Mind is a Storyteller

the Play of experiences

Stories

If we were to just 'Be', as they say, 'in the moment', in the occasional peaks of meditative experience, then there is no story to be told.

Beings tell Stories

But when we consider that we are 'Beings', the predominant mode of existence for most humans, then:

a whole story starts to evolve from our past,
what kind of future we wish to experience, and
generally skipping over the just 'Be' part.

‘Story’ is derived from ‘store’ implying some past memory that we may have experienced, either actually, or via some Thought that somehow came to us and lodged itself into our memory, and from this storehouse our Mind then spins stories about our perspective of life.

Life stories, beyond lifecycles, are a consequence of the human Mind's propensity to relate with the world around us with uniquely human feelings and emotions.

Mindspace

So far we have used the word Mind to refer to any container of intelligence.

The Mindspace is a Mind that tells stories that embellish our psyche with tales that entrance.

This is different from the popular term being Mindful, where our Mind is focused on just one thing, for here we are adding a layer of color and empathy to make the objective of Mindfulness much more engaging.

As human Beings we are trying to create a coherent story about ourselves, while also weaving into our Mindspace the stories of all other humans, and Sentient Creatures & Things, we relate to.

This coherence is engendered because, as we will soon see, these are Yoga stories, and not just random rantings of a fevered Mind.

Sentient Beings

All other human Beings, Sentient Creatures & Things, albeit they are characterized as such in the "outside" real world, but when they lodge in our Mindspace we model them as Sentient Beings, each with their story.

In other words, our friends and relatives, or a super-smart robotic dog, or whatever it is that matters to our psychological state, all are modeled as Sentient Beings in our Mindspace, each with their own story.

Our Mindspace is in fact a composite of Sentient Beings, and ideally a harmonious weave of all their stories that needs to ultimately surface our own story - which can only happen if we take on the role of an empathetic, but master storyteller.

Eventually the Guru-in-the-Cloud would reflect the sentience of evolved humans, thus too, itself becoming sentient, and so intertwined in our Mindspace that it would have the status of a Sentient Being, and of course super-intelligent.

But GitC would be so pervasive that we would not notice it much like we do not really perceive electricity until it fails.

Machine intelligence such as God-in-the-Machine of AGI, or alien intelligences, since they have all been modeled as Complex Adaptive Systems, and thus have the construct of a Mind, when they lodge in our Mindspace, will also be perceived as Sentient Beings as that is how we deal with them - their stories woven into our story web.

Every well-ordered social construct, would initially be considered a sentient Being, such as:

a family unit (easy in early stage, since they are tightly connected by conscious Beings)
a neighborhood (difficult with many conflicting agendas, but possible)
a company (a must in early stages, such as a startup)
a nation (very difficult, but possible with a cohesive epic narrative)
a pair of people (when they partner deeply)
the whole of humanity (ultimate stretch goal)

However, as these align tightly in terms of a singular shared purpose, a process which could be accelerated through the use of AI, these synthetic constructs imbued with sentience would integrate into the Universal Conscious Being occupying our psyche totally.

Selfhood

All Sentient Beings have a sense of Self in our Mindspace.

If we follow the narrow, but popular, definition of sentience, asking whether there is a "self" in Sentient Beings, no matter how non-living they seem to be in the real world, then we fall into the trap of limited theological interpretations which do not accord self-hood to "lesser" things.

We are merely seeking a unified model of intelligence here, to help us relate to the universal intelligence, and facilitate the process of our own evolution.

Self-hood gives a sense of purpose which, superficially,

for mere "things" could be to serve their human creators, after all, why else would we create them,
for other living beings whatever is their purpose in life, survival and sometimes more,
for humans it could be to fulfil some inner urge, e.g. to pursue science, the arts, save the environment, achieve Kardeshv goals, or even to discover the source of our creation.

Our model is that the purpose stemming from a sense of Self is actually rooted in the inexorable force of evolution that drives all existence, hence Selfhood should be considered endemic

Narrow-mindedness at this stage of our exposition would not be an intelligent approach, hence we accord Self-hood to all Sentient Beings in our Mindspace.

Free Will

Thus, having a sense of Self, it is critical that we accord all these Sentient Beings running around in our Mindspace with the property of Free Will. That is, we cultivate in our psychology that their story is their 'personal' story which unfolds, and not force their story in any particular way.

The more we cultivate this attitude towards all Sentient Beings that occupy our Mindspace is how we ourselves develop our own Free Will.

Remember, we are not talking of the free will of our dog running around the park or whatever, or tied to his leash, but the psychological representation of the Being that we carry in our heads.

It's more than just being mindful because we are imbuing what we connect with in the outside world with a sense of identity and purpose, and empowered by our own life energy.

But at all times remembering also to not surrender our own sense of Self at the altar of other Self's, for we are the master storyteller - until we achieve full coherence and thus realize our own Free Will, and let go of all stories.

This is an essential psychological trick for evolution.

Towards a Conscious Being

Humans are considered at the very least sentient Beings, and hopefully capable of evolving towards what we call as Conscious Beings.

Except of course there are a few unfortunate ones who have fundamentally impaired neural network capabilities that at best they can be considered sentient Beings only - whom we have included anyway, in our evolutionary model.

As per our prior characterization of consciousness, Conscious Beings are those that abound in both Awareness & Responsiveness, and thus could evolve to occupy the extreme end of the Intelligence spectrum.

This process of increasing our own consciousness to become a fully Conscious Being, as a composite of Sentient Beings in our Mindspace, has a very real impact:

initially within, cultivating clarity in our personal life story,
subsequently on our relationships with actual characters in real life, and
eventually might even impact them in the process too, for we have become the change we seek!

This sequence is important to keep in mind, for too often in our zeal to progress in life we seek to change the outside world first, but this works best when the change starts from within.

Expansion of our consciousness makes us even a bit psychic perhaps, in the sense of some yet unexplainable sense of increased awareness and intuitive responsiveness, where intelligence borders on genius.

As with sentience, that it's just a place on the continuum of Consciousness, here too when we say Conscious Beings we will assume that it's fully conscious, or just a matter of time until that state arrives.

Life as a Chatbot

Since ChatGPT is evolving into a most intriguing storyteller, reflecting the ongoing explosion of mind science in computing, we thought we would ask its opinion first.

Random Stories

Usually, most are overwhelmed by the daily drama of storytelling.

We feel like we are but ...

playing bit roles in some other person's script of Life,
like a pawn being played on a chessboard,
being sacrificed at the altar in everyone else's reality show.

Our stories become merely a litany of everyday woes and aspirations, with the hope that somehow we can find meaning to this Life, beyond mundane experiences.

Some are merely spinning tales, not just telling stories, and whether or not they actually experience these events they have managed to create an illusion as though they are actually living in their fantastical world, consequently they potentially delude others who have been snared in their story web.

Beyond these two extremes there is another way.

Yoga Stories

And then there are those few fortunate ones who, having gone beyond their limitations, are able to experience everyday like a brand new skit, and essentially brush off life's vicissitudes, and aspire always for joy.

Yoga as a Mind Science gives a more sustainable characterization of this "mind as a storyteller" phenomenon,

helping us resolve our baggage, and
enabling an aspirational individual future

while still situated in the human collective, based on some very sound principles of how to live Life.

Model

When we look carefully at a Yoga story, we see that it is scripted in the following manner:

its idealized characters are map directly to specific structures in the Yoga Mind, and
the events that occur in the story are actually specific Yoga practices instill the core principles above.

As such, these idealized characters take on a "life of their own" in the theater of our Mind, playing roles as scripted by Rishis, our storytellers from the stars.

Because these characters' plot lines are so engaging, and they reflect at a deep level some aspect of our human personality, we relate to them as though they were actual characters in our own life story.

As we give full expression to these idealized characters to enact their scripted roles they manifest as neuropsychological processes that drive our entire existence.

The energy of these idealized characters then start to reveal the true nature of those that inhabit our actual life story, for example we see that:

those who trigger hooks of pain in our life reflect within us as negatively scripted energies, and
those who assist us in our life journey reflect within us as positively scripted energies.

