Links to Related Resources & Longer Articles:

• 108 Saṃskṛta Key Terms Pointers – Collected and Collated
• 25 – VĀSANĀ Download all the Glossary Links as a Collated PDF
• Prāṇāyāma within Rāja Yoga and Haṭha Yoga
• TKV Desikachar talks on Śraddhā in the light of the Yoga Sūtra……

Collated Related Short Posts & Quotes:

“Working together with and directed by past impressions,
the three Guṇa, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas determine
whether the mind is calm, agitated or dull.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 4

“Past impressions also determine the
mind’s direction and quality of perception.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 4

“The mind acts in countless ways and all of them
stem from the power of past Karma Vāsanā.
This is why individuals differ from one another.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 6

“Most commentaries fail to point out the great similarities
between the Yoga Sūtra and the Brahma Sūtra when,
in fact, one of the only differences is in regard to
the distinction between Jīva, Prakṛti, and Īśvara.
In two distinguished texts, the Puruṣa Nirṇaya and Īśvara Siddhi,
the sages Nathamuni and Yāmunamuni speak of the
teachings in Yoga Sūtra with the highest regard.
Both these texts emphasise the value of Yoga Sādhana,
in developing devotion to Īśvara and the power of Vāsana
to inspire a person to reach Asaṃprajñāta Samādhi.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 19

“Where does Śraddhā sit in a human being?
Is it a part of the mind?
No. It is beyond the mind.
It is Śraddhā which instructs the mind.
It comes from the hidden depths of the Saṃskāra and Vāsanā
to influence one’s actions.”
– TKV Desikachar on Śraddhā in the Yoga Sūtra

“If Śarīra leads Ātma, there is Kleśa.
The cause of this is Karma Vāsanā and Mithyā Indriya.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 2

“Are our impulses to act self serving,
as in arising from a place of Karma?
Or, are our impulses to act serving the self,
as in arising from a place of Dharma?
Furthermore, how to discern the difference
betwixt my and thy, given the facility of
Karma to proclaim itself as being Dharma?”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 21

“Pratyāhāra is not feeding the tendency of the Citta
to automatically form a positive, negative, or neutral
identification with whatever stimuli the senses present to it.
From that, we can begin to understand how their external gathering
activities stimulate our conscious and especially, unconscious choices.
From this, we can begin to understand how the impact
of this sensory knowing can lead us to travel in different directions
and trigger different levels of response, often without us being really
conscious of how deeply their input stimulates our psychic activities.
From these responses, there will be the inevitable re-actions,
again quite possibly unconscious and multilevelled,
according to our psychic history in terms of our memory,
habit patternings and deeper memory processes.
From those initial insight, we can begin to understand
and interact in how we can resist unconsciously slipping
into the trance states that can so often culminate with
the  Kleśa manifesting fully in the entrancing dance of
Udārā Rāga, or Udārā Dveṣa, or Udārā Abhiniveśa,
the potent and profligate children of Avidyā.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“The changes we see in one person,
(in terms of Dharma, Lakṣaṇa and Avasthā)
are because of Karma Vāsana.
The Lakṣaṇa or Avasthā that appear
very much depend on Karma Vāsana.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 13

“Nothing destroys Vāsana,
only they become ineffective.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 8

“These verses develop another theme
around the influence of the past.
Sometimes our past is not relevant.
At other times the past gets in the way.
For others, seed memories continue to influence.
Why? Because any action done with motivation
will add influences which trigger other latencies;
Thus the Vāsana will roll round again and again.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 8

“Vāsanā is an unconscious motivation directed towards
satisfying a physiological or psychological need.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 8

“Actions produce fruits,
fruits produce seeds.
The seeds root within us
as unconscious drivers.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 8

“But Saṃskāra can be fed by Vāsanā.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 9

“In addition, memory and Vāsana are linked in spite of time.
Also Vāsana are not destroyed even when time intervenes,
they can sneak up on us when we are not steady.
Hence the importance of a practice to help us
cope with Vāsana as and when they arise.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 9

“Also, Vāsanā are beginningless.
Because behind Smṛti and Saṃskāra
is the instinctual survival feeling,
which is ageless and eternal.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 10

“Vāsana have no beginning, no end,
because behind them is the desire to
survive, to live, to possess and although,
at some fundamental level we are insecure,
the will to live gives motivation for our actions.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 10

“Vāsana will provoke us to act.
How we act is from a Saṃskāra
when we feel compelled to act
in a seemingly habitual pattern.
It is hard to change Vāsana, but
you can create a new Saṃskāra and
choose to impose it over the old one.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 10

“There are four ways or pillars in which
the past is triggered and supported
1. Hetu
– Misapprehension or the cause or origin
Difficult to work here
2. Phala
– Attachment to the fruits of actions
Based on the combination of Vāsana,
Saṃskāra and Smṛti fruits have effects
which add to what is already there
3. Āśraya
– The mind has different qualities, hence the
substratum or underlying state of mind
4. Ālambana
– There are different external circumstances.or external stimuli”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 11

“If these four pillars are constantly
reinforced by Vāsana and Saṃskāra.
Which of them is easiest to remove?
1. Hetu –
Cause or origin can’t be easily removed
What influences you is not the cause itself,
but the memory of how you felt at the time.
You have to recognise and respect the cause,
if you want to move forward.
2. Phala –
Fruits may be immediate or long term,
so it’s hard to anticipate them.
3. Ālambana –
Object which provokes Vāsana to move.
May be immediate or cumulative.
Could be even a word.
External influences can be hard to remove.
How can it last when we do so many things?
4. Āśraya –
So the best one to work with is the structure of the mind,
Those forces which affect the impulse of Vāsana.
e.g Guna affecting desire, the power of Saṃskāra.
When they get reduced, Saṃskāra get reduced.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 11

“Svabhava is Karma Vāsanā.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Bhagavad Gītā Chapter Five verse 14

“Dreams can be situations
which amplify Vāsana.”
– TKV Desikachar on the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣat verse 4

“Everything we do has an origin.”
– TKV Desikachar 1995

“Krishnamacharya’s teaching on Haṭha Yoga
presented the notion that each of us has a
Prāṇa Kṣetra, or field of Prāṇa, and that it exists
as if a personal entity with perimeters that can
diffuse or concentrate according to our nature,
both inherited and nurtured, and the influence of
our daily lifestyle activities or habitual attitudes.”
– 108 Yoga Practice Pointers