Mary: Since my husband died, I seem to have gone all clairvoyant/a healer again, like when I was a spiritualist. It all stopped whilst I lived with my husband. Well, I am a Vedantin. So, my question is why?? I know one is satya and one is mithya and Isvara does what is to be done, apparently. But I recall an article/satsang that you wrote about this topic. I can’t find it. Please where can I locate it?
Sundari: We have not been asked this question in quite some time, but you are the second person to do so recently. We have another inquirer whose husband of many years died recently who wanted to know if it is possible for the spirit of the beloved departed to be with them. I address the topic of the different realms or ‘lokas’ further on, but the quick answer to this question, of course, is yes and no. It depends on who is asking it and what reality you are talking about.
Although reality is nondual, there are three levels or realities in mithya, and the first two dissolve into the third upon investigation. Vyavaharika refers to the realm of empirical reality, such as Newton’s world of billiard balls and clocks. This realm is apparently predictable and relatively stable. If we are both looking at a mountain, we will probably both agree that it is a mountain. Pratibasika is the subjective realm of thoughts and feelings, so though we both agree on the existence of the mountain, our interpretations will be different. I might find it a scary mountain and you might find it a peaceful mountain. Neuroscience has pretty much concluded that there really is no such thing as objective reality because everyone interprets everything according to their subjective reality. Lastly, and this is the one we want to aim for, there is paramarthika, the perspective of Awareness. This is non-dual vision, where everything is seen as Awareness, as you, that which is real, meaning always present, unchanging.
In Maya, the hypnosis of duality superimposed onto nonduality, anything is possible as it is a thought universe. I.e., none of it is real. Real is defined as that which is always present and unchanging, which only applies to the Self, Consciousness, as you know. In mithya, the apparent reality, the mind, and the five senses are our instruments for knowing anything. All our senses are governed by how the mind processes the information it gets from them, and the mind is a very strange object indeed. Just as a highly-skilled magician can perform incredible feats through subtle manipulation of the senses and convince the mind that they are ‘real’, a kind of hypnosis, if you will, so our minds create the world our thoughts project on it. Therefore, it is impossible to say with absolute certainty what is true in mithya, even in the so-called empirical objective realm of reality. Even science acknowledges the fact, somewhat grudgingly, that there is no such thing as an objective observer. Everything that comes into the mind is subject to the manipulation of the mind and senses by duality. Unless of course, Self-knowledge has removed all ignorance and you are firmly seated in your non-dual identity as the knower of the mind and the senses.
All the same, some people do seem to have ‘special powers’ such as healing, the ability to ‘read’ the Causal body, (what the spiritual world calls the ‘akashic records), contact ‘spirits and angels’, or foresee the future (or past) events. Many are frauds, but sometimes, these ‘seers’ are more acutely attuned to Isvara’s psychological order, which is not ‘in time’. But psychic phenomena of whatever kind, being mithya, is not a valid means of knowledge; it is purely subjective. You may well have a special jiva gift as a healer or clairvoyant, I don’t doubt it. But you are not a ‘healer/clairvoyant’ because you are not a doer. Isvara is the only doer. And you are not Vedantin, either. Vedanta is just a means to an end, not an identity. You are the Self, that which is always present and unchanging, i.e., satya. Everything other than you is mithya, including psychic phenomena. When you say: ‘you know one is satya and one is mithya’, what exactly do you mean? Should you not say: I know I am satya, and clairvoyance/healing are mithya, they are objects appearing in me?
While it is true that many great yogis and teachers through the ages (especially in India) displayed remarkable and seemingly “extraordinary” gifts or powers (siddhis), very often these kinds of people are identified with their powers and think they are special because of them, a common misconception in the spiritual world. They are not. Most so-called ‘spiritual’ thinking is based on the idea that you need a special experience to know the Self. Or that enlightenment is something to gain and if you have special powers, or find someone with them, this will help you obtain enlightenment. But enlightenment is not an object, so how can you obtain it? You are it. Siddhis usually cause or accompany a particular experience, but they will fade as the impact of the experience fades over time. All experience takes place in time and therefore ends, as you well know.
