In the last issue of Ayurveda Today (Fall, 1997), the relationship of karma (our actions) to the disease process was discussed. Karmic patterns that recur in our lives are due primarily to our samskaras. Samskara is a Sanskrit term that denotes an individual's past tendencies and impressions, from this life and past lives, which can influence present behavior. They are scars or impressions on the mind in tissues, some of which are deeply rooted and recorded in the connective tissue. We carry samskaras within the matrix of the majja dhatu (nervous tissue and bone marrow) and the innermost mind. They become our tendencies in this lifetime.

One's life is a river of eternity beyond beginning and ending. It is a constant, continuous flow of consciousness with thoughts, feelings, emotions, and an accumulated series of experiences. Samskaras are a complex structure of tendencies and behavior created by past thoughts, feelings, emotions, and experiences. Some samskaras arise from genetic factors, while others are connected to past lives. Every thought and action creates fingerprints on the mind, and the accumulation of these fingerprints produce scars on the deeper layers of the mind. The total number of scars we carry are known as our samskaras.

Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas

Ayurveda classifies samskaras under three categories - sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are the gunas (qualities) of a personÕs psychological constitution, known as manas prakruti. Sattvic qualities imply reality, consciousness, purity, and clarity of perception, all of which are responsible for goodness and happiness. Sattvic samskaras create rejuvenation of the mind and consciousness, and strengthen immunity. However, certain overpowering sattvic samskaras may bring righteous indignation, discrimination, comparison and competitive compulsive behavior.

All movement and activities are due to rajas. It leads to a life of sensual enjoyment, pleasure and pain, effort, and restlessness. Rajasic samskaras can create hyperacidity, agitation, temptation, and tend to provoke vata dosha. Tamas is darkness, inertia, heaviness, and materialistic attitudes. Tamasic samskaras can be responsible for lack of communication, dullness, heaviness, or depression.

There is a constant interplay of the three gunas in the individual consciousness, but the relative predominance of either sattva, rajas, or tamas is responsible for the psychological constitution. By taking a person second-level pulse, one can determine manas prakruti. Vata, as detected in the second level of the pulse, is primarily composed of rajas, and secondarily of sattva. Pitta is composed mainly of sattva, with some rajas. Kapha is mostly tamas, with a small component of sattva. A balanced state of manas vikruti would be equal parts of sattva, rajas, and tamas.

Samprapti and Khavaigunya

Disease can be caused by wrong lifestyle, diet, environmental factors, or emotions. There are four stages of imbalance before disease manifests with readily identifiable symptoms. This model of pathogenesis is called samprapti. Overdoing of a certain type of activity will cause the bodily humor, or dosha, to undergo sanchaya (accumulation). Repeat overdoing will lead to prakopa, or aggravation of the accumulated dosha. Continued wrongdoing will cause the third stage of samprapti, which is known as prasara, or spread. Improper action, or even underdoing of a required activity, will cause sthana samsraya, or the deposition of the dosha into a weakened or defective area of the body. Once the "seeds" of samskaras are planted (sthana samsraya), then they can sprout. Which of these seeds will sprout in this lifetime is determined by individual karma.

Samskaras form khavaigunya - a defective space that becomes the site of a lesion once the aggravated dosha enters it. Existing khavaigunyas may be due to deep subconscious samskaric patterns, but current (more recent) samskaras can trigger doshic imbalance causing the dosha to undergo sanchaya, prakopa and prasara. This dosha may deposit into the defective space created by old samskaras. At this point, the etiology would progress to the final two stages of samprapti: vyakti, the manifestation of signs and symptoms, and bheda, the destruction of tissues with complications.

The detoxification program called panchakarma removes not only doshic impurities, but can also eliminate physical as well as psychological pathogenesis. The performance of spiritual practices frees us of our samskaras. The seeds of accumulated samskaras are burned in the fire of meditation. Once we roast the seeds of samskaras, they will not sprout.

Psychological Factors

The disease process may begin in the consciousness as negative emotions, thoughts, reactions, stress, or repressed emotions that later manifest on the doshic level. Changing one's samskaric patterns can change one's doshic patterns. If one can change the thought pattern and emotional response, then one can change the behavior, thereby changing one's samskaras. Most of the old samskaras become habits and addictions. Every individual is seeking joy, comfort, success, and happiness. For this, a person needs identity. Identity requires self-esteem and self-recognition. If these factors are lacking in life, then the samskaras become distorted and can lead to complex psychiatric problems and addictions.

Psychological traumas are scars on the mind. Depending on the age of the trauma, a corresponding tissue will be affected. Childhood trauma, sexual abuse, and stressful relationships can alter existing samskaras and create a khavaigunya where the dosha can lodge. For example, sexual trauma may lead to fear of sex, endometriosis, or sterility.

A cause of khavaigunya may be unresolved, deep-seated, self-conscious emotions, such as fear, anger, grief, or sadness. In our daily life and relationships, any emotion that is not resolved completely becomes crystallized and these crystals of unresolved emotions accumulate in the deep connective tissue, creating khavaigunya. Cellular ama can also cause a defective space. When the cell membrane is covered by ama or toxins, there is no communication between two cells, so the cells become isolated. An isolated cell is a lonely cell and a lonely cell loses its self-esteem. When a person loses self-esteem, it means the cells are clogged with ama.

Genetics

There are genetic factors in samskaras as well. We carry the cellular memory of our parents' and grandparents' illnesses. These unwanted memories can create a defective space within the organs of the body, causing genetic predispositions for certain diseases. For example, a samskara of disease may be created out of a family's fear of disease. Though the person is well, they may develop in illness from this fear. One can eradicate negative thoughts of disease through positive thinking, affirmation, and suggestion.

Karma

Another cause of khavaigunya is the karma< (action) and dharma (duty) one performs in this life. Good actions bear the fruit of happiness, while bad actions create bad fruits, or unhappiness. Everyone is here to pay their debts of karma. That is why earth is called karma bhumy, or the land of karma. OneÕs present life is due to karma, and karma is the divine play of the samskaras. Kriyamana karma are the actions that a person performs in this lifetime. Incomplete samskaras of kriyamana become sanchita karma, those which are accumulated in the astral body and cause one to take rebirth. If a person exhausts their sanchita karma, and creates no new samskaras, then the chain is broken. The person no longer accumulates, and this leads to moksha, or liberation.

Incomplete thoughts and actions that are not understood create samskaras. Each person carries invisible samskaras in the astral body in the form of unfulfilled desires at the time of death. Life before birth is comprised of these hidden, invisible samskaras.

Awareness & Meditation

Every experience, every samskara, creates fragmentation. There are so many fragments in our lives, because we are fragmented human beings. A person may behave one way at work and another way at home. In front of the boss, they become frantic and hurried, and then become irritable and angry at home. The result is fragmentation. A fragmented mind is a limited mind. Khavaigunya can result from giving emphasis to one fragment. It is important to look at all fragments as one and this demands a great deal of awareness. Lack of awareness in one part of the body also creates a khavaigunya.

Meditation means mindfulness. When you are here, be here completely. Don't go elsewhere mentally. When one completely pays attention to this very moment, this very moment is a moment of God. This very moment is a moment of enlightenment. Enlightenment, God, and Truth are not fixed, but are living and dynamic. Moment to moment enlightenment eradicates khavaigunya.