- The reservoir of Karmas which are rooted in Klesas brings all kinds of
experiences in the present and future lives.
Sutras 12, 13 and 14 give in a very concise and lucid manner the essential fea-
tures of the twin laws of Karma and Reincarnation, the well-known doctrines formulat-
ing the Universal Moral Law and cycle of births and deaths underlying human life. As
the students of Yoga are generally familiar with the broad aspects of these doctrines it
is not necessary to discuss them here and we shall confine ourselves to the particular
aspects referred to in these three Sutras. It may be pointed out at the very outset that
Patanjali has not attempted to give us a general idea concerning the Laws of Karma
and Reincarnation. His object is merely to show the underlying cause of human misery
so that we may be able to appreciate the means adopted in Yogic discipline for its ef-
fective removal. He, therefore, takes only those particular aspects of these laws which
are needed for his argument. But, incidentally, he has given in three brief Sutras the
very essence of these all-embracing laws.
The first idea given in II-12 which we have to note is that Klesas are the under-
lying cause of the Karmas we generate by our thoughts, desires and actions. Each hu-
man soul goes through a continuous series of incarnations reaping the fruits of
thoughts, desires, and actions done in the past and generating, during the process of
reaping, new causes which will bear their fruits in this or future lives. So every human
life is like a flowing current in which two processes are at work simultaneously, the
working out of Karmas made in the past and the generation of new Karmas which will
bear fruit in the future. Each thought, desire, emotion and action produces its corre-
sponding result with mathematical exactitude and this result is recorded naturally and
automatically in our life's ledger.
What is the nature of this recording mechanism upon which depends the work-
ing out of causes and effects with mathematical precision? The answer to this question
is contained only in one word, Karmasaya, given in this Sutra, This word means liter-
ally the reservoir or sleeping place of Karmas. Karmasaya, obviously, refers to the
vehicle in our inner constitution which serves as the receptacle of all the Samskaras or
impressions made by our thoughts, desires, feelings and actions. This vehicle serves as
a permanent record of all that we have thought, felt or done during the long course of
evolution extending over a series of lives and provides patterns and contents of the
successive lives. People who are familiar even with elementary physiology should find