“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

“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

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

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

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

“Nothing destroys Vāsanā, only they become ineffective.”
– TKV Desikachar January 11th 1995

“But Saṃskāra can be fed by Vāsanā.”
– TKV Desikachar January 12th 1995

Links to Related Posts:

• Prāṇāyāma within Rāja Yoga and Haṭha Yoga
• TKV Desikachar talks on Śraddhā in the light of the Yoga Sūtra……