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Subconscious

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 2

The mind, although ceasing to think of sensual activities at present, remembers past sensual activities from the subconscious status and thus disturbs one from cent percent engagement in self-realization.
SB 2.1.18, Purport:

The first process of spiritualizing the mind by mechanical chanting of the praṇava (oṁkāra) and by control of the breathing system is technically called the mystic or yogic process of prāṇāyāma, or fully controlling the breathing air. The ultimate state of this prāṇāyāma system is to be fixed in trance, technically called samādhi. But experience has proven that even the samādhi stage also fails to control the materially absorbed mind. For example, the great mystic Viśvāmitra Muni, even in the stage of samadhi, became a victim of the senses and cohabited with Menakā. History has already recorded this. The mind, although ceasing to think of sensual activities at present, remembers past sensual activities from the subconscious status and thus disturbs one from cent percent engagement in self-realization. Therefore, Śukadeva Gosvāmī recommends the next step of assured policy, namely to fix one's mind in the service of the Personality of Godhead. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, also recommends this direct process in the Bhagavad-gītā (6.47). Thus, the mind being spiritually cleansed, one should at once engage himself in the transcendental loving service of the Lord by the different devotional activities of hearing, chanting, etc. If performed under proper guidance, that is the surest path of progress, even for the disturbed mind.

SB Canto 4

In dreams we create so many things out of various impressions in the subconscious mind, but all such creations are simply temporary and unreal.
SB 4.9.33, Purport:

Real knowledge is revealed to a devotee only when he comes to the right conclusion about life by the grace of the Lord. Our creation of friends and enemies within this material world is something like dreaming at night. In dreams we create so many things out of various impressions in the subconscious mind, but all such creations are simply temporary and unreal. In the same way, although apparently we are awake in material life, because we have no information of the soul and the Supersoul, we create many friends and enemies simply out of imagination.

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

That means the mind is always being agitated. Due to agitation the things which are stored in the subconscious state, they come out.
Lecture on BG 6.21-27 -- New York, September 9, 1966:

Sometimes you might have experienced that you are doing some work. All of a sudden you remember. Some forty years before or thirty years before, some years before, some incident took place, and you at once remember. Although there is no cause, but it comes. There is... A subconscious state is there, and we are getting. That means the mind is always being agitated. Due to agitation the things which are stored in the subconscious state, they come out. Just like if you agitate a lake or a pond, all the mud from within, it comes. But we have to settle down. Then the mud will settle down.

So this yoga process is a process of settling down the mind.

Philosophy Discussions

So our policy is that you become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, and then all the subconscious status which is gathered for life after life, and they are stored, they are in stock, they will not be able to overcome.
Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Śyāmasundara: I mean chronologically. Freud's idea was that unconscious processes are invariably infantile, animal, or pathological. Jung said that some unconscious energies are sources of positive and creative activity. That the unconscious is important for the growth and development of the mature and well-adjusted personality. Freud investigated the unconscious and found that the negative side, that our unconscious life is always threatening us, that it is the cause of pathological...

Prabhupāda: What do you mean by unconscious life?

Śyāmasundara: Subconscious, that which we are not consciously aware of...

Prabhupāda: That means it is consciousness but it is covered.

Śyāmasundara: Yes. He says that unconscious part of our mind is dangerous, infantile, animalistic. But Jung says that the unconscious can also be positive and helpful to the growth of our personality, that it can be an asset to understand this unconscious life.

Prabhupāda: But I think that the subconscious status as it is covered by the present consciousness, similarly, it can be covered by Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so that those subconscious states will be no longer able to react.

Śyāmasundara: He sees a positive or creative function of this unconscious...

Prabhupāda: Just like the other day I was citing the śloka of Yamunācārya about sex life. The subconscious status is there, sex life, but because he has got Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he is spiting on it. That means the subconscious state cannot overcome. So our policy is that you become fully Kṛṣṇa conscious, and then all the subconscious status which is gathered for life after life, and they are stored, they are in stock, they will not be able to overcome.

The subconsciousness is there, but they are not manifest. But sometimes they are manifest. All of a sudden coming. There is no connection. Just like a bubble in the pond. All of a sudden a bubble comes up.
Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Prabhupāda: That is practically being done. Unconscious or subconscious states sometimes come out. They are not always present. But consciousness is always there.

Śyāmasundara: But if the consciousness is not the predominator, then sometimes a person's activities will be irrational or unconscious.

Prabhupāda: No. There is no question of unconscious. Subconscious, that is there. Yes.

Devotee (3): What is the exact meaning of the term "subconscious"?

Prabhupāda: Mm? Consciousness?

Devotee (3): I understand the principle of consciousness, but what is the exact meaning of the word "subconscious"?

Prabhupāda: Subconscious means is not acting at the present moment but it comes out sometimes.

Śyāmasundara: These psychologists say that quite often the unconscious is acting through the conscious, only we don't know.

Prabhupāda: Yes. That I say. The subconsciousness is there, but they are not manifest. But sometimes they are manifest. All of a sudden coming. There is no connection. Just like a bubble in the pond. All of a sudden a bubble comes up. You see. So the coming out of the bubble, the energy was there within, all of a sudden it comes out, "Pup!" Yes. And even you trace out why it came, but the, it is to be supposed that it was in the subconscious state; all of a sudden it has manifested.

Devotee (3): The bubble coming up is a sort of a proof that there is a subconscious which is holding that bubble and then it's released it, but where it's parted by these psychologists is that the subconscious nature is moving subconsciously. What it means is that we're not conscious of it; it's acting in a subconscious plane.

Śyāmasundara: Called a shadow.

Devotee (3): And so our consciousness can be modified by our subconsciousness without our being consciously aware of it.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Devotee (3): That is the idea.

Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.

Devotee (3): We're unconscious of the activities of...

Prabhupāda: Or sometimes subconscious state manifests which has no connection with my present consciousness.

Revatīnandana: Can we say that those subconscious states which sometimes reveal themselves are like stored in impressions in the mind?

Prabhupāda: That is stored impression.

Revatīnandana: (indistinct) potentially manifest...

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Subconscious, that is the right term. Why does he say? Even in psychology they call "subconscious," why he's speaking "unconscious"?
Philosophy Discussion on Carl Gustav Jung:

Śyāmasundara: So Jung says that there are two types of unconscious process. The first...

Prabhupāda: Why does he say unconscious?

Śyāmasundara: Two types of unconscious process.

Revatīnandana: No. Subconscious.

Prabhupāda: Subconscious, that is the right term. Why does he say? Even in psychology they call "subconscious," why he's speaking "unconscious"?

Śyāmasundara: The German word is unbewust, which means "unbeknown," so we have translated "unconscious," but it means more like "subconscious."

Prabhupāda: Unconsciousness, of course there is, that is not (indistinct) the same thing. That is not manifest. Unconsciousness, but it will manifest.

Śyāmasundara: He says that there are two kinds of subconscious state. The first one is the personal unconscious, or those personal items which are highly individual from one's previous childhood, from his infantile history, certain things occurred, they were repressed, and so on. These are stored in our own unconscious state and they are aroused into consciousness in dreams and through psychoanalysis. But he also posits another type of unconscious, or subconscious, state called the collective unconscious. He says that evolution has predetermined the human brain to react in terms of basic principles derived from the experience of many generations. In other words, that my ancestors had left impressions in my brain from the time of my birth, how to react according to their experiences. Is this true, that there is a collective experience which is passed on?

Page Title:Subconscious
Compiler:Visnu Murti, Radha Giridhari, Priya
Created:17 of Jun, 2010
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=2, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=4, Con=0, Let=0
No. of Quotes:6