Kundalini.Tantra.by.Satyananda.Saraswati

Home of unconscious
Swadhisthana is regarded as the substratum or basis of individual human existence.
Its counterpart in the brain is the unconscious mind and its storehouse of mental
impressions or samskaras. It is said that all the karmas, the past lives, the previous
experiences, the greater dimension of the human personality that is unconscious, can be
symbolized by swadhisthana chakra. Individual being takes root in the unconscious mind,
and the many instinctive drives that are felt at the level of this chakra bubble up from the
depths of the unconscious.
In tantra there is the concept of the animal, and the master of the animal. In Sanskrit,
pashu means animal and pati means master. Pashupati is the master or controller of all
the animal instincts. This is one of the names of Lord Shiva, and it is also one of the
attributes of swadhisthana chakra. According to mythology, pashupati is the total
unconscious. It has absolute control over mooladhara chakra and the animal propensities
during the first milestone of man's evolution.
The unconscious principle of swadhisthana should never be considered as an inactive
or dormant process. Rather it is far more dynamic and powerful than the normal
consciousness. When the shakti enters swadhisthana chakra there is an overwhelming
experience of this unconscious state. It is different from mooladhara, which is the
manifest expression of that unconscious. In mooladhara, the karmas of the lower stages
of our evolution are manifested in the form of anger, greed, jealousy, passion, love,
hatred and so on. There we are working out that karma, manifesting and expressing it
overtly. At the level of swadhisthana, however, there is no conscious activity or
manifestation. This is hiranyagarbha, the universal womb, where everything exists in a
potential state. In the Rig Veda it is said:
"In the beginning of creation there was hiranyagarbha, then came all the living
beings, all the beings that exist, and He was the protector of all."
In the collective unconscious, the samskaras and the karmas exist in a seed state. For
example, yesterday you may have had a pleasant or a painful experience. That experience
has become a subconscious process or force which is acting, coloring your conscious
awareness today. Like this, there are many experiences from the past which we do not
consciously recall but nevertheless they are playing a part in determining our daily
behavior, attitudes and reactions. There are many karmas influencing us in this way, but
we remain completely unaware of them.
According to tantra each and every perception, experience and association is
recorded. If you have a quarrel or bitter exchange, that is a very strong registration.
However, if you happen to pass someone on the path, look at him and walk on, this is
also registered. Many things come within your range of association, and they are all
automatically registered. They are not analyzed, but simply filed away in some layer of
the mind. All those insignificant and unimpressive karmas, which have been registered
automatically in our consciousness, form the total unconscious.