Vasanas: continued.....
Contrarily, selfishness, indifference, to the sufferings of others, envy, egotism, anger and hatred lead to vindictiveness,
cruelty, and the primitive savagery of man. Persons as they advance in age, if they are not careful of their thoughts and
persist in their old crooked, cunning and lustful ways, becomes cantankerous and insufferable and people avoid them.
They suffer hell even while alive. If these evil samskaras are carried over to the next birth, it is not hard to divine the nature
of the child and God in His wisdom places him in families and environments suitable to his nature. (BG XVI).
The only easy remedy to get over these evil propensities is recourse to Japa and constant remembrance of God. These will
certainly sublimate all evil tendencies and change the individual, completely. There need be no doubt about this.
In the Jagrat (waking) state when a man is idle his mind is kept engaged by these latent vasanas, tendencies. The mind is
never idle. It is like a running mill wanting grist to grind and the vasanas supply it.
In the Arunachala Ashtakam, in the sixth verse, addressing the Heart, Sri Bhagavan says, 'Thou art Thyself, the one Being ever
aware as the Self luminous Heart. In Thee, there is a mysterious Power which without Thee is nothing. From it proceeds the
phantom of mind emitting its latent dark subtle mists, which, illumined by Thy Light of consciousness reflected on them, appear
within as thoughts, whirling in the vortices of prarabdha, later developing into the psychic worlds, and, projected outwardly, as the
material world transformed into concrete objects which are magnified by the outgoing senses and move like pictures in the
cinema show. Visible or invisible, Oh Hill of Grace, without Thee, they are nothing!
Arunachala Siva.