earlier sutra: jāti āyuḥ bhogāḥ (II.13). These are the three consequences that follow
from the action. What is this jati, ayuh, bhoga?
We have studied these terms in the context of an earlier sutra. The kind of birth that
we take into this world is called jati—whether we are to be born as a human being or
as something else. What is the kind of species into which we are to be incarnated?
That which determines the nature of the birth that we have to take in this world is the
jati. The basis for our very activity itself is laid down by the selection of the particular
species into which we are to be born. And the duration of time which we have to live
in that particular species, the lifespan of a particular individual, is called ayuh. How
long are we to live in this world? It is already determined by that very factor which
has brought us into birth in this species.
Why should we be born? There is a reason behind it, and that reason will tell us how
long we have to live. We are compelled by circumstances, we may say, to take birth of
a particular kind for the purpose of fulfilling, or exhibiting, or implementing, or
undergoing the forces generated by previous action. The intensity, the quantity, etc.
of these forces which have to be worked out in a particular life will determine the
duration of that life, the length of that life, or the span of that life. That is called
ayuh. Bhoga is the experiences we pass through. We have lived for so many years in
this world. We must be aware as to what sort of experiences we have undergone in
life. These experiences are nothing but the fructification of what we have done in the
past. They are the efflorescence of the hidden potentialities in the form of previous
deeds. Now, what is the meaning of ‘previous deeds’?
This has also been explained in this very context by the sutras of Patanjali. The
previous life need not necessarily mean the one that is immediately precedent to the
present one. It is not that we have taken only one birth. There has been an almost
endless series of incarnations through which an individual has passed, and in each
life there is provision made for undergoing experiences through the senses and the
mind in respect of objects outside. Each experience produces an impression in the
mind; that is called a samskara. This impression becomes the cause of a repetition of
a particular experience which has been the cause of that samskara. It forms a groove
in the mind. So when a person has passed through many lives, there have been,
naturally, circumstances which have created endless impressions in the mind. We
cannot count them.
Every perception produces an impression, and we cannot count how many
perceptions are there in a particular day. How many things do we see with our eyes?
Anything that we see will produce an impression in the mind. It will not leave us like
that. These countless perceptions throughout a particular life create corresponding
samskaras, or impressions, in the mind, which are going to be dangerous friends one
day or the other. We should not think that our looking at an object is a very harmless
action that we are performing. It is a danger to us, if we actually know what is
happening inside.
The looking at an object with the mind attached to this perception is really the
process of receiving impressions from that object, and we are going to be bound by
that very act of perception because this impression that has been formed in the mind
by this particular perception will be a cause for repeating that sort of experience at a
future date. But, on account of unfavourable conditions, that repetition may not take