Karma and Samskaras Part 1/2
This article is an excerpt from the book The Definitive Yoga Sutras – The Journey of the Soul by Radhika Shah Grouven (published May 2024).
Karma means “action;” these are deeds you perform. Samskaras are “impressions,” created in the mind by actions. These samskaras, in turn, lead to more karma; repeated action strengthens its samskara.
There are four kinds of karma:
White, good actions
Black, evil deeds
White-and-black, mixed actions
Not-white-not-black
White karma is called shukla. Shukla means “white.” These are the good deeds you perform. Helping an old lady cross the road is an example of a good deed, provided you perform it selflessly. White karma refers to those deeds that are selfless and untainted. Most of us have been raised to be a good persons and help others. Good thoughts count, but unfortunately most of us do not put these good thoughts into action. These unmanifested samskaras do not fructify.
You may not consider yourself evil, but you do have evil thoughts such as jealousy, greed, anger, hate and sometimes you do evil too. These are the evil actions you perform. The following is an example of black karma: you are driving and have to stop at the pedestrian crossing for an old lady, who is slowly crossing the road. You frighten her by honking to hurry her along because you are getting late for an appointment. This is evil action. You may not think of this as evil, because we only think of dictators, serial killers and rapists as evil. Black karma seems to convey the idea better than the English word evil. Black karma is called krishna. Krishna means black.
White-and-black is white karma mixed with black karma. You may do something good, but you have a selfish motive. You help somebody, but you do it, because you want something in return. This karma is tainted; it is not purely selfless. For instance, you are still in the car at the pedestrian crossing waiting for the old lady to cross the road, and instead of honking, you ask your companion to get out of the car to “help” the old lady across the road. This deed is tainted because your companion did not help her selflessly but only because both of you were impatient. Therefore, it is mixed karma. White-and-black is mixed karma. This is the most common kind of karma.
Karma of the fourth kind
Not-white-not-black karma is called ashukla-akrishna karma. This is what the adept with a one-pointed mind aspires for. It is very difficult to relate to the fourth karma without a direct experience of Samadhi. This fourth category of karma is very important if you aspire for total liberation. The adept, who has experienced Samadhi, sees the world as it is, without the coloring of the mind. Only an adept experiences the fourth kind of samskara that is not-white and not-black.
To understand the fourth kind of samskara, you must understand kleshas, “the coloring of samskaras.” If you were attacked once by a vicious dog, you will always be afraid of dogs. The dogs are therefore “colored.” Now, imagine, you go for a walk and see a big but playful dog, who jumps up on you, you get scared, turn around and start running. The dog sees you run and thinks you are playing a game and starts chasing you, and as he gets excited, he starts barking. The barking terrifies you and you run even faster! As a result, you fall and hurt yourself. This strengthens your negative coloring of dogs. This is how your actions are determined by this klesha. This is destiny and such a possible course of action would be lived out by one who does not uncolor mind patterns that are not useful.
The adept who has experienced Samadhi and been attacked by a vicious dog previously would have the freedom to respond differently. The adept would not react out of fear. She would witness her own fear arise as she sees the big dog and let it pass. The adept would observe the big dog with full awareness of the coloring of the samskara but correctly cognize that the dog is young and playful. She would not react at all, and the dog would just pass her by. The fear created by the attack of a vicious dog was not strengthened. Instead, the klesha weakened and lost its power. The adept changed the course of her life through self-awareness. This ability to witness the thoughts and emotions is creating not-white-not-black impressions in the mind. Not-white-not-black samskaras must be strengthened repeatedly until they become firm and the adept is established in this state of the Witness.
The words karma and samskaras are often interchanged even though they have two different meanings. Karma is the action that springs from samskaras. Samskaras are the memories left behind in the mind from events. All the impressions that you have received from birth and before, are stored even if there is a separation in time, birth or space.
Birth and Samskaras
You have impressions collected from many different births. While samskaras of many births are stored, it is the last two births that are decisive. Practitioners with access to the latent unconscious mind come in touch with these ancient memories. These memories are generally very diffuse. You may not remember specific things. You may have heard about stories about children who remember their past. Around the age of two years, children start communicating the memories of their past lives which are still fresh. They have not been fully socialized by the surroundings and they still recall their past life. The Dalai Lama, for instance, is found by finding the child who recognizes and selects the personal belongings of the deceased Dalai Lama out of many different objects placed before him. This is only possible because the child still remembers his previous life. Rebirth and memories of a past life is not considered to be strange in Asian cultures and religions. Generally, when most children start talking about their previous lives, adults think that the children are just making up the stories and ignore them. Some parents give the child the impression that these stories are forbidden. With time the memories of the previous life are forgotten by the child, who finally arrives in the new body.
The child has forgotten the past, reborn in a new body, but the samskaras continue to influence its life. The impressions have an impact irrespective of the time and the place where you are reborn.
Vasanas are “memories;” it is another word for ancient samskaras. It is like having a blueprint of different births stored within. You have had births as different animals and these blueprints exist within you. You could be reborn as an animal, but that would be unusual. Spiritual evolution is generally upward, going to higher levels of Consciousness, because Consciousness keeps expanding. Rarely does one fall from a human body into an animal body. This would mean Consciousness has contracted. Such a fall could be due to very strong animal tendencies, which were then strengthened further in the human body. The expansion of Consciousness is like a little lamp in a small pot. If you put the lamp in a larger pot, it will illuminate the larger pot. One can move to the next level of Consciousness through means of white karma, that is, charity, selfless action, and the cultivation of noble qualities such as compassion and friendliness. White karma fructifies in the next birth.
The vicious cycle of karma and samskaras
Samskaras lead to karma and karma strengthens the samskaras. This is a vicious cycle. You need to break out of this vicious cycle. The only way of this cycle of death and rebirth is by acquiring not-white-not-black karma through Samadhi.
If you have impressions of white karma, this will give you happiness. That happiness leads to attachment because everybody wants to be happy. This leads to more white karma and again to happiness and attachment. That is one part of the cycle.
The other part of the cycle is when you have black samskaras: Manipulating people, lying for something that you want, jealousy because others have what you want. These dark actions lead to misery. Misery leads to hatred and that strengthens it further to create more injurious and black karma. So that is how the cycle is strengthened.
The same process is seen with desire or kama. When the desire is fulfilled, it leads to pride, attachment and greed, which in turn leads to ahamkara. If the desire is not fulfilled, it leads to frustration, anger and jealousy, which also strengthens ahamkara. Whether you fulfill or not fulfill the desire, you strengthen ahamkara. This is all done unconsciously.
Breaking the cycle of karma and samskaras
You can break the cycle by learning to let go of these thoughts consciously. Letting go is a skill best learned during meditation. It means sitting with the thoughts and not being affected or disturbed by them and not getting involved into them. When you have learned this, you can introspect and decide, which thoughts you want to strengthen and which ones you want to let go. If you have noble and selfless qualities, you can strengthen these and if you have negative habits you should learn to let go of these. The tendency to put yourself down or to imagine that whatever you do is not good enough, would be a negative quality.
These are the cycles of cause and effect and you can observe these in your daily life all the time. As you continue to observe the stream of thoughts in meditation, Samadhi happens.