The point I am trying to make is, what is so original about sin, and what is so unique about our own sins that we are ever preoccupied with them? Master teaches, very importantly and significantly, that there is no such thing as sin or virtue. All is samskara. Any action, whether it is good or bad, which forms impressions in the mind is creating a samskara and, in the spiritual sense, is undesirable. Sinning would appear to be certainly not as bad as the brooding over the sin, because brooding drives the impressions deeper and deeper into the mind, where samskaras of such hardness are formed that much subsequent effort is required to clean the system. Master advises us to forget the past. The past should not worry us because it is the past, and we can do nothing to change it. What should concern us is the future which we can affect by our present action. It is in this direction that our endeavours must lie. The immediate past is of no more consequence than the more distant past. "So," Master says, "think all past actions to be those of a past life. This will make it easy to ignore them and to concentrate on laying the basis for future spiritual development." This is an important teaching to us as abhyasis.

My Master: Chapter on Tolerance, p. 31-32

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There is another very vital point to be considered in Master's offer of help and guidance. He merely asks for willingness, forgetting all the past thoughts and deeds of the abhyasi. Why? Precisely because it is past. The abhyasi can do nothing about his own past. We are literally the products of our past, but we are not the mute and impotent participants in our future which we assume ourselves to be. The past has brought us to the present. Beyond this it has no power to act. The future will be what we make of it now, in the present. So, by changing our way of life now the future can be changed. Master therefore teaches us not to think of the past at all, but only to think, and more importantly to act, in the present.

My Master: Chapter on Tolerance p. 35-36

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Thus we say that depending on how we react to our existence and to our environment, we create samskaras. So when you come to the basic fact of nightmares during sleep (cauchemar), and suffering in the waking state, it seems inevitable that we go into the past. So samskaras are defined as something we have created by forming impressions because of our thoughts and actions. Babuji Maharaj has explained this beautifully when he says, “If you look at a rose there is no samskara, but if you attend to it with your mind and say, “It's very beautiful,' the samskara begins.” And if you go back again and again to smell it, admire it, hope you had it for yourself, the samskara becomes deeper and deeper. And someday, if such a person comes to the spiritual fold, in some sitting or the other he will see roses as an experience. So, in our existence, if we are able to lead life without forming impressions, either of a positive or a negative nature—because in samskara there is no such thing as a good samskara and a bad samskara; it is possible to live without creating samskaras.

Ireland, August 17, 1994 , in CR, October, 1994(?)

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Now, assuming that these samskaras are formed by us in our past, whether in a distant past or a near past, we have to remove them in two ways. One is by bhog , which is the only way to nonspiritual people. Bhog is nothing more than having to undergo the consequences of the samskaras which we have created ourselves. People, rather understandably, think that only suffering is samskara, pain is samskara. But please understand that such joys and pleasures as you have in your existence are also because of your samskara. So if you want to give up the one, you have to give up the other, too. They are two sides of a coin. You cannot choose, you cannot plan for, you cannot create a life of only joy, and only pleasure. It's not possible. Because where one goes, the other goes with it. They are twins. It's like light and shadow. No light—no shadow. A lot of light—dark shadows.

So the samskara theory is something very beautiful, you see. It says, “Be responsible. Whatever you have been, was because you were whatever you were. Now you want to be something? It is possible.” Because the very samskaras which have created you and brought you here to what you are today can be changed.

Ireland , August 17, 1994 , in CR, October, 1994(?)

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 Normally, disappointment is with one's own self although, because of the ego's unwillingness to accept this, the disappointment is projected outwards on persons, places and things. I believe this to be a universal truth. An intellectual may argue that when the soup is not of one's expectation, how can it possibly be a disappointment with one's own self? The answer is very clear. It is because we expect something from the soup which was not there. You remember I have often jokingly said that there should have been an eleventh commandment: “Expect not for thou shall not be disappointed.” Please also remember that all expectations, whether from persons, places or things, are because of our samskaras. Therefore, one must expect less and less from the external world.

Spider's Web, Vol 1, 7th December 1992, France

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Personal problems, sufferings and, of course, enjoyments, too, are the effects of samskaras from the past. It is unfortunately a matter of human arrogance and human vanity that human beings think that happiness and success are achieved by their own efforts, blaming God for miseries, sickness and pain. If one remembers that everything comes from samskaras then we take a serious interest in our development knowing that each individual is the master of his or her own destiny. We should neither enjoy the pleasures of life with involvement nor should we suffer in such a way that samskaras are deepened so that future happiness and sufferings are enhanced.

Spider's Web, Vol 1, 22nd May 1990, USA

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It is a very difficult thing to make choices in life. I think this is the cause: instead of choosing wisely we choose with our desire, therefore things go wrong. Of course, there is also the spiritual idea, or opinion, which I consider to be true, that there is really no choice as long as we are bound by our samskaras because they push us in the only direction they can which is what we have created for ourselves in the past. So, spiritually speaking, until the samskaras have been cleaned off, the question of choice does not arise at all. After that, one must learn to choose wisely. And if both things are done then the problem of choice is no more a difficulty.

Spider's Web Vol 1, 6th June 1987, Denmark