HOW CAN YOU ESCAPE FROM THIS LOAD?

 
What really are sanskaras? "Impression" is the literal meaning. Whatever impression the mind receives is called "sanskara" and then those sanskaras again have to be spent and experienced. All your actions and desires are given shape by these impressions.

For example, in a camera you take different impressions of one certain movement and so many impressions shape that one movement. When you see in the film one movement you know how many pieces go to make up that one film. These are, let us say, "sanskaras." They are imprinted on the mind. Now, naturally, any action, any thought, any desire will have its impression. Good actions, good desires, good thoughts will have good sanskaras. Bad actions, bad desires and bad thoughts will have bad sanskaras. But good or bad, both bind because both have to be experienced; both have to be spent.

So it is impossible to be rid of sanskaras by one's own self, because whatever you do, it binds. You may think the highest thought — it binds. So too does pity, compassion, virtue, gratitude — all these help to bind: "I pity," "I am grateful," "I fast," "I want Union with God." All these bind, so how to escape from these bindings?

You see, and this mere seeing binds. This will have its impression on the mind. You scratch your head; this too binds. The soul has to go through numberless phases of illusion because duality is based on sanskaras. You seek the Supreme. As a matter of fact, you are the Supreme but you are entangled in illusion. How can you escape?

Everything binds, everything gives a sense of "I." Whatever you aspire to binds; and so everyone, whether rich or poor, healthy, sick, sinner, saint or philosopher, has moments of depression and unhappiness due to the soul's being burdened with this load of impressions.... How can you escape from this load?

The only wanting, the only desiring that binds for freedom is Love. The lover wants Union, but in this Union, the "I" becomes so feeble that the binding, instead of hindering, helps to free.