Samudra Manthan Connections to Mind & Consciousness with Deeper Sleep and Pranas

[Music] In the depths of Hindu literature lies the story of Samudra Mantan, the churning of the ocean of milk. At first, it appears like a tale of gods and demons searching for nectar of immortality. But when seen with the inner eyes, it becomes a timeless path for the mind, a guide to how awareness churns the unconscious. How consciousness rises through conflict and how clarity is born through patience. This is not just a simple story. It is the story of all of us, all of humanity. It's the story of how awareness can bring the balance to all of our emotions. [Music] Before we proceed with the story of Samudra Mantan, let's quickly take a look at how our mind operates. Our mind is like an iceberg where only a small part is visible above the surface. The conscious mind which is around 10%. That's what we actively think about the decisions, awareness and the present focus. Just below it lies the preconscious mind about 40% holding the memories and information that can be recalled whenever it is needed like searching through a library. But the largest portion nearly 50% is the unconscious mind. the hidden reservoir of instincts, emotions, fears, and desires that shape much of our behavior without us realizing it. Together, these three levels of the mind drive our thoughts, choices, and actions, reminding us that most of what influences us happens beneath the surface of awareness itself. [Music] So let's come back to the samudra mantran story which is beautifully written in the scriptures. So it can be conveyed easily to everyone in the form of a story. The story is Rishi Dwasa visits Indra in the heavens and offers him a garland of merry gold flowers. Indra instead of wearing the garland puts it on his elephant Iawat that tramples the garland beneath its legs because it doesn't like the smell of the flowers. So Rishi Durwasa curses Indra for his ego and hence Indra loses control of heavens to powerful Bali. That's the story in the context. So the das the gods are completely weakened because of the arrogance shown by Indra and the gods lose all their strength and the assuras their rivals gain the upper hand. [Music] So to seek the help and advice because they have lost all the power, the dwas or the gods turn to Lord Vishnu who suggests as a solution to churn the great ocean of milk to extract the agit or the nectar of immortality. But this task cannot be done alone by the gods. The assuras must join them as well. And so the stage is set. the gods and the assuras, the light and the shadow, higher and lower implications that are coming together for a single purpose. [Music] If we have to consider an ideal mind or an ideal working of the mind where the decision making begins, the higher impulses of clarity and virtue, they cannot act alone. The lower impulses like the cravings, fear, ego and all our hidden things must also be engaged. Awareness means confronting the core of ourselves. That's where the focus lies. That's actual awareness in the ideal mind. Not just the parts we like. That's that's really not the awareness. The ocean is the unconscious mind. Deep and full of secrets. Both light and dark forces must churn it together in order for awareness to really rise and operate in a real conditioned fashion of the mind. [Music] The story of Samutraan exists in various scriptures of India. The great epic Mahabharata which has 18 chapters which are called as parvas and it is there in the ai parva and the astika purva and also the shrimat bhagata and the bhagawat purana vishna purana padma purana kura purana shiva purana and the dvi bhagat purana. [Music] The samudra mantan story is not just in the ancient scriptures or the various temples around India and all over Asia. The samudra mantan is celebrated even today. There is a beautiful depiction in Bangkok, Thailand, Sarinapuni airport of the Samudra mantan story. As the story goes, the mountain mandara is chosen as the churning rod. Wasuki the great serpent becomes the rope. The das take one side which is the tail of the serpent wasuki and the azuras take the other side which is towards the head of the serpent wasuki and they start pulling back and forth round and round thus starting the churn of the ocean of milk. The das taking the tail or being away from the head of the serpent. Whereas the assuras are daring and take hold of the serpent near the head where it can be more dangerous and you are prone to be bitten. There is more deeper meaning instead where the rise of gods needs to happen from the tail and then progress towards the head. So it needs to be from the bottom all the way going up reflecting from the bottom part of our body all the way towards the head. [Music] In the human body mandara or the mountain mandara is the spine the axis of consciousness. Vasuki is the breath or the prana mowing between opposites like the ida and the pingalanari. The left and the right channels of energy also breathing from the left side of the nostril and the right side of the nostril. The das and assuras are the constant push and pull within us. The reason and desire, hope and fear, compassion and anger. So neuroscience calls this the dynamic tension between the preffrontal cortex and the lyic system or the amydala. Churning is awareness itself. The process of pulling all the opposites creating friction and forcing the depths of the mind to reveal what lies hidden. As the samutra