Samskaras are the foundation of one’s psychological, mental and physical construct. A whole collection of them. It is amusing that the term ‘samskaras’ has found colloquial usage in Indian society, with a meaning far removed from its original one. We seem to understand today that good ‘Samskara’ is essentially a good value system which we imbibe in our families. “Oh, they don’t have good samskaras!”, gossip-mongers will often whisper to each other about the young who party, drink or defy their parents. No, not in the least. It’s sad that the fundamental building block of human life has been defaced and devalued in the same way as many such precious ideas, in the modern, ‘advanced’ civilisation of our times.
First, our samskaras lie in our deep subconscious, the depth memory- Smriti, as the first codifier of Yoga, Patanjali, called it. It is an ‘extra’ part of the psyche-mind, a many feet deep, undiscovered layer of the iceberg of our psycho-mental complex. Far from having access to it, neither modern neuroscience nor modern psychology has the faintest clue about this fundamental layer of existence. Samskaras do not operate in our conscious experience, and so we can barely control them. They get carried over from our previous experiences, which go as far back to our previous lifetimes. I know that the idea of ‘lifetimes’ could repel you, it repelled me too once, and I do not get convinced easily. Hang on for now, till the logic and soundness of the system reveals itself to you. Decide after that.
New samskaras are constantly being created from our interaction with the environment, our family, our situations, but we will soon see how these new impressions are only a result of the old impressions already seeded in our psyche-minds. We will see that the old samskaras manifest and new ones form in an inadvertent, cyclical process. An unending feedback loop. Until one becomes aware and intervenes.
Another myth, among others that needs to be shattered about ‘good’ samskaras is this. ‘Good’ samskaras are actually ones which make us aware of this cyclical loop and urge us to break away from it. Good samskaras, or beneficial ones really, have nothing to do with having a value system of ‘good behaviour’ in society, as modern Hindus think. That concept is useful to run a community or society, but is has no effect on the true purpose of human life.
Vasanas: Tendencies/ Subtle desires
Some of these unmanifest, potential impressions manifest into tendencies; urges or subtle desires. They were called Vasanas. For example I may prefer the beach to the mountains, or Chinese cuisine to English, despite not having had many conscious experiences to support that desire. I do not know why I have these urges. Why do some people have homosexual tendencies while others feel they took birth as a wrong gender? These unexplained urges have nothing to do with bad exposure nor with a mental illness. There is no rational explanation for these urges, no memory to match it against, no experience to explain it! I am sure all of us have such urges, some we fight and others which we explore. Some of these illogical tendencies lead us down precarious and destructive paths while others take us to the pinnacle of success. It is clear in creative geniuses who cannot explain their ‘freak’ talents or closet homosexuals who struggle to school and control their desires. There are many more mundane examples where tendencies have no logical explanation for themselves. A doctor’s son might turn into a famous artist, even though the father never had such inclinations, nor exposed his son to the arts. The question of nature vs nurture vs Samskaras comes in here as many of these tendencies or urges are not affected by our upbringing nor genetic inheritance. You need not be a scientist to realise that there surely is something additional at play apart from the genetic legacy and nurture. Incidentally, scientists lop off such unexplained characteristics as ‘random’.
So what they can’t explain should become self-explanatory by being called ‘random’?
Why do siblings, and especially twins, who share identical DNA composition and upbringing have contra distinct tendencies and preferences? It is baffling how two siblings can have such varying looks, life choices and traits. One could be inclined towards science and grow up to be a renowned scientist while the other could become a killer psychopath! It is difficult to explain these variations with logic alone, and the scientists’ answers of ‘randomness’ is very dissatisfying.
Don’t let Science intimidate you. The word random means ‘We have no clue’. You can take the matter into your hands and know for yourself!
Modern genetics has run into a Mendelian wall, so to say. “There is a lot of non-genetic stuff going on and further findings could de-couple a person’s DNA sequence from their traits, calling into question a lot of work scientists have already done”, says a famous geneticist. For an example, scientists once identified 54 genes which contribute to the aspect of ‘height’ of an individual, but deeper studies have showed that only 4-6% of these genes have any substantial effect. They are calling the unknown factors, the variables apart from known genes, as the ‘dark matter of genetics’. Seen from a yogic perspective, it makes better sense, as each of us carry samskaras from before, which manifest into our current tendencies.
