THERE ARE MANY TENDENCIES
and beliefs stored in our subconscious—our individual tendencies and beliefs
as well as the Totality, all of which are presently unknown to us. Yet there
is a thrust from within our psychological complex that drives us to act
because of them. This emerges as a blind belief, an emotional outburst or
sometimes even a fanatic outrage. At other times it is simply a
determination to do or
not do. Somewhere from within us a force or voice is creating these
tendencies.
Very few of us want to know what these tendencies are, to culture this
knowledge of ourselves. The majority are simply victims or slaves of their
tendencies, not knowing or reflecting why and where they come from or what
purpose they serve. The Sanskrit term for them is uppadhi—the
pre-recorded impressions or modifications of the mind, as explained in Raja
Yoga.1 Unless we understand these tendencies, probe into them, analyze,
auto-reflect and so on, we do many things ignorantly or unconsciously. The
main purpose of Raja Yoga is how to culture the raw material of the human
mind, how to bring out its hidden tendencies, how to purify and free the
subconscious mind. In order to know the Ultimate—God, Light, Bliss—we have
to know all the compartments of our own mind. True knowledge is in Superconsciousness. Unless we know our conscious and subconscious mind we
cannot really fly or reach the joy
of abandonment—Superconsciousness.
1 Raja Yoga, the “Royal Path,” is one of the four primary paths of yoga as outlined by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras.
Photograph: Prabhushri
Swamiji at Countryside Ashram, 1979.