Liebe Besucher,
Liebe Devotees,
nach monatelanger intensiver und freudiger Arbeit an dieser Webseite zusammen mit unserer Webdesignerin bin ich sehr glücklich, dass nun alles soweit vollendet ist. Heute am 9.9.2016
ist zudem der Erscheinungstag von Shrimati Radharani, ein äußerst glücksverheißender Tag
für die Premiere unseres Forums und dieser Webseite als Ganzes.
Anstelle von Verhaltensregeln möchte ich einfach alle TeilnehmerInnen höflich darum bitten,
nett zueinander zu sein und auch bei Meinungsverschiedenheiten – die naturgemäß immer irgendwann bei Diskussionen auftreten werden – stets den guten Ton zu wahren.
Ich freue mich auf einen regen Austausch.
Euer Vedanta
Troublemakers in the Mind: Old Samskaras
Thanks to the spontaneous question of Susan-Sophie, we have already started the first talk in Vedic Psychologie consultation. However, I have just noticed that I have to change the hierarchy of the headings so that new topics can be created harmoniously and clearly. Technically, however, I cannot delete my own original post (with which this topic began) without deleting all subsequent posts either, which is why here is now unfortunately something relatively meaningless 🙂
The following is a translated question from the German part of this forum. Thank you so much, dear Susan-Sophie for your courage to send this first inquiry to Joshika!
I would like to know from Joshika HOW I can deal with old Samskaras better. When Babaji was here in Germany, I had asked him what I should do when while chanting old thoughts and feelings come up, and he said I should continue to concentrate on chanting the Holy Name and not get into it.
Unfortunately, I do not succeed when quite old feelings come up, which I can not classify. What can I do to get rid of them? From the bodywork I know that one should feel it in the body, as long as it is over? But then I dedicate my attention to the feeling and get in?
I ask for your help on how to deal with it. And a description of how the mind works.
What are its properties? What are its features? How is he related to the ego and the senses? How does he deal with different impressions and how can certain situations trigger certain reactions and emotions?
Very warm greetings and thanks to Joshika and Vedanta.
I hope and would be very happy if this site helped many devotees and also other people.
Susan-Sophie
ANSWER
by Babaji Maharaja and Joshika
to the question of Susan-Sophie
Your observations of your own mind are very clear, which is a good starting point. You are noticing that when you chant, old feelings arise that you cannot "get rid of." You are not alone in this. Welcome to the club. This is the nature of the mind. Not only yours, but all conditioned humans. It is a pity that they do not teach in our schools the nature of our mind and how the samskaras operate, because if we could learn this, then we would not feel so agitated, frustrated, or surprised when we notice it in our very own mind. Can you imagine what it would be like if we were not educated on our urinary system? What if we did not realize that we were supposed to urinate? Then, each time we felt the urge to urinate, and we urinated all over ourselves, we would feel so upset about this weird frequently occurring problem in which our body "malfunctions." We would think we have some problem that we have to get rid of. But, then someone explains to us that this is a normal function of the body, and that we cannot change how the body functions. But we can control it. We would be taught that we can learn and accept the nature of our urinary tract system - that every few hours, it releases liquids and that is a healthy function of our body. We would learn how to control our bladder, so we do not urinate all over ourselves, and how to hold the urine until we are able to use a bathroom. Then, when we feel the urge to go use the toilet, we notice the urge, but remain stable in our mind. We do not become upset or anxious when we feel the urge to urinate. We just peacefully acknowledge the urge, and then make a plan to go to the toilet. And then we continue on with our daily activities.
PRACTICAL EXERCISE
Just like you have managed to successfully control your urinary tract system, you can also do so with your mind. Here are some practical steps:
- Understand the nature of your mind. Your mind will continue to serve up samskaras, whether you are sitting and chanting or not. Sometimes the samskaras are easier to see when you are chanting because there is no external trigger, but they are there either way nevertheless.
- Accept the nature of your mind. Just like you accept that your urinary system builds up urine in your bladder, and then gives you the urge to release the urine, the mind also has its function. It continues to serve up samskaras as a purification process while you are chanting. Consider each samskara as a great blessing because each one that you become aware of enables you to know yourself better, which is the key to spiritual progress.
- Remain balanced in your mind. Once you understand and accept that this is just how the mind works, then it becomes easier to not get so caught up with wanting to "get rid of" your samskaras. Just observe your samskara. Name the feelings. Acknowledge them as something that happened in the past, and that is not happening now. Do not become involved with their story line. You are not your samskara. Just watch it come up, name it, and notice how strong the emotional pull is. Just notice. And then re-focus your attention on chanting the Holy Name.
- Take control and make a decision. It is up to you if you decide to get caught up in your samskara or in the Holy Name. No one can make that decision for you. You have to use the strength of your own mind to choose, and to stay fixed on the Holy Name or on the samskara. Each time you make that choice, you strengthen the one you feed.
Reply by Susan-Sophie:
Dear Joshika, dear Babaji,From the heart THANK YOU.Then Krishna heard my prayers very quickly because I asked him how I can better stay with the Holy Name and not carry me away from the Samskaras to leave. That I want to do it, because I want to.Some very old feelings are so strong that I do not want to feel them again in the body.There comes fear in me that I cannot stand it. And then I distract myself with other things.Is this due to the fact that these "old experiences" have been suppressed?Or it is quite normal that these old stories are stored in our gross and subtle body. From incarnation to incarnation?I am very grateful for an answer, if the time allows during your Bhakti-course.The tools are quite wonderful.I hope they will help many other people.That these people find on this side, to you and Krishna and Bhakti.Haribol and all loveSusan-Sophie
ANSWER
by Babaji Maharaja and Joshika
Your samskaras are stored in your unconscious mind (chitta) as undigested emotions. What this means is that even if the painful event occurred 10 years ago, or 10 lifetimes ago, you still remember the event and feel the emotions attached to the memory with as much emotional intensity as the moment the event actually occurred.
