Samskaras (impressions) and habits
If you eat a
mango, if you do any kind of work, it produces an impression in the
subconscious mind or Chitta. This impression is called Samskara or tendency.
Whatever you
see, hear, feel, smell or taste causes Samskaras. The acts of breathing,
thinking, feeling, and willing produce impressions. These impressions are
indestructible. They can only be fried in toto by Asamprajnata Samadhi.
Man is a
bundle of Samskaras. Mind is a bundle of impressions. It is these Samskaras
that bring a man again and again to this physical plane. They are the cause for
rebirths.
These
Samskaras assume the form of very big waves through memory, internal or external stimulus. The sum-total of
these impressions constitutes the character of a man.
If you do
virtuous actions, the Chitta will contain good impressions and you will possess
a good character. If you do evil deeds there will be evil impressions in the
subconscious mind, and you will have a bad character.
Good
Samskaras force a man to do good actions and vice versa. If you have a great asset of good Samskaras,
you will not do any evil action at all. You will have an established good
character. Mara or Satan can have no influence upon you.
Actions
produce Samskaras or impressions or potencies. The impressions coalesce
together through repetition and form habits. Tendencies develop into habits and
character.
The sum-total
of the tendencies of a man is his character. Karmas manufacture character and character manufactures will. If
the character is pure and strong, the will also will be pure and strong, and
vice versa.
It is said
that habit is second nature. I always say that habit is all nature. Control of
habits is control of nature.
Old, evil
habits can be changed into healthy and desirable habits through the force of
the pure irresistible will.
A weak,
impotent man is a slave of habits. He always
imagines that habits are innate and that they cannot be changed in one's
lifetime. This is a mistake.
If you want
to change the old, morbid evil habits and establish new, healthy and good
habits, you will have to struggle hard. The old habits will try to return, resist, persist and recur.
Internal fight will go on between the old and new Samskaras, between old and
new habits. You will have to be very vigilant, careful and circumspect. You
will have to be on the alert like a soldier who is on patrol duty at a magazine
in a military cantonment.
The old
habit asserts itself and says: "O friend! You gave me a seat in your body
and mind for twenty long years. You enjoyed several things through me. Why do
you try to drive me off now? You are very cruel. I have every right and
privilege from Nature, my kind mother, to remain here. Maya works through me
only.
The entire
world runs through habits only. Man clings to tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco,
smoking, cinema, novels, gambling and playing cards through the force of
habits. The whole world will dwindle into
airy nothing but for me. The Lila of the Lord will stop had it not been for my
presence in your system. I will not leave my seat in your body." This
is the law of resistance.
If the man
who is attempting to eradicate an evil habit is careless, the old habit will
recur again. In the
beginning it may recur less frequently and last for a long time. Or it may
recur less frequently and last for a short time. But you will gain strength and
gradually it will perish altogether and the new good habits will gain supremacy
eventually.
If a new
healthy habit is introduced even once and if you make even a single attempt in
planting a new good habit, the good habit will grow gradually. It will also assert itself to gain a seat in
the body and mind. It will work itself till it gets perfect success and defeats
the old, morbid habit. This is also another law of Nature.
There is
always a double life in Nature, the Asuric (Evil, Demonic) and Daivic (Divine).
The fight between the Asuras and the Devas is always going on in the body
and the mind. If you struggle very hard, the new good habits will establish
themselves quickly. You will have rapid progress in the spiritual path. The
pure, strong, irresistible will is bound to succeed ultimately. It can do
anything. Its powers are ineffable and wonderful.
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