Satsang with Swami Chinmayananda

[Guest guest]

Satsang with Swami Chinmayananda

 

 

Somebody once asked Swamiji: “When it is said that every soul takes a

body and family which are conducive to the expression of its vaasanas, how is it that we find cases

where people are born in circumstances seemingly not conducive to

self-expression?”

 

 

 

 

 

Pujya Gurudev replied: “It is true that the soul after death leaves its

previous body and takes up another physical body so as to be able to express

and fulfil its vaasanas

completely. So we are born again, and take up new embodiments according to our vaasanas, in order to fulfill those

unfulfilled vaasanas. But

it generally happens that in our attempt to exhaust and eliminate the existing vaasanas we prepare the ground for fresh

vaasanas and unconsciously

create a thousand other desires. Thus the present environment becomes not

conducive to the full expression and fulfilment of those new desires. So again

it is our own fault. We must live intelligently and consciously and take care

to see that while exhausting the existing vaasanas

we are not multiplying them. On the contrary, if you multiply your vaasanas at a faster rate than you

exhaust them, you will find you can neither express nor fulfil them in your

present circumstances. Hence you are yourself responsible for your own tragedy: so you need not complain

against anyone and wonder why I am placed in such a situation and surroundings,

where I cannot express myself fully. Is it not? Think over it.”

 

 

 

 

 

Life is many-sided. Thus, even though we have one principal vaasana, life has to provide us with

fields for exhausting all other vaasanas,

too. No cactus is

found to grow in water, and no coconut is compelled to grow on snow-capped

mountain tops. Just as nature provides, for man as well there is cosmic

justice.