​What is the subconscious mind – is it related with karana sharira?

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so sometimes when reading about the mind we can come across terms like subconscious mind is there something shastric about this and there is also Karana Sharira so is there also any scriptural reference for this see first thing is that scripture and modern science or generally modern thought systems they look at the world from different frames of reference and that’s why we may not find exact coincidence between them just like we have Ayurveda and Allopathy they look at the same human body from different frames of reference so in Allopathy if you try to find out where is Kapha Vata Pitta you cannot just find it that model is different that’s why we may not be able to find exact correlates but the but the concept of a subconscious mind that is perfectly valid subconscious mind what it basically means is that there is certain things in our mind which we are conscious of and there is much that we are not conscious of and the whole point that that which is the disposition that becomes the destination that becomes manifest in next life the disposition that is cultivated in this life becomes the destination of the person next life so that is actually what does it mean when I see myself or when you see yourself we don’t really know who we were or what was our disposition in our previous life but that is manifested in this gross form so this underlying this gross form there is a lot more which is not visible so the mind what all impressions are there even from our Vedic perspective some of those impressions are manifested as our present body but many other impressions are also driving us and they are manifested as our future body and the concept of impressions being there in the mind which are not yet manifest to us that is a perfectly acceptable Vedic conception so in that sense even if there is no term for subconscious mind the concept is perfectly fine and the Bhagavad Gita fourth kind of Prabhupada is the example of sometimes how do bubbles occur in a still water, somebody may throw stones that causes bubbles, sometimes fermentation occurs deep inside that’s how bubbles also come, so both way that means our consciousness is like that water body so sometimes objects we see externally throwing the stones and then agitation happens and sometimes even we don’t see anything suddenly we start feeling agitated that’s because fermentation is happening from within, some desires of the subconscious are coming out of so that way agitation can happen both ways so in principle the idea of subconscious mind is compatible with our Vedic understanding now Karana Sharira Sankhya is in itself a whole body of knowledge Yoga is also a different body of knowledge and actually these two the way these two come together for example Sankhya we have various elements Sankhya itself does not talk about chakras we have various chakras in the body and then we have the prana which moves up the chakras these two are actually different planes of reference and of course there are some thinkers in the Indian tradition who have tried to bring about Sankhya and Yoga together but they are not necessarily they are not the same system basically they also look at the world from different ways Jyotirma has written a book called six systems of philosophy and there he has gone reasonably deep not very deep because each of them can be a PhD subject in itself so he has gone reasonably deep and you can see their epistemology their ontology their deontology I don’t want to do the terms now basically the way they look at the world and what they see in the world is very different so the Bhagavatam takes draws from these various systems of philosophy in the pursuit of glorifying Krishna and bhakti to Krishna so that’s why it takes something from Sankhya, it takes something from Yoga and integrates it all in a devotional theistic perspective that’s why the Bhagavatam doesn’t go into too much technicalities of anything it doesn’t go into too much technicalities of Yoga or too much technicalities of Sankhya and you see in the third canto also it just gives one sentence description of the various properties of matter various elements of matter water has these characteristics air has these characteristics nothing very detailed the point of Kapil Dev is not to explain Sankhya the point of Kapil Dev is to show how Sankhya can be seen in a theistic perspective say for example now Ditto Karamapura has written a book called Human Devolution where he tries to show how through the current scientific knowledge we can see the hand of God and we can see the presence of the soul now suppose say 500 years down the line or 1000 years down the line evolution and the current conception of the universe might be outdated now at that time you know if somebody reads Human Devolution to understand all that is said over there they will have to understand the understanding that was there when the book was written isn’t it otherwise you cannot understand the book properly similarly if you want to properly understand all the technical things which are technical terms that are there in scripture, first you have to understand what was the understanding at the time when scripture was spoken, so scripture is eternal at the same time it is spoken at a particular time in history and that time certain terms were used, certain concepts were known and scripture addresses the eternal audience but it also addresses specifically the audience which is there, just like simply say like I am giving this class, I am recording the class, so others will also be hearing the class but this class is primarily meant for you so like that the so if I am, so there is a particular context which is important and that’s why in general if you see Prabhupada’s presentation Prabhupada did not get into technicalities of any terms Prabhupada spoke principles and Prabhupada spoke about conclusive practices so now if we have specific interest in the technical terms we need to find out those devotees who are interested in technical terms and we can study them but for our basic understanding and practice of bhakti we don’t necessarily need to go to the technicalities of various things, so karana sharira, in this background basically my understanding of karana sharira is that karana means cause so basically it refers to that aspect of a certain body where the impressions are stored and from which they become the cause of the next body so we could say roughly it equates with the mind but it’s not the whole of the mind in the sense that not every single impression that is there in the mind will lead to the manifestation of the next body certain predominant impressions will lead to the manifestation of the next body so that we have, Garuda Purana also says this, Prabhupada did not talk about this so much Garuda Purana says that say when we move from this body to the next body at that time when the soul goes around, the soul acquires in between a body that is subtler than the gross body and grosser than the subtle body and with that body it moves on and then it attains the gross body and that intermediate body goes away this happens not in all cases, in some cases Prabhupada also talks in a few cases about a punishment body the soul goes to hell the soul gets a body which is meant primarily for punishment now what exactly is this body, these are technical things now we understand the principle underlying it is that a soul has to be accountable for whatever karma it has done specifically how that happens technicality if you get into it it will be we’ll have to study a lot of things which is not otherwise relevant when some devotees they like to quote a lot of Sanskrit Sanskrit sounding terms in their classes and people think oh you know so much Shastra but actually yes it’s possible that person may really be knowing Shastra no offence to them but the point is how much are those terms relevant today we live in a particular world and we have brought up in a particular way of education a particular way of thinking so if the concepts are relevant to us and the concepts apply to us that is important but just getting into technicalities of things that may not be so helpful of course if we find it inspiring narration that’s perfectly fine but we shouldn’t think that as a part of my bhakti study I have to understand all these things no as a part of bhakti study we need to understand how to practice bhakti and how to understand how to remember Krishna how to focus on Krishna although every verse in the Bhagavatam is important it’s not that every verse in the Bhagavatam is is going to kindle our remembrance of Krishna in the same way it can if we have that realization but at our level of realization for Prabhupada he could go on the streets and he could see oh this is Vaikuntha you know we don’t see Vaikuntha so Prabhupada with his realization can see Krishna in every Bhagavatam verse also but for us if we make a difference if I’m studying too much about say the universal structure in the fifth kando is this really true how could it be true if that is what is the thought that is occupying my mind constantly then how much how much am I thinking of Krishna in that so if technicalities interest us if technicalities nourish us if we have a forum where we can share the technicalities and benefit others from our knowledge that’s fine but otherwise we shouldn’t think that studying the technicalities is important or essential or indispensable for my practice of bhakti we focus on whatever is favorable whatever is favorable in our practice of the central practice of bhakti that’s what we focus on does it answer your question thank you very much