How to Uncover the Unconscious? Do Tendencies of the Mind come from Past Lives?
Questioner: How can we expose the subconscious mind?
Acharya Prashant: By watching your daily actions very, very closely.
Alright, somebody comes to you and says, ‘Namaste'. Quickly show me how you respond.
[Listeners: Namaste (keeping hands together and smiling)]
So, you are smiling. And the moment the fellow is gone, show me what happens to your smile. Show me.
[Smile disappears]
This is what is to be noticed. Notice the smile. The smile comes from which level?
Questioner: Superficial level.
Acharya Prashant: You notice only the smile; you don't notice how quickly the smile disappears because the smile is fake. Notice both: how you are before you pick up that phone call and how you are as soon as you hear the voice of your boss or your wife or your neighbor. Let's enact that.
So, the two of you are quarreling with each other. Then suddenly, I called and I am a respectable somebody.
Now, the play is going on. Person one and person two are quarreling and pushing each other. Meanwhile, person one’s phone is ringing and a respectable man is at the other end. Picking up the call and hearing the voice of that respectable man, person one's voice has instantly changed from an aggressive tone to a soft one.
Full stop.
What did you notice first in this case? In this case, what did you notice first; which level of the mind?
Questioner: The second level of the mind.
Acharya Prashant: Yes, the second level of the mind. Once you are angry, then all the polish and all the politeness are put aside. Then instead of beautiful words, what starts emerging? — Abuses, curse words. That is what is hidden deep in your subconscious. So, they are at level two. And the moment the call arrives, the very voice changes, even the expression on the face changes, as if the fellow at the other end can see your face: ‘Yes!’(with a fake smile) — This is the one; this is the superficial conscious morality. They remain together.
And the moment the phone is put down, again what do you see? The expression changed from a smile to anger. Sometimes, after you put down the receiver, you actually curse the fellow you are talking to. Don't you? That's the division, that's the separation that is sustaining both morality and madness because you are morally polite on the surface therefore internally you are rotten, abusive, and violent.
Cursing is bad but if you must curse, curse people on their faces. Don't curse anybody behind his back. If you are cursing people on their faces, it helps others know how violent you are, and more importantly, it helps you know how rotten you are. When you abuse someone on his face, it tells you that you stink. It tells you how deeply sick you are. But in front of others, we become totally different people, and behind their backs ‘god help!’.
Be good and if you cannot be good, then be openly bad. At least then you will know how bad you are. But you are bad and are not only bad but secretly bad. And that is a recipe for a very horrible dish.
Is that not how most of us are? — Nice in front of relatives and behind their backs despicable. It's disgusting. Have the guts to speak openly. And when you learn to speak openly, you don't speak with so much poison.
That question was asked yesterday, when one speaks the truth, it comes with a bit of bitterness. That happens only in the beginning. Once truth becomes your breath, then speaking the truth is not accompanied by bitterness. Then you can speak the truth sweetly. But sweetness comes later on. Truth must come first. And if the truth comes even with bitterness, it is acceptable. Slowly the bitterness will fall.
Questioner: Acharya Ji, how to understand the following statement: ‘Tendencies of the mind come from previous births.’
Acharya Prashant: When it is said that ‘The tendencies of the mind come from previous births,’ it is said figuratively; it is said to indicate something. It means that they are coming from your long, long history. They are coming from the entire history of mankind, not even mankind, they are coming from the entire evolutionary history of the universe. All that gives you the central ‘I’ tendency. And what is the primary affliction of this central ‘I’ tendency? The primary affliction is that it wants to survive and it wants to survive as itself. It wants to remain what it is and remain what it is, it wants immortality. That is the central ‘I' tendency.
What is the central tendency in every human being? — “I want to survive as I am.” If you are told that you can survive but not as yourself, but as an eagle, would you accept the offer? No, it won't be very attractive. When you say that you want to survive, you say, “ I want to survive by preserving my current self.” Right? Self-preservation is the central tendency of the ego.
We want both — a continuation of the disease because we have identified ourselves with the disease, and also, an end of the disease because the disease troubles us.