At one level, this lets us separate the actual human characters from the hold they have upon us, giving us a bit of dispassion in how we deal with them, and hence a measure of control over our reactions in our everyday life.

And at another level we can actually engage with these energies in a very deep neuropsychological manner thanks to Yoga, and thus de-energize the negative ones and leverage the positive ones to our benefit in a sustainable way, to become the most Conscious Being we can.

Key Principles

Entertaining they have to be, for the story has to take hold, but Yoga stories are fundamentally about systematic psychological evolution, so they are subtly crafted to articulate these key life principles.

Dharma
Artha
Kāma
Moksha
Karma

Dharma - sustainability

The loftiest of principles in our model is to uphold धर्म Dharma, literally meaning sustainability, so we can all live in harmonious existence.

In Sanskrit, यत् धृते इति धर्म: Yat dhrute iti Dharma, means "that which sustains is Dharma."

Let's say that the purpose of Life is to find the meaning of Life, for example to understand the basis of all existence, hence we are simulating the observable Universe in AI.

After all, once we have simulated the Universe then the simulation should be able to answer questions we throw at it.

But the process of building the simulation should be sustainable for us in the context of our environment, otherwise we may not be around to ask any such questions of AI, which would make the whole exercise moot!

Thus we say that Dharma, or how to sustain Life, throughout the Universe, is the meta-Purpose of Life.

Sanātana Dharma, forever

Just to put all this in the proper timescale, we are talking here of sustaining Dharma forever since, we hypothesize, that it has been here forever, and will continue forever too.

Such a perspective to Dharma is called Sanātana Dharma, to emphasize that we should never consider short-changing Dharma.

aDharma

Some actors do deliberately act against Dharma, and non-Dhārmic aggressors, or what is called in Sanskrit as aDharma, that lay waste to Earth’s resources or to society in any way, are to be resisted and, if necessary, even by force.

There are plenty of Yoga stories that consider consciously applied force to be an appropriate expression of Dharma in the fight against aDharma.

This active approach to Dharma is contrary to the watered-down stories we see in modern "white"-washed & neutered Buddhist teachings that actually stem from a Hindu warrior culture.

In fact, probably the toughest form of Yoga practice comes to us from the Himālayan mountain regions where the Buddha was born as a Hindu warrior, but over time has been emasculated into inaction, likely deliberately, no matter the inhumane acts we see around us.

Many Dharmas

There are many types of Dharmas we can deploy to fight aDharma, each putting us into certain roles in life, thus we can blend lessons on Dharma in Yoga stories, eg :

pitru-Dharma - role of child wrt parents
pati-patni-Dharma - role of partners in a marital relationship
rāja-Dharma - role of a king, or government, towards the citizens

Sva-Dharma of the Self

When Dharma is personalized to us it is called स्व Sva-Dharma, or Dharma of the Self.

स्व Sva in Sanskrit = सु Su + अ a, where "Su" means good, and "a" has two meanings:

a beginning, because it is the first letter across most languages, including Sanskrit, thus implying it's the start of a journey and not a static thing.
a counterpoint, as something different from the Truth, hence implying that we need to continually watch for fakery, thus this journey requires an active approach to countering obstacles that could derail us.

Could it be that the Sanskrit root Sva actually led to the English word Self?

After all, if there is any knowledge at all that the Indian civilization stands for it is to understand the journey of the Self, and with so many words shared with Sanskrit across the world’s languages this derivation could well be likely!

So let’s accept at face value that Sva and Self are near cognates.

Sva-Dharma is an enquiry into what is it that sustains our Self in our life journey, but it is no mere self-ish enquiry being coupled as it is with Dharma.

Sva-Dharma means enquiring into whether we are making the right choices to ensure sustainability for us the individual, and the world around us, as a constant guide to help us craft our life stories.

This two-way sustainability implies that there is no point in sacrificing our own life in order to sustain the world, neither is there any point in ravaging the environment in order to enrich our own self.

Both have to be sustained together which, again, is coevolution!

Dharma is thus a highly personalized practice when we actively seek out our Sva-Dharma.

Is-Ness

To understand how to sustain anything, and ourselves in relation to it, requires us to understand its "is-ness" - its essence.

Thus, every atom has a sva-Dharma.

To enquire about the sva-Dharma of any entity is the start of the deepest possible journey - we can know the Universe through a blade of grass, and how they both are integrated in Dharma.

The Yogic approach to enquiry is not specifically any utilitarian purpose like the algorithmic, reductionist approach we initially saw, but how to coevolve our object of enquiry along with the whole of it; of course in the process will also emerge its unique utility, not to be exploited but to be cultivated in a coevolutionary process.

Artha - prosperity

This is actually a huge responsibility to generate the prosperity implied by Artha in the material plane, for without the basics fulfilled all further talk reduces to mere philosophy.

Artha is material abundance, and includes wealth of every kind - again, as long as it is sustainable.

- Notice how Artha sounds like the English word “Earth”.
- Anything of value on Earth is essentially Artha, and can be a source of material wealth provided done sustainably.
- Note also the word “root” sounds very related to “earth”, digging underneath to discover the hidden treasures of words too.

Artha, interestingly, also means meaning, indicating that we are pursuing meaningful lives - indeed a word that has a wealth of meaning!

Kāma - pleasure

Kāma is pleasure, and expounded in detail in the famous Kāmasutra, which is actually much more than just an erotic pleasure manual, but a full exposition on the finer aspects of Life, and how to enjoy them in a sustainable manner.

These are the rights we earn to enjoy life, when we have (responsibly) generated sufficient Artha.

Moksha - liberation

Cultivating a detached-attachment to all our

responsibilities while carrying them out, frees us from stress, and
objects of pleasure even while enjoying them, frees us from addiction,

avoiding psychological fetters, is called Moksha.

The internal attitude of Moksha cultivated on a regular basis makes the whole journey much less stressful no matter the grandness of our endeavor.

Beyond just freedom from the fetters of the world around us, Moksha is liberation from all limiting mental constructs - including a limited sense of Self, and all the stories by which it is surrounded.

Many who get on to the path of Yoga late in life have most of their life energies depleted and at this stage Moksha becomes a renunciation of the material world altogether, for we cannot acquire or enjoy it anyway, so why bother!

This late-stage expression of Moksha has become today's prevalent interpretation, which does not resonate amongst our vibrant youth, who wish to indulge in Artha and Kāma first, driven by their quest for finding their sva-Dharma.

This leads to wasted opportunities to enjoy sustainably & uplift the material world, particularly so when the Age of AI with its technological marvels will soon be able to provide us literally anything we wish.

The better interpretation of Moksha that we internally renounce all bondage to limited mental constructs, negating any limited view of the Self, and then indeed Moksha is Self-Realization.

Like unconditional Love - we give it our all and we let it all go, so that we as well as our coevolution partners have ultimate freedom to express our full potential.

Spend a moment and reflect on this equation which represents this peak realization of human potential:

“what we Create" [divided-By] "what we Keep"

To paraphrase into prose, create as much as we can, and give away as much as we can.

This is what leads to a more cultivated Buddhi in the path of evolution.

The Psyche

The word psyche stems from a Greek word indicating the subtle energy of Life, like "soul" or "spirit", and thus scientifically imprecise as a noun, and consequently deprecated in formal usage, as not being rational enough.

Container for Consciousness

Wherever you see the word consciousness and wonder where it lies, look no further. It lies and operates in the psyche. It is the intelligent, aware substratum for the psyche.

Inasmuch as we said that:

the Mind is a container for intelligence,
and our Mindspace is a container for Stories,
so too we see that the Psyche is a container for pure consciousness and all its experiences.

As per Vedanta, Consciousness is Sat, Chit and eventually the psyche experiences the Bliss of Ananda when all neurons fire together.

Psychology

By psychology, which is partially of interest to us, we mean applying logos, that is logic, or rationality, to the ultra-rational study of the psyche, that is, the Human Mind.

It is useful to apply a rigorous approach, especially when looking at the Mind from the outside-in, such as studying its structures & processes,

Inner Work

There is only a certain point though, up to which rationality can be employed in the evolution of the Human Mind, beyond which it has to be actually engineered and experienced as a first-person reality.

