Hridaya Kshetram

 

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In today’s satsang, devotees asked about memory loss, desire, vasanas, and karma. Amma reminded that realisation is untouched by the faculties of the mind and body and that pure awareness remains ever free and the heart of all true practice.

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Question: Each year I ask some version of this. My short-term memory is very poor now — I forget mid-thought, even while shopping yesterday it left me panicked, like dementia patients I’ve seen. Yet there are also moments of clarity and awareness. Is it possible to realise and abide in the Self, even if the brain is deteriorating? Can one function in clarity when memory is failing?

AMMA: Realisation is not becoming superhuman. Realisation is realising who you are. That remains even if the mind or faculties work or do not work. Functionally, you may lack something — it may show or not show in action — but that has nothing to do with realisation. Realisation stays as it is. So this and that cannot be combined. The truth of what you are is untouched by the qualities or disqualifications of the faculties.

 

Question: For the enlightened being, does the world appear as an object, and is there still a subject with feelings, craving, clinging?

AMMA: You should realise and tell me! Realisation is knowing what is — that only one thing exists. When you know what you are, there is no other. Everything appears in varieties, but even when seen in varieties, it is all one. That is not objective realisation but subjective knowing. So what is there to crave? Even if they act according to prakriti, desire cannot stand as desire, because desire only harms when there is another to be attained. In their knowing, no ignorance exists. If they desire, they are desiring themselves. Seemingly it looks like desire or craving, but nothing sticks.

 

Question: Is getting rid of vasanas a precondition for Realisation?

AMMA:    Not exactly a precondition, but yes, it is needed for abiding in the Self without hindrance. If vasanas are strong, you cannot abide as the Self. They will cover your true nature. In that sense, yes. Even if Realisation comes, strong vasanas will veil it. But realisation itself will lead to vasanakshaya. There is no other way. Both cannot coexist. So glimpses of the Self will naturally dissolve vasanas over time. Only then can it be complete. Otherwise there will be doubts, ups and downs. Stability will not be there.

 

Question: Then is there a method to get rid of vasanas?

AMMA: First know yourself — vasanas will go by themselves. How does vasanakshaya happen? By knowing who you are, you willingly drop vasanas, or grace removes them. Self-enquiry and satsang are for this. When ego arises, if you are conscious of it, it leaves you. If you are unconscious, it stays. 

Not all tendencies are bad. Coming for satsang is a tendency. Self-enquiry is a tendency. Good habits take you to the goal. Bhagavan said to divide tendencies: good and bad. Replace bad with good until good leads you beyond. As long as tendencies are mostly shubham (auspicious), they help you turn inward. 

 

Question: What is the change I should be feeling if I do girivalam?

AMMA:    Who wants to know it? And who is recognising it? Sadhana should be like that – that you don’t recognise it. You just do it. If you sit and not know what is happening, that is good. Taking ownership of the sadhana is the problem. The best sadhana is when things happen without you knowing.

 

Question: What is the relationship between karma and vasanas?

AMMA:    Karma is a general term — prarabdha, agami, sanchita — are actions that are due. Vasanas are patterns, conditionings. A vasana you can repeat a thousand times but vasanas can be removed. Karma is fixed — it plays out. But vasanas can generate more karma if unchecked. What you do today can fix tomorrow’s karma.

There is a saying: the last thing to appear on the tree is fruit. So is sadhana. At the beginning, you don’t know what is happening. Step by step it goes, and in the end the fruit comes. Nothing is wasted. Sometimes there is clarity, sometimes none, but still it moves. As long as you don’t deviate, the path is never fruitless. Progress is only in the relative plane, not for the Self.

So I don’t like engaging much in talk of karma and vasana — it invites what is not needed. You are none of this. Even when you do sadhana, know you are not a sadhaka. When you are devoted, know you are not a devotee. When you seek, know you are not a seeker. All are limited identities.

The truth is simple. Right now you are conscious of consciousness. That is your true nature — beyond past, future, vasana, karma, even beyond Realisation. Consciousness does not need to be caught. It is not yours or mine. It exists, free, independent, not bound to body, place, or time. That alone remains.

If you recognise and abide as That, it is the Supreme sadhana. Not adding, not removing. Simply being.

 

Amma ended with a gentle ‘Yes.’ The satsang closed in silence as Amma made her way out.