Evolution or a movement of the mind from within to expression as thoughts, words and actions without is a natural state for human beings. Involution is a process in yoga where the mind is focussed inward and the energies are diverted to the subtle desires present within and remove them at source.
The five kleshas or impurities that cloud consciousness—Avidya, Asmita, Raga Dwesha, Abhinivesha—are present in a subtle state in the human mind. These five qualities can be subdued by the process of involution. This happens when the mind that usually spends its energies outside in the field of sense attachments to the world, closes in on itself and begins to look within the source of these five impurities which is consciousness.
The mind or chittam moves in invisible thought waves called vrittis. These waves when not under observation can take any form—gentle or like a tsunami. It can be quietened by constant practice of meditation.
At the root of the five disturbed states of the mind called kleshas is a reservoir of actions. Karma is a latent state of the mind where all the storehouse of desires of the past are waiting to express themselves in the present or future. The two states of time can be in this life and or future lifetimes. All our thoughts, words and actions leave deep impressions in this karmic storehouse. So the subsequent thoughts and the flow of energies in our lives are like an eddy swirling around these impressions.
These movements of thought currents yield results that are experienced in the present moment and that will happen in the future. This decides the sort of experiences we will have in this lifetime.
The pedigree, caste, class, birth, lifespan and the pleasures we experience or will experience in the future are all decided by this blueprint of karma that we carry long with us from birth to death. Though the blueprint decides what we experience now, our actions determine whether we continue to suffer or enjoy.
There are two types of results that karma brings us. One is drishta phala or results that are experienced in this birth. These experiences can be situations and people we like, do not like, more than what we expected and less than what we expected. Adrishta phala refers to results that we cannot see now in this lifetime. These are stored within as impressions that unfold as the state of our mind when the body exists no more. In short, adrishta or unseen results are about what happen to us in future or after death.
The storehouse of karma will exist as long as the roots are strong. When the root is strong, life flows through the storehouse and gives rise to its ripening as birth in a particular group of humans in a country, lifespan and different experiences—good and bad. It is in brief, a never-ending cycle. The purpose of human birth is to realise this and extricate oneself out of this rigmarole.
—Brahmacharini Sharanya Chaitanya
(www.vignanabhairavatantra.blogspot.in)