These “powers” do not have the power to remove ignorance, but they may inspire the seeker affected by the experience of the siddhis to begin self-inquiry. In this case, we call them a ‘leading error.’ Siddhis or spiritual experiences of whatever kind do point to Awareness, but are only useful if the knowledge they are meant to impart is understood and assimilated in a qualified mind. Often though the experiences created by these siddhis become an impediment to self-inquiry because seekers misunderstand them unless they are explained within the context of Self-knowledge. The truth that all experience is pointing to is that all powers in the apparent reality belong to Isvara, not the jiva, even though Isvara and the jiva share the same identity as Awareness. And they point to the truth that you, Consciousness, or the Self, are the knower of the experience. You are not the experiencing entity. But most people seeking out the help of a clairvoyant or healer are not true inquirers; they are samsaris looking for a solution to their suffering in the world.
Siddhis do not take the place of Self-knowledge. There is no greater siddhi than Self Knowledge. You, the Self, are ordinary—and you have no “powers’ because you don’t need any. Everything depends on you; you depend on nothing. Because there is only Awareness, all objects have a dependent existence on it (you), including the world of spirits, angels, celestials, astrology, numerology (et al). Dis-embodied jivas of whatever ilk are not much different from the supposedly embodied jivas. As reality is non-dual, they are objects that arise in you and are known to you, the Self. The apparent reality is all a dream within a dream; none of it is real. Contacting spirits or disembodied beings takes place in pratibasika, the subjective reality, the waking aspect of the dream state. It has the meaning we give it, and the mind being such a complex and highly suggestible instrument, can find truth in just about anything it wants to believe in.
The waking dream contains many layers or ‘lokas’ apparently populated by ‘spirits, ascended masters, celestials, angels or demons’ which I explain in detail further on. Disembodied beings are jivas too and have a Subtle Body; they still have a great attachment to the world of gross objects, just like embodied jivas, which is why it is seemingly possible to ‘make contact’ with them. It is desire that keeps them attached, so they are driven by their vasanas. We have ghosts in our house in Spain, we hear them regularly, James has even seen them. It’s a family on the run during the civil war that raged here just over a hundred years ago. Whatever trauma they experienced at the time remains as the subtle vestige of a vasana because of their fate, or karma.
Are we imaging them? It does not matter because they are not real. They do not bother us. Vasanas cannot be directly seen, whereas the Subtle Body can be seen, even if it is not seemingly attached to a gross object, like a physical body. People who can see or contact subtle energies such as dis-embodied jivas of whatever nature are called “sensitives” or “psychic”. It is just the ability to tune in to a different bandwidth so to speak; much like tuning in to a different TV or radio channel. It is no big deal, and it is no more real than anything else in the mithya dream.
To perceive the subtle realms is the stuff of mythology and mysticism, it goes back to the dawn of time. Humans have always sought to make sense of their world and the numinous forces that run it, to gain knowledge to advance their interests or protect themselves from unwelcome outcomes. But for the most part, the need to contact people who have died or spirits from other realms stems from the desperate need samsaris (someone under the spell of Maya, duality) have to believe that there is something ‘provable’ beyond this life. Science dispels it and religion does not offer anything much more than something to believe in. This can be cold comfort, especially during extreme emotions such as bereavement or in times of worldwide upheaval, of which there have been many throughout history. Spiritualism sprang up around 200 hundred years ago in response to the growing fear of change that the industrial age brought, not to mention a vicious flu pandemic that followed and a world war. It is also a religion but does not have belief systems or dogma. It seems to give meaning to life by offering ‘proof’ of life beyond death. It can bring hope to some and comfort to people who have lost a loved one, to find a way to communicate with ‘the other side’ of the veil. But there is no other side. It’s all mithya.
