SC Musings for Nitya Gurukula
Tuning into Consciousness
April 25, 2025
Dear Readers, Welcome to SC Musings, Blog 35
As we explore deeper within, we go through the layers of our mind, the states of our ego and come to a point of blankness- of stillness and emptiness. This could happen when alone or unexpectedly in a crowded space; then a pause, and answers we have been searching for pop up.
In this Blog 35 we look at tuning into consciousness by regulating the mind and unifying modulations.
Let me share with you my experience in the cancer ward of GKNM Hospital more than 3 decades ago, when I was managing the Coimbatore Cancer Foundation, CCF.
Weekly group sessions were eagerly awaited and attended by cancer patients and their relatives in the courtyard of cancer centre. In one of these sessions, Dr. Venkataswamy, the founder of Aravind eye hospital participated. Highly commending our approach and connection with the patients, he had invited us multiple times to meet his Team. We have conducted programs at Aravind for service, para medical and medical teams.
Visiting Aravind for my eye check-up, the picture of Dr. Venkataswamy in the foyer made me nostalgic, with memories of him with the CCF team. Decades ago, he had recognised the value of the approach and connection which makes people-work effective. Despite following this approach for decades, it took me ages to conceptualise and use it to train people-workers, mindfully and with conviction.
Nitya Gurukula’s growth as a people-work institute, offering counselling, training in Transactional Analysis, counselling and taichi and transformational workshops engaged me in multiple roles. My mind all these years was immersed in the search for knowledge and experience in people-work.
My Aravind visit deepened my understanding about the mind and consciousness, and here I present Nitya Guru’s (2013, p.198, 199) description of the 4 states of consciousness:
- Wakeful
- Dream
- Sleep
- Turiya
Let’s now look at the happenings in each of these states of consciousness:
- We are lost to the world, without an identity in the sleep state,
- The dream state gives shape to our hidden longings,
- In the wakeful state we are oriented to our reality and
- Turiya is a state of transcendence and bliss.
Our mind is continuously moving between these states, though not mindfully and intentfully. We are often trying to match our inner strivings with demands of the outer worlds. In this process, out wakeful state is often consumed by chores, activities, targets to be met etc.
As a result of this continuous churning of the psycho-social realms within, consciousness funnels out, dissipating into fragments. The essence of why and what we are doing is submerged under layers of activity. This was the realisation which Dr. Venkataswamy’s picture brought- he saw in me and my approach a value which lay underneath for a while.
The question then arises about how are we to keep our consciousness from funnelling out and fragmenting?? Is it possible at all?? And these are the questions that I am attempting to address in Blog 35.
I regularly take stock, by assessing my evolution in my roles as Managing Trustee and the CEO in Nitya Gurukula. I discovered the vision and principles embedded and promoted in Nitya Gurukula, (2025) namely:
- ‘The Guru Within’
- Non-violence
- East – West synthesis
- Self-Other-Environment balance,
kept me rooted and grounded in my commitment to people-work. Despite the various internal and external dynamics creating situations demanding different ways of handling, the dharmic path has been maintained.
We describe dharmic as being present to the person, the situation and contractually resolving conflicts, with the purpose in mind.
This brings me to parents who wanted to break their daughter’s marriage because she did not take their opinions into consideration, and sought counselling to carry out their plans. Highly charged with emotions, their opinion of their daughter’s partner was coloured by the social bias of status. Mediators, both friends and family members, added to the rift between the parents and daughter.
Guiding them to settle emotionally by accepting their emotions, and gently nudging them to a different perspective, with a firm commitment (contract) of not harming themselves, their daughter and her husband, the counselling team has helped to reduce the level of trauma in the family. In this case, being present to the parents emotions, helping them view their role as parents of a grown up young woman, has brought their settlement to some extent.
The above case-study depicts parents experiencing and acting out their deep trauma, due to what they thought was their daughter’s wrong choice of a husband. They experienced it as a huge loss of faith, trust and hope, which was threatening to sink them and their other children.
We can witness here how modulations of the mind, and the behaviours it triggers, keep us enmeshed in misery. There is a tendency to stay in this repetitive, self-reinforcing cycle of non-productive thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
Retracing to Guru Nitya’s 4 states of consciousness, we can state that the wakeful, sleep and dream states are swallowed by mental modulations, and turiya becomes inaccessible.
People work intends to help and guide individuals to tune into their consciousness. Tuning in will not prevent the upheavals life continues to throw at us, like the recent death of 28 tourists in Pahalgam. Reeling under shock and pain, we have to find ways to interpret the cruel happenings and not numb ourselves with modulations of our minds.
There are multiple ways in which we tune into consciousness- and here I present a the following shown in Figure 35.2, for reflection:
- Regulating and refining the mind
- Unifying modulations.
Values, principles and ethics, I believe and continue to experience personally, professionally and organisationally, are anchors and micro-nutrients for tuning into consciousness.
Dear Readers,
We will further explore the purpose and methods of tuning into consciousness in Blog 36. I enjoyed this journey of consciousness reflection and hope you travelled with me.