Life is a Journey depending on Samskaras

Men are immersed in many activities and they are engaged in various undertakings. This is a well-known fact. They are so many in numbers that sometimes one may feel that the span of twenty-four hours is too short for his daily activity. Drinking, eating, reading, walking, sitting and besides, dreaming, hating, boasting, praising, weeping, laughing, moping, hoping - all types of activities go on without end. They fill up the span of life. These activities are all intimately attached to the mind. This makes life a mere collection of Samskaras, which make an impact on character and personality.

There are two types of activities, good and bad. The effect of both on the life of man has to be considered. The acts of a body during that tender age fade away like the writing of that boy on a slate. When the events of one's own boyhood are thus consigned to oblivion, how can the events of the past life be retained in the memory? Leaving this point aside, it will be wrong to infer that only such events as are remembered have happened, or have shaped character. The acts and activities that have occurred and that have been thrust back into forgetfulness by subsequent events have left a trace of their consequences in the mind. The residue is there. When you try to bring back to memory at bedtime the events of the day, everything that happened from the insignificant to the significant will not answer the summons. Those which are deeply embedded inside, these alone can be recalled.

When such is the case with the happenings of a single day, when we forget all events that are not associated with joy or pain, what shall be said of events of last week or month or years? Only the chief events are registered clearly. The rest turn hazy and recede and disappear. These few are the Samskaras.

Performing innumerable deeds, gathering vast experience and knowledge, learning a wide variety of lesson from a wide variety of activities, man retains as his capital only a mere four or five of them, strong, deep rooted, vital.