Avidyā āsmitā rāga dveṣā bhiniveśāḥ pañca kleśāḥ - Patanjali
(Ignorance, ego, attachment, aversion and fear are 5 distractions)

 Usefulness of a mall map amplifies drastically with a simple "you are here" mark. For those who embark on pursuit of who am i?, this write-up will provide the necessary guidelines to figure out where am i?

There are several layers of illusions and distraction keeps every individual from the path of realization. These are necessary layers to enrich each person with rich experiences and ripen them before they move up in the ladder of self-realization. These experiences, cheerful and dreary, hones everyone.

These four layers are most common applicable to everyone in current times.
1.) Economic conditioning - unknown entities controlling our thoughts and hence our actions.
2.) Social conditioning - people around directly or indirectly influencing our thoughts and decisions.
3.) Mind (thoughts and memories) - re-living past incidents or rehearsing a future prospect.
4.) Heart (emotions and feelings) - spontaneous outbursts in varying amplitude.

Economic conditioning could be considered the outermost layer as it is the most superficial and hence the most easiest to surpass, yet this is a very powerful layer. Basically, any unknown forces that influence masses for eventual economic benefit. The effect of it can seep till the heart. Example; flag, deity, celebrity, speech, book can trigger the intended emotion in masses as well as completely hijack our thought process.

The geo-political boundaries (countries), campaigned religions and all forms of controlled media are the direct outcome and prominent tools of this economic conditioning. A campaign like a beauty pageant is organized to sell cosmetics. Often, the miss world is chosen from a country which is identified as a new market to expand the cosmetic sales. When it comes to the movies and music, each decade, a specific theme is chosen to steer the thought process of masses in that direction. Like, population control(2020s), feminism(2010s), terrorism(2000s), global warming(1990s) and so on. While the intent behind this is debatable, there is an unanimous agreement that it is always backed by a definite economic benefit.

People in urban regions pretty much have no way to steer clear of this conditioning as they are the biggest contributors and consumers of the world economy. The privilege of experiencing and leveraging the technological advancement comes with this price. But to an astute observer, there is also another price the urban dwellers pay. i.e., compromised quality of essentials like sleep, air, water, food and real-emotions for the enormous choice in luxuries.

As we move rural, the impact of economic conditioning lessens. When it comes to secluded tribes, there are completely free from such conditioning. Like the aborigines of Australia, Amazonian tribes, Himalayan villages, etc. for the obvious reason.

Social conditioning is when the clan, ancestry, family, friends, colleagues or even a passer-by influences your thought and impact your decision. This varies drastically based on the personality. The stronger the will, self-esteem and awareness, lesser the impact. Unfortunately, a large bunch of us are extremely vulnerable to this social conditioning. It completely controls the clothing, language, etiquette, manners and choices of entertainment. These are created for social coherence, hence it is expected to be conditioned. But it also extends its influence to the individual aspects like the choice of food, shaping desires, driving ambitions and the aspect of righteousness.

Religious rituals, cultural ceremonies and even some of the day-to-day activities are direct outcome of this planned programming by the society. People were shaking hands to ensure there is no weapon hidden and ready to charge. Air kiss evolved to ensure the make-up is not disrupted. Hugging is a comforting gesture in cold countries as it warms each other. But, irrespective of their origin, we keep doing these things even now, though the context may not apply anymore.

There are also astutely engineered such habits, that are applicable and meaningful at all times. Bowing down to show respect is applicable everywhere. There is physical change in the blood flow in head that subdues any aggression, if present. Hand on eyebrows like a cap visor to focus on objects far away makes sense as it dilates the pupil which increases aperture of the eyes. Burning of old things at the beginning of a solar cycle, celebrated as bhogi in India and a similar ritual of eskimos, disposing all the inessentials at the beginning of every year are some of such meaningful conditioning.

Irrespective of its usefulness, there is nothing called a good habit. Habitual action and involuntary responses, without fundamental understanding and awareness will eventually lead to misery.

Mind is a overloaded term, hence there is a need to re-define it here. It is the active thoughts and the dormant memories collectively known as mind. Anyone who has attempted some form of meditation or even casually tried to look into their thoughts would have faced two major obstacles;
1.) Desires including but not limited to greed, lust, aspirations, seeking fame causing one to day-dream and rehearsing hypothetical situations in head.
2.) Mental wounds like insults, failures, inability to attain a desired thing, under-performance, losing something valuable causes people to re-live the past situations in head. This is often done to polish their self-image in their own thoughts.

These thought processes can be encapsulated as mind. It is the same mind with which we can see, listen, speak, taste, feel, walk, cook, drive and perform every day-to-day activity. As long as the thoughts are divulging outward, mind is the finest tool available. It helps us match patterns, derive mathematical models, observe cosmos and microns, understand physics, astronomy and constantly evolve. The same mind becomes the greatest obstacle when the thoughts turn inward. Basically, its starts to act like a child, constantly seeking attention. With constant awareness, this child can be tamed, but it needs the highest degree of patience.

Most of the meditators are struck in the clutches of the Mind. People rarely cross this layer. It either needs very strong will, cosmic influence, divine intervention or a combination of all these.

Heart is the next stop. I don't mean the physical beating heart inside the ribs. The feelings and emotions constitute the logical composition of heart. When the mind comes to halt during this inward journey, spontaneous outbursts of emotions like compassion, fear, anger, sorrow, empathy and bliss is experienced. These are mostly due to the bubbling up of submerged emotions in the subconsciousness. People in hypnosis and under the influence of the psychedelics exhibit the same symptoms, temporarily though. Mind clouds back as soon as they are out of the influence.

The blessed ones that go through these experience naturally, think they have already attained (self-awareness) and these are the fruits of attainment. Sometimes they even end up declaring to the world. It would be very pre-mature to do so.

This layer is similar to the layer of mind, but it is illogical in nature. Hence all the attempts to logically understand or attempt to steer it will be absolutely futile. Again, enormous patience and a super-human strong-will can get one past this. The blessing and guidance of someone who have already crossed this layer can help in transitioning with ease. The catch is, we can neither seek nor demand their help. It is always their choice. Making oneself eligible for them to choose us, is the only thing we can do.

Soul experience is very unique for every single soul. So there is nothing that can be said in general about it. By the time one reaches this state, they would have gone through several physical and hormonal changes which would have completely transformed them. Some of the common characteristics has been conspicuous clairvoyance, wholistic perspective, absolute clarity in communication, genuine candor, rock-steady composure and honest exhibit of emotions.