The mind is a powerful instrument and a great blessing to human beings. But it works in two ways. It can pave the way for a jivatma’s salvation as much as it can keep him away from this quest. It receives impressions of the outside world through the senses which are recorded and take deep root in the jivatma’s consciousness. These latent impressions are the samskaras or vasanas that are continually evolving and influence the jivatma through the cycle of birth, pointed out Nochur Sri Venkataraman in a discourse.
A jivatma thus possesses a repertoire of good and bad vasanas that induce his thought, word and behaviour. Just as deep rooted bad vasanas result in bad habits and acts, the latent good vasanas are effective in bringing about an inner transformation in a jivatma. If one cultivates ‘subha vasanas’ or good tendencies, one is automatically led to recognise the right sense of values, says Vasishta in Yoga Vasishta. That is why some are inherently good and refrain from evil deeds and thoughts.
A Prahlada or a Dhruva are examples of devotion that are a result of past samskaras. The Bhagavata Purana relates the past history of Narada whom we know as Brahma’s Manasa Putra and who is revered as an embodiment of devotion. He had been the only son of his mother who died when he was just five years old. He meditated on the Supreme Lord and then had vision of Him. A celestial voice guided him to continue to sing the Lord’s praises in that birth and promised him that he would attain the exalted status of a devotee who in his next birth.
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The tendency to worship, meditate or get involved in penance is often explained as God’s grace and is the result of a jivatma’s good samskaras.