Devotee (3): What is the exact meaning of the term "subconscious"?
Prabhupāda: Mm? Consciousness?
Devotee (3): I understand the principle of consciousness, but what is the exact meaning of the word "subconscious"?
Prabhupāda: Subconscious means is not acting at the present moment but it comes out sometimes.
Śyāmasundara: These psychologists say that quite often the unconscious is acting through the conscious, only we don't know.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That I say. The subconsciousness is there, but they are not manifest. But sometimes they are manifest. All of a sudden coming. There is no connection. Just like a bubble in the pond. All of a sudden a bubble comes up. You see. So the coming out of the bubble, the energy was there within, all of a sudden it comes out, "Pup!" Yes. And even you trace out why it came, but the, it is to be supposed that it was in the subconscious state; all of a sudden it has manifested.
Devotee (3): The bubble coming up is a sort of a proof that there is a subconscious which is holding that bubble and then it's released it, but where it's parted by these psychologists is that the subconscious nature is moving subconsciously. What it means is that we're not conscious of it; it's acting in a subconscious plane.
Śyāmasundara: Called a shadow.
Devotee (3): And so our consciousness can be modified by our subconsciousness without our being consciously aware of it.
Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.
Devotee (3): That is the idea.
Prabhupāda: Not necessarily.
Devotee (3): We're unconscious of the activities of...
Prabhupāda: Or sometimes subconscious state manifests which has no connection with my present consciousness.
Revatīnandana: Can we say that those subconscious states which sometimes reveal themselves are like stored in impressions in the mind?
Prabhupāda: That is stored impression.
Revatīnandana: (indistinct) potentially manifest...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Revatīnandana: They are potentially manifest, but they don't have to. But they...
Prabhupāda: It is just like photograph. If you take so many snap, but not all of them immediately moves.
Revatīnandana: So they would posit that there's a mental functioning going on, a thinking functioning going on that we're not conscious of. I think we don't agree with that. Is that correct? We say that there's one mind, sometimes mental impressions come that are stored...
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Revatīnandana: ...but in that storage area of the consciousness, there is no thinking going on there. Is that correct? The unconsciousness mind is not thinking like the conscious mind.
Prabhupāda: No, no. But the impression is there.
Revatīnandana: Yes.
Prabhupāda: All of a sudden it comes out.
Śyāmasundara: So Jung says that there are two types of unconscious process. The first...
Prabhupāda: Why does he say unconscious?
Śyāmasundara: Two types of unconscious process.
Revatīnandana: No. Subconscious.
Prabhupāda: Subconscious, that is the right term. Why does he say? Even in psychology they call "subconscious," why he's speaking "unconscious"?
Śyāmasundara: The German word is unbewust, which means "unbeknown," so we have translated "unconscious," but it means more like "subconscious."
Prabhupāda: Unconsciousness, of course there is, that is not (indistinct) the same thing. That is not manifest. Unconsciousness, but it will manifest.
Śyāmasundara: He says that there are two kinds of subconscious state. The first one is the personal unconscious, or those personal items which are highly individual from one's previous childhood, from his infantile history, certain things occurred, they were repressed, and so on. These are stored in our own unconscious state and they are aroused into consciousness in dreams and through psychoanalysis. But he also posits another type of unconscious, or subconscious, state called the collective unconscious. He says that evolution has predetermined the human brain to react in terms of basic principles derived from the experience of many generations. In other words, that my ancestors had left impressions in my brain from the time of my birth, how to react according to their experiences. Is this true, that there is a collective experience which is passed on?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That experience we say paramparā. Evaṁ paramparā-prāptam (BG 4.2). That is cultivated.
Revatīnandana: He would be more..., he would say there is a German mentality, Russian mentality, English mentality, (indistinct) cultural.
Śyāmasundara: No, no, no. He says that these archetypal tendencies are tendencies to react in a certain manner originating from the remote past, which are true for all humans whether they are primitive savages or whether they are modern men. Just like, well, any tendency...
Prabhupāda: We don't take any experience from the primitive savages. That is not paramparā. Savages cannot give us any advice or instruction.
Śyāmasundara: Just like when we investigate different folklores, different mythologies all over the world, we find certain symbols which are the same. For instance the swastika, we find that in the Indian mythology and you find it in Māyā or Inca, western Indians' mythologies as well. And different symbols which are common to man all over the globe, whether they are primitive or whether they are advanced, he says that these are archetypal images which for thousands of generations have been passed on in men's consciousness. So that we are composed not only of our own individual thoughts and ingredients but also the ingredients of our ancestors. Is this a fact?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is called tradition. That is called tradition. But that is not paramparā. Paramparā is different. Paramparā means we get the right knowledge from the supreme. It is not something ac..., what is called? What he is speaking?
Śyāmasundara: Acquired. Archetypal. Means the original type.
Prabhupāda: My acquired knowledge can be changed by understanding from superior. Just like generally we have got bodily concept of life, but Kṛṣṇa says, "No. You are not this body." So this knowledge is not coming to me from tradition, but I learn it from great authorities like Kṛṣṇa.