Vasanas, Thoughts, Actions

As per the Vedantic theory, all creatures in this cosmos are brought in because of its Vasanas.   These Vasanas  are formed as a result of the past actions.

In case of humans,  it could be the actions from his/her past lives.   Eliminating this Vasanas is the part of the evolution to species of higher maturity with increasing levels of awareness and knowledge about itself.   It takes multiple lifetimes to clean oneself of his/her vasanas.

The Vasanas feeds thoughts into an ego-centric and outgoing mindset (personality) and those thoughts drives actions in the outside world.   It is easier to control the actions by a person than controlling his/her mind.  So the best starting point for brahmacharya (dedicating onself into Brahman) is control of  his/her actions.   Even if there are any fanciful thoughts in the mind, let is pass and just be a witness. Do not get involved in it and abstain from acting on it.  If possible revert the mind flow back to Brahman or a Guru. The thoughts without actions dies a natural death.  When many such thoughts are inactive,  that specific vasana strain will also die.  This is the trick of attaining brahmacharya control.

Sw. Chinmayananda puts it so simply and beautifully in his explanation of verse 445 of Viveka Choodamani as below

“ A sadhak trying to lead a noble way of life should mentally have the presence of his Ideal or his teacher (Guru) always before him so  that his baser tendencies get weaker and he is always inspired to live the Ideal way of life".

Hari Om

Peaks of Vairagya, Bodha and Uparati

In verse 425 of Viveka Choodamani, Bhagwan Shankara touches upon the signs of attaining the peaks in Detachment (vairagya), Knowledge (bodha) and Withdrawl (uparati). These three characteristics are the pointers to a self-realized person. Sw. Chinmayananda explains these three definitions wonderfully as below

Vairagya (detachment) results from absence of desire and thereby the thoughtsin the bosom of a person. When materialistic sense objects no more attract a person and there are no more vasanas, vairagya finds its fulfillment. Annihilation of all Samskaras is the non-manifestation of all vasanas and sankalpas.

The culmination of bodha (knowledge) is the absence of ego. Knowledge leads to expansion of our mind to accommodate the universe as One and realization of Brahman as the one Unique Supreme Power (USP) which is the substratum of all in this cosmos. This helps in transcending the PFT (Perceiver, Feeler, Thinker) outlook and annihilation of the ego.

The renunciation of the PFT and resulting OET (Objects, Emotions, Thoughts) is uparati or complete withdrawl. When all agitations are quiet ended and there is no thought disturbance in the bosom, that is the state of uparati.

When the above three are attained, the person attains complete knowledge of infinite Bliss.

Hari Om.