The Nature of the Mind : 5.

The net of Samsara is knit together with the strings of Sankalpas.

He cannot become a Yogi who has not renounced Sankalpas or the act of imagining.

Sankalpa is a creative determination to carry out a certain effect in the realm of relative life by relating the self to objective selves which are taken for granted to be independent and real by themselves.

This creative affirmation deposits the psychic objective tendencies in the core of the being of the Jiva and these tendencies assert themselves whenever they find suitable conditions for that purpose.

The moral sense of the intellect suppresses the lower appetites and the base cravings during the waking experience but the moment this ethical sense is overshadowed by the Tamas that manifests itself in the dreaming and the deep sleep states, the physical propensities which mar the consciousness of the Self express themselves and demand wish-fulfilment.

At this time, the discriminative faculty is held in check and the dance of the senses to the tune of the Vasanas becomes the main feature of the Jiva's life ( jivatma).

The material greed ejects its venom of earthly passion for the possession of and the rejoicing with spatial objects.

This is how the Vasanas manage to maintain individuality and activity, and make the Jiva suffer the illness of life as a localised body.

It is not merely the suppression but the complete frying of the Sankalpa-bhavana that can liberate the Jiva from the thraldom of the earth.

The Moksha Gita

by Swami Sivananda

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  .....