- Non-possessiveness being confirmed there arises knowledge of the ‘how’
and ‘wherefore’ of existence.
When perfection in Aparigraha is attained the Yogi acquires the capacity to
know the ‘how’ and ‘wherefore’ of birth and death. Though there is no ambiguity with
regard to the literal meaning of the Sutra and Janma-Kathamta is taken to mean
knowledge of our previous births it is difficult to understand the underlying signifi-
cance of this Sutra. Why should knowledge of his previous births arise in the case of a
Yogi who has conquered the instinct of possessiveness? To understand this enigma we
have to recall the relation between the transitory personality which is formed anew
with every incarnation and the permanent individuality which is the root of every per-
sonality and which persists through the succession of incarnations. Now, the personal-
ity works in the lowest three worlds with a new set of bodies which are formed with
each successive incarnation. Since these bodies perish one after another at the end of
each incarnation and have not passed through the experiences of previous lives, there
are no impressions (Samskaras) in them relating to these experiences. And since mem-
ory depends upon the existence of impressions relating to an experience, naturally,
there is no memory of those experiences and the whole of the long past stretching
through hundreds of lives is a perfect blank to the personality. But, as has been pointed
out already, the individuality wears ‘immortal’ bodies which have passed through all
those experiences and carry with them their corresponding impressions. So the Jivatma
or individuality having a permanent record of experiences in the subtler vehicles has a
detailed memory of all the experiences.
It should be easy to understand that if somehow these impressions can be con-
tacted and the corresponding memories brought down in the lower vehicles of the pre-
sent personality, knowledge of experiences gone through in previous lives should be-
come available to the personality. This is what happens when Aparigraha is developed