Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi Complete ... - BrahminVoice.org

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
D.: From all this it looks as if a Jnani who has scorched all the
vasanas is the best and that he would remain inactive like a stock
or stone.
M.: No, not necessarily. Vasanas do not affect him. Is it not itself a
vasana that one remains like a stock or stone? Sahaja is the state.
Talk 384.
The conversation turned on vasanas. Sri Bhagavan said that good
tendencies and bad ones (suvasana and kuvasana) are concomitant
- the one cannot exist without the other. Maybe that the one class
predominates. Good tendencies (suvasana) are cultivated and they
must also be finally destroyed by jnana.
A young prodigy was mentioned. Sri Bhagavan remarked that latent impressions
of previous births (purva janma samskara) were strong in him.
D.: How does it manifest as the ability to cite well-known saints? Is
it vasana in the form of a seed only?
M.: Yes. Predisposition (samskara) is acquired knowledge and kept
in stock. It manifests under favourable circumstances. One with
strong samskara understands the thing when presented to him much
quicker than another with no samskara or weak samskara.
D.: Does it hold good with inventors also?
M.: “There is nothing new under the sun.” What we call inventions or
discoveries are merely rediscoveries by competent men with strong
samskara in the directions under consideration.
D.: Is it so with Newton, Einstein, etc.?
M.: Yes. Certainly. But the samskaras, however strong, will not
manifest unless in a calm and still mind. It is within the experience
of everyone that his attempts to rake up his memory fail, whereas
something flashes in the mind when he is calm and quiet. Mental
quiet is necessary even for remembrance of forgotten things.
The so-called genius is one who worked hard in his past births
and acquired knowledge and kept it in store as samskaras. He
now concentrates his mind until it merges in the subject. In that
stillness the submerged ideas flash out. That requires favourable
conditions also.
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