Vasanas are subconscious tendencies left behind from our previous thoughts and actions.
They are the unseen impulses behind our habits that determine how we think, feel, speak and act.
Vasana (pronounced vaa-sa-naa) is a Sanskrit word that means, “tendency.”
We are innately divine spirit expressing in human form. As theologian and philosopher, Pierre De Chardin once said, We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Our divine nature is eternal love, peace and happiness.
Not being able to experience the happiness within, we search for this apparently “lost” happiness in things, beings and circumstances of the outer world.
But things, beings and circumstances of the world are impermanent and changing. And so, we never find the eternal happiness that we are really searching for.
How are vasanas formed and how do they veil our innate divinity?
How vasanas veil the divinity within
When we perform an action and reap the result, impressions of that experience are laid down in our mind. As we repeat that action, the impressions deepen into tendencies that prompt us to think and act in those ways again.
For example, let’s say you taste coffee for the very first time and enjoy it. After the experience, a mental impression that coffee is good is etched in your mind.
The next time you drink a cup of coffee, your previous pleasurable experience is reinforced. After a few times, the impression deepens into a tendency or vasana to drink and enjoy coffee.
You have now created a coffee habit.
Habits are the outward expressions of our inner vasanas.
As Swami Chinmayananda puts it, “Vasanas are the footprints of past actions and thoughts,”
They are like the aroma of food that lingers in a kitchen even after the food is eaten and gone.
It’s interesting to note that the literal meaning of the word vasana is ‘fragrance” (that remains after the end of an experience).
We have a vast storehouse of innumerable vasanas. They are like millions of different seeds that we have planted. We can’t see them, and we don’t know which ones will sprout next.
When they appear from the subconscious, they give rise to desires to gain something. These desires push us to perform actions to achieve what we want.
When we experience the results of our actions, they either place new impressions or reinforce previous ones—which start the cycle all over again.
Vasana > desire > action > result > vasana > desire > action > result . . . ad infinitum.
By pushing us out into the world to gain happiness, vasanas perpetuate the false notion that we are merely human beings
Every time we seek happiness outside, the vasana veil over our divine spiritual nature thickens.
This is how vasanas prevent us from looking within ourselves to rediscover the source of real happiness.
This subtle concept of vasanas can be found in Vedanta, a timeless source of spiritual wisdom originating from the teachings of great Himalayan sages.
Swami Chinmayananda’s BMI chart
The ideas explained above were formulated into a visual form by my guru, Swami Chinmayananda who was a great teacher of Vedanta.
Today, it is called “Swami Chinmayananda’s BMI chart”
BMI Chart conceptualised and designed by His Holiness Swami Chinmayananda, founder of Chinmaya Mission. © Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai, India.”
Looking at the chart from the top to the bottom, we find. . .
The Sanskrit word, OM. OM represents Supreme Consciousness, spirit or the Self, our true nature.
V = Vasanas—Tendencies that direct the way we think, feel, and act, and veil our true nature.
B, M, I = Body, Mind and Intellect—our tools or equipment for experiencing the world.
Body: The body houses our five senses and is the vehicle with which we perceive and transact with the world.
The Mind and Intellect represent two types of thoughts.
Mind: The mind comprises of feeling thoughts and is the seat of our emotions.
Intellect: The intellect consists of thinking thoughts and is the seat of reason and judgment.
P, F, T = Perceiver, Feeler, Thinker—the individual ego.
Starting from left to right, look down in the direction of the arrows in the chart to understand the following:
Perceiver: Identifying with the body (B), Consciousness becomes the perceiver (P), perceiving the world of objects (O).
Feeler, When Consciousness identifies with the mind (M), he or she is the feeler (F) who feels emotions (E).
Thinker: Consciousness identifying with the intellect (I) becomes the thinker (T) who thinks thoughts (T).
The perceiver, feeler, and thinker identities together are the experiencer, also known as the “ego.”
The ego is the notion of individuality that arises when the experiencer identifies with the body, mind, and intellect and their characteristics.
O, E, T = Objects, Emotions and Thoughts: The fields of our experiences – the outer world.
Objects: With the five sense organs of the body (B), we experience the world of objects (O) comprising forms and colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures.
Emotions: With the mind M), we experience the world of emotions (E) such as joy, anger, jealousy, love, and fear.
Thoughts: With the intellect (I), we experience the world of thoughts (T).
In a nutshell: The ego (you and I), functioning as a Perceiver-Feeler-Thinker (P-F-T) , uses the tools of the Body-Mind-Intellect (B-M-I) to transact and gather its experiences from the world comprising of Objects-Emotions-Thoughts (O-E-T).
All this happens because of our vasanas. Our vasanas express as our unique ego identity and keep us thinking, feeling and acting like humans
Vasanas are formed and perpetuated by ignorance of our true nature. In Sanskrit, they’re described as avidya, or ignorance.
Since it’s this ignorance that veils the divinity within us and prevents us from realizing our true nature, the letter V is placed between OM and the rest of the letters on the chart.
Watch Swami Chinmayananda explain the chart here.
How to overcome our vasanas
There is a key fact about vasanas that is important to highlight— Only actions done with ego and motivated by self-centered desires create vasanas.
Selfless actions done for the benefit of others or dedicated to an ideal, cause, or God prevent the formation of vasanas and slowly exhaust them.
This is because in the latter type of actions, we don’t reinforce the vasanas that preserve the Perceiver-Feeler-Thinker ego identity.
Doing our duties to the best of our ability and with a right attitude is a simple way overcome our vasanas and convert our work into worship
Aside from our daily duties, we also do many things for personal pleasure. These actions strengthen our vasanas.
But these too can be slowly reduced with a clear understanding of how vasanas are formed and how they trap us into repetitive patterns of behaviour.
For example, I’m not a coffee drinker and twenty years ago while on a trip to India, I was served a small cup of South Indian filter coffee. My friend told me it was delicious and encouraged me to try it.
I tried it and was pleasantly surprised at how sweet and flavourful it was. The memory of the taste lingered in my mind and I thought about the experience often when I returned home to Toronto.
I mentioned it to someone who told me that Tim Hortons (a famous chain of Canadian coffee and bake shops) serves a vanilla latte that tastes a lot like the Indian coffee I had tasted.
Excited to hear that, I went into a Tim Hortons and ordered a vanilla latte. True enough, the latte was delicious.
A few days later as I was driving close to a Tim Hortons, I was tempted to go in and buy a cup of coffee. But I reminded myself that I was creating “coffee vasanas”. What’s more, I certainly didn’t need the added calories and sugar. And so, I put my foot on the accelerator and drove away.
I stopped thinking about the coffee and I’ve never gone back.
When we recognise the pattern and nip it in the bud, it doesn’t deepen into a vasana.
If there’s an old, deep-seated vasana, there is a way to break that habit too.
Another way to overcome vasanas is by substituting with something higher. For instance, cultivating a love for spirituality and spiritual pursuits such as daily spiritual study, reflection and meditation will sublimate lower desires.
Change your vasanas, change your life
Vasanas first show up from the subconscious as our thoughts and from there, they express as our words and actions. Repetitive thoughts, words and actions all create and strengthen vasanas.
This is how our vasanas shape our character and life.
This understanding will go a long way to helping us make better choices that will gradually overcome our vasanas and unveil the blissful divinity within.
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