Vāsanā
Vāsanā · vāsanā, “a latent impression; that which perfumes the mind”
Grammar: feminine noun, from the root vas (to dwell) or vās (to perfume): “that which stays behind”, like the scent left in a cloth.
Meaning: a latent impression left in the mind by past karma and experience. Vāsanās draw the mind towards objects, force a person to act, and, with karma, shape the body of the next birth. The Bhāgavata often speaks of karma-vāsanās, the impressions of action.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa teaches what vāsanās do and how they end.
Vāsanās and the body. Antariksha, one of the nine yogīśvaras, tells Mahārāja Nimi that through identification with the body the Paramātmā becomes the jīva and does karma, and the vāsanās born of that karma become the cause of the body in the next birth (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 3). Pṛthu teaches his people that the māyā-śakti of Īśvara, Kāla which stirs it, the vāsanās of the jīva and his prārabdha karma together make the body arise (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 21). Vasudeva tells Kaṃsa that the mind, made of vāsanās and driven by daiva, the karma that gives birth, leads the jīva to whatever body it turns towards (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 1).
The proof from dreams. Nārada teaches King Prācīnabarhi that as a man in a dream has a body of vāsanā while his body sleeps here, so in the other world the jīva enjoys, with another body, the fruits held in the sūkshma śarīra. From the working of the senses we infer the mind, and from its many thoughts we infer vāsanās that were present before this body was born. A thing never met in this body may flash up in a dream, and this shows a former body in which it was known. As one suffers in a dream though the dream is not real, so the sorrow of saṃsāra does not end though its objects are mithyā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 29).
Vāsanās force action. Ṛshabhadeva teaches his sons that as long as one does not enquire into the Self, ajñāna covers it; while ajñāna lasts, action goes on; while action goes on, the karma-vāsanās remain, and one takes a body again and is bound (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5). Jaḍabharata tells Rahūgaṇa that the mind is a collection of vāsanās, flowing as a stream of the guṇas and attached to the enjoyment of objects (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 11). The Yamadūtas tell the Vishṇudūtas that no one can stay even a moment without karma: made dependent by the vāsanās of the mind, a product of prakṛti, a man is forced to act. The ignorant one who cannot conquer the six enemies is made to act by his vāsanās against his own wish, and like a silkworm covers himself with karmas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1). Aṅgiras teaches Citraketu that pleasures shine as real and then vanish; one moved by karma-vāsanās keeps dwelling on them, and his mind sets many karmas going (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 15).
The roots of the tree. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the tree of saṃsāra has a hundred roots, glossed as countless, and these are the karma-vāsanās (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 12). In Yaśodā’s vision of the world in Śrī Kṛshṇa’s mouth, Śrī Śuka says, she saw that at the root of the different forms of beings are the jīva, his ajñāna, kāla, the karmas and the karma-vāsanās (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 8).
How they end. Śrī Śuka tells Parīkshit that as wholesome food keeps disease away, one who keeps the niyamas slowly removes the vāsanās of pāpa and attains well-being (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1). He teaches that the mind scattered by vāsanās is fixed on the form of Bhagavān Śrī Hari by a buddhi with good saṃskāras, and this is dhāraṇā (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1). Nārada tells that King Malayadhvaja rooted out the vāsanās by yama and niyama (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 28). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that as gold in fire gives up its impurity and gains its own lustre, so the jīva, by bhakti without desire, gives up the karma-vāsanā and at once attains him (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 14). Mucukunda, praising Śrī Kṛshṇa, says that he has long been afflicted by the fruits of karma and scorched by their vāsanās, his inner enemies never satisfied and his heart without peace; he asks for refuge at Śrī Kṛshṇa’s feet (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 51).
Related terms: Saṃskāra · Karma · Prārabdha · Liṅga-śarīra · Manas · Tṛshṇā
Other meanings
- Vāsanā, wife of Arka: in the lines of the eight Vasus, which Śrī Śuka tells Parīkshit, Arka and his wife Vāsanā had sons, Tarsha and others; the text glosses the name as “thirst arising from past saṃskāras”. Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 6
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 1; Skandha 4, Chapters 21, 28, 29; Skandha 5, Chapters 5, 11; Skandha 6, Chapters 1, 6, 15; Skandha 10, Chapters 1, 8, 51; Skandha 11, Chapters 3, 12, 14