Procedure:🔗

Start by asking students to identify out loud the social conditionings that they feel have impacted their lives. What are their ideas of "right" and "wrong", etc. Then, ask them to discuss what they can do to remove those thought currents from their space.

After a few minutes of discussion, narrate this small story: Queen Madālasā gave birth to seven children. Each child became enlightened by the age of seven and moved out of the kingdom. Their father, the king, was puzzled. How did seven children in a row become enlightened? He probed into the issue and found that Madālasā had taught them one phrase, Tat Tvam Asi (You are That). Just by internalizing 'Tat Tvam Asi', their mental setup changed. They were complete with the root thought patterns, saṁskāras in the causal layer. They became enlightened.

Enlightenment is the removal of root thought patterns, saṁskāras and the dissolution of conditioning.

We return to our pure original state. This is why enlightenment is referred to as samādhi. The Saṃskṛit word samādhi means 'returning to the original state'.

When we recognize that we are pure consciousness, we destroy all seed thought patterns that reside in our causal layer and we are not moulded by social conditioning. Anyone who completes all social conditioning, who sheds all root patterns in his causal layer, starts living enlightenment

• 1. Topic of discussion is "Just as the wind carries fragrances, consciousness carries saṁskāras, causal level imprints, from body to body."

On our death, consciousness carries our saṁskāras, causal level imprints, from the discarded body to the new body. Then we live another lifetime, driven to action based on the vāsanā, or subtle imprint of our past actions, saṁskāras. And thus the never ending cycle of birth-and-death continues. If we are unattached, if our causal layer is not filled with saṁskāras, if we are not gripped by social conditioning, we will not fear death.

-BH BO A O G K X A V V , V A OL D UM G E I V TA

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