mantan progresses, the ocean boils, waves rise and finally treasures and terrors begin to emerge. The first thing to rise out of the samutra mantan or the churning is poison. The deadly halah halala threatening to destroy the gods, demons and the world itself. Nobody can bear it. It is Shiva who steps forward consuming the poison and holding it in his throat becoming nilakanta the bluethroated one. [Music] This moment of the halah halala rising or the poison is very essential. When we churn our own consciousness through meditation, self inquiry or deep decision making, the first things to arise are the toxins which are the suppressed fears, painful memories, unconscious impulses and so on. Neuroscience tells us the same. Trauma lives in the amygdala. And when brought to awareness, it feels very dangerous just like the poison. But like Shiva, awareness can hold the position without swallowing it. So emotional regulation means we do not deny pain nor let it consume us. We contain it, transform it and keep going into arising with awareness. As the journey continues, wonders start to emerge beyond the harahana like the salicious beings, divine jewels, sacred animals. All of these divine beings like Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune and wealth. Kuwa the most valuable jewel in the world. Parijhata the divine flowering tree which has very nice smelling flowers. Vuni the goddess and creator of intoxicating beverages. Danwantri the doctor. Chandra the beautiful moon. Kamadenu the wish granting divine ca. Kalparaka the wish granting tree. Ayawatada the elephant of Indra. Absaras the various divine names like Ramba manaka punchikastala and so on. Uti utes the divine sevenheaded headed horse. Sharanga the bow of Vishnu Shanka Vishnu's cunch Amriita the nectar of immortality. The das and the assuras rush to claim the amita but Vishnu intervenes ensuring that nectar reaches only the deserving. This is the reward of sustained awareness. When the unconscious is charged with patience, gifts emerge. Clarity, creativity, compassion, balance. Neuroscience calls this neuroplasticity, the rewiring of circuits through repeated effort, bringing new insights, new strengths, and finally comes the nectar, which is the higher awareness. Freedom from compulsive cycles. A mind that lasts and tastes immortality by realizing its own imperishable nature. In the end, the dwas or the gods regain their power. The assuras are subdued and the cosmic balance is restored. The ocean which was once turbulent becomes calm again. The churning was not merely for nectar or immortality, but for the wisdom that only comes when one faces both the poison and the treasure. All of these depictions of the celestial beings attribute to specific things like Lakshmi is the ability to achieve your luxury or the aims of life. Kusta, you're viewed as a valuable jewel of this world. Parijhata you're viewed as a similar to divine smelling flower. Wuni life becomes so beautiful that you feel intoxicated and happy in life. Tanuantri you become the cure similar to a doctor. Chandra you're viewed beautiful as the moon. Kamadenu is viewed as getting all wishes granted because you have got awareness and are working in a focused fashion. Kalparia viewed as stable and wish achieving tree. Soat viewed as a ruler over all the senses which was Indra. Indra is Indria at the senses. Ayiraat is what he writes. And when you're riding above Ayraat you're viewed as a ruler over the senses. Absuras everybody sees that you are a divine creation and you're beautiful and meanwhile you are also seeing everybody as divine creations and as beautiful shavas ruled the vision of the seven colors seen by the eyes or ruling all the seven days of the week. Sharanga the magic of Vishnu's bow. Shanka the magic of Vishnu's conch. Amita the nectar of immortality of the moka. And for us the story is a map of consciousness. The mind is the ocean. Awareness is the churning. Poison is the first confrontation with the shadow. [Music] The treasures of awareness are the gifts of practice and nectar is the state of clarity. The steady awareness that transcends life and death. In neuroscience, this is the integration of networks, the harmony of the brain and the body, the emergence of higher states of consciousness. Samutra mantran is the story of every seeker, every mind, every decision-making process that moves from the confusion towards clarity. The samudra matan is not a tale that is locked in the past and is only available to a few of the humans. It is happening within us every day. Every time we churn the ocean of our own mind, every time we face on poison, every time we discover inner treasures, we are reliving this eternal story of the samatra mantan. Awareness is the journey and consciousness is the nectar and wisdom is the calm ocean that is left behind. [Music] The samudra mantran has a really good parallel mapping. The ocean is the unconscious mind. The dwas and the assuras are the higher and the lower impulses of the prefrontal cortex versus the amygdala. The mandara mountain is the spinal axis. Vasuki is the breath or the oscillations of the prana. Poison is the traumas and the fears in the amygdala. Shiva is the awareness containing emotional toxicity. Treasures are emerging as new neural gifts. The balance of memory and the joy. Nectar is the integrated consciousness. This is the gma wave coherence. [Music] We live in a world of sensations. What