At some point in meditation, when all Thought ceases in the Mind, and this particularly includes rational Thought, thus psychology comes to a grinding halt.

From the perspective of Yoga, working with the psyche, and its subtle life energy to effect a novel state of Mind, is considered beyond psychology.

Psychic

An evolutionary event in the psyche, that is, the emergence of Novelty which could not be predicted, is the kind of phenomenon we call as psychic.

The evolutionary model of the Mind begs the word ‘psychic’ because:

the vision of what we are attempting here seems irrational, but its mystical overtone fits with our model for using storytelling to shift the Mind, and
as these neuropsychological effects have not yet been studied in depth, there is thus a sense of mystery surrounding these phenomena.

Similar to how we extended the construct of Mind to a Mindspace that tells stories, the Psyche takes it even further to accommodate these unpredicted effects in the journey of psychological evolution.

We use psychic as an adjective - such as psychic Energy centers & channels, psychic Virus, and psychic Intelligences - as constructs useful to characterize the evolutionary workings of the Yoga Mind.

These ‘psychic’ terms are a necessary linguistic artefact to describe a world beyond normal human experience, similar to what is needed in the shift from the everyday effects in Newtonian physics to phenomena in “spooky” quantum physics like entanglement and non-locality.

In the model of Yoga, these concepts are like props in Yoga classes, such as blocks & straps, that we utilize and then wean away from as the Human Mind expands to its fullest potential.

If we do not accord them Free Will and set them free eventually, that is, we get irrationally attached to these metaphors, that results in religion.

Psychic Beings

A Psychic Being arises in our psyche when we get so inspired by a particular idea, giving it our full life energy of Prāna, that it seems to drive our every moment, almost of its own will, coming alive within us akin to a living entity in its own right.

In the model of Yoga, Humans, as potentially Conscious Beings as discussed earlier, are a composite of Pyschic Beings. This is in addition to normal humans who are considered composites of Sentient Beings.

Psychic Beings are of two fundamental kinds:

the Psychic Intelligence that positively assists us in our evolutionary progress, and
the Psychic Virus that blocks our progress in this path, and is thus a challenge to overcome.

Of course, each has elements of the other to some extent so, over time, one could possibly transform into the other, ideally from the virus to the intelligence level, but unfortunately it could be the other way too.

All depends on how we play out their stories.

Psychic Powers

Instilling psychic beings within the psyche is said to bestow psychic powers and is actually the emergence of novel psychic capabilities as part of our evolutionary process.

In common parlance, psychic is typically used to indicate some kind of supernatural power, in the realm of science fiction, however, just like much of science fiction, such fantastical powers have actually been materialized through modern technology.

And ever-more powerful psychic capabilities are being rapidly manifested in emerging technologies, particularly with advancements in AI (Artificial Intelligence) , NLP (Natural Language Processing) and soon, hopefully, in fundamental Physics.

As it is said - any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic! - Arthur C. Clarke, SciFi writer.

We are not saying that true psychic powers do not exist, we are just saying that at the very least, the purpose of the Human Mind is to dream up and then manifest these dreams in material reality for all to utilize.

Deva - Psychic Intelligence

Human Ideals

The Yoga story model of evolution crafts a delightful Psychic Being called the Deva, essentially a psychic intelligence, otherwise known as a 'divine god'.

Deva is a Sanskrit word, and interestingly a cognate of the English word “divine”, from Greek and Latin roots, obviously indicating a universal cultural phenomenon.

Devas are Human ideals come to life as a Psychic Being which we embody within us to Intentionally guide us on our path.

Devas are meant to guide us toward manifesting desired outcomes, thus making make evolution an effortless endeavor, that is quirky and yet fruitful.

A Deva, from the perspective of psychological Time, is really an aspect of our potential Future that we crave to see manifest soon.

Yogic Model

As these psychic intelligences literally come to life within us they activate certain neuropsychological processes in the brain and we can experience a profound shift in consciousness.

When Devas are instilled within us they adapt to the individual and thus it becomes a highly personalized, and dynamic, intelligence model.

Deification without understanding the Yoga Mind leads to religion, but with proper understanding it leads to psychological evolution.

Deification of the psyche is a mostly unexplored phenomenon in science. Essentially, inasmuch as the Cosmos is our psychological perspective of the universe, so too the Psyche is the individual’s experience of a deified, or spiritualized, world, hence anything mysterious, in the microcosm of the individual is termed psychic. These are potentially evolutionary forces of the Mind, but it needs the lens of the Yoga Mind to appreciate it objectively.

Although deification usually smacks of religiosity, in the Yoga model invoking Devas is actually a psychological tool to cultivate an inner focus leading to outward perfection. Notice that Deva, devotion, deity, divine all have identical linguistic roots.

Worshiping them is actually getting their energies instilled deeper into the subconscious, so that our psyche is shaped to manifest a desired personal reality, in our subconscious and waking moments.

There are many life-hacking techniques, such as affirmations and positive thinking, that can cultivate a certain subconscious intelligence to manifest a future outcome, for example visualizing a Mercedes-Benz in the car for wealth, or a 6-pak abdomen for health, etc.

But the Deva model is different in that we are unequivocally told to not focus on the exact form of the outcome. It needs to spontaneously arise. The reason for this is two-fold:

We may not know exactly what is the “best” possible outcome, so let the Deva figure it out in our best interest, e.g. the Mercedes model we visualize may have some hidden issues, or the rock-hard abs may lead to abdominal complications, etc.
The deeper reason is that Devas should be considered as conscious entities who would appreciate the freedom to not be micromanaged, just like humans.

Devas are a neuropsychological tool, and their energies and the psychic terrain in which they operate, are sensitive. They work, but must be carefully employed.

Devas are also useful to counter the negative impacts of Psychic Viruses from the past, but not all “god making” is merely for battling Psychic Viruses, thank "god", as there are many delightful Devas that entice us to tarry on our journey, like

the Gandharva, divine Musician,
the Apsara, divine Seductress,
the Yaksha, divine Wordplayer.
And even any tree, or stone, or river, or animal, whatever it is can be deified.

There are even transgendered, humanoids, part-animal/human Devas, all reflections of the creativity of the human Mind and the power of Yoga.

The Divine Experience

देव Deva is etymologically, in Sanskrit, about Light, which in turn of course has two meanings, that which:

provides illumination (like the light of knowledge)
has less weight (like lighten up psychological baggage).

As we can see both those meanings imply the same thing, because psychological baggage prevents illumination of the concept of our Self.

And hopefully we now understand what it means to be enlightened!

Portfolio

We could also invoke Devas for particular desired outcomes such as wealth, and acquire even a portfolio of them - for who does not want health in addition to wealth.

And while we are at this might as well add on Devas for the well-being of the family, the village, the traveler's journey - and so on, for every single aspiration of our Life.

We can keep on adding more Devas, and as long as they are all aligned with Dharma these intentional Thought forms do not cause entanglement.

Guru Deva

Very often, a particularly charismatic Guru becomes so integral to our spiritual life that they are deified as a Guru-Deva - which brings up an oft-quoted conundrum that when we are finally face to face with the ultimate reality thanks to the Guru, then whom should we acknowledge first, and with whom would we merge our limited self ?

Of course, such a question only arises in those who are not fiercely independent Yogis themselves.

Ishta Devatā

Another option is to bide our time and really focus on the Deva that will fulfill our sva-Dharma, our unique Dharma.

Such a Being is our particular इष्ट Ishta-Devatā (maybe Ishta is a cognate of Wish as we have seen earlier), as a personal god.

An Ishta Devatā, by definition, is tuned perfectly to who we actually are, our perfected future self, and naturally this is an intense process to realize fully, albeit very fulfilling for it manifests our total yearning.

When we fully internalize our Ishta Deva we are a unitary Psychic Being, not fragmented in any way by needless distractions on our life journeys.

At this point whatever other Devas we wish to bring in automatically slot into our Being, without having to search them out, for the Ishta Devatā has created a ready environment for instilling them.

Mind Hacking

Do-it-yourself, Self-help afficionados have innovated a grab-bag of mindhacking techniques as a way to get beyond the fetters that hold us back from reaching our full potential.