Vrittis: Traits/ Conscious desires
Some of these tendencies further concretize into our conscious ideas and life concepts. Our world views, our likes and dislikes, our desires and fears. I say ‘some’ because only strong samskaras concretize into vasanas, and even among them, the stronger ones become vrittis. Even among the impressions and the tendencies, there is a fight for survival based on strength. However, samskaras which do not concretize remain in an unmanifest, potential form to flower some other time. Flower, they will, all of them. Translate into experiences, change forms to exhaust and expend. Unless the yogic hack is used to strike them at their root. Till there are samskaras, there will be life and experiences.
This strength depends on the emotional charge that the samskaras carried; positive or negative, in varying degrees. These concretized Vrittis form the conscious psyche-mind of the individual.
Without a doubt, influences from the external environment shape our conscious psyche-mind too, and both go hand in hand. We collect new impressions from the many experiences we have in the course of our lives. A tragic experience like losing a loved one could make us cynical and untrusting of the world. A new negatively charged samskara. Unexpected professional success could make us confident about our potentials to achieve greater things. A positively charged samskara. In fact, the tragic experience must have been a manifestation of a pre-existing negative impression; say a deep fear of loss. The unexpected professional successes could have been a physical manifestation of a deep seated belief in one’s talents and abilities. So you see, a mixture of old samskaras and new make up the contents of our psyche-minds. Our upbringing, world views imbibed from our parents, and quality of life experiences form further, new ‘impressions’ in our mind. These new impressions can have an additive effect the older ones, or a subtractive one.
Suppose you grew up in acute poverty and felt fear and desperation exude from your parents throughout your childhood. You would carry these ideas in my mind for life. You would keep giving strength to these impressions, these samskaras, only if you did not consciously choose other positive ideas. More favourable cognitions. These childhood ideas, reiterated and repeated will not only lodge themselves into my conscious mind, but its impressions will seep deep into your subconscious mind. To solidify as new impressions, new samskaras. They will turn into uncontrollable tendencies which will dictate your future, inspite of you. You might want to become a millionaire and work towards it too, but the unconscious play of impressions would sabotage your efforts. These deep-seated impressions, unconscious impressions will dictate you, as you sabotage your own chances of success. You will want to be rich, but the deep impressions of poverty will not allow me to do the relevant actions. You might work very hard, but fail. The poor results will confuse you because you have been working to succeed. Maybe your ‘poverty impression’ forces you to play safe and save instead of taking required risks. Maybe your ‘poverty impressions’ do not allow you to dream big, because you do not really believe in the possibility.
The limitations imposed on your mind by these samskaras will limit you.
The program of the samskaras runs inspite of your wishes. They samskaras win over your conscious mind because they are more basic, more foundational.
In an alternate case, let’s say as a child you watched your father rise out of abject poverty. He tried one failed enterprise after another, never backing down, to eventually succeed. Now you carry these subtle impressions of resilience and optimism, and this aids you in your own life ventures. So of course, nurturing plays a big role in the formation of your new samskaras. However, this ‘value system’ picked up from the environment, family and society, forms only a portion of your psyche-mind unit. Your older samskaras brought you into this childhood experience of poverty in the first place.
Remember impressions become experiences and these experiences breed new impressions.
Samskara to experience (Quality of life). Experience to Samskara. A feedback loop.
In yet another contradictory scenario, still born in abject poverty, say you were brought up on ideas of limitations and helplessness. Nobody in your family has held a decent job or had much money ever, nor do they expect to. However, there are unexplained, inherent urges inside you which push you to break out of this cycle. You might have activated samskaras which favour success, optimism, fearlessness and enterprise. You might grow up to become a millionaire, breaking the shackles of your limited origins. Haven’t we heard countless stories of phenomenal success found in the most unlikely places? Billionaires, Olympians, geniuses, child prodigies, leaders whose stories of unexplainable, background defying achievements leave us awe-inspired!
No nature, no nurture, this is the manifestation of the samskaras carried from previous lives. For those totally opposed to this idea of ‘other lives’, it is amusing how randomness and chance seems a better explanation. Why, only because the ‘randomness’ comes from science? Randomness, luck and chance explain little by way of a framework, a system, a concrete theory. The Yogic paradigm does; it is comprehensive, has a defined set of axioms, follows a strong logic, with a well-defined end-state.
The Yogic system lends meaning as well as well-defined, definite a purpose to human life. We will see how.