Cutting the Tree Down
15.3 The real form of this tree cannot be perceived. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is.
But with determination one must cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment.
15.4 One must then seek that place from which having gone, one never returns and surrender to the Supreme Being from whom all activities started from ancient times.
Krishna speaks further about the causal body where samskaras are stored. He is an extraordinary scientist. A scientist can honestly search for the truth; he can give his own faith and belief for the cause of this search and is courageous enough to express the secrets, which he discovers step-by-step.
We see these qualities in Krishna. He is honest in His expression or search. He is ready to give up His small understandings for the bigger Truth. He is ready to give up yesterday's truth for today's updated intelligence.
We can't wait for a train by looking at last year's timetable. Krishna continuously updates himself. Lastly, He is courageous to open up the secrets in public. He is not worried about copyright and intellectual property rights.
Ancient Vedic society of Bharat believed that knowledge was free. The idea of copyright did not exist. Krishna is courageous enough to open up all the secrets.
He beautifully says, 'na roopam asyeha tathopalabhyate.' No one can perceive the real form of this tree. No one can understand where it begins, where it ends or where its foundation is. However, with determination one should cut down this tree with the weapon of strong will and detachment.
No one can see what one has stored in one's causal body. It is like Pandora's Box. All the samskaras stored in the causal layer reveal themselves one by one. When we erase four of them, ten will surface. What is inside nobody knows. Only one thing is possible. All the samskaras can be cut by a strong will of detachment. With a strong will, with intelligence, the entire causal layer can be cleared.
People ask a Master to show them how to get rid of samskaras. Only strong will and intelligence can do that. Do we ask Master's help to take our hands out of the fire? We know fire burns. We withdraw our hands immediately.
If understanding is present, right action follows. If right action does not happen, be very clear that understanding has not happened. Similarly, samskaras are dangerous. Move out. All that is needed is intelligence and strong will of detachment.
Krishna explains that after cutting the tree of samskaras, surrender to the space of eternal silence, where there is no coming back. This is a space in which the whole existence is established.
Freud and Jung based a lot of analytical work on the concept of identity or ego, parts of the brain and the body-mind system. I use these terms differently from psychologists and as synonyms. Identity is a collection of memories that define your belief of who you are. Identity or ego shapes your personality. All of our decisions are driven by our personality, which in turn is the collection of memories, beliefs and values.
Almost all information stored by the identity is in the unconscious regions of the mind. We do not know what is stored here. Some ninety percent or more of our sensory perceptions are stored in our unconscious mind. We will go mad if more than this amount is grasped by our conscious brain.
One's identity is the collection of one's samskaras, past memories and desires that are stored in the unconscious identity. This is in the causal layer of our energy. Through deep and focused meditation, we can access this unconscious causal layer and dissolve the samskaras stored here. Once done, we no longer return as the same person. We are free of samskaras and liberated*.*
During the Nithyananda Spurana Program, the LBP Level 2, we meditate upon this causal layer using darkness as the guiding force. Metaphorically, this represents the unconscious that we are normally unaware of.
The spirit that leaves the body goes through a comatose state when it passes through this causal body layer. As long as the spirit has not crossed this layer, it can return to the body. This is the power of samskaras. That why sometimes after many years in a coma, people return to consciousness. They are pulled back by unfulfilled desires. However, once the spirit crosses the causal layer, it cannot return to the body. It must move on to the next layer, the cosmic layer.
Once we access this point of dissolution of samskaras and move on to the cosmic layer, we no longer operate unconsciously at the behest of our stored memories, samskaras. We move to a state of intuition, as opposed to our earlier state of instinct. We are no longer in an ignorant wakeful state of the unreal, but in the truly awakened state of consciousness.
Numerous techniques are used to unlock the unconscious: hypnosis, mind control, visualization and so on. When we play with the unconscious, or subconscious as it is also termed, we are truly playing with the unknown. When we explore in this region without the support and awareness of meditation, we often experience results that we didn't expect and are not equipped to manage. That is why it is said, be careful what you wish for, it may come true.
Subconscious or unconscious activation of the mind without awareness has disturbing results. When studying the alarming increase of adults blaming parents for childhood sexual trauma, many accusations were found to be untrue; they were the result of psychiatrists planting these ideas into clients while treating them. Hypnosis may or may not discover hidden truths; however, in the wrong hands, it can plant harmful memories in the unconscious.
Bringing awareness into the unconscious through the super-conscious meditative route is the only correct way to dissolve accumulated samskaras.