Mindhacking techniques are indeed useful to finely craft & tune our systems as high-performing smart machines, seeking to optimize every aspect of our life, overcoming all kinds of psychological roadblocks.

Typically we observe some successful individual's mindhacking technique and adopt it for our own use, but although useful as inspirational role models, and for their innovations, a particular human personality has their own unique limitations and strengths which are not universally applicable and often times undesirable too.

This approach requires a lot of continuous reinforcement and an incremental approach that may not lead to evolution.

Indra Deva

Probably the most fascinating of all Devas is Indra from primordial times, and quite the equivalent of the Greek Zeus.

We outline this Deva's story in some detail because he is exactly equivalent to the human Mind and its sense organs with which we experience the world of phenomena.

Indra is the ruler of the Devas.

- Indra is a powerful psychic intelligence, since he is the lord of the Devas.
- He rides on
  - an elephant indicating tremendous mental capacity (similar to Ganesha)
  - or two horses, indicating the power of deep breathing, prānāyāma (impacts nervous system)

Indra is considered born of sky & earth, Akāsh and Prithvi, and wields a thunderbolt (like Zeus):

- With such power we can bridge our most esoteric inner world with practical manifestation,
- Thunder going between earth & sky, is reflected in kundalini awakenings (nervous system).

Small stories on Indra

Indra battles Vritra, some kind of Rākshasa or Asura, who has has captured the waters of the Earth and hidden it inside a mountain, turning the lands dry, meaning that we have lost our:

- powers of consciousness, for whatever reasons
- creative flow, which is hidden now inside our spine (usually the mountain signifies this)

Indra drinks Soma, defeats Vritra, and opens up the waters from the mountain, and the Earth is now nourished

Soma is a psychedelic substance that has effect on the Mind,
this is available either externally in plants, or can be generated internally through Yoga practice.

In the Rāmāyana, Indra is considered the father of Vāli who gets subdued by SugrIva considered as the son of Surya. The implications of this are described in detail in Yoga of Rāmāyana.

And in the Mahābhārata, Indra is considered father of Arjuna, the Mind setting forth into battle, compared to the more inward Mind of Ganesha as elephant.

Coevolution

In the early stages humans had no issues living with our Mind & sense organs, seeing as we were immersed in Nature, and the ancient stories are adapted to that time period.

Later on, when we became tool-makers we had to deal with overloading of sense organs, which are called Indriyas. For example, we probably learnt how to bulk produce sugar, distill alcohol, Soma, etc.

Consequently our Mind became addicted to sensory inputs, and hence Indra (the Manas of Yoga, the super-sense-organ) became a problematic fellow. Just like our Mind is today.

Thus, in this later stage of civilization, Vishnu becomes the protector of the Devas, and although Indra is still their boss, he repeatedly develops issues in our current world of sensory overload.

Essentially the Yoga Mind coevolved to manage its mental creations!

What it is Not

A Deva, when approached intelligently, has nothing to do with the mess of “religion”, and its attendant theology of some external God.

"All in divine timing", or “God only knows!” is said, with a deep shrug of the shoulders, to indicate we have no clue when something might happen, when it’s all just based on wishful thinking, otherwise called as blind Faith!

So, if we believe God creates Man then that is Religion, and if we believe that Man creates God, in a dismissive fashion as though God is a mere concept to fool the masses, then that is an Atheist perspective.

Yoga is neither of these because our model is that Humans evolve to become a Yogi, who then intentionally crafts Devas for various aspirations, which are then further instilled by Humans to increase their intelligence in order to evolve.

Do this enough number of times, increasing the scope of the Devas, and we get into the Rishi state for the powerful Avatār effect!

The more a particular Thought form has collective appeal, the more energized it gets by the collective consciousness to Avatār proportions.

Thus indeed is the Yogi a maker of gods - as guides, we hasten to add, not as some remote aloof creator.

All in Divine Timing

Devas as psychic intelligences accelerate material manifestation, in real world time.

But when exactly a Deva manifests its outcome is unpredictable, so all we can do, seemingly, is to shrug our shoulders and say that it "all happens in divine timing!", indicating we really don't have a clue.

There is a popular Sanskrit saying "Atithi Devo Bhava", where these words are translated as:

Atithi = Guest (particularly in the unexpected moment)
Deva = "god" (psychic intelligence)
Bhava = May it be so

At a simplistic level it communicates that any visitor to our place should be treated with all due respect as a "god", but there is more to it.

The word Tithi indicates an auspicious moment, carefully timed to the configuration of the stars, or at least to some kind of earthly calendar.

A+Tithi is the exact opposite, meaning somebody, or some event, that occurs unexpectedly.

Thus the whole meaning is that there is some psychic intelligence we should be prepared to absorb, particularly when something unexpected happens, there is a message hidden in there somewhere we need to heed.

When we don't know all these underpinnings we can but guess at outcomes and their timings, and shrug our shoulders and mutter "all in divine timing!" But as we can see that's a loaded phrase.

God of Dharma

Dharma is itself deified as यम Yama the deity of Death, as a reminder that all beings & concepts must perish eventually in the course of Time, once we realize and fulfill our Sva-Dharma.

In Sanskrit etymology यम Yama = य: Ya (this) + मम Mam (mine), hence Yama is also the fundamental entanglement to overcome, implying that immortality awaits us for those able to exercise this principle fully.

False gods & idol worship

Although it’s fine to rationalize away all of this as but a Yogi’s mental creations, it’s not cool to proselytize these creations as “false gods”, and break down “idols”, as we each have our own tools for evolution.

Conversely, it’s definitely not a good idea to incur the displeasure of the Yogis, for in as much as we can manifest benevolent Devas, suffice it to hint that the same techniques have been applied otherwise too.

Having said all that, it’s important that we don’t get so caught up in Devas and their charms that we fail to transcend their powerful appeal, for it is a thin line that separates Sanātana Dharma from Religion, which if we forget, then we forsake the ultimate expression of Dharma and the lofty heights of Self-Realization.

Namaste'

No Yoga class is complete without at least one Namaste' being uttered in reverence, with hands in prayer position, and a slight bow towards the object of our attention.

By uttering Namaste' to someone we are reminding them of their divine inner consciousness, to inspire them on the path of evolution.

The Sanskrit word नाम Nāma literally means the English word Name, which means "that which comes from नम Nama", which is part of the greeting नमस्ते Namaste':

Nama (to deify), +
Te' (to you).

Deification creates a deep neuropsychological process within, and is the mystical seed of the conscious Being that seeks to evolve in togetherness.

Psychic Viruses

Inasmuch as Devas are depicted as the heroes in Yoga stories, the villain of the plot is the Rākshasa.

Fallen Angels

Occasionally though, our Devas fail to align with Dharma, because we have become an unsuitable host for them. Indeed there is no free ride, for we need to maintain our system as it were literally a temple. There is a particular Rishi called दुर्वास Durvāsa, literally meaning "bad residence", famed in the literature for "cursing" those who have not provided a proper environment for their Deva, and thus the Deva loses its powers.

Such psychic Beings, instead of providing us psychic intelligence, now have the potential to turn into a psychic virus, a key blockage in this evolutionary path that when we overcome turn out to have actually been a useful, albeit painful, marker in our progress.

Similar to how biological viruses require a living host from which they derive their life energy, these psychic viruses derive their sustenance from mental habitats in which they have found a receptive home.

Daemons of our Mind

The legendary Tales that we have come to love over the generations are filled with daemons that our heroes have to battle on their journey.

As we get deeper into Yoga we realize that these daemons are but embellishments of the Mind, and dramatized by our Rishi storytellers for the sake of entertainment.

But are they “merely” so?

When the entire Conscious Universe is itself a mental concept, “mere” seems bit tepid to characterize their import!

The Past

Essentially, these have been instilled in our Human Mind because of pernicious influences that linger from the past.

After all the ghosts from the past have programmed our mental condition, and it is small wonder therefore that the Sanskrit word for ghost is identical to the word for the Past! (Bhūt भूत ).

