— P. R. Sarkar
The mind is always in a state of motion, experiencing the reactions of previous thoughts and actions, like rocks thrown incessantly into the peaceful stillness of a pool. Meditation helps you to put down the rock, let the waters settle, and peer in to see the beautiful reflection of your perfect nature. When you experience this oneness with infinite consciousness, you begin to free yourself from the shackles of so-called fate.
Throughout the ages, people have sought to explain the seemingly random occurrences in their lives. Some religions teach that God (often perceived as a stern, manlike figure in the sky) rewards the virtuous and punishes those who sin. These philosophies must undergo tremendous contortions of logic to withstand the questions of rational people. Hindu “fatalists” assert that every action has its consequences and the sufferings of this life have their prologue in previous incarnations. But because of the limitations of religious dogma, these ideas spawned the caste system in India, whereby millions of people have suffered, kept ignorant and poor by the dictum that it was their fate, decreed by the gods. Better luck next life! Newton’s famous assertion that for every action there is an opposite reaction is a basic physical law that applies on the level of mind as well. The mind’s balance is constantly disturbed by thoughts, actions, impressions. It seeks to regain its original state and strives with force to correct imbalances.
Every thought or action reaps its reaction. Nothing is lost. The universe, according to the theory of relativity, is curved in on itself. If you could throw an object into space with enough force, it would traverse the universe and come round again to hit you in the back of the head. In the same way, every vibration emanating from you — whether thought, word, or action — will return, with force, to affect your life for good or ill. These potential reactions, called samskaras, are the results of thoughts and actions. They remain stored in the mind until mature and are then experienced as “the forces of blind fate.” They have their own energy, their own momentum. According to Tantric teachings, this momentum — more accurately called “reactive momenta” — can only mature when the mind is dissociated from its incessant concern with the physical body, as in unconsciousness or death. In the state after death, when the mind is dissociated from the body, momenta from the previous life mature, and when the soul incarnates again in a suitable physical body, those reactions are experienced and new ones are created. Thus the wheel of birth and death turns ceaselessly.
In meditation you momentarily dissociate yourself from concern with the physical body, not in simulation of death, but by identifying with the eternal source of all life. This is another opportunity for reactive momenta to mature. But within your practice lies the key that will stop the relentless turning of the wheel. Each time you meditate, some of the reactive momenta mature. Returning to your everyday life, you experience these reactions, reaping what you have sown in this and previous lives. This is why sometimes, especially in the beginning, the new practitioner faces a period of difficulties and obstacles. She undergoes more reactions than the ordinary person. But this phase passes, leaving the meditator freer than before; fewer and fewer potential reactions are created as her meditation gains strength and concentration.
The more you meditate, the more you attain equilibrium in every sphere of your life. You begin to perceive the same infinite consciousness pervading all, and thus your mind isn’t disturbed by any situation. With no disturbance, there is no need to correct the disturbance, no reaction. Meditation ripens the old reactive momenta and enables you to stop creating new ones. By experiencing your old reactions without attachment, you let them go. Eventually all of your old reactions are exhausted and no new ones appear to be experienced. Your mind has achieved a state of peace, and the body is no longer needed as a vehicle for the expression of reactive momenta. At the end of a practitioner’s life, her reactions are finished, and, upon leaving her earthly body, her mind merges into infinite consciousness.
There are three types of reactions in potentiality: inborn, acquired, and imposed. The inborn reactions are those we have acquired in previous lives. A child prodigy is one who probably developed a great degree of proficiency in her past life.
Acquired reactions are those you create of your own will, through action independent of your inborn reactive momenta. A young woman grows up in a family of chefs and has culinary talent from an early age. However, she may acquire momentum to earn her degree in physics and spend her life studying quark symmetries.
Imposed reactions are the impressions created upon your mind by the world in which you live. You acquire these as you are influenced by world conditions, family, responsibility, and education. The young woman in the previous example will always be a good cook because of the momentum imposed by her chef parents.
Peer groups can impose reactive momenta, as can teachers and elders. Thus education and environment are very important to the growing child. The combination of inborn momenta — heredity, through genetic material, is an expression of these — and those that are acquired and imposed all propel a child into her future as an adult. Acquired and imposed reactions have a tremendous effect on how the inborn reactions are expressed. It is crucial that every child have the food, clothing, shelter, education, and medical attention she needs; this is one reason we strive to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. Fate has not decreed the suffering of the poor, the homeless, or hungry. These reactive momenta are forced upon people by their environment and by the lack of opportunities to acquire the momentum for physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
Children are particularly vulnerable to the imposition of reactive momenta; they are easily affected by constant contact with external forces. For example, a child may come into the world with the momentum for a tremendous amount of physical activity. Her environment, however, will have an impact upon how that activity manifests. She could be a great athlete, or she might be a violent criminal.
As adults we have acquired a certain amount of defensive psychological armor against others’ impositions on us. But without the strength and clarity of mind afforded by daily meditation we are still vulnerable to imposition by stronger minds than our own. During Hitler’s reign, a few concentrated minds imposed the most ghastly samskaras on millions of people.
On a smaller scale, you may find yourself mesmerized every day, often unknowingly influenced by values subliminally imposed upon you through advertising, political double-talk, music, and media hype. Meditation helps you gain the clarity to see through the hype and to acquire the tools to defuse its impact in your life and the lives of your children. It inspires you to create uplifting environments and to seek the most expansive expressions in art, music, and literature for yourself and for all of humanity.
Reactive momenta differentiates one person from another. We are all essentially the same consciousness; the course our lives take is a combination of our free will here and now (momenta we acquire in this life) and what we have chosen in the past. Our desires and prayers can often create reactions that we, with our limited view, cannot perceive in advance, as we earnestly pray for our dreams to come true. A friend of mine once wanted a television. She had a strong mind, having practiced meditation and yoga for several years. Soon after this desire came into her mind, a neighbor knocked on her door.
“My parents are moving today,” the neighbor said, “and they have a television they don’t need any more. I thought maybe you’d like to have it.”
“Sure!” said my friend, amazed at how quickly her desire had manifested. They brought the television into the living room and set it down. My friend stared at it, horrified. It was a huge, ugly, old-fashioned television, and it was pink. And when she turned it on, nothing happened — it didn’t work! She kept that pink television for a long time, to remind