The Four Types of Conditioning

Do you suffer from the parental conditioning?
Are you a victim of the societal conditioning?

I’ve seen many people suffer so much in their life due to conditionings. As I was researching on how the conditioning started in us, I remembered clearly one Yoga Sutra from Patanjali on “The Law of Making Laws” which Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji) expounded in 2010.

The sutra states clearly: “Jaati Desha Kaala Samaya Anavacchinnah Saarvabhaumah Mahavratam” ~ Patanjali Yoga Sutra 82, chapter 2, verse 31

This is translated to “These great 5 vows – ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacharya (living like God) and aparigrahah (living with minimal things) are universal truths; not conditioned, not restricted by birth, place or time, circumstances or situations – beyond all these 4, these 5 vows are universal.”

All the conditionings of human beings from which we suffer are of 4 categories:

  • Jaati (birth) – The parents whom you chose to assume this body and the family you are brought up determine the parental conditioning, their thought patterns and the number of DNA strands being awakened in you. Swamiji once revealed that the parental conditioning disappears only after your death or after enlightenment. This shows the deep-rooted influence our parent’s muscle memory and bio memory have in us.
  • Desha (place) – The place we are brought up also plays a major role in the laws that are necessary for us – the country, the community and the environment. Country laws are created from the understanding of the benefits of living together as a community.
  • Kaala (time) – This is another important conditioning in terms of the time or period we happen and the right understanding on the concept of time in terms of the chronological time, psychological and cosmic time. The truth is we are not bound by time.
  • Samaya (situation or circumstance) – the way life flows as a happening can also create certain cognitions in us. For e.g. a child went to a beach with his father for an evening walk. In that walk, he witnessed a murder on the beach which shook him totally. The child’s cognition is the beach is a scary place. For 40 years, he avoided going to the beach because of the conditioning of fear made him miss the experience of enjoying the nature on a beach. Look at how certain situations create the patterns in us.

These are the 4 conditionings which cause the majority of the sufferings we experience in life. Swamiji revealed that whenever we go to the Source of the law – analyzing it with the 4 conditionings, we will be liberated by the law and from the law. Each law that tortures you, take that law and analyze with these 4 conditionings, simply you will be liberated from that law! The one who is liberated by the law, he can play with the law.

If these 4 conditionings are removed from our cognitions, what remains is only pure consciousness. So these 5 principles – ahimsa, asteya, satya, aparigraha & brahmacharya are wealth kept in our consciousness. They exist universally beyond the 4 conditionings, not as a law or rule. These 5 principles can be lived only when we realize they are wealth to us, they are both the law and energy that enforces the laws (both are called Yama). To realize this, we need to be awakened consciously by going into the source of law from where it comes from, then we will be able to experience the energy from where it comes from.

In essence, whenever we go to source of law, we are liberated by the law and from the law. Breaking the 4 conditionings is the first step to experience your consciousness and the  conscious wealth. Namaste 😀

Imagination is the result of mere words

Do you know that imagination is the fantasy which moves you away from the reality?

The biggest click I got from the 9th Yoga Sutra of Patanjali is – imagination is the results of mere words – words we create unconsciously! Patanjali says anything experienced by you, other than your pure consciousness is vikalpa – imagination. Imagination is that which is created merely by words! Hence imagination brings more suffering than wrong knowledge because for wrong knowledge to happen, your consciousness needs be present and the mind needs to do something. Wrong knowledge can only happen in waking state or dream state. Wrong knowledge is nothing but wrong logic. But imagination can disturb you in all the three states – waking state, dream state and deep sleep state because imagination touches the deeper zones than wrong knowledge.

Another important truth I discovered from this sutra is that imagination corrupts your seven chakras. What are chakras? See, your mind and body come in contact with each other at 7 points in your body. These 7 points are known as the 7 energy centres or chakras. The Yoga tradition describes these 7 points as Chit-Jada-granthi – the points where matter and consciousness meet each other. Whenever you carry imagination, you corrupt these 7 energy centres and disturb their functioning.

For example, if your imagination touches your root centre, Mooladhara chakra at the base of the spine, it is called fantasy. You are caught in fantasies about others and yourself which results in distortion of your basic perception of reality. You start seeing everything as larger than life, you start expecting the things which can never happen. Projecting your magnified expectation on reality is called fantasy. This happens often in relationships, you will always feel that the other person is not fulfilling you. You start imagining things, projecting things and creating things. When you see that it is not happening through the other person, you start blaming the other person. That is why you constantly feel the other person is depriving you or suffocating you. You are not even aware that it is your fantasy which is creating the expectation of things which can never happen or which never happened.