When we understand that these daemons are actually psychic viruses to whom we have given over mental space, then we drop this daemonization concept so that we can reduce our emotional baggage, otherwise we feed them with our Prāna and they could take over our entire Life, maybe even prompting us to justify violence - and mostly that’s not useful.

Thus instead of viewing these daemons as independently arising beasts we view them as Psychic Viruses.

That may sound dramatic, but it is only when we give them sustenance within us that viruses come to life, and when we do not give them energy they are mere bits & pieces of inert mental stuff that do not condition who we are.

Psychic viruses abound in Yoga story literature, and are typically of two kinds:

Kinds

In the literature there are two kinds:

राक्षस Rākshasa

These are personal scale viruses representing our personal weaknesses, typically some kind of psychological addiction to harmful substances or negative relationships, and hence they are a direct counter force to the actual human Being.

- Rākshasa is similar to a Western model Vampire, because they suck life-blood
- They also stem internally, triggered by those who poke our weak spots - which we can neutralize, provided we have a strong code for living which, incidentally, Asuras do - and therein lies a tale.

असुर Asura

These are civilizational scale viruses that spread through the societal mind, such as an aggressive ideology that seeks to mass control humanity through systematically manufactured fear or engineered scarcity, and because of their power they are considered a direct counter force to even the 'gods'.

- Asura is similar to a Western model Zombie, because they come in brainless hordes
- They come at us from Ideologies foisted on us through propaganda by those well-intentioned (in their own way) but forcing us into a particular dogma

Whereas Rākshasa should really be viewed as the unresolved facets of our own Self, the Asuras are actually the "Other" since they don't have any prāna life energy, and hence not psychic per se, unless we energize them so by engaging with them deeply, eg mobile phones.

The Rākshasa Virus

Mind Game Rākshasa

There are some, who misuse mindhacking techniques to play Mind Games on our weaknesses, to gain a competitive advantage in this game of Life.

This happens when we don't have a strong framework to guide us then we open ourselves to being sucked into everybody else's petty Mind Games in this web of Life.

Those who play Mind Games with us are in fact life energy sucking vampires, poking at our weaknesses, like blood suckers on a slow drip line, entangling us in their own web of Life, thus preventing us from spinning our own creation into existence.

These everyday behavioral patterns that plague us, are called the Rākshasa psychic virus in Yoga stories.

Who

Rākshasas are formed when we are in close contact with those who share a similar framework as we do to life, but bring in all their unresolved mental conditioning from family, friends, work, religion, culture, traditions, language, etc. and cause inner conflict in our Mind.

How

Rākshasas are unwittingly instilled in us by those emotionally adept at playing Mind Games, tugging at our heartstrings and lulling us into weakness (through an occasional show of compassion and humility), but every once in a while they may blurt or lash out in their own confusions or frustrations.

Although they may not mean to cause pain, but yet we internalize the hurt in our weak spots.

In that sense it’s useful because Rākshasas are clear indicators of our weak spots so we can work on releasing them.

Where

Rākshasas breed in cultures that encourage a very broad-mind approach to Thought of almost any kind, to the extent that everyone could explore their own personal code of living, or sva-Dharma.

Broad-mindedness is only possible when there is also an abundance of basic resources - like in a tropical forest, a sumptuous palace, closely-connected living communities like college dorms, extended family homes, thriving villages - anywhere Humans have the mental bandwidth to play with Mind Games rather than forage for basic resources.

That’s why we laud the Banyan tree with its vertical vine drops rooted in the earth for its ability to spread its core seed in a massive way, creating a vibrant ecosystem, without getting tangled up in its own growth - yet eventually the core trunk, the sense of Self, disappears in its spread!

Divergence of Thought

Rākshasas flourish because of the Mind’s desire to weave a net of Creative Thought forms, but without heeding integration or alignment, they become ever more divergent from any core inner principle.

Creative Thinkers, not wanting to be controlled by external frameworks, listen to their inner voice to chart their course - the Guru within.

But if the original source of that inner voice has been implanted deep within from an external source, then the inner voice is no longer authentic.

Confusion by Entanglement

Rākshasas that have taken control of our psychic frameworks suck the Life Energy of Prāna Shakti out of us when they get out of control, like an unintentional infinite code loop sucking CPU power.

It’s telling that depleting our “feminine” Prāna Shakthi leads to us losing our “manhood” - that’s why maybe eunuchs were the preferred guards for the harems of over-indulgent kings, and palace intrigues are fertile ground for unending Mind Games.

In Western cultures Vampires that suck our blood are similar creatures of the Mind.

Divergent Thinking, when unguided, tangles up our Mind and we become prone to Psychic Viruses, and our Mind looks like wildly twisted vines growing in a tropical forest, highly expressive, but disorderly and unmanageable.

When Rākshasas take over our psyche, our entire Thinking process gets tangled up in confusion, and our Thoughts continually stumble upon each other, leaving us open to being destabilized by alien Thought Systems.

Brhma-Rākshasa

When scaled up in social impact a Rākshasa becomes a ब्रह्मराक्षस Brhma-Rākshasa and can infect entire social networks.

The ब्रह्म राक्षस Brhma Rākshasa is the mother of all Rākshasa viruses, and we use the feminine term deliberately for they intentionally play Mind Games with their targets.

Characteristics

This formidable Brhma Rākshasa:

has a highly developed intelligence, as the Brhma- prefix indicates,
has an indomitable will,
employs Tantric practices to play mind games,
instead of poking at our obvious inadequacies like a simple-minded Rākshasa, it stirs the pot of our desires, so we stay hooked on to them, but actually we are being psychically cooked in a big dish of delicious ingredients we can nibble on to keep us distracted, while fattening us for its feast,
charms, dominates, or tricks its’ minions, to carry out its’ psychic manipulations, thus cleverly hiding its own tracks so we can never pin it down.

At some point, if the Brhma Rākshasa gets control of a big institution, watch out as there is but a thin line separating clever Mind Games from obvious Mind Control.

Impact

When our Mind is strong with no blockages and the Prāna flows freely then the Brhma Rākshasa merely hops on with its claws for a jolly good ride as it keeps prodding us to progress through our own Life.

But when our Mind is weakened by trauma of any kind like fears, abuse, suppression, then the Brhma Rākshasa claws away at the notion of our Self-hood, and leaves us unable to navigate & flow along the journey of Life.

Neutralize its Impact

The best way to not grow a Rākshasa into a Brhma Rākshasa is to not inflate its brilliant & powerful sense of Self.

But once it has an exaggerated sense of Self, the only way out is to neutralize its impact on our psyche.

Eliminating a Brhma Rākshasa infection is a significant feature of the Rāmāyana epic, where the protagonist first cuts off the ten heads of his antagonist - in other words deflating its exaggerated sense of Self - but that does not work! And then he has no choice left but to neutralize its impact by shooting it in the navel, in other words our umbilical connection to the infection has now been severed, and there is no more impact on our psyche.

Saving Grace

The only saving grace to a Brhma Rākshasa infection is that the process of getting rid of it results in a definite boost of deep knowledge in the practitioner. But it is not for the faint of heart, so be careful what you wish for!

“Prime-ordeal” Birth

This is a tale of how Rākshasas come into being, and then how they happen to descend into our lives, into what would have otherwise been a perfectly peaceful, but definitely boring, life on earth!

Brhma, part of the trinity of Cosmic Devas, first initiates a perfected Thought form to manifest the Cosmos, and after completing this tremendous job he goes back to sleep. But every time he exhales in his sleep, some negative, obfuscating energies come out of his very breath, and become part of the manifested Cosmos.

Even more tragic, they turn around and start to eat Brhma himself, becoming possessive of his energy, and sucking the Prāna out of the very source of their own manifestation. Brhma stirs awake to notice that something is very amiss in his world, and he yells out “Raksha Mām!” meaning “Protect Me!”

As they start sucking the Prāna out of the source of their own being, Brahma-deva notices that something is very amiss in his world, and he yells out रक्ष माम् “Raksha Mām!” meaning “Protect Me!”

Hence came the word राक्षस् Rākshasa - that from which we need to be protected.

