailingly at the exact hour. Subconscious mind is your constant, trustworthy companion and sincere friend.

Memory

Smriti or memory is a function of Chitta (subconscious mind). 

If an experience is fresh, you can have a complete recall of your past experience through memory. 

How Does Memory Arise

Suppose you have received a nice fan as a present from your amiable friend. When you use the fan, it sometimes reminds you of your friend.

If your brother is a tall man, the sight of a similar tall man in another place will bring to your mind the memory of your brother. This is memory due to the similarity of objects.

Suppose you have seen a dwarf at Madras. When you see a very tall man or Patagonian, this will remind you of the dwarf whom you saw at Madras. The sight of a big palace will remind you of a peasant's hut or a Sannyasin's grass hut on the bank of Ganga. This memory is due to dissimilarity in objects.

When you walk along the road on a stormy day, if you happen to see a fallen tree, you conclude that the tree has fallen owing to the storm. In this case, the memory is due to the relation between cause and effect.

If you visit once the college wherefrom you received your education, ten years after you became an officer in the Government, all the previous memory of your college days will be revived now. You will remember now your old professors, old friends, old books and various other things.

Chitta is the memory bank: Chitta is the memory bank, which stores impressions and experiences, and while it can be very useful, Chitta can also cause difficulties if its functioning is not coordinated with the others.

Coordinating Chitta:  If Chitta is not coordinated with the other functions of mind, then the thousands, millions, or countless impressions in this bed of the lake of mind start to stir and arise. It is as if these many latent impressions, coming to life are all competing for the attention of Manas to carry out their wants in the external world. In the absence of a clear Buddhi, the competing voices of Chitta often drive Manas to take actions in the world that are really not so useful.

In the post on Karma, we touched upon the chain / sequence of Karma as under:-

  

In the next post, we will learn on the above sequence and also see how Chitta affects/gets aligned in the above sequence.

Love.

Paramhansa Yogananda

Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahamkara - Part 11

After clearly knowing about each of the above 5 kleshas, one can clearly know the following:

·  Each of the subsequent kleshas find their origin, their substance, their need, only from the first Klesha "AVIDYA".

·  Due to the spiritual ignorance, forgetting that he is divine, he develops the next klesha - "ASMITA", assuming an identity "I" ness for himself.

·   Now that he has assumed the "I" ness, the "I" ness has to be given a physical identity. So, he identifies himself with his body, mind. Obviously, he has to gratify/glorify his physical identity which is assumed by him!

·  He gets attached to all those things/ all those human beings/all those attainments/ all those moments which help him sustain and glorify his identity. Raga is thus developed.

·  He gets averse towards things which do not glorify his identity or which challenge his identity. Dvesha is thus developed. If we quietly sit and just analyze about one or two human beings whom we hate/ about whom we are aversive, we will know in our heart that we hate them because, they do not glorify/ support our identity.

·  Even in cases where we do not even know about them and we hate them, we can realize, upon introspection, that their ideas/ their way of life/ their talks/ their style of life is not aligning with our approach to life/ our way of life. So, we love our own way of life/ approach to life and even those who are at a distance are subject to our dislike just because their approach does not tally with our approach!!

·   Any change in his present existence which may challenge his raga/dvesha, is feared by us. Abhinivesha is thus developed. We fear all those changes which may challenge our way of life, our approach, our outlook and our comfort zone. 

·   In spirituality, this fear is very much there, though it is so subtle that we do not realize or accept this fact. How???? . Any preaching by any master, any discourse or any teaching or any instruction by our own Lord Sai- we are not able to follow though we accept him as God. Why???

·  This is so because, following His spiritual instructions/ teachings call for changing our routines, calls for devoting time for sadhana, calls for practicing things which we have not practiced so far and also, we do not have a clear idea as to where we will reach, what benefit we will get, how will we exist if we evolve spiritually. SO, THERE IS FEAR OF TRAVELING IN A NEW PATH WHERE WE DO NOT KNOW HOW THE END OF THE JOURNEY WILL BE, WE FEAR ALL THOSE THINGS WHICH WE MAY LOSE IN THIS JOURNEY. SO, WE DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE.  

Now, the main point where we get stuck up in spiritual sadhana in the path of devotion or in the path of Jnana is to be properly understood now and forever. 

In the path of devotion, in the flow of Attraction to Atma Nivedanam, the flow which should be by heart for all of you by now, instead of knowing and realizing that devotion has to be transformed to Love and then only Loving all can spontaneously happen or rather everyone else with bask in the glory of the love that he exists as, we straight away jump to Love All Serve All, Help Ever, Hurt Never statements.

How can one Love All Serve All, Help Ever, Hurt Never, unless he has actually experienced that LOVE in his own heart and soul?? How can one give to others what he himself does not have??

Now, in the path of Jnana also, we keep on preaching/ following the fact that we should not hate any one or we should not have excessive attachment towards any one. However, we do not trace the origin of this raga and dvesha, we do not come to realize and know with conviction that all the spiritual sadhana is to be focused for ultimately removing/ transcending the 1st ignorance- AVIDYA, ignorance of our divine nature. 

So, our sadhana is like identifying a poisonous tree and then, trying to cut the branches of the tree, even while seated on the very branch. Along with the branch that falls down when we cut, we also fall down again and again.

If the trace of the poisonous tree is to be removed, then we need to attack the roots and remove the tree permanently. Then only can we be free for ever from the poison.

Now, to understand the above from a positive angle, in spirituality, instead of knowing the cause of our tree of life which is GOD, we nurture the leaves, the flowers, the branches which are like attachments in our life etc. 

If we are ever focused on the roots, if we ever nurture the roots (God), with the roots getting stronger, there is a very bright chance that even the tree of our life, (our practical life, our Artha, Kama, Dharma, our relationships in family and society, our well being in general, all these things) would also be taken care of, just like a tree with very healthy root forming into  a very strong stem and branch, bearing very good flowers/ fruits. 

So, in the above flow of Avidya to Abhinivesha, without focusing on the root Avidya, if we focus only on reducing our Raaga or dvesha, we will never be able to transcend our attachment or hatred permanently.

On the other hand, forgetting about the above flow, if we just focus, nurture and be devoted to the very root of our existence, THE GOD, then, everything in our life just falls in place like a healthy tree giving healthy shelter, healthy fruit, healthy flower etc, OR, even of our tree of life is not so healthy or so fruitful, we, focused whole heartedly on the root-GOD, are able to undergo all the prarabdha that our life fetches for us, smiling and singing HIS glory!!.

Think!!! Contemplate!!!

Love.