Next, if your imagination touches your Swadhistana chakra or being centre located 2 inches above the root centre, it is called fear. You experience fear of others and fear of yourself. You start to have phobia for no reason. If your imagination touches the Manipuraka chakra, the navel centre, it is called worry. You start worrying about others and worrying about yourself. If your imagination touches your Anahata chakra, the heart centre, it is called attention-need. You suffer from continuous attention need from others and from yourself. Sometimes you put up with abusive relationships just because of your attention-need. You forget that you can be a source of love and you need not be a beggar for love and attention. If your imagination touches your Visuddhi chakra, the throat centre, it is called jealousy. You start constant comparison with others and comparison with yourself. This happens a lot when you constantly compare with yourself what you were able to do yesterday and not today. If your imagination touches your Ajna chakra, the brow centre, it is called ego. You start suffering from ego with others and with yourself. The greatest suffering is you judge yourself, you regret your own words and actions or you are angry with yourself for something. When you carry too many judgments about life, about others and yourself, it means imagination is corrupting your brow centre. Finally, if your imagination touches your Sahasrara chakra or the crown centre, it is called discontentment. You suffer from discontentment with others and discontentment with yourself. This is how we create different kinds of suffering in our life due to the inability to handle the realities of life!

Have you seen people renouncing life due to many unfulfilled fantasies about life? They fantasized about luxury lifestyle but they didn’t make it and they couldn’t tolerate the failure, the reality of their life. They started to renounce out of frustration due to not having the right understanding about their fantasy.  I’ve seen people misunderstood about yoga and they created a fantasy about themselves and tortured themselves in the name of yoga. They are not able to come out of the fantasy they are caught in. That’s the endless suffering.

In essence, imagination – Vikalpa is fantasy which not only moves you away from reality, but it also makes you experience the ultimate suffering. It has to be understood with very deep awareness. It originates from the words you use to yourself and others because words have power to shape your destiny. Your ability to relax from imagination is the ultimate relaxation you can have in life. Namaste 😀

Source : 108 Truths of Yoga of Enlightenment by Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Discover the higher knowledge

In the 7th Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, we know that there are 3 different levels of knowledge – the direct perception from senses, inference from right cognition and the words of an enlightened Master.

If you only follow the society, you will only have the first level knowledge (pratyaksa), the society will be primitive as it does not know anything except what they perceive through their senses. If you are living at that level of existence, even if you live with all the wealth, name and fame, power, everything, you will only be depressed because it is like having a TV with only one channel and you don’t even know how to switch on the next channel – the next level of knowledge which is available to us. The truth is life is knowledge, expansion of knowledge is life. When we are unable to expand in knowledge after certain level means death by the first 33 years of our life.

People open the second level of knowledge are the artists, scientists, creators, poets and thinkers. For example, a sculptor may perceive a stone through his senses but he is able to remove certain parts of the stone and transform it into a sculpture. He is using the inference through cognition to enter the second level of knowledge. Rarely some civilisations offer opportunities for science, art, creativity or inference dimension (anumana) for the next 33 years till your retirement. That’s why there is a high level of suicide rate among the senior citizens all over the world.

The third level of knowledge is very rare, only the very intelligent civilizations accept, internalise and experience the words of the awakened ones, the words of the enlightened ones (agama). As the civilisations evolves to higher and higher level, it starts accepting and encouraging the higher levels of knowledge. It is only when a civilisation moves to the very subtle, very intelligent level that it starts to accept agama, the words of an enlightened Master. Only such a civilisation can keep on offering you something new for your entire life.

My Guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji) said that if you move naturally from level to level of knowledge in your life, you are a complete human being, you will live as a fulfilled being, this is called ageing gracefully. If the third level of knowledge has not happened in your life – feeling connected to the words of the enlightened ones – the higher level of knowledge has not opened up in your consciousness. Be very clear, you will fall into depression by the next 33 years after you hit 66 years of your life and your life will become a living hell. That’s the worst thing that can happen to a human being. The Vedic civilization has done a great service to humanity by awakening the highest level of knowledge in every human being because it is structured in such a beautiful way that one goes through the first and second levels naturally and the third level of knowledge will be automatically awakened in you. The enlightened beings understand that all the three levels of knowledge are related to the words of the enlightened master, so there is no conflict at all. By the time you are above 66 years old – the third phase of your life, you will be able to sit in meditation, in contemplation because you would have been prepared for it during the first and second phases of your life. You will live gracefully and age gracefully. So if you don’t want to fall into suicidal tendency by old age. The one and only way is to awaken the most subtle dimension of your being, you will have ‘YOU’ to you. That would be the greatest service you will do to yourself and the world, the best retirement plan for anyone.

In essence, start preparing yourself to move away from the wrong knowledge to receive the third level of knowledge – the words from the enlightened beings and you will never ever feel bored in your life. Namaste. 😀

  • Source – 108 truths of the Yoga of Enlightenment by Paramahamsa Nithyananda.