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Life of an aspirant
95
Thus, supression of impulses leads to the state of upasama, while their manifestation leads to the audayika state.
In the state of upaśama, the impulses of anger, pride and greed seem to be dormant and calm on the surface. But suppressed impulses cannot stay dormant for very long. The time-span of upašama is said to be no more than antarmuhūrtta”. In every moment of our lives we experience the faltering of the mind. How unstable and fickle the mind is with its rise and ebb of emotions and thoughts! Don't all of us experience this every moment of our lives? Thus, we see that suppressed impulses are easy targets of temptation. At the first prospect, they rise to the surface again, and return to their audayika state.
In psychological terms, in the state of upaśama, the impulses that arise in the conscious mind retreat to the sub-conscious. There they remain hidden as sanskāras. In moments of confusion, they re-surface to the conscious level once again.
Just imagine - a thief breaks into your house, hides quietly in a corner and you are oblivious of him. How can your wealth remain safe? A moment of carelessness on your part and he vanishes with your valuables. How can we be safe from a thief who is within our home? In upasama, the impulses stay hidden quietly like the thief, but for how long? After the antarmuhūrtta of forty-eight minutes, they become active once again.
Once a young lad was wandering on a cold, hilly terrain. At night, he came across a snake which lay unconscious in the cold. Assuming it to be dead, he picked it up fearlessly and put it in his pocket. He wanted to take it home to frighten his siblings. With this playful thought in his mind, he reached home, hands and feet frozen from the cold. He sat by the hearth to enjoy the warmth of the fire. As the warmth reached into his pocket, the snake slowly gained consciousness. Before he knew it, the boy was dead from the deadly bite of the snake.
The snake frozen from the cold outside gained consciousness
appears in water in which dirt has been mixed. A period of up to forty-eight minutes.
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