'Vāsanā' (Devanagari: वासना): the impressions remaining in the mind, the present consciousness of past (life) perceptions, knowledge derived from memory should not be conflated with 'vasana' (Devanagari: वसन): cloth, clothes, dress, garment, apparel, attire, dwelling or abiding
Vāsanā (Sanskrit; Devanagari: वासना) may be non-technically rendered into English with the following semantic field: past impressions, impressions formed; the impression of anything in the mind, the present consciousness formed from past perceptions, knowledge derived from memory; thinking of, longing for, expectation, desire, inclination.
The Dharma Dictionary (13 January 2006) provides the following semantic field for 'bag chags' only a selection have been provided:
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (5.11.5) (also known as the Bhagavata Purana), a principal text for the Vaishnava tradition of Sanatana Dharma employs the term 'vasana':
A satisfactory English rendering has not yet been sourced but the import is that the 'imprinted-volitions-of-mind' (vāsanātmā) whether pious or impious are conditioned by the Gunas which propel the mind into different 'formations' (rūpa-bhedam). The 'mind' (atma) is the master of the sixteen material elements (understood as the Five Great Elements, the Mahabhuta, the ten senses or powers, that is the Ten Indriya, and the mind) and its 'refined or coarse quality' (antaḥ-bahiṣṭvam) determines the mind-formations of manifestation (tanoti
Rama, the tendencies bought forward from past incarnations are of two kinds- pure and impure.
The pure ones lead you to liberation, and the impure ones invite trouble.
You are indeed conciousness itself, not inert physical matter.
You are not impelled to action by anything other than yourself. Hence you are free to strengthen the pure latent tendencies in preference to the impure ones.
The impure ones have to be abandoned gradually and the mind turned away from them little by little, lest there should be violent reaction.
By encouaging the good tendencies to act repeatedly, strengthen them.
The impure ones will weaken by disuse.
You will be absorbed in the expression of the good tendencies, in good actions. When thus you have overcome the force of the evil tendencies then you will have to abandon the good ones.
You will then experience the supreme truth with the intelligence that rises from the good tendencies.
The Supreme yoga
Swami Venkatesananda.
The story of Jadabharata is a story about Bharata, son of Rishabha, it appears in the second section of the Vishnu Purana and the fifth canto of the Bhagavata Purana
Bharata was born in the Solar Dynasty, in the line of Manu Svayambhuva, the eldest of a hundred sons of a saintly king by the name of Rishabha Deva (Jain First Tirthankara), who ruled over the earth. When Rishabha Deva became old he entrusted the rule of his kingdom to Bharata and retired to the forest to perform tapas.
According to Bhagavata purana, Bharata on assuming rule married a girl named Panchajani and five sons were born to them. Bharata ruled the earth for a long time in a just manner. He performed a number of yagas, worshipped God in the prescribed manner and did many dharmic acts. Thus, he earned much merit. At the forest he stayed in the hermitage of the Rishi Pulaha on the banks of Gandaki river and by means of his austerities became a great sage. When Bharata in turn became old, he divided his kingdom among his five sons and, following his father, went to the forest to perform tapas.
Bharata smitten by love for a deer
One day while offering prayers to the Sun God on the river bank, he saw a lone and heavily pregnant doe coming to quench its thirst in the river. Hardly had it touched the water when the forest echoed with the roar of a lion. The doe became terror-stricken and it just leaped into the water without even quenching its thirst and tried to ford it in a bid to escape to the other side of the river. Shocked by fear and overcome by the effort to negotiate the current, the doe gave birth to a young deer midstream. Without even being aware of it, the doe reached the other bank where it died of exhaustion. The royal sage who saw it all, was moved by compassion at the sight of the motherless infant deer being carried away by the river. He picked the young deer, took it to his ashrama and fed it with tender grass and protected it from wild beasts. Soon he grew very fond of it. In course of time the sage became so attached to it that he could not part from it even for a short while. He feared all sorts of harms to his pet and prayed for their removal. He forgot that he was a sage and behaved like a foolish householder doting over his child. In the end he died with thoughts of the deer in his mind.
Bharata's next birth
That sage was born as a deer in his next birth. The Vedic scriptures say that a man will be born in his next birth as that thing about which he was thinking most at the time of his death. Therefore wise men advise people to think of God so that it will become a habit and thus after death achieve God's abode. As a result of his tapas and merits and having almost reached perfection the deer that was Bharata, could remember its past by the Lord's grace.