Look at our impossible and contradictory situation. We want the continuation of disease. Why? Because we have identified ourselves with the disease. But we also want the disease to end. Why? Because the disease troubles us.
Now, how can disease end when you are so related to the disease? If you relate to the disease, you will take the end of the disease as your own end, and then you not allow the disease to end.
Of course, there are past lives but they are not your personal individual past lives. You look at the small current in this stream (points towards a river). A current arises from there, continues still there, and then disappears. And then another current arises from there, continues till some other point, and then disappears. That is what is meant by taking birth again and again. If you can understand what is happening in this stream, you will understand the entire thing about rebirth.
There is an entire flow in which individual streams are rising and falling, which means no particular stream is getting a rebirth. The entire river is rebirthing again and again. For you, as a particular current, there is only one life. Or look at the ocean — waves are rising and waves are falling. For one particular wave, there is only one life. But the ocean is waving again and again.
So, rebirths are there but you don't have multiple births. Rebirthing is obviously happening but as far as you are concerned, you have only one birth, just as one particular wave. One particular individual personal wave has only one life, but the ocean keeps giving rise to waves again and again. One wave goes down, and then some part of it appears in another wave — this is rebirth. But you cannot say that the same wave that went down is now rising again. So, if you are entertaining hopes of taking birth again, then kindly dispel those hopes. You will not take any other birth; this is your first and last birth. The Total takes births again and again.
Questioner: So, we are born from space, dissolve in space, and in between them, we forget the space.
Acharya Prashant: Good. Very good.
If you mix some red color in one particular wave, what happens to that? A wave has risen and you add some red color to it — in the duration of its lifetime, you add a red syrup to it. What happens to that? It will go down and then will reappear in diluted quantities in hundred other waves. In fact, after a while, it will appear in all other waves.
Have you heard of Avogadro's Number? It's 6.023 × 1023. One mole has this many entities, this many molecules. And when you will add red color, that will have very, very large numbers of moles, which means there are enough molecules available to pervade the entire ocean. 1023 — that's the order. There are so many molecules available, which means that right now if you are breathing then your breath contains a molecule that has been previously used by probably every single human being — living or dead. You are breathing in so many molecules in just one breath that your one particular molecule might be the one that was once in the body of Gautam Buddha. It is not only likely, but it is actually happening — 1023. Can you even count the number of zeroes?
You go up and when you go up, you do a lot of things — you change color, you get red, you do stuff that adds impurities to you. And when you come down what happens to all that? That gets mixed in the river, in the ocean, and then some parts of that rise in another wave.
Questioner: This space is taking birth and forgetting itself with the elements in it.
Acharya Prashant: The space is just the watcher.
Questioner: If the elements in the space are not aware of the rebirths then would it not be a problem?
Acharya Prashant: It will be a problem for themselves, not for the space. It will definitely be a problem but it will be a problem for the manifested ocean not for the space.
You release a lot of pollution, do they contaminate the space? You can fill space with all kinds of poisonous gases; nothing happens to the space. When we talk of space, the space stands for the unexpressed, the un-manifested Truth. And when we are talking of the ocean, then the ocean stands for the primary level of manifestation. So if something happens to the wave, the ocean does get dirty. But if something happens to the gases, the space never gets dirty. Getting it?
There is the unformed, un-manifested, unexpressed — it is called the 'bindu' (point). Because if it is unexpressed, then there can't even be space — no space, no time. Then there is space and then there is the ocean and then there is the waving of the ocean.
Even in an evolutionary sense, this is how it happens — absolutely nothing, then space, then water, then waves. Waves are the tertiary branching; waves are the final result. You have the root, then the stem, then branches, then sub-branches, then even from the sub-branches you have branches.
Questioner: Sir, space is unexpressed, un-manifested Truth, then what is the ocean?
Acharya Prashant: Ocean is manifested Truth.
You were singing Kabir Sahab that day. Remember him.