Maybe that is why you feel drawn to it again, now that Mike has left the body. There is nothing essentially wrong with that, except that it isn’t a solution to anything and keeps you stuck in duality. The fact is, whether a person is alive or dead, they exist as a thought in your mind, as stated above. Who needs to game Isvara when you know you are beyond Isvara and there is no death because you and your departed husband are the nondual ever-present Self? When you can discriminate between satya and mithya you know that all objects, whether gross or very subtle, like feelings or intuition, are just thoughts appearing in you, the Self, and that is all the comfort you need. You cannot lose anyone to death because only the body dies, never the love, the essence of our loved ones.
Psychic phenomena have some benefit in that they can give one the understanding that there is something outside of the information available through the normal organs of perception. The insights available in heightened states such as in trance, from channeled sources, or even spiritual experiences and epiphanies are much like the insights a drug-induced high can provide. The problem arises when more import is given to these insights than they actually hold. Like all subjective experiences, experiencing dis-embodied beings is of little use unless it delivers knowledge…and the knowledge is understood and assimilated. Which is hardly ever, if ever, the case.
As all knowledge is true to the object and not the subject, subjective knowledge may or may not contain truth. Whereas Self-knowledge is not dependent on the object; it is self-revealing and stands on its own; it is always true in all situations, not just sometimes and in some situations true. Vedanta calls the subjective realm of experience “pratibasika”, because it is what is apparently real, and the information obtained from this is dependent on interpretation. Everyone will interpret and experience this realm differently, through the filters of their conditioning, meaning their vasanas. There has been intense interest and research conducted into the psychic world by many reputable thinkers and famous people for a long time. There was even a famous French spiritualist in the last century who managed to make a plaster cast of the hand of a ‘spirit’ by conjuring up ‘ectoplasm’, a kind of psychic matter. Yet, though there are exceptions to the rule, most of the methods employed by people down through the ages (but particularly in the last 200 years) who practiced psychic phenomena have been proved to be fraudulent.
A mind that is desperately looking for meaning in an uncertain and seemingly cruel world is easily fooled, and many have been, though they may believe that their experience was ‘real’. It may have felt that way, with the emphasis of ‘felt’, because the adherents of psychic phenomenon will always say that they could ‘feel’ the presence, energy, or whatever else they experienced. Their intuition ‘told’ them it was authentic. And it may well bring some peace and happiness for a while, but then what? Off to another psychic, and pay for another feel-good intuitive experience, like a drug? How does that help relieve the existential suffering of the doer? It does not. You are still stuck being the person you thought you were, suffering.
People who seek and receive messages from ‘the other side, see ghosts or seemingly embodied beings, and take them to be real have no way to discriminate between satya and mithya. The New Age fad of ‘channeling’ supposedly superior beings is open ground for fools and phonies. As stated, but bears repeating, like any experience, the knowledge this kind of subjective information is supposed to give is that YOU are the knower of what appears in the mind. If you see it as coming from some magical (or evil) place outside of and beyond you, you are trapped in duality once again, bound to objects and subjugated by them. It is spiritual materialism, no different from any other materialism—but perhaps more dangerous in terms of giving your power and self-confidence (not to mention common sense!) as the Self away.
The important thing to remember is that everything we experience as a jiva originates from the gunas, the Causal body. As a serious inquirer, it is not the proper application of guna knowledge to give credibility to these projections, or any projections for that matter. There is no such thing as an ‘outside’ entity other than the impersonal understanding of who and what Isvara is—what the gunas are, how they operate and govern our seemingly personal vasanas, and the laws that run the creation or dharmafield. We need to act in accordance with what Isvara requires of us, or we suffer. There is no other ‘external’ force that can subjugate us other than ignorance of Isvara, i.e., the belief that duality is real.
