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Soul Sustenance 25-12-2012
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The Invisible Impressions That Shape Me
While the mind and intellect are two faculties of the soul which play their role
on the surface of our consciousness; at a deeper level, hidden beneath these two
faculties, there lies a third faculty commonly called the sanskaras. The sanskaras
is not only a store house of personality traits, as we commonly know it to be, but
a store house of millions and millions of impressions or imprints. Such
a large number of impressions are created by millions of experiences that I go through
my sense organs not only in this life but in all my lifetimes. Everything that I
hear, see, touch, taste, etc. I process or analyze or summarize in my own unique
way; basically I give the experiences a unique form depending on my personality,
before this form gets stored in the form of impressions inside me. I even
process my subtle experiences, which are in the form of thoughts and feelings.
This process of experiencing and processing takes place during each and every second
of my life including the time I sleep, when my mind may not be experiencing a lot
but it is busy processing the physical and subtle experiences of the day that has
gone by and storing the processed information in the form of impressions. From this,
one can get an idea of the magnitude of the database of impressions stored within
me, the being. These imprints which are unique to me, make up my sanskaras, and
shape up my unique personality in a cyclic process. My personality shapes what type
of impressions are created out of my experiences and the impressions in turn shape
my personality, my thoughts, words and actions e.g. if I constantly keep
the company of people who gossip, a large number of respective impressions based
on the experience of gossiping keep getting stored inside me, which in turn influence
my personality, the personality characteristic gets stronger and over a period of
time I do not find anything wrong with it and indulge in it more and more. As a
result more such impressions get stored. Thus it is a cyclic process.
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Message for the day 25-12-2012
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The one with true mercy fills hope even in the ones who are hopeless.
Expression: When we see someone who is in need or who is totally negative,
a case that is totally hopeless, there are a lot of feelings aroused within us.
What we feel is pity or hatred, which are only negative feelings. Such negative
thoughts don't help in anyway and the person remains as he is, unable to take any
benefit from us.
Experience: Instead of having pity or hatred we need to develop true mercy
for others. To have mercy means to have good wishes with love - combined with hope
for them. It is our hope that enables them to develop faith in themselves too. This
is the method to bring progress even in the most hopeless case.
In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris