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THE MYSTERIES OF MIND
activities. It is karma which controls and guides us. When karma accumulated in the past becomes mature in us, it produces various effects. The entire personality of man is governed and determined by karma. What the psychoanalysts call the manifestation of suppressed desires is called karma vipāka according to the theory of karma. Both the ideas are almost identical.
The subtle body or karma body or subtle conciousness is the base and cause of all that happens in our conscious life. We may call it the super-psyche or parapsyche. It is not possible to explain any event in our life without reference to the para-psychic state. Karma is related to the para-psyche. Some persons are influenced by their environment, others who live in the same environment are the least affected by it. How are we to explain this difference ? An explanation based on physical factors only will not be satisfactory. The real explanation lies in the para-psyche. The same thing holds good about heredity. The doctrine of heredity also is not a completely satisfactory doctrine. There are things in the life of man which can not be satifactory explained in terms of physical, social and mental factors. It is the para-psyche which holds the secrete of life. We consciously desire to meditate but the unconscious tendencies not only give a setback to meditation, they even destroy it. They induct in the mind states which are totally opposed to meditation. Things which we had never desired come to happen. A normally decent and rational man begins to behave in a way which is opposed to all social norms. It is very difficult to explain the abnormal behaviour of such an otherwise rational and socially respectable man. The cause of such behaviour lies in the past, in the unconscious. The unconscious is the infinite strorehouse of the entire past of mankind. So far as this grim unconscious stalks behind us, we cannot attain the state of sāmāyika. It is only when this ghost of the past has been exorcised that we will be able to live a truly free life, otherwise it will always remain a life of bondage.
The practitioner who is engaged in attaining a state of sāmāyika or equanimity has to remain very careful and wakeful. He says "Sir, I have come to you. I am determined to
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