The subjective reality, pratibasika, is not real, yet it has many apparent ‘realms’. There is a teaching on these realms or lokas in Vedanta. If you have read Panchadasi (James has made this advanced scripture much more accessible in his book, Inquiry into Existence), you will know that creation is a ‘cosmic egg’. It is born out of a ‘black hole’, or Macrocosmic Tamas—the densest form of matter—so dense, even light cannot escape it. In this egg, there are 14 (some say 17) levels or fields of existence and experience. Three types or levels of sentient beings inhabit these worlds, in various gradations, ‘up or down’, meaning all of them are determined by punya or papa (good or bad) karma.
The first realms are the lower realms which are predominantly tamasic, then the middle realms which are predominantly tamasic-rajasic with different levels of sattva, and the higher or celestial realms, which are predominantly sattvic. All levels are ‘below the line’, meaning, in mithya, and known to you, Awareness. None of them are more real or have more meaning than any other, as much as the New Age magical world of spiritual materialism would like to make it so.
The first and lower, predominantly tamasic level jivas (waking state entities), include animals, reptiles, birds, insects, micro-organisms, plants and, the demonic embodied or dis-embodied spiritual realm. Embodied demonic entities are totally tamasic, meaning ignorant of the Self, and are mostly psychopaths but could also be sociopaths, what Vedanta calls rakshasas—demons.
These are living people that want to harm others and take pleasure in doing so. They do not feel for others at all (cannot feel compassion or empathy) and do not suffer guilt or regret. They do not suffer existential anxiety, nor do they worry or feel separate and alone. They are cold-hearted and have no feeling for Isvara’s law of non-injury—it is not built-in like it is for most humans. Unlike animals, they do have an intellect and can think—but their thinking is controlled purely by tamas. They can be very intelligent (sattva), but it is intelligence solely in the service of tamas, ‘evil’. Like animals, they do not make themselves this way; they are a program and they cannot help their nature. According to some statistics, this cohort consists of between .5% – 1.5% of the population and is always present in mithya. If there should ever be more than that, anarchy would reign. Isvara is both dharma and adharma because there is no other way for the world of relativity, the field in which the jiva works out its karma, to function. But thankfully, for the rest of the population, dharma is built in. Isvara keeps the adharma in check!
The dis-embodied demonic beings in this realm are the same as the embodied ones, but as I said above, they do not have a physical body, they only have a Subtle body. As they still have a great attachment to the world of gross objects just like embodied demonic jivas do, their intention is also to harm. Susceptible people experience these entities or psychic vampires in various ways, in dreams, in people, and in situations—they can even appear ‘embodied’ in what looks like a physical form. They are dark and extremely malevolent entities that can ONLY take form through fear thoughts, just like their opposite, the angelic realm, can appear through thoughts of love and compassion. But they are no more real than thought. They have no real ability to harm other than how they influence our thinking.
The lower realm also includes animals, insects, microorganisms, and plant jivas. Having no intellect (or only very rudimentary intellects) these jivas are also totally tamasic, ignorant of the Self. You could say they are totally bound, or you could say they are totally free, one with the Self. Animals are not conditioned by the gunas, so they do not have vasanas nor can they or do they deliberately want to harm. Animals are not plagued by the usual thought/emotional patterns that limit humans: guilt, shame, regret, lack of self-esteem, to name a few. So, animals do not have existential problems, they are happy and do not worry. Animals have no power to analyze or think other than in terms of their desires.
Animals do not interpret their environment; they do not evaluate the things that happen to them, in them and around them, being ignorant and not capable of self-reflection, there is no karma for them. Animals act purely on “instinct”, meaning in accordance with Isvara. They are programs and have no choice in the matter, whereas humans do have the power to choose. We have free will. Well, we can question how free it really is because the gunas are behind everything, but essentially, we can seemingly choose one thing over another. Animals do not feel incomplete or separate, so do not chase objects to complete them. Animals don’t worry because they accept reality as it is. Animals don’t need scripture or enlightenment because they are not bound by the gunas.
