Yesterday was Mother’s day and I took my mother out to eat to celebrate it. Actually I also invited my best friend of 42 years and her mother. And we had a nice time. While on the way to the restaurant we were talking about how some people as they become old cannot control their anger. We were actually talking in reference to our friend who gets angry easily and simply cannot help himself. At that point it dawned on me that it had to do with one’s samskaras. For once, I understood what the word samskara meant.
What are samskaras?
Well what are samaskaras or tendencies? When we act in a certain way out of compulsion, then we call that as our tendency to act in that way in spite of not wanting to.
As children we are born with certain tendencies that compel us to behave in a certain way. As we grow up and gain more experience, it gives us a chance to change those habits or tendencies thru self development we learn from school and associating with other people.. But developing new habits takes a lot of work and discipline.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. As a child I might be short tempered or get angry very easily. But thru associating with others I am made aware of this weakness of mine and on suggestions of others I try to control my anger. As years go by I seem to have gained some control over my anger during my youth and things look good. But as I grow old and successful, I become egotistical and arrogant and soon I lose perspective of my values and revert back to getting angry easily at the slightest provocation. All that work I put into my self development has gone waste. I have reverted to my original self who gets angry easily. Why does this happen? We take so many births and develop so many habits that they are so ingrained in us that it is hard to change them. The new habits we developed are not strong enough to overcome our previous samskaras.
Unfortunately, even after working the better half of our youth trying to cultivate those good habits, it seems as though our tendencies take control of us during old age and we seem to have lost what we tried to develop thru our youth. So how do we change our samskaras? It is only thru meditation that we can change our tendencies. To this question and answer the following email I received in my inbox today is an appropriate answer and so I decided to post it here on my blog.
There is no shortcut.
One thing has to be remembered about meditation; it is a long journey and there is no shortcut. Anyone who says there is a shortcut is befooling you.
It is a long journey because the change is very deep and is achieved after many lives – many lives of routine habits, thinking, desiring, and the mind structure you have to drop through meditation. In fact it is almost impossible – but it happens.
A man becoming a meditator is the greatest responsibility in the world. It is not easy. It cannot be instant. So from the beginning never start expecting too much and then you will never be frustrated. You will always be happy because things will grow very slowly.
Meditation is not a seasonal flower which within six weeks is there. It is a very very big tree. It needs time to spread its roots.
‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑‑OSHO
Meditation and thereby achieving tranquility or becoming tranquil is the final solution to all physical and mental problems bothering a normal human being. Samskaras are also part of the whole package whose equations are solved in the process. But changing your tendencies or attitudes to what you face either on a long run or short run is a part of the process and becomes a step towards reaching your final goal.Once THE GOAL is reached, you are the goal, goalee, ball and the kicker. Even reaching your goal in time frame is also a part of your samskara, as Swami said-if the fruit is fully ripe, it falls at the slightest touch. As I read just now, an old lady in Haryana has a 4 feet long altar for Swami in her 8feet hut and we do not earmark even a full room in our so called N-Bedroomed house for Your Beloved Master. It is the Samskara we are born and grew up with.
First Para-Samskara is printed as Samaskara-Sorry!!!
Hello Mr. Chittaranjan,
I didn’t quite understand your last statement, “It is the Samskara we are born and grew up with.
First Para-Samskara is printed as Samaskara-Sorry!!!” I wonder what you meant by that.
Some definitions of “SAMSKARA” are given below:
Impressions stored in the mind that form the basis of our beliefs, attitudes and personality.
Sankalpa …
Subtle impressions of one’s own past karmas, or actions. The innermost wall of the city of life is constructed by the samskaras that hold the aspirant’s attachments and pleasure-seeking desires.
Unconscious memories; impressions that do not fit into the known categories of our present personality
Samskara (“activator”): the subconscious impression left behind by each act of volition, which, in turn, leads to renewed psychomental activity; …
Samskara (Sanskara) association, impression, fixed notion, habitual reaction formed by one’s past.
Unconscious memories which set up impulses and trains of thought; education: impressions in the mind leading to creative performance
In yoga, the word samskara, which means “tendency,” or a “habitual conditioning of the mind,” is used to describe these inclinations of early childhood that have no obvious explanation.
Hello Mr. Chittaranjan,
Thank you for your comment and shedding further light on the definition of ‘samskara’. Impressions stored in the mind that form the basis of our beliefs, attitudes and personality. Subtle impressions of one’s own past karmas, or actions. The innermost wall of the city of life is constructed by the samskaras that hold the aspirant’s attachments and pleasure-seeking desires.
Wow! that is quite a definition needing a lot of contemplation! No wonder it is only thru years of intense meditation that we can change those samskaras. It is only when we meditate that the mind becomes calm and in that state of purity that there is an awakening of intelligence. As stated in the Bhagavad Gita Ch. 4 Shloka 37: As a blazing fire reduces the bundle of sticks to ashes so the fire of knowledge burns all karmas to ashes. It is then that it is possible to change our samskaras.
Thank you for that wonderful discussion.
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