Hardware is like grooves created, grooves created out of samskaras (stored memories) in the brain. Once the new software happens, the hardware will slowly change. But if you wish to immediately change the hardware, the Master's presence is the right thing. Straightaway it will change the hardware. Sometimes, without even changing the software, the hardware can be changed and the person will straightaway start radiating the correct software's quality! That can happen when a disciple is completely open to the Master; if he is in love with the Master for no reason. Sometimes a disciple falls in love with the Master for no reason. He may not be attracted to his teachings, or to his meditation techniques; he simply falls in love, that's all. In that case, straightaway, you can change the hardware.

Those kind of disciples will simply radiate the quality of the teachings and meditation without even going through all of them. They would not have gone through all these things but straightaway the result will be seen. As of now, both hardware and software in you are outgoing, towards the outer world. If you do this chakra meditation camp, suddenly the software becomes ingoing; going in, towards spirituality, towards a cleansing process the conscious portion by the teachings and the unconscious portion by meditation it starts going inside. But even if the software turns inside, the hardware will not be able to handle it. Then naturally, the hardware will try its best to retain its grooves. If the software is very strong and stays in the same tune, the hardware will slowly change.

But immediately, if after the teaching and meditation is given, the deeksha, the blessing is also given, the hardware will also change and it will start holding the new software. It will get prepared to hold on to the new experience. This concept has to be understood clearly so that you may bring in enough awareness to allow the transformation to happen in you. How does the mind work? How does the mind work? Just look at this diagram here. It is a diagram to show how the information that enters through the eye is processed; actually, not just the information through the eye but information through all the fives senses, that is through the nose, the ears, the tongue, touch and the eye. As an example, we are now taking the eye.

Let me explain it to you. When you see something, first, the eye sees it. There is something called chakshu in Sanskrit, which digitizes the information seen by the eye. It is something like a digital signal processor the DSP. The signal or the input is converted into a digital file by this chakshu. This conversion happens to the information received through all five senses, not just the eye. Then the file goes to the memory. In Sanskrit, we call this portion chitta. In the memory, a little more work is done on the file. For example, if you are seeing me now, the file is processed through the chakshu, then taken to the chitta, memory and the memory starts analyzing the information. It does a process of elimination on the file received.

It starts saying, This is not an animal, this is not a plant, this is not a rock etc. The process of elimination is done by the chitta. Then the file goes to the mind or manas. The mind does the job of identifying the file. It says, This is a human being; a human being who is taking a class. The mind concludes, This is it. Next, the whole file takes a quantum leap to the ego and your ego decides based on your past experiences what your next action or decision will be. If you have past experiences with similar classes, say yoga or meditation, and they have been alright for you, if you think that it has helped, you will decide to sit here, or else you will think it is better to leave! Just try to understand this process: you are seeing me.

The eye passes the information to the chakshu. The chakshu converts it to a digital signal. The memory then does all the elimination on the file This is not, This is not Then, the mind does the identification of the file This is it. Then the whole file takes a quantum leap to the ego. Here, you decide based on your past experiences, whether to sit here or leave the hall. The process of elimination versus that of identification can be more easily understood by understanding this: Let us say you want to find the word Home in the dictionary. You start from the letter A and you eliminate: not A, not B, not C, until you come to the letter H. Until you come to the letter H, it is only elimination process.

Once you come to H, it is identification process. You start identifying HO, then HOM, then you come to HOME. Even in the identification process, there is elimination, but that cannot be considered elimination, because your whole attitude is changed during this time. Until you come to H, you dont even look at anything; you only eliminate. Once you come to H, H becomes a standpoint. Then you start looking for HO, HOM, etc. It is like this: you have thousands of files stored in your mind. Now let us say that you are seeing me. You will first start eliminating: this is not a stone, this is not a tree, this is not an animal. Then you come to man and say, This is a man.

Once you come to man, you start identifying: saffron clothed, my master, Nithyananda etc. So elimination happens until you find the right classification. Identification is going in-depth into that classification. Elimination is breadth, identification is depth. The elimination process is like handling many files. The identification process is like going deeply into a file. Now, let us call the time for the process between the eye and the mind, Tp. Tp is the time taken for the process between the eye and the mind to happen. This process between the eye and the mind is logical and conscious. You are completely aware of this process. It happens with your awareness. Now, the quantum leap from the mind to the ego is mostly unconscious. That is the time when the actual decisions are made and is mostly an unconscious process for you.

