[Advaita-l] INNATE JANMA -SAMSKARAS
KAMESWARARAO MULA
kamesh_ccmb at yahoo.co.in
Mon Jul 4 19:17:15 EDT 2022
- Dear Members, I found very intersting & more detailed description "On Karma, Samskara, Vasna, Samsara and Moksha: in the IYENGAR YOGA Blog. Here is the Link: https://eyalshifroni.com/blog/on-karma-samskara-vasna-samsara-and-moksha/ Accordingly: "As a man himself sows, so he himself reaps; no man inherits the good or evil act of another man. The fruit is of the same quality as the action." Mahabharata, XII.291.22.
- Karma Phala (fruit) – Karma has an immediate impact. It is the result of an action that is expressed immediately, or sometime during the life of the doer, whether overtly or covertly. For example, the good feeling one has after doing an act of kindness, generousity or compassion is an example of phala.
- Samskara – Karma has a hidden influence. It is expressed internally in the life of the doer, influencing his behavior and his degree of happiness (in the current life and in certain schools even in future incarnations). Samskara is often the focus of discussion in Eastern philosophy. Karma sows tendencies (vasna) in the individual’s life, which affect their behavior as well as their vision of themselves and the world, thus dictating their experience of life.
- Reincarnation – The principle of rebirth (samsara) appears in various schools of Eastern religions. All forms of life undergo a process of reincarnation – that is, a series of births and deaths, whereby each birth can manifest in a different life form than the one that preceded it (for example, what was a pig in a previous life can be born again as a human being). The accumulation of karma collected during a creature’s lifetime continues with it even after death in the next incarnation and determines the shape and nature of life to which they will be born. This process of death and rebirth continues indefinitely and the only way to stop it is by consciously reaching a release, or Moksha.
Clearing Samskaras:For the Western mind, the prospect of reincarnation may seem comforting. After all, death isn’t the final and absolute ending. But in the Eastern traditions, the endless cycles of birth and death – the samsara, is replete with suffering. In fact, it seems like a prison that one is doomed to be in, endlessly. As long as we have a karmatic store or samskaras we are doomed to return to this wheel of samsara. So the only way to extricate oneself from it, is to clean our samsakaras. The actions of the yogi, done without desire and without expecting reward or personal benefit, do not produce any samskaras.
The chapter 1 of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describes the process of clearing the samskaras, in order to reach the utmost Samadhi – Samadhi without a nucleus:
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| Life is a continuous process, even though it is demarcated by race, place and time. Due to the uninterrupted close relationship between memory and subliminal impressions, the fruits of actions remain intact from one life to the next, as if there were no separation between births.
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| SriGuruPadaravindarpanaMastu
Kameswara |
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On Monday, 4 July, 2022, 10:38:39 am IST, KAMESWARARAO MULA <kamesh_ccmb at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
Dear Members, Today speaking tree article speaks about something reap of our samskaras by author Sh. Dhruv Bhargav.Here is the LINK: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/how-we-sow-and-reap-our-samskaras/
Life is a divine creative force. We are not dependent solely on instinctual drives but also possess virtues of awareness, reasoning, common sense, reflection, will, logic, morality and discerning real and unreal. These virtues bestow immense freedom of making choices. We are not separate from other creatures. We carry within the entire evolutionary memory beginning from marine life, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. However, beyond a certain threshold of upliftment, it’s entirely our choice how to steer our lives and what to become. Embracing these virtues helps in evolving and living life free from unconscious reactions.
By exercising freedom of choice, we can make our lives worthier and meaningful. We can carve our own paths (SADHANA PATHS). Samskaras are those pathways. ‘Sam’ means ‘total’ and ‘Kar’ means ‘action’. We often misconstrue samskara as something positive and righteous. Samskaras are neutral. They literally mean impression or groove. These impressions are created both consciously and unconsciously and stored as memory in Chitta – the huge storage and powerhouse of impressions. These impressions mould our inner potential to create us as us. Once stored in chitta, these impressions drive our responses and actions. On facing familiar situations or events, samskaras evoke familiar responses. They drive us on autopilot mode. These internal reflexes have the power to recreate the same reflexive outcomes and repetitive behaviours. Thus, what we are today is because what we were in the past and what we will be in the future depends on what we are today. Samskaras constitute our deep-rooted tendencies, habits, consistent patterns of reactions, behaviour, outlook, feelings and way of perceiving. Findings suggest that the brain hardwires repetitive learning to conserve energy and resources so that the same can be redirected towards new learnings and behaviours. For example, initially, learning to drive a car was cumbersome. We lacked coordination and while we paid attention to some functions, we missed others. However, over time, we developed skill and dexterity to coordinate all functions together and mastered driving. Today, we hardly pay attention to where the steering is, how to change the gear or accelerate. We drive effortlessly. Skill mastered is now part of our subconscious and in a split second we drive and navigate without any difficulty.
The pattern we sow as samskara directs and influences our future actions and outcomes. My outcome – how I drive today is entirely based on how I learnt driving in the past. That’s why, my style of driving is consistent and uniquely different from others.
Generally, samskaras are helpful and essential for navigating our lives. However, they become unhelpful when past samskaras start colouring our present and restrict our vision of seeing things as they are. When internal, past conditioning unconsciously shapes our present perception, we get stuck in the karmic groove that restricts us from moving forward. Loosening the grip of such samskaras is a challenge, but planting strong intentions and constant repetition helps in creating a corresponding groove or tendency. Scientific evidence suggests that ‘nerves that fire together, wire together’. Deeper the groove, more likely we tend to follow that track just like water flowing through channels. Thus, by moving from conscious towards unconscious and automatic, we can reprogramme ourselves.Vishnu Sahasranama says : The Bondages can getred of by taking/Praying the name of VISHNUyasya smaraNa-mAtreNa janma-samsAra-bandhanAt
vimuchyate namas-tasmai vishNave prabhavishNave.
Meaning: My salutations to that superior diety vishNu, by a mere thought of Whose name all persons are freed from the bonds of samsara (birth and death).Janma Samskara is something different than it is perceived as some one gets the human birth after the passing through some 70,000 Yoni births (which we discussed earlier).
e.g: The kid is taking the shtanya (milk) from the mother means it has done that job earlier , otherwise who are telling the kid that to take milk so that it will get the prana shakthi. It is the INNATE TENDENCY OF THAT SOUL TO BEHAVE LIKE THAT, TO ACT LIKE THAT, TO GET THOSE TRAITA, LIFESTYLE COMES FROM THE JANMA SAMSKARA of the Individuals.
A few good deeds were performed by those individuals which comes from their Janma Samskara's So that those tendencies keeps moving in the forward direction with positive attitude there by falling the enemies into thier own traps/ downfall as greasing already been done to their wheels.
What I want to bring a point here is it is the Janma Samskara to keep you live and helps you in taking the birth again & again and makes the way for Liberation after getting rid of those Bondages.
Learner's are requsted to comment/contribute their views
Sri Guru Padaravindarpana Mastu
Kameswara
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