Patanjali Yoga Sutra – III – 18

Watching your impressions

Samskara Sakshathkaranath Purva Jati Jnanam|

By constantly watching one’s own Samskara or deep thought impressions, the Yogi gets to know one’s own past birth or lives. By focussing on our own Samskaras, the perception soon extends to a similar knowledge about others’ past lives too.

What one has been constantly thinking in a lifetime gets stored as a Samskara or a deep thought impression. Our past actions gave  us our Samskaras or impressions that govern the present life and our present Samskaras or thought formations that we make will govern our future life or lifetimes. - SS

Patanjali Yoga Sutra – III – 17

Separate the sound, form and meaning

Shabdartha Pratyayanam Itaretaradhyasath Sankaram Tatpravibhagasamyamath Sarva Bhoootha Rupa Jnanam

Every object, person or creature has three things in them. They have a name, a form and together they generate an idea in the mind of the perceiver. For instance – take a guava fruit. It has a name – Guava which is a sound vibration. It has an almost round shape and is either green, yellow or a mixed colour. It brings up many ideas in the mind – sweet, sour, seeds that can get caught between the teeth – the ideas are different according to our different preferences and past experiences with the fruit.

This practice of samyama which Patanjali Maharshi tells us to do is to meditate on the word of an object alone, on its form alone or the idea it brings to our mind separately. Usually, there is a confusion born out of a natural superimposition of the name, form and our ideas.

This practice when done constantly gives rise to a knowledge of the sounds produced by humans, animals and even inert objects which are constantly communicating through sound vibrations. - SS