Q: Swamiji, is the state of surrender that Krishna talks about in the Gita the same as your concept of 'unclutching'?
Yes. Unclutching is the surrender of thoughts, the surrender of the mind. It is the ultimate surrender. When you surrender the process of connecting thoughts, which is what unclutching signifies, you move into the present moment. In the present moment your mind dissolves and your ego disappears.
This is the state of renunciation and surrender that Krishna advises. We are forever controlled by our senses. What we perceive through our senses and what we perceived in the past through our senses drives us on our path to the future. Sensory perceptions create thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Emotions and thoughts give birth to our mental setup and attitude. Understanding the play of emotions and thoughts is the first and final step towards moving beyond it. Man by his nature is an unclutched and blissful being.
Every thought that arises within us is like a bubble that forms, rises and dies. Every thought rises independently and dies before the next thought comes up. For example, if you are sitting in a chair and suddenly get up, the moment you decide to get up, the thought of sitting has left you. If you are working on your computer and decide to shut down the machine, the thought that you want to work has died at that moment. So every thought is unconnected and happens in a series, one after the other. One thought must die before the next one comes up. This is our true nature.
Our true nature is to renounce thoughts every moment; to allow each thought to rise like a bubble and burst and then allow the next thought to rise. Our thoughts have a vertical existence like rising bubbles.
This process of allowing thoughts to rise and die without trying to connect them is being unclutched. As long as this natural process is allowed to happen, things are alright. In spite of this, we start connecting thoughts randomly and forming a shaft. By doing so, we convert the vertical and unclutched process into a horizontal one with linear connectivity. The whole problem starts here. As long as each thought is allowed to rise and die, we can take on any load on the physical and mental planes. Our consciousness will remain light and blissful. Once we start connecting thoughts, our consciousness suffers. We feel burdened. It damages our being.
Emotions such as worry, lust, discontentment, jealousy, fear, ego and attention-need are connections that we make between independent incidents and between independent thoughts by linking or clutching thoughts together. We create a concept for ourselves and start to relate with that concept. We create an imaginary shaft with our thoughts and we suffer because of this.
These emotions create all forms of violence including religious wars, social conflicts or political unrest. The basis or root of all forms of violence is our emotions, and the basis of our emotions is our habit of creating imaginary shafts of our thoughts and empowering them to work on us.
While creating these shafts, the key thing we do is choose thoughts depending on whether we want pain or pleasure. We pick pleasant thoughts at random and connect them to form a shaft of pleasure or pick negative thoughts and connect them to form a shaft of pain. We create shafts of pain and pleasure alternately for ourselves and keep oscillating between these two emotions. To unclutch from this shaft is the master key to a blissful life.
If we deeply analyze how we connect our thoughts instead of renouncing them, we will understand how we create suffering for ourselves. As such, there is no connection between our thoughts. The mind finds the connection.
We have been trained to feed on words and thoughts. That is why we create these shafts. We feed on words because we always operate out of fear or greed. Out of fear or greed, we create connectivity in our thoughts. We are afraid to let go of this process because if we do, there is nothing else to hold onto. We have never experienced an unclutched state of mind where there is no shaft, but only bubble-like thoughts.
In the unclutched state, there is no scope for fear or greed. You will simply BE. It is a dimension that we rarely experience because we are used to clutching onto the familiar shaft of thoughts.
We wonder how we can exist without clutching onto the shaft of thoughts, when the truth is we can live in an unclutched fashion blissfully. We see it as something impossible! We fail to see how mythical the whole thing is. Our mind is a myth. We have empowered it and become a slave to it. It is mental slavery.
Watch the thoughts rising in you. Clearly see how each thought rises and dies and the next thought comes up. Observe how you effortlessly connect these thoughts and create ideas and concepts. Watch the play of these concepts upon yourself. You will understand how you create the whole myth. Connecting thoughts is the original sin.
Living in an unclutched fashion is the key to blissful living. Decide not to connect thoughts and not to pass judgment on any thought or incident. When you find yourself connecting, unclutch from the connection. Continue to unclutch every time you remember this technique. Your mental setup will automatically be transformed. The psychological revolution will happen in you.
When we work in an unclutched fashion, our capacity expands. We take on more responsibility without becoming stressed. We do not experience mood swings between pain and pleasure. We are blissful all the time. Normally we are accustomed to happiness that comes due to a reason. This reason is another shaft that we create with our thoughts. Once we stop creating these shafts, we are blissful all the time.
The term unclutched does not mean to be aloof and cold to people and situations around us. Just don't connect thoughts and start the process of creating shafts; that's all. Remember that you are a beautiful and unclutched being by nature. You will stop creating misery for yourself and others.