A king gave up his kingdom, relinquished his wife and children, and became a recluse. One day, when he was wandering in a forest, he noticed something that looked like a shining ruby lying near a tree. On seeing it, a thought arose in his mind, ‘what an expensive jewel, let me pick it up quickly before someone else sees it.’ He hastily bent down to pick it up, but as soon as his hand touched the object, he realised that it wasn‘t a jewel but a chewed piece of betel leaf that someone had spat out, which seemed like a ruby because of the reflected sunlight. The king was filled with great shame and remorse, condemning himself for his greedy behaviour. What an impure mind! He bemoaned.
Indeed, no one knows when a latent samskārā will awaken and lead you astray. That is why mystic Kabir would say: I am so frightened of my own mind. For no one knows when a samskārā, a seed of vāsanā will sprout and lead to rising of the impurities of greed, lust, anger, and lead me astray. O master! I am so scared of my own mind, for it can change any moment. Remember, all that you perceive through your senses in your waking state, be it knowingly or unknowingly, all of those impressions are left in the deeper layers of your mind in the form of samskārās. And it is these trillions of samskārās that keep on giving rise to specific thoughts and emotions in your mind. That is why a spiritual aspirant needs to be constantly alert; aware at all times of every thought, every emotion arising in his mind.
For even a moment‘s lapse of awareness will ripen the thought or emotion, and consequentially you will end up performing such actions which you later end up regretting. You don‘t want to do something, yet it just happens because of the force of the awakened samskārā. There are only two ways of eradicating these samskārās: Vairāgya (dispassion to the objective world) is one way, and the other is sincere practise of pratyāhāra (withdrawal of the senses from the objective world) and dhyāna (meditation).
The author is a guru, mystic, and contemporary spiritual master .