Yoga Sutra Reflections Session 62: Samskara & Past Lives

Integrating Ancient Wisdom in Modern Life: Unifying Force

1. Samskaras are impressions or imprints formed from previous life experiences. These impressions are often thought of as seeds planted in our subconscious minds, waiting until we need them to grow into our conscious thoughts and behaviours. By focusing on the samskaras of the present life, the knowledge of past lives is realised. To understand this one needs to understand four basic terminologies. 1. Birth: What is, whose and why. 2. Death: What is, whose and why. 3. Past Life: What is, whose and why. 4: Impressions: What is.
2. Everyone has three categories of thoughts: things which are not there should be there, things which are there should not be there and things which are there should be permanent. In the centre of these three categories of thoughts is fear.
3. Man is afraid – a reflex reaction of rational and irrational fear of the mind and his psyche, a response to challenges and the physical threat of losing all his possessions, identity and body life. Fear has inspired us to evolve. Fear is part of your intelligence; nothing wrong in it.
4. Ignorance leads to limited identity, leads to desires, leads to karma and taking birth again and again. Birth will take place in three stages: conception, embryo and physical birth. Yoga calls it the Causal, the Subtle and the Physical body. Causal body or Conception is because to understand the purpose of Life and evolution process, with the deep rooted desire to complete that one enters into the Causal Body. Which grows as a Subtle Body or Foetus, in this stage one will understand the blueprint of one’s life. Now the person will enter the world in Physical Body or Physical Form to complete his purpose by the execution of the blueprint called Karma. What we say ‘I am’ is the sum of these three bodies.
5. Death: when the physical body is separated from the causal body and the subtle body is called death. Lifespan of the Physical body is around 100 years. That of the Causal and Subtle body is 1 kalpa. When a gross body dies it doesn’t carry any memories or impressions. But the Causal and Subtle body carries all the memories and impressions to the new Physical body. This cycle of taking a new body and leaving the body will be repeated until the purpose of life, self-realisation, is attained. In every birth, the gross body has created a habit called impression by repeating actions.
6. Once self-realisation attained, Physical body ends into grave, Causal+Subtle (Soul) Transmigrates and presence of Pure Consciousness in three body stops reflecting when one again merges into Supreme Consciousness.
7. Everything in the Universe is unique and different till their three bodies but they are united, one as Supreme Consciousness. Means – According to the philosophy of Yoga, even though these three bodies appear separate and distinct from one another, they are fundamentally interconnected and unified.