But the downside is, to achieve moksa, a jiva must develop the ability to assimilate the meaning of experience. First-level jivas do not have much merit because they cannot assimilate the meaning of experience, so are not able to achieve moksa. However, whether demonic (embodied or not), animal or plant, they have the ability, given by Isvara of course, to evolve upwards. When the momentum of past actions (prarabdha karma) of a demonic or animal/insect/organism or plant jivas is exhausted, they can be reborn into higher realms or levels within their realm, progressing upwards (so to speak) in this dream reality. But please do remember, it is only a dream, nothing more!
The middle level of these realms contains embodied human waking state entities who are predominantly rajasic/tamasic, but with different levels of sattva. The middle-level disembodied beings, such as benevolent spirits or ghosts, are jivas too with a Subtle Body, and again, like the lower-level demonic spiritual realm, they still have great attachment to the world of gross objects, just like embodied jivas do. But disembodied jivas in these middle realms are benign, or neutral. They are no different to embodied jivas stuck in bondage to their desires—i.e., in ignorance.
Most beings in this realm have some merit (punya) and some demerit (papa), even the ones who are mostly sattvic, being the ones qualified for self-inquiry but not yet free of samsara. They are in the twilight zone with half-knowledge (spirit) and half-ignorance (matter) and are bound by the gunas, as having free will and an intellect capable of doubt, this realm can make choices not conducive to peace of mind, creating ‘bad’ (papa) karma. The most evolved souls in this realm have attained moksa, are free of the gunas and being the Self, are free of karma, although seemingly ‘good and bad’ things still play out for the jiva, they are no longer identified with the jiva.
Karma itself is value-neutral. It is just action and its results. It only becomes meaningful when we evaluate it. We either like it or don’t like it or are indifferent to it. Only in the minds of bound and ignorant human beings does an action become ‘karma.’ Karma is either meritorious or deleterious based on how pure or impure it renders the Subtle Body because a pure Subtle body is the instrument for attaining moksa.
Humans and spirits in the middle realm of the field of experience (mithya) can evolve upwards or downwards, depending on the predominance of merit and demerit that their actions produce. The upside of having a human Subtle Body is that it can analyze and do inquiry and because of this, ignorance can be removed from the mind by Self-knowledge. Therefore, a human Subtle body is better than any other body because it is capable of moksa, whereas no other Subtle body is. A human Subtle body is also better than a spirit or celestial Subtle body, and I will explain why.
The ‘higher’ levels of creation contain celestials, such as angels. Celestials are totally sattvic and do not suffer worry or dissatisfaction. They do not have vasanas and like animals, they are happy because they too are not bound by the gunas. But there is a downside in the ‘celestial realm’ as there is everywhere in mithya. Namely, it is still in mithya. And celestials must become human jivas when the momentum of their good karma is exhausted, bringing them back to earth, samsara—the wheel of karma, where they must work on another round of human karma before final liberation, moksa, is actualized through Self-knowledge.
Moksa can only be achieved in a human Subtle Body which is attached to a Gross physical body, through Self-knowledge. Disembodied beings, no matter how pure, cannot achieve moksa. So, it is pointless making a big deal of these realms as somehow superior to the human plane of experience. They are not. Nothing in mithya is real.
As I said above, all three levels of existence are mithya—only apparently real. The teaching on these levels has no real importance for self-inquiry other than to help us discriminate between satya and mithya. Making an identity out of any of these levels is duality, ignorance. When Self-knowledge has removed all ignorance, we are trigunaatita, beyond the gunas, and, beyond the influence of the world and everything in it. But to be free as a jiva and live free as the Self, we need to understand the gunas and how they condition the jiva—in other words, how the gunas generate ‘our’ seemingly personal vasanas—fears and desires, which is another way of saying, we need to understand Isvara and the Field of Existence.