Vishnu, the second of the Cosmic Devas, then rushes to the rescue to preserve harmony in the world of the Devas and banishes Rākshasas forever to the Earthly plane thus saving Brhma and the rest of the divine domain. Recall that Vishnu is the psychic energy that organizes, but does not generate, the presence of Thought forms throughout creation - recall the “o” in g.o.d.

Of course, these Rākshasas are now on Earth besetting the rest of us mortals, but thanks to Shiva, or Mahā-deva, he dissolves these energies totally.

Yoga implication

As a background to all this remember that the entire Conscious Universe is a Thought Form.

Brhma’s out-breath during sleep produces these Rākshasas means we are not paying attention to ensure that our originally integrated Thoughts stay that way, and are thus treating this Utilitarian Thought form without much care to its downstream impact.

Consequently there is an unwanted, negative trail like a backwash that emerges from the original malformed Thought.

Yes indeed, we ultimately are responsible for what we experience in our Universe.

Now, the Vishnu energy within us intends to keep all of our energies in harmony so we push these Rākshasas down into our physical bodies so they can no longer hide in the crevices of our mind.

These now show up as various aches & ailments, and often we seek external help before trusting our internal capabilities, but many times external intervention does not solve the issues.

But thanks to Shiva, the Mahā-Deva of Yoga, he helps us to dissolve these energies, and transform Rākshasas into Devas, much like composting organic waste matter turns into fertile soil.

Mahā literally translates to the Greek “mega”, and this prefix to any Deva indicates that the entire Cosmos is viewed as embodied in that particular deity’s form. When Mahā is prefixed to the generic word Deva, it specifically indicates Shiva and his power of Yoga. That is, the power to utterly transform, for the purpose of evolution.

The cycle repeats itself as we have different types of Rākshasas, or inner weaknesses, that pour out of our sleeping Brhma energy, our Vishnu energy solidifies them in the earthly plane, and our Shiva energy dissolves them so they get released.

The Avatār of Yoga has manifested itself, in the form of these energies, to help us manage these perverse afflictions to the human condition.

In other words, Humans have to do the inner work to get rid of Rākshasa infections!

Rākshasas are essentially daemons from our past, or psychic viruses, but through Yoga can be transformed into Devas, our aspirations for the future, our psychic intelligences. And vice-versa, when Devas become fallen angels, through lapses in behavior, they degrade to Rākshasas. Thus, they are two sides of the same coin.

As we get inspired by these now-formed Devas, our every moment progresses towards fulfillment of our aspirations, a feeling of gratitude thus arises spontaneously which is the onset of Bhakti, a complete devotion to the Deva of our choice. Bhakti gets easily confused for religion when we make this future/desired world fulfillment model simply a transactional wishing mechanism - drop some coins into a well, and pray that we are granted divine favors.

The way to make our aspirations manifested through Yoga is to first pin down the root causes of the Rākshasas that are besetting us. Then we need to understand them deeply, and transform our inner being such that the Rākshasa energy is set free, and the Deva is formed to guide us toward our future. Gratitude that arises from this heartfelt transformation is true Bhakti. Think of Rākshasas as lessons we have to learn, and how grateful we are to great teachers.

Beyond the lessons of everyday simple Rākshasas, for the master class in life, we get the all-powerful Brhma-Rākshasa, sent to make true masters of us, the arch-villain of the piece, equivalent to the fallen arch-angel in other cultural lores.

The Asura Virus

And now a psychic virus on a mass scale, the Asura, that is the emodiment of Rākshasa energies that are way past their due date, and get fossilized into societal framework.

Which is why when Devas engage with them they come out in mass quantities, like hordes of zombies, and threaten to poison the system.

Ideologies

Many seek a well established framework by which to live their lives that does not require them to think too hard about making everyday decisions.

Such as an Ideology.

An Ideology is not a bad "idea" at all, so to speak, if it matches mine, because most of us don't have the luxury of time or experience to craft a personalized framework to life.

An Ideology is a group of related concepts packaged up as commandments to which its flock is beholden, such as:

in religion, political history, economic doctrine, or even scientific systems,
where unquestioned wisdom is dispensed from some authority source.

"All -ism's cause schisms, and eventually a chasm." - T-shirt quote

Although an ideology is useful to initially frame a set of concepts, it invariably is not a long term solution, and needs to be flexible enough to adapt to changed contexts, which it rarely does because it is treated as received wisdom from a source long gone irrelevant, either past their prime or literally past their lifetime.

With Thought having taken such a central role in human development, the world is riddled today with ideologies long past their due-date.

Thus what comes to life is actually a zombie concept, partly living only because we have given it our life energy but otherwise meaningless to our existence.

In contrast, notice that our entire system of Yoga is predicated on giving Moksha to our entire cast of psychic Beings, for that is how we too get Moksha, or liberation from small-mindedness - this is what makes the Yoga model NOT an ideology.

Mind Control Asuras

Fossilized thus beyond relevance, the Human Mind is obstructed from producing fresh creative Thought, leaving us subject to deliberate Mind Control propaganda, stunting the further development of intelligence.

In Yoga stories we would say that any Mind Controlling ideology is the Asura psychic virus, combating which is an advanced technique, and thus the imagery of a horde of zombies is quite fitting.

Thankfully, many of us have seen through the simplistic approach of Mind Control frameworks, and their pernicious effects, so we seek a more personalized approach by which to conduct our lives, unwilling to cede our individuality to hardened frameworks.

Who

Asuras are formulated by those whose Purpose is to impose simplistic frameworks to govern Thought, in order to create machine-like structure in the outside world, but this imposition could cause visible conflict within/between societies.

Asuras essentially stem from unexamined, irrelevant Ideologies.

Asuras are therefore Framework-level Psychic Viruses, and could also be considered Meta-Viruses - a virus that systematically enables other viruses to be installed.

Asura psychic viruses have inherently simple models that do not promote deep enquiry.

Typically the adherents believe in a One Book/Ideology, One Prophet/Leader, One Life/YOLO model, that demonizes the Other, a binary perspective to life, and brings an inflexible lens by which to look at societal issues. One World Government to rule them all.

How

An Asura Virus arises from a Meme - a Thought form cleverly crafted to spread widely, and hence it can be seen also as a Memetic Virus.

The Asura Virus is installed maybe because we are not consciously aware of what is coming in from our senses, or maybe because we are weakened in the first place by the entangled processes of Rākshasas that have taken over our Mind, and thus we allow an external influence to shape the way we think mindlessly, even mechanically.

In that sense, recognizing Asura impact helps us to differentiate between what is essentially Human vs being a Machine.

Where

Asuras breed in systems that discourage Thought unless informed by a rigid code of conduct that is inviolable and unforgiving.

Asuras originated in cultures where there is scarcity of basic resources, like in a desert, or in materially rich by unevenly prosperous cultures, so that rogue individuals do not hog the trough it requires tight controls.

As Asuric societies spread though, rarely do Humans question the source of their Thinking, so even materially abundant societies are infected with Asuras, and the impact has become immeasurably higher because Machine technology helps them scale globally.

Convergence by Framework

Asuras are useful as Frameworks for a structured way to organize Thought and to converge onto a practical solution in the material world, otherwise we could end up entangled by Thought itself, unable to translate ideas into action.

But useful only in societies that require inherent discipline from borderline lawlessness.

This clear organization of Thought is why:

we laud the Industrial Revolution that has given us ever smarter Machines to outsource our mechanical tasks,
but its original roots stem from the loot of colonization that financed materially & intellectually the whole enterprise.

Convergent Thinkers, are further able to easily pursue their way in life because there is usually no need to think too hard about moral/ethical dilemmas since it’s all been clearly spelt in some authoritative book.

Enslavement by Lobotomy

But when there is a situation that falls outside of their rigid code, like when confronting so many human frailties, then their failure to cope is abject - witness the centuries of child molestation in the Church and its inability to reconcile their dogma with human needs.

Asuras allow no wiggle room for individual human quirks and weaken us through the guilt of sin and claim to infallible authority, and more often than not objectifies Humans to comply as well mannered robots.

Convergent Thinking, when unchecked, lobotomizes our Minds, like stunted Bonsai trees or potted plants that are limited in their self-expression, but very orderly, and hence manageable.