It regretted: "How foolish of me to have forgotten my tapas and become attached to an animal? And now I suffer for it, being born an animal. I shall not repeat the mistake." Saying this the deer left its mother and began living in the vicinity of a Rishi's ashrama spending all its time thinking of God. When death approached, the deer entered the water of a river and standing there, gave up its body.
Bharata, reborn as a Jada
In the next birth the deer was born as the son of a pious Brahmana. The past tapas and mistakes lingered in the child's mind and so he did not want to commit the same mistake. As a child Bharata in his third birth did not show any attachment to his family. He did not even speak. People therefore called him Jada or a dunce. Hence the name Jada Bharata.
His father however gave him the sacred thread and tried to teach him the Vedas. Bharata did not make much headway in it.The old father died and his brothers gave him up as an idiot. Bharata was now a ripe jnani. He ate whatever food was offered to him, good or bad. He dressed scantily and roamed as an avadhuta. He, however, had a well-built body. So people made him do all sorts of work which he did, like a bull, without caring for reward or appreciation.
One day some robbers caught him in a field. They took him to a Kali temple to offer him as a human sacrifice to Kali. Bharata did not resist. The robber chief lifted the sword to cut the sage's head. At that time Goddess Kali, enraged, burst out of her image and snatching the sword from the robber, killed the robber himself and danced wildly.
Vāsanā (Sanskrit; Devanagari: वासना) may be non-technically rendered into English with the following semantic field: past impressions, impressions formed; the impression of anything in the mind, the present consciousness formed from past perceptions, knowledge derived from memory; thinking of, longing for, expectation, desire, inclination.
The Dharma Dictionary (13 January 2006) provides the following semantic field for 'bag chags' only a selection have been provided:
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam[vasana], karmic residues, unconscious propensities, disposition, habit energy, thought, habit formation, habit thought dormant, potential tendency, habitual pattern, habitual propensity, habitual tendency, impression, imprint, inclination, inherent tendency, inveterate tendency, karmic impression, karmic imprint, karmic propensities, imprints, predispositions; karmic traces, latency, latent predisposition, latent tendency, mental imprint, negative psychic imprint, potency, potential tendencypotentiality, predisposition, propensity, propensities, sediment of impressions
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (5.11.5) (also known as the Bhagavata Purana), a principal text for the Vaishnava tradition of Sanatana Dharma employs the term 'vasana':
| Devanagari | Roman Transcription |
|---|---|
| स वासनात्मा विषयोपरक्तो | sa vāsanātmā viṣayoparakto |
| गुणप्रवाहो विकृतः षोडशात्मा | guṇa-pravāho vikṛtaḥ ṣoḍaśātmā |
| बिभ्रत्पृथतङनामभि रूपभेदम् | bibhrat pṛthań-nāmabhi rūpa-bhedam |
| अन्तर्बहिष्ङवं च पुरैस्तनोति | antar-bahiṣṭvaṁ ca purais tanoti |
A satisfactory English rendering has not yet been sourced but the import is that the 'imprinted-volitions-of-mind' (vāsanātmā) whether pious or impious are conditioned by the Gunas which propel the mind into different 'formations' (rūpa-bhedam). The 'mind' (atma) is the master of the sixteen material elements (understood as the Five Great Elements, the Mahabhuta, the ten senses or powers, that is the Ten Indriya, and the mind) and its 'refined or coarse quality' (antaḥ-bahiṣṭvam) determines the mind-formations of manifestation (tanoti
A behavioural tendency is called a vAsanA in Sanskrit, literally meaning wishing or desiring but used in Advaita in the sense of the sub-conscious or latent tendencies in one’s nature that will have their way eventually, like it or not. Edward de Bono, of ‘lateral thinking’ fame describes a model that is helpful in thinking about this . If you take a jelly, solidified and turned out onto a plate, and you trickle very hot water onto the top, it will run off onto the plate and leave behind a faint channel where the hot water melted the jelly. If you now pour more hot water, it will tend to run into the same channels as before, since these offer the line of least resistance, and deepen the channels. If this is done repeatedly, very deep channels will form and it will become difficult, if not impossible, to get the water to run anywhere else. The equivalent of an entrenched habit has been formed.