Ramji was married to a woman many years ago who lost her mind—and he watched the process unfold. She was a beautiful soul, but these very deep fear thoughts took over her mind and materialized externally as seemingly real entities—and she was so invested in them even he could see them. He had Self-knowledge, so he never bought into them and dismissed them, but if your knowledge is not strong, these thought forms can take over. Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. He had a recurring nightmare around that time. He was taking part in a basketball match with a team of very tall, menacing black players who chased him and wanted to smash his skull with the ball. Instead of running away from them, he decided to embrace them as the self, and they disappeared. We live in a thought universe, none of it is real—it is just a movie.
A happy life for the jiva is all about thought and emotion management. The mind is our primary instrument for knowing anything. It is so powerful it has the unique capacity to see what it wants to see, without conscious awareness that it is shutting out all absent evidence. It can convert heaven into hell and hell into heaven. A person with every convenience, coming from a good karmic life, can feel miserable and tortured and a person weighed down with so many problems can feel totally happy and peaceful. The quality of our life is dependent on this powerful organ, the mind. Isvara has given us an exquisite instrument with which to experience life, but it has a serious drawback inherent in its nature which prevents most of us from experiencing the joy of our true nature as awareness.
The serious drawback of the mind is that without our permission, the mind generates continuous involuntary thoughts we have no control over. With or without our involvement, the mind, which is supposed to be our instrument – we are the owner— acts on its own, of its own volition. The mind is supposed to, and can, produce deliberate thoughts of our own choosing, but unless we understand it and know how to manage it, its nature is to produce and churn out thoughts continuously. It is simply a machine, and this is how it is made. As I said above, if fear thoughts dominate the mind, they will come at you in every form and the mind will just keep churning them out. The more you invest in them, the more entrenched they become. The mind is so powerful it can externalize them into psychic entities that can appear very real indeed. They are like squatters in the mind, and they refuse to leave. They come from an unknown and unknowable place, the unconscious—Causal Body, or Macrocosmic Ignorance.
The mind run by binding vasana is a very serious problem for the jiva, with many adverse consequences. When involuntary thoughts kidnap the mind, it means the mind is not available for our use in self-inquiry, or for much else. We do actions without thinking, as an absent-minded or mindless person, “living in absentia.” Managing the mind means managing the gunas—and vice versa, not according to your understanding or interpretation of the gunas. Trust only the teachings, not your mind. There’s no magic to Vedanta. Vedanta shows us that as the mind is our primary instrument for experiencing, realizing, and actualizing ourselves in this world, it all boils down to owning your mind as your primary instrument and repeatedly and consistently reconditioning it with thoughts that are true. In other words, that produce peace of mind. Any seeming failure to realize or actualize Self-knowledge or to have a peaceful life is only due to a lack of knowledge and incorrect thoughts that dominate the mind/emotions/intellect. The simple solution is re-conditioning the mind with chosen thoughts that are aligned with the truth and based on Self-knowledge. This is called volitional, deliberate, thinking.
When skillfully managed, the mind will produce peace of mind and allow us to express and enjoy the beauty that we are in our day-to-day life, no matter what life dishes out to us. When you feel bad or emotional, for any reason, you can convert your emotional distress/fear and mental agitation into gratitude and peace through karma yoga and managing the gunas with volitional thinking. This entails taking a stand in Awareness as Awareness, consecrating the bad thoughts to Isvara on the altar of karma yoga, and watching out with hawk’s eyes for the habitual emotional thought patterns dominating your mind and creating your negative state of mind and suffering. In this way, we transform the negative thought patterns into new thoughts of our choosing.
If we are truly committed to self-inquiry (which you are) we don’t worry about and don’t give our thought projections any credence whatsoever. We keep the mind focused on the scripture, on the Self. The advice I give people who are experiencing very deep and stressful emotions, apart from the process mentioned above, is to have an altar for devotional practice, which I am sure you have. Chant the names of the Lord, read the scripture out loud, take a stand in Awareness as Awareness, practice the opposite thought with courage, especially when you miss your husband the most. You, the Self, are Lord of the Manor, owner of the mind. Sad thoughts will play out as long as they play out and one day, they will be gone. No trace of their existence will remain because Self-knowledge destroys them.
Much love
Sundari