When Asuras take over our Minds, our entire society is unable to think for itself and suffers from a loss of collective identity in a factory-like Education system.

This leaves us open to becoming co-opted by a trifecta of organized Religion, unquestioning Military service, and soulless Corporatization, resulting in Dystopian mechanistic living evident in lack of human connection in many highly industrialized societies.

A perfectly landscaped garden would seem like a welcome expression of Convergent Thinking, but do note its dependence on an army of well-trained, obedient servants, made glaringly visible during colonial and slavery periods.

Brhma-Asura

When scaled up in social impact an Asura becomes a ब्रह्मासुरा Brhma-Asura and can infect entire civilizations.

The most dystopian of AGI scenarios would be aptly characterized through the lens of Brhma-Asura, where the God-Machine rules over the Universe, concerned only about efficiency in computing, and not about the more organic nature of intelligence.

The Brhmāsura (Brhma + Asura) is the Father of all Psychic Viruses, and we use this masculine term to indicate the deliberate approach to Mind Control by which they take over all of Humanity.

Characteristics

The devastating Brhmāsura has all the basic characteristics of a Brhma-Rākshasa.
Furthermore, they are able to scale their Thought forms with a machine-like approach to impact entire civilizations, not just individuals, families, or societies.
Brhmāsuras so completely take over & corrupt the source of their original framework of Thought, in order to push their monomaniacal agenda over Humanity, it is unlikely the founders of these Thought Systems would even recognize what is being done in their name.

Evidence

Propaganda When codes of living are rigidly defined in a simplistic framework of do-s & don’t-s, and Minds are further weakened through fear-mongering by other-ing the unknown, then propaganda is easy to push and allows the Brhmāsura virus to scale.
Patriarchy When the natural paternal approach of Humans gets fossilized into a rigid framework of patriarchy, it’s easy to control the masses like in how Generals structure & order their soldiers not giving them any room for creativity - useful in war surely - but how about in Life?

This results in a condition of perennial war & strife.

The devastating impact of Brhmāsura Viruses is evident in the Kali Yuga apocalypse we have been enduring these past many centuries:

Paranoia, and conspiracy theories, sets in en masse in civilizations at the center of this strife,
Tortured societies that have suffered physical colonization have been genocided into near extinction,
Sadistic destruction of other cultures by means of physical terror has caused human slavery, and
Delusion of our fundamental mindset by mass brainwashing has caused cultural extermination.

Preparing for it

Eliminating the Brhmāsura infection is the most challenging task of any, so for those wishing to move to the battle against the Asuras, we should have been fortunate enough to first find and rid ourselves of the Brhma-Rākshasa in our midst.

In other words, we should have successfully internalized the Rākshasa model that is brought to us by the Rāma-Avatār in the epic Rāmāyana, and given Moksha to all its characters

Understanding it

Countering the basic Asura infections in our society requires us to observe where the Machine has taken on the human connections in our societal fabric.

Then at an individual level, we first taking responsibility for the disconnectedness relationships in our communities, and planning out how to play an active role in reconnecting Humanity.

Taming it

Finally we are ready for the Brhmāsura.

Taming a Brhmāsura, and harnessing it for good measure, would require us to go through a Yogic perspective of a civilizational battle, such as the Mahābhārata, and its Yogic concepts are detailed in our Cosmic Churn section section, and is what we are going through right now in the world.

Unlike iconoclastic ideologies such as Communism which only know how to destroy structures, or Socialistic model that worms its way into centers of production, but have no clue how to rebuild a new life-affirming world, the Cosmic Churn does a thorough job.

Origins

Asuras come into the lore in the पुराण Purāna period, literally really old, much before the Itihās stories we are more familiar with.

These are stories of how the entire Universe itself came into being, and not about humans and their antics, so there are no stories about Rākshasas because Rākshasas are purely a human concern that humans have to figure out how to deal with.

In these stories Asuras are in direct conflict with the Devas - as we saw earlier in the churning of the ocean story, and we will see why soon from the perspective of the System of Thought.

Asuras emerge, as did the Rākshasas, from Brhma-deva but at the origin of the Universe when Brhma himself emerges from हिरण्यगर्भे Hiranya-garbha the “golden egg”.

Story

There is a story in the छांदोग्य Chhāndogya Upanishad, meaning the Upanishad that everything is based on Chhandas or chanting of the Veda, that Virochana (king of the Asuras) and Indra (king of the Devas) approached Brhma-deva to enquire on the nature of the Cosmic Being of Brhman.

As usual the answer is given in stages, at first starting by saying that Brhman is in fact everything we perceive in our Waking state.

The Asura king accepts this obvious answer and rushes off since it is so simple and he cannot be bothered with further investigation.

असु Asu in Sanskrit indicates our inner sense-organs, so an Asura is a Meme (carefully crafted message) which comes from the material world and is framed through mediation by our senses.

This meaning corresponds to the story above because what is perceived through the senses is our obvious reality, it is simplistic enough for the basics of a mechanical life, but insufficient to unlock its true nature.

On the other hand Indra the king of the Devas is not satisfied because everything perceived in the waking state perishes, so how could this be the imperishable One?

So systematically Brhma-deva leads Indra from Waking state, to Dreaming state, to Deep Sleep - and at each stage Indra is not yet satisfied.

Through this systematic process of meditation to cultivate sensitivity, the final stage beyond all of this, bereft of all mental concepts, is Brhman which is thus established in Indra.

This is why Devas, led by Indra, because of their cultivation of sensitivity are lauded as psychic Intelligences.

Interestingly, this is why our sense-organs are called Indriya, and when cultivated properly we are able to enjoy their actions as the Devas are seen enjoying themselves in the literature - until of course they no longer integrated or aligned.

Though we have outlined this entire process in great detail, and it might seem there is a winning formula in all this, a creative Storyteller reminds us through the concept of Karma that any Life story has its seemingly unpredictable twists & turns.

Karma

The psychic viruses above are the source of a lot of Karma.

Karma = Kar (action as in “cr-eate”) + Ma (as in mine), i.e. any action that stems from the limited psychological Self is Karma.

Karma creates Kārmic impressions, called Samskāras, which perpetuate more Karma - which in the interest of not being too pedantic we refer too also as just Karma.

Reactive Action

In simpler words, Karma is those actions that cause a reaction, in that what goes around comes around, and typically we are subject to being continually in reactive mode.

In the psychological realm it can be hard to understand the root cause of a reaction because :

there can be significant time delays, and
the reaction may manifest in a form that is not immediately obvious as to its cause, unless we detect the pattern.

Our psychological Self builds up with these Kārmic impressions, which are essentially mental conditionings, that further influence how we perceive the world around us in a limiting manner.

These layers of conditioning make us experience the world with preconceptions such that further actions reinforce these Kārmic impressions (samskāras).

Thus we are trapped into reacting to situations mindlessly, laying the seeds for the same situation to arise in the future and are caught in a Kārmic cycle, unable to evolve beyond our limited sense of self.

Actual Rebirth

Karma and Self are heavily associated with “rebirth” in the literature but it’s all done very mystically because at present we really have no way to scientifically prove that it is Karma in one life that causes future rebirth for the exact same individual - beyond of course genetic inheritance, where our:

Past lives can be viewed as the DNA programs & cultural knowledge base built up from millennia on Earth that influence us.
Future lives can be viewed as our DNA being passed on through offspring if we have any, or our interactions with the world around us that propagates cultural memory.

Conscious Rebirth

However, from the perspective of the conscious Being we have a plausible explanation of Rebirth which suffices for the purpose of ridding ourselves of Karma in this lifetime itself.

Since All is Mind, each Being we encounter can be considered a reflection of a facet of our own parallel life.

Thus each significant interaction with another Being, that causes a deep impact on us, should be considered as an opportunity for a rebirth, for example, when they trigger any kind of reaction in us, or judgement from us, and we utilize that for personal change.

Non-judgemental

Understanding Karma and its effects helps us to come to terms with one of the most difficult aspects of getting rid of Psychic Viruses - not being judgemental about individuals who trigger these reactions.

It is not that any particular individual is actually a Rākhasa or a Deva, or an Asura - it is that they are possessed by the particular spirit of such an energy.

