Marina Elaine Vernovsky: How to distinguish between samskara and intuition?
Krishnan Kartha: Samskara is a Sanskrit word originated from samskarana which means the processing. The process referred to here, is the processing of man from dog to god. The process is from bottom to top. That is to say, from lower end of animal which represents the unconsciousness to the higher end of God, representing full consciousness. So when someone refers to Samskara, you should understand it as the state of evolution , a mind has reached.
Samskara is considered with magnitude in the science of Yoga. Upanishads talking about Yoga, say that there are two reasons for deviation of the mind from the concentration. One is vasana, the trait and the other is breath. The vasana is synonymous with samskara. It is the trait your mind maintains in its attitudes and aptitudes. The Upanishad further says that it is difficult to control the impact of vasana or samskara. Hence the science of yoga is developed to control the breath.
Though the vasana or samskara is hard to be in command of, the control of breath indirectly assists the mind to do the same. The whole process of yoga is aimed at reaping the exceptional crop of achieving an upper hand over the issue of vasana or samskara. The samskara will take you only to certain levels in the process of life. This is the natural course of growth. But the yoga provides leaps to higher states than the one endowed by samskara.
Your question leads to the details of its modus operandi.
As you know ,the thoughts are the cause of action. The action leads to formulation of karma. The karmic consequences are the reasons for samskara or the vasana. As a cycle, vasanas again prompt thoughts. So this is a vicious circle. So long as the mind listens to the dictates of the samskara, thoughts can never get out of this cycle. So there has to be a different prompting centre for formulation of thought ,word and deed.
Such a centre is already there in us by nature. It is called the mahath thathwa ,the Supreme Principle. It is behind Manas, Buddhi, Ahankar and Chiththa. I would rather say , it is above all the four, Manas, Buddhi, Chiththa and Ahankar.
But then,why are we not being prompted by that centre?
It is because of the heavy traffic of data communication between the other four. Since the route is busy, the messages from the supreme centre is not received by our mind. This heavy traffic of data is called Chitha vrithi.
As you know Sage Patanjali starts with the sutra Yogaha chithavrithi nirodhaha. So when you calm down the activities of the mind through concentration, contemplation and meditation, dharana, dhyana and Samadhi, the chitha vrithi is held back and you start to receive prompting from the Mahath Thathwa or the supreme principle.
This is called intuition.
You may ask me now, whether one who gets intuition has attained Samadhi. Need not be. Because until one reaches a permanent state of Samadhi, the intuition can come now and then. It may not be a permanent feature. So all people with intuitary power need not be ones who have attained Samadhi state. But all samadhisthaas have intuitary power.
And coming back to samskara, how long can it bother you?
So long as you keep moving ahead vigilantly , the samskara can only follow you without affecting you. The moment you stagnate in the path, samskara affacts you.
I can make a comparison. A bus is moving in a muddy road. The dust will follow the bus without covering the bus. But the moment bus stops somewhere, the dust will envelope the bus.
Just like that Samskara cannot harm a steady practitioner. When one becomes lazy, the picture is different. When your past does not have any say in your thoughts, intuition develops. When you linger in the past, you are stagnating. So by movement, I indicate , the movement from the past to the present. It further means that ,when you are on the move, your thoughts are prime, original and virgin. Then they can be identified as intuitions.
This is the way to develop intuition and to distinguish between samskara and intuition.