Vasistha said;
Rama, the tendencies bought forward from past incarnations are of two kinds- pure and impure.
The pure ones lead you to liberation, and the impure ones invite trouble.
You are indeed conciousness itself, not inert physical matter.
You are not impelled to action by anything other than yourself. Hence you are free to strengthen the pure latent tendencies in preference to the impure ones.
The impure ones have to be abandoned gradually and the mind turned away from them little by little, lest there should be violent reaction.
By encouaging the good tendencies to act repeatedly, strengthen them.
The impure ones will weaken by disuse.
You will be absorbed in the expression of the good tendencies, in good actions. When thus you have overcome the force of the evil tendencies then you will have to abandon the good ones.
You will then experience the supreme truth with the intelligence that rises from the good tendencies.
The Supreme yoga
Swami Venkatesananda.
Bharata was born in the Solar Dynasty, in the line of Manu Svayambhuva, the eldest of a hundred sons of a saintly king by the name of Rishabha Deva (Jain First Tirthankara), who ruled over the earth. When Rishabha Deva became old he entrusted the rule of his kingdom to Bharata and retired to the forest to perform tapas.
According to Bhagavata purana, Bharata on assuming rule married a girl named Panchajani and five sons were born to them. Bharata ruled the earth for a long time in a just manner. He performed a number of yagas, worshipped God in the prescribed manner and did many dharmic acts. Thus, he earned much merit. At the forest he stayed in the hermitage of the Rishi Pulaha on the banks of Gandaki river and by means of his austerities became a great sage. When Bharata in turn became old, he divided his kingdom among his five sons and, following his father, went to the forest to perform tapas.
Bharata smitten by love for a deer
One day while offering prayers to the Sun God on the river bank, he saw a lone and heavily pregnant doe coming to quench its thirst in the river. Hardly had it touched the water when the forest echoed with the roar of a lion. The doe became terror-stricken and it just leaped into the water without even quenching its thirst and tried to ford it in a bid to escape to the other side of the river. Shocked by fear and overcome by the effort to negotiate the current, the doe gave birth to a young deer midstream. Without even being aware of it, the doe reached the other bank where it died of exhaustion. The royal sage who saw it all, was moved by compassion at the sight of the motherless infant deer being carried away by the river. He picked the young deer, took it to his ashrama and fed it with tender grass and protected it from wild beasts. Soon he grew very fond of it. In course of time the sage became so attached to it that he could not part from it even for a short while. He feared all sorts of harms to his pet and prayed for their removal. He forgot that he was a sage and behaved like a foolish householder doting over his child. In the end he died with thoughts of the deer in his mind.
Bharata's next birth
That sage was born as a deer in his next birth. The Vedic scriptures say that a man will be born in his next birth as that thing about which he was thinking most at the time of his death. Therefore wise men advise people to think of God so that it will become a habit and thus after death achieve God's abode. As a result of his tapas and merits and having almost reached perfection the deer that was Bharata, could remember its past by the Lord's grace.
It regretted: "How foolish of me to have forgotten my tapas and become attached to an animal? And now I suffer for it, being born an animal. I shall not repeat the mistake." Saying this the deer left its mother and began living in the vicinity of a Rishi's ashrama spending all its time thinking of God. When death approached, the deer entered the water of a river and standing there, gave up its body.
Bharata, reborn as a Jada
In the next birth the deer was born as the son of a pious Brahmana. The past tapas and mistakes lingered in the child's mind and so he did not want to commit the same mistake. As a child Bharata in his third birth did not show any attachment to his family. He did not even speak. People therefore called him Jada or a dunce. Hence the name Jada Bharata.
His father however gave him the sacred thread and tried to teach him the Vedas. Bharata did not make much headway in it.The old father died and his brothers gave him up as an idiot. Bharata was now a ripe jnani. He ate whatever food was offered to him, good or bad. He dressed scantily and roamed as an avadhuta. He, however, had a well-built body. So people made him do all sorts of work which he did, like a bull, without caring for reward or appreciation.
One day some robbers caught him in a field. They took him to a Kali temple to offer him as a human sacrifice to Kali. Bharata did not resist. The robber chief lifted the sword to cut the sage's head. At that time Goddess Kali, enraged, burst out of her image and snatching the sword from the robber, killed the robber himself and danced wildly.
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