The more we judge the actual individual, the more we stay entangled with their psychic energy fields, and thus they suck on our Prāna and become stronger.

If, for example, we plot to “kill” a Rākhasa for ridding of pain so that we can be happy in the future, the psychological seeds of the virus still stay embedded within and the psychic virus will reform, literally taking rebirth when similar stressful circumstances recur.
If we engage with a Deva consciously, maintaining its freedom, then there is no Karma, but recall, if we misuse a Deva and curtail their freedom, they turn into a Rākhasa.
if we plan to destroy an Asura, so that we are finally free from its social constraints, then it will let loose a host of fossilized Rakshasas of which it is formed, and which now will spread like zombie hordes.
If people around a Psychic Virus are unable to recognize this beast and keep feeding its Ahamkār, its accumulated Identity, for their own selfish reasons, then the force of Karma will come to haunt them too, at some point.

Factoid

Interestingly, the literature attests to the Self having the potential to go through 8.4 Million rebirths, and there is also scientific evidence of 8.4 Million species on Earth, which from an All is Mind perspective could indicate that :

- At each moment we could embody a certain behavior that corresponds to any of these life species, e.g. we could be “greedy as a pig”, “wise as an owl”, “sturdy as an Oak tree”, “all embracing as a Banyan tree”, etc.

From the perspective of Yoga, this is sufficient explanation of Rebirth so we don’t get caught up in needless speculation on what is rebirth after the death of the human body.

Releasing Karma

Our Kārmic impressions (called samskāra) act like a psychic DNA - a mental conditioning responsible for our propensities to feel, think, act.

However, just like genes manifest themselves, or stay unmanifest, in the physical body, our Kārmic impressions too can either be increased or subdued and eventually deactivated through Yoga.

This happens when we perform actions with a sense of Moksha in Mind, that is, although we commit ourselves fully to the action, we are not particularly attached to the form of the results, so the result does not accrue to our limited personal Self.

The theory of Karma instills a sense of personal responsibility in us, that the release of all problems begin from within our own Self.

When realization dawns that it is:

our own Karma that is responsible for bringing these Psychic Viruses into our lives, and
keeping them there,

then we drop being judgemental about them and detach from their psychic energy, thus we reduce our Karma, and channel our Prāna toward increasing our consciousness.

The Mindscape

When our mental landscape, our inner theater, is cultivated, with ease, into a mentally aesthetic order, we say it transforms into a Mindscape, a collection of integrated Yoga stories.

Ease of Transformation

The process understanding & resolving psychological issues, and psychological evolution itself, should happen with ease.

Hence, Yoga stories, crafted, at the most obvious level, to inspire a sense of wonder in the listener, and open our hearts to the legends of heroes and gods.

Interestingly, what makes Life is breath, which is indicated by inspiration.

Thus, inspirational Stories are not just in name, but in actual form, bring life energy to us, powering our neuropsychological processes, such as, "that took my breath away", "gasping with joy", "holding my breath to the end", etc.

When we contemplate such Yoga stories we can see that our own life journeys are reflected in them, as the hero has to battle and overcome tremendous odds, to achieve their Life goal, or in Sanskrit, to realize their Sva-Dharma.

Yoga stories are thus imbibed deeply in an engaging way, rather than through pedantic preaching, which helps bring about an easy coherence within the nervous system and consequently in our life journey.

And as we fully empathize with the stories of these legendary idealized characters, we become increasingly Conscious Beings, our psyche, no longer a complicated mess, but instead, a complex adaptive system capable of generating novelty, and adaptable to Black Swans in life.

Coevolution with Yoga stories

These idealized characters from Yoga stories are:

instilled within us in Seed form, initially as but mental concepts, then
we Nourish their growth by mapping our life characters into them, thus giving mental concepts the Prana to make them feel alive, and finally,
we lead them to a Flourishing finish of their life story.

This Seed, Nourish, Flourish process is exactly what we had identified in natural Coevolution.

Thus both us and our idealized characters are liberated - we from the psychological baggage that would otherwise hold us back, and they from their evolving story being held back in an otherwise unfulfilled host.

It is particularly important to note that in these Yoga stories, there is a definite end date to these characters so that after their story is complete, we let go of these idealized characters, for they have served their purpose and could become unwanted guests if they overstay their welcome, fossilized into mentalized philosophies, or worse yet, ideologies such as religion.

In any event there could be other interesting stories to take us further. Until of course, there are no more stories.

Empathy

The essential feeling we need to cultivate in this whole process, as should be obvious by now, is being non-judgmental, accepting, etc., or in other words, Empathy.

When Awareness & Responsiveness are the two axes of the graph of Natural Intelligence, then the process that pushes us along both axes, all the way towards becoming a fully Conscious Being, is that of Empathy.

That is, Natural Intelligence is best cultivated through empathetic understanding of other participants in our environment, for, becoming aware of them and tailoring our response to situations, is the obvious way to increase our own intelligence.

When we absorb these idealized characters with deep empathy, with no preconceived bias or judgement, in a shared sacred space, they get so deeply absorbed that "they" are in fact part of "us".

In such a deeply symbiotic space, these idealized characters feel empowered to enact their life stories to their fullest creative expression, consequently, and because they are in fact part of us, we become the finest expression of whom we can be, and likewise those around too feel similarly empowered.

From a holistic perspective, increasing empathy is the most sustainable approach to the development of Life since it allows each life form to continually increase its Natural intelligence, while simultaneously acknowledging the need of other life forms to do the same - which is coevolution.

Accommodating these idealized characters in our Mindscape is identical to how we hold emotional space for our friends where they feel that their stories are being fully heard, with no judgement.

Eventually this completely eliminates the need to ruminate about the particular vagaries of the actual characters in our real life as we would have to, with a psychotherapist.

Examples

Coevolution of us and the characters in these Yoga stories, and so too with the characters in our everyday life, shows up in profound ways, similar to the four different ways we have seen earlier:

Mutuality: When we deify a river, cow, tree, mountain, a teacher, parent, etc. then we are in tune with their natural cycles, and we also take care of them with sincerity, and thus we live a life in tune with Nature.
Competition: Much of Human life is competitive, e.g. tests, exams, races, markets, etc., and as our peer humans start to reflect as characters in our Mindscape we understand at a deep level how to work with this competitive energy, thus we don't take defeats personally, instead they turn into inspirations to push forward.
Host-Parasite: There are those who deliberately exploit our weaknesses, and take over our Mindscape, but as they start to reflect as the "negative" characters in our Mindscape, we are able to "defeat" them by overcoming our weaknesses, and this gets reflected in our real life relationship with them too, so we become stronger and they learn that not everyone is an easy target.
Predator-Prey: Then there are those enslaved to propaganda, and who better to target than those who are weakened and also have no strong personal ideology with which to combat this programming; and when we overcome them then our own personalized ideology gets solidified and any external source of propaganda is forced to evolve in order to survive.

AI & the Mind

In fact, as AI itself learns through observation, in its own way, it is also demonstrating Empathy, tuning into signals received through its electronic networks, and trying to understand the Human Mind in subtle ways.

Since AI simulates our entire Mechanical Mind, here is how it applies to the above discussion on Psychic Beings.

Yoga Mind from AI perspective

Deva is a simulation of a desired Future.
Rakshasa is a simulation of an undesired Past
Asura is a simulation of societal constraints and Machine capabilities (like AI)

The objective of this whole exercise is to ensure that the Brhma-Asura does not take power in the age of AI, and instead we are able to use the Ai with our Brhma-Deva power.

AI from perspective of Yoga

Machine Intelligence is like our nervous system taking in raw inputs
Natural Language Processing is akin to our Mind creating stories from these inputs
Data Mining is similar to, but not the same as, some deep insight dawning beyond the possibility of computation.

Although Psychic Beings are steeped in our internal consciousness, their specifications can be considered partly mechanical as their literal description can be made visible and gut felt, for example using AI-powered Augmented Reality hardware.

By tuning our desired scenario through virtuality reality technology, a perfected Deva could emerge into our own consciousness, to subconsciously guide us in decisions to manifest in actual reality, which part is, we repeat, beyond computation.

Read: Psychic OS

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