Saturday, August 14, 2010

Thought 123: Vaasanas drive you helplessly to commit sin


Arjuna asks the Bhagavaan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, “Why people behave as they do – irrationally most of the time. They often commit evil actions, even when they know that it is wrong to do so. Some unknown force seems to always impel them into committing the sin in spite of themselves” (BG 6.33, 6.34). The Bhagavaan replies that Vaasanas are the reason why people helplessly behave as they do. Vaasanas are very powerful. Even the Jnaanis find that they are helplessly controlled by their Vaasanas.

Every one picks up a host of likes and dislikes as he journeys along in every life. Every mind has likes and dislikes. Every one views the world through his likes and dislikes. The world that enters a mind is the one that got distorted by the two lenses called, “likes” and “dislikes”. Thus, the world that is stored in any mind is a modified world – modified by its likes and dislikes. This is a private world of fantasy and fancy of a person – which is uniquely his own. The individual, even while viewing the objective world created by Isvara, actually interacts in terms of his own private world - and develops subjective responses. Thus, these likes and dislikes define the world that a person would like to live in. These likes and dislikes are identified with the Vaasanas of a person.

The next thought is about “Vedaanta helps you to purify your Vaasanas”

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