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How to handle Vasana
The first time a man steals, he does so with great effort and
much fear; the next time both his effort and fear are much less. As
opportunities increase, stealing will become a normal habit with him
and will require no effort at all. This habit will generate in him a
tendency to steal even when there is no necessity to steal. It is
this tendency which goes by the name vasana. The power which makes
you act as if against your will is only the vasana which itself is of
your own making. This is not fate.
The punishment or reward, in the shape of pain or pleasure,
which is the inevitable consequence of an act, good or bad, is alone
the province of fate or destiny.
The vasana which the doing of an act leaves behind in the mind
in the shape of a taste, a greater facility or a greater tendency for
doing the same act once again, is quite a different thing. It may be
that the punishment or the reward of the past act is, in ordinary
circumstances, unavoidable, if there is no counter-effort; but the
vasana can be easily handled if only we exercise our free-will
correctly.
His Holiness Shri Chandrashekhara Bharati
Mahaswami
The first time a man steals, he does so with great effort and
much fear; the next time both his effort and fear are much less. As
opportunities increase, stealing will become a normal habit with him
and will require no effort at all. This habit will generate in him a
tendency to steal even when there is no necessity to steal. It is
this tendency which goes by the name vasana. The power which makes
you act as if against your will is only the vasana which itself is of
your own making. This is not fate.
The punishment or reward, in the shape of pain or pleasure,
which is the inevitable consequence of an act, good or bad, is alone
the province of fate or destiny.
The vasana which the doing of an act leaves behind in the mind
in the shape of a taste, a greater facility or a greater tendency for
doing the same act once again, is quite a different thing. It may be
that the punishment or the reward of the past act is, in ordinary
circumstances, unavoidable, if there is no counter-effort; but the
vasana can be easily handled if only we exercise our free-will
correctly.
His Holiness Shri Chandrashekhara Bharati
Mahaswami