पहिले आये ।
नाद बिंदु से पीछे जमाया पानी ।।
सुनता है गुरू ज्ञानी ।
गगन में आवाज हो रही झीनी ।।
Pehle aye
Naad bindu se peechhe jamaya paani.
Sunta hai guru gyani,
Gagan me avaaj ho rahi jhini jhini.
First of all, there is a Bindu — Bindu means spacelessness. The ‘point’ has no space. The point means spacelessness. Then there is the ‘*Naad*’ — the Naad means now there is space, and then there is water, and then the water waves. All of you are waves. Everything here around, all objects, are waves. Waves are the final branching — the tertiary products.
Questioner: So, is the ‘Bindu ' aware of itself?
Acharya Prashant: Nothing can be said about the Bindu . The Bindu really is ‘not’. You can neither say anything about it nor think about it. Even calling it merely a ‘*Bindu*’ or a point is exceeding the limits of thought and language. You can only surrender to it.
Questioner: What’s the purpose of the ‘point’?
Acharya Prashant: No purpose. Ask the ocean why it waves so much. It doesn't get paid for waving. Or does it?
There is something called ‘nature’. Nature means that which exists purposelessly, causelessly, and uselessly. That irritates us. Right?
Why must somebody exist uselessly? Because that's how we have been trained. If something is useless then dispose of it; dispose of it off. There is a little problem with that. The entire existence is useless, and you will not find a place to dispose of it away. If useless things are to be disposed of then where will you dispose of this universe?! Because it is of use to nobody. It is of use to nobody outside of itself. Right? It exists for its own sake.
That's also the purpose of being — exist for your own sake! It exists just because you ‘are’, not because you have to achieve something, not because you have to reach somewhere.
Questioner: This universe cannot be consumed, but the earth can be consumed.
Acharya Prashant: Earth can be consumed. Earth, too, is a little object like a little piece of grain.
If you look in the context of the universe, the earth is actually not bigger than a sand grain.
Questioner: We know human beings have egos. Stone is also a manifestation of space. Does a non-living object like a stone also have an ego?
Acharya Prashant: If you are asking about the stone, then you are asking about that stone which you are seeing. Right? Are you sure the stone looks at itself in the same way as you look at it?
Questioner: Not sure.
Acharya Prashant: Then how can you talk of the stone? A stone exists only in our consciousness. Right? To the stone, you might be a stone. You may as well have here a community of living stones assuming that these people are a few decorative and dead items that have somehow fallen here.
Consciousness is experience and evolution-driven. Your evolution, your particular evolution is making you think that the universe has a particular shape. Don't be so sure. You do not know what this stone is. This is what it is appearing to you. Really ‘what it is’, is something totally unknown to you within the limitations of your consciousness. You do not even know the mind of a dog. How will you know a stone?
While driving through the hills, I sometimes look at the monkeys sitting along the roads. I get a feeling that they are saying, “Poor humans.” You don't even know the mind of a monkey, how do you know the mind of a stone? In your eyes, a monkey is a monkey.
Is the monkey a monkey in his own eyes? You are advanced compared to the monkey in your own eyes.
Are you advanced compared to the monkey in the monkey's eyes? Don't be too sure of that.
This is what is ego — to look at the world through your own conscious eyes and then assume that what you are seeing is the truth. This is ego. Looking at the world with these personal eyes and then assuming that whatever you are seeing and concluding is the truth. You are, in this case, attached to your consciousness. The ‘I’ is always attached to something. Right? When you are attached to your consciousness, that is called the ego or the false self.
The saint is always unsure of the world and totally sure of the Truth. And the worldly man is very, very sure of the world and very doubtful of the Truth. He keeps asking questions, “Does God exist?” but he never asks, “Does this world exist? Does my wife exist?”
The man comes with his wife and what is the question he asks, “Acharya Ji, does God exist?” and Acharya Ji says, “Does your wife exist?” Of that, you are so sure; of God, you are unsure.
And the saint is totally, totally sure of something in the Heart. About the world, he always remains a little skeptical. He says, “We do not know. I really don't know. I can't surely, forcefully conclude. I don't want to conclude. I would rather keep watching.”
