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The importance of 'sanskara'

Any activity done periodically becomes a habit. Habits become a necessity. And necessities become your life. Simply put sanskara is nothing but the habit you form from a very early stage in your life.

Parents & gurus play a vital role in inculcating sanskara into a child. Sanskara is a set of experiences that the child has undergone in his early understanding of the world around him. So he reads, interprets and reacts as parents & gurus train them. A child's mind is like soft molten clay slowly being cast into a mould. With every passing day the clay solidifies with experiences gained from worldly endevours. Some experiences leave lasting & profound impressions on the mind that some recall even after years of rebirth !

Hence moulding the mind with the right view of worldly experience leads to formation of good sanskara & taking a negative, claustrophobic view of worldly experiences leads to cultivation of bad sanskara in an individual.

Sanskara thus also becomes a weapon used by the ego in disuading us from walking the path of rightousness. Ego uses this weapon to remind us of the good memories associated with materialistic pleasures & the bad ones associated with the deprivation of it. In the mahabharata the role of Dronacharya was a metaphor for sanskara. He was a common guru to the kuru-putras & the pandu-putras. He sided with the kuru's because before the battle of the mind is won, sanskara is tempted to side with the outward material manifestations of the mind.

This battle rages in the minds of all men everyday, but alas only a few are equiped with the knowledge or the wisdom to emerge victorious. The duty to impart this wisdom lies with our parents & gurus. With the right sanskara the world will definatly be a better place to live in...

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