It happens without your awareness. Let us call this time Tq. During this time, you simply decide illogically; you decide against your logical thought process. You make an illogical decision. Why does this happen? Why do you decide unconsciously and regret it later? The reason is, this unconscious zone is filled with negative memories and restlessness. All your past memories which we call samskaras in Sanskrit. All your past thought patterns are stored in this zone as files. In the field of psychology they use the word engrams to denote these stored memories. There are so many files stored in this zone. Without any logical connection between them, these memories or incidents are stored here. What happens is, when the file takes a quantum leap to this zone, there is so much data stored, which causes so much restlessness in you, that the file does not even reach the ego properly for a decision.

These stored engrams simply start playing upon the information received. They just impose themselves and cause havoc in the decision making process. As a result, the ego just makes a hasty decision purely at the instinct level, and passes the file back. It happens as an unconscious process. For example, according to the data that you have collected, you know that smoking is injurious to your health; it is not good for your body or your mind. You hold on to this decision as long as you are in the Tp level. But once the mind takes the leap to the ego, the engrams just instruct you to smoke; you simply decide to smoke! The conscious process says, No, it is not good for health. But the unconscious process saysactually it doesnt even say, it just takes the decision and you execute it! It is a pure instinct-level decision.

This unconscious area is very powerful. It can be used in three ways at the instinct level, at the intellect level or at the intuition level. As long as the unconscious is overloaded with negative memories and restlessness, it works at the instinct level, as we just saw. You simply decide instinctively, unconsciously. When you are at the instinct level, you always end up regretting most of your decisions. You wonder, Why did I behave in that fashion? This is not me! How did I allow this to happen? How did I make that decision? This happens because the unconscious is working at the instinct level. At this level, you just associate things without any logical connection and jump to a conclusion unconsciously. For example, if you have been disturbed by somebody who was wearing a white dress, the moment you see somebody wearing a white dress, the past memory simply comes up without your knowledge and you feel anger.

This is the instinct level. Without your conscious mind, without even you understanding, just like that, it happens. In the chakshu diagram, when you have to plough through many files in the quantum leap to ego, you are at the instinct level. When the file goes to the unconscious, the decision is made with many distortions. You will be continuously passing judgment on the pending decision. Your unconscious will be overloaded with your memory files. When you function this way, you will also feel tired. It is something like this: when your hard disk is loaded with all high-resolution photographs, there is no scope to work further on your hard disk. In the same way, when your unconscious is loaded with past thought patterns and memories, it becomes inefficient and simply makes superficial and illogical decisions.

The next is the intellect level. Here, you are conscious; you make decisions logically, but you do not have any extra enthusiasm or energy. You are just there with a conscious mind, that's all. You are not creative, not innovative; you dont take big steps; you dont grow. You are like a faithful servant. Einstein says, The intellect is a faithful servant. You can be a servant throughout your life. You can be just a servant, but nothing more or big can be done through you. At this level, you will just be collecting the data, processing it and delivering it; you will be nothing more than a computer. You dont make wrong decisions out of restlessness and overloading of your unconscious zone; you make decisions in a logical and conscious way.

When you are at the intellect level, you are not tired but you are not energetic either. You are in a break-even state. At this level, you are still not using your potential to the maximum the extent to which it can be used. The next level where you can actualize your entire potential is the intuition level. If you can infuse a deep silence and awareness into the unconscious zone and replace your engraved memories or files with silence and awareness, you can be at the intuition level. When you can be free from your memories, and be empty and blissful in this unconscious zone, if you can be alive and fresh every moment without the burden of your past, without the burden of these engrams, the energy of your being will express itself in its purest form.

When this happens, we can say that your intelligence is at its peak, because energy IS Intelligence. When this happens, you make decisions out of an energy called intuition, where you simply know with tremendous clarity. When you are at the intuitive level, you will make decisions from the energy of your intuition, from deep awareness and peace, from bliss! This concept needs a deep understanding. You need to go deeply into the whole science; only then will you be able to understand what I mean by the word, intuition. Intuition is something which happens in you beyond your intellect.