The Hold of the Past
Empiricism vs Nativism
In what is familiarly termed Nature vs Nurture, philosophers and psychologists