How does one know if Vasanas are being destroyed?

Vedanta describes vasanas as inherent tendencies or unmanifested thoughts/desires. These unmanifested thoughts/desires exist in a state of potentiality which yearn to be expressed. While this is an accurate description of describing vasanas, a better way of describing what they truly are, is an imaginary force that keeps awareness’ own attention immersed inside a false character which perceives a false world. This is because vasanas produce thoughts that makes the mind hold on to them. Note: There is no mind apart from thoughts. These vasanas are referred to as binding vasanas. In other words, this imaginary force keeps you immersed and locked inside the thinking mind. 

 

There are also non-binding vasanas which are experienced when you rest as turiya or as intensified presence. Here, there is no thinking mind; just the pure original form of the mind that doesn’t hold on to thoughts nor perceives objects outside of itself. Truly, we cannot call this the mind because it has transcended thoughts, so we give it the name: Turiya. This presence still observes an appearance, which means the vasanas (while non-binding) still allows awareness to witness its own appearance that it is no longer immersed inside of.  The appearance here is non-separate from the witnessing of it. This means instead of being immersed inside the TV screen while forgetting about the screen itself, you become the very screen while forgetting about the duality inside it. 

 

These non-binding vasanas are strictly for enjoyment, which runs its course until the appearance it holds drops. These are the same vasanas that continue in sahaj samadhi/jnani samadhi. In this case, the non-binding vasanas stick the appearance of duality onto your own screen of awareness (now one form, instead of many) and allows you to strictly observe it without intimately being entangled inside it. 

 

Now, how do we know vasanas are destroyed when practicing samadhi? Well, because if you are immersed inside the body mind character then you are driven by vasanas. So long as you identify as a thinker (ego), you perceive thoughts, and hence are ruled by vasanas.  But when you transcend the thinking mind, you no longer perceive the thoughts that become manifest due to vasanas. Thus, this imaginary force that once kept you immersed inside a thinking mind, now begins to weaken. When the mind is fixed in unbroken motion, it is termed meditation. But when you become lost in this meditation, it is termed samadhi. And so this process itself of going into samadhi, removes vasanas because you not only learn to control your own power of being ruled by them, but begin to destroy them so they don’t continue as much as the normally do. 

 

So how exactly are they destroyed (i.e. removed)? Well, if you continue to be ruled by them, they are constantly reinforced like a bad habit or addiction. For example, if you enjoy food so much, you will constantly want to eat. You will generally think about food all of the time. You will even think about your next meal and start to think about how to get the meal so you fulfill this desire. This same notion applies to any desire your thinking mind entertains. Not only do you identify with thoughts, you also identify with the thoughts that come with pleasure and satisfaction when the desire is being fulfilled. This process only reinforces vasanas and strengthens the samskaras or the deep impressions you’ve imprinted on the mind, that will allow the potential of vasanas to arise again at a future point in time. It’s an on going cycle that keeps samsara sustained. In order to break this vicious cycle, you will need to destroy the very vasanas that keeps this ongoing process alive. 

 

It is also important to note, that while many vasanas cause you to perform different actions since all actions are driven by thoughts, the most deep rooted vasana is the thought: “I AM”. This is the ego that believes itself to be the experiencer of vasanas. 

 

When you practice samadhi, you will notice that not only do thoughts and the inherent desires that you once has starts to dwindle away and no longer has much strength as they used to (i.e. desires and thoughts are not entertained as they were before), you also start to slowly kill the ego (i.e. removing the illusion that there was ever an ego to begin with). There is less selfishness and more selflessness (non-egoic actions). You will notice this yourself as you experience life while practicing samadhi. The ego tries to protect itself with pride and survival, all of which begin to deteriorate with samadhi. 

 

It is very common for spiritually qualified beings with an awakened kundalini to burn karma while the energy fires through the higher chakras. Why does this divine energy burn karma? It is intuitively known that if you keep the energy absorbed in the higher chakras, karma is burned as a way to remove all the conditionings and imprints you’ve piled up through lifetimes. Information comes intuitively (i.e. really sharp and vivid insights that are undoubtedly true), which you wouldn’t be able to perceive from the normal senses. When you keep the energy held in the higher chakras, it burns away thoughts that would normally sprout up waiting for the thinking mind to grab onto them. When the energy is held, you wouldn’t be able to perceive thoughts even if you forcefully tried. The more you do this, the less thoughts come to you while you are out in the world. If there are less thoughts, there is more equanimity. The less disturbed you are and the less you react to situations.  The more you are conscious of the present instead of dwelling on the past and future. These are all signs of a weakening ego. Nothing will disturb you as you remain completely still in your own inner peace. 

 

For those who raise the energy up for the first time, it may be frightening because no one wants to give up their identity. It’s a normal functioning of the ego to remain alive and function for eternity just like the will and automatic reaction we all have to survive at all times. However, the more you burn thoughts and karma, the more you drift towards accepting your true self and no longer feel the need to cling onto a false dream. This itself is due to the burning of vasanas. 

 

It’s like someone trying psychedelics for the first time and then being resistant to the new reality they are exposed to. And so they cling to the one they are comfortable with and hence have a bad trip. But if you let go of the old, and embrace the new, you eventually come to accept it. It was fear that held you back. And so this fear and all other obstacles that once prevented you from moving forward, are now released. This is what happens when you burn vasanas. Not only do you release all the regular imprints you have put on yourself through lifetimes, but you start to release your very ego itself. This allows you to remain fixed in your own self (true nature). And so, you can see why vasanas need to be fully destroyed to rest in your true self permanently.  Otherwise, you will identify with the thinking mind again, which remains stuck and glued to the perpetual motion of samsara, which are bound to the laws of reincarnation. This is why practicing samadhi is a must. 

 

It is also important point to note, that you cannot destroy ALL the vasanas using the body-mind with doership of the ego. You first have to destroy the bad vasanas and make them all insignificant enough until you can perform self inquiry correctly. Only with self-inquiry and the fruit of the practice (the experience of turiya), can you destroy the deep rooted vasanas that sustain the “I am”. Once you expose the self, this abidance will not be permanent right away. It must be practiced over and over again until you remain permanently fixed in it, at which point all binding vasanas are destroyed. The hidden potential to experience a thinking mind will eventually be removed permanently as you have produced liberation or permanently revealed your true self.

 

Once you fully lose doership by resting in sahaj/jnani samadhi, it will be a natural function for the appearance to eventually drop as your own awareness turns upon itself and gets lost in its own knowledge. This occurrence is driven by grace, since you no longer have any control as you have given up the ego to remain established in your own pure presence.

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