The Conditioning of the Mind: A King among the Cattle

My obeisance to my Ishta, my foremost Guru. The cause of all existence and sustenance, I offer myself, completely and unconditionally, at His lotus feet.

Once upon a time, there was a lioness. She died during the course of giving birth to her cub. A small girl who had never seen a cub happened to be in the woods at that time. She picked up the cub and brought it home. The cub is fed goat’s milk and is made to live with other goats. They all grow up together. The lion starts to feed on grass like the other goats. Living like cattle, the lion forgets its true nature.

One day, while grazing along with the herd, the lion gets separated from them and finds himself lost in the shadows of the jungle. As he attempts to navigate his way back, he goes even deeper into the woods. He sees a wolf from a distance and feels scared. The lion, unaware of his own ferocity, out of ignorance, starts running for his life.

However, much to his surprise all the other animals start running away as they see the lion approaching. The lion stops and thinks to make sense of what he just witnessed. An eerie feeling takes over him. He starts to feel there is more to it than meets the eye. He starts to ponder over the incident of the other animals darting away upon his sighting. He decides to explore the matter further.

He starts to move around a little more freely, a little less scared. Wherever he goes, he sees the same reaction: all the other animals start scrambling. It goes on like this before he sees a group of lions feeding on a freshly killed bull’s carcass. 

A latent desire to partake of the meat arouses in him. His surprise elevates to the level of shock. As if automatically, he feels the urge to make his own lunch. He decides to hunt down a calf. The joy he discovers in the hunt and feeding on the prey far exceeds any other he had ever experienced. Additionally, an innate sense of fearlessness emerges. He feels the jungle is his home and that no one around can dare kill him.

Similarly, your true nature is bliss and fearlessness. The lion in you has started behaving like the goats because it’s been brought up with them. This is called conditioning. You have lost sight of your true nature due to numerous factors. Predominantly, experiencing the world through the body for eons has made you forget who you really are. As a result, the connection with the Supreme Soul is lost.

The bliss you seek does not exist in the world outside; instead, a whole world exists in the bliss within you. Self-realization is about finding that eternal reservoir of bliss and peace. Your true nature is pure bliss and unimpeded joy, infinitely so. You have been conditioned, inadvertently or otherwise, by society and other evolutionary forces.

Your conditioned soul is a product of the collective intelligence of the world. You, however, are a product of your karma and your desires. You have forgotten your true nature because of the conditioning. Such conditioning has come to you in the form of religious, social, family, and moral values. For eons, preceding generations have accepted such standards, mostly unquestioningly, passing them on to successive ones.

The world you see externally is merely a projection of the world within you. In fact, the world outside is an exact replica of the one in you. Your inner world is a product of your thoughts. Due to your forgotten nature, your inner world constantly gets affected by the world outside. If the inner world is in turmoil, the outside one will appear just as listless and doomed.

The goal of the Yoga of Self Transformation is to help you discover and get back in touch with your inner world, your real nature. I can only share with you the practices and show you the path; its attainment is your personal matter.

Peace.
Swami