we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. And this overall defines our daily experience. Yet beneath these five senses lies another force, the five pranas. Subtle currents of energy that power the body and the mind. Together they weave the tapestry of perception, consciousness and even our deepest states of rest. Today we explore the connection of the senses and the pranas and how they lead us into the mystery of deep sleep that we experience almost every day. In the Vic tradition the five senses are called indrias and hence comes the connection to the vic god Indra. Each of the senses is a doorway to the world. Smell is linked to earth and that is the reason we say smell the earth after the fresh rains. Vision is linked to fire and we usually say the person has fire in his eyes when it comes to ambitions. Hearing is linked to space and exists all around us. Taste is linked to water and touch is linked to air. These senses are not passive. Each actively draws in information, shapes our perception and fills all the thoughts. Neuroscience now maps these to different brain regions. The alfactory bulb, visual cortex, auditory pathways, taste receptors and touch sensitive neurons. Together they form our conscious field of experiences in our life. From a neuroscience perspective, the alactory bulb is responsible for smell, visual cortex of the brain supports vision and our perception through the eyes. There are auditory pathways to support our perception of sound. Various taste receptors in the brain allow us to enjoy different kinds of food. The tactile touch sensitive receptors in the brain help us process the sense of touching and experiencing various things of this world. In the thousands of years worth of vic history, there is the epic Bhagat Gita where Lord Krishna was guiding Arjuna during the great Kurukhetra war when Vjuna was questioning in his mind whether to fight with his closest relatives and cousins. Whenever there is representation of a chariot with horses and the reigns, it is suggesting that we have been given the capability to control the actions that we take and ways to process the various senses with the mind. [Music] The senses get their energies from the subtle pranas which we have discussed as part of a separate video which is titled 33 Vic deities of Ringa and the sacred connection to our spine. You may want to catch up on that video. [Music] Supporting the senses are the five pranas. The subtle energies described in the Vedas, oponyish and the updas. The prana is governing inhalation, attention, sensory intake. Like aana is grounding, elimination and it it is also the downward flow. Samana is like assimilation, digestion, balancing. And udana is all about the upward movement, speech and the higher states. Vayana is circulation, integration and expansion throughout the body. Modern science sees these as reflections of respiration, digestion, circulation, neural signaling and homeostatic balance. When Ayurveda speaks of prana, neuroscience speaks of oxygen flow, vagus nerve activity and autonomic regulation. It's sort of saying the same things but it's two different languages like one is speaking a vic language and the other is speaking a science language. two languages that are being spoken. But it's still one reality that a human experiences in the form of senses and how we process all our sensory inputs, the perception of the world and how we form the consciousness itself of our life on this earth. [Music] The senses cannot function without the pranas. Smell draws on aana rooted in earth grounding our body. Taste is sustained by samana digestion and assimilation. Vision rises with udana the fire of clarity and higher perception. Hearing aligns with prana attention carried by the breath. That is why we say when I heard that it took my breath away or my heart skipped a beat. Touch spreads through vayana, the integrating force of circulation. This sort of intricate weaving ensures that perception is not just data collection but an embodied experience and builds up our consciousness. Neuroscience echoes this as well. Perception is not in the eye or ear alone. It is distributed, processed, integrated by networks across the brain and the body. Let's closely look at what happens when we sleep. In waking life, senses and pranas are active and they are outwardlooking. In dreams, they turn inward generating inner images. But in deep sleep, shushup both senses and pranas withdraw into the heart as described in the prashna. The senses rest. No perception occurs. The pranas continue only subtly maintaining but no outward activity distracts them. This integration creates the experience of blissful rest. Neuroscience parallels this in nonrem deep sleep. When the brain's sensory networks fall silent, the default mode network deactivates and the hard brain rhythms synchronize. Deep sleep is not unconsciousness but integration, a return to the self or the soul. Thus we see that the five senses are our gateways. The five pranas are our currents and together they define our waking, dreaming and the deep sleep worlds. While while we are in deep sleep mode, they merge into the heart leaving only pure awareness beyond the senses and beyond the prana. This cycle reminds us that life is not just activity but it's a rhythm and an orchestration. In science we renew. In integration we find wholeness and in deep sleep we glimpse the bliss of the self and the soul that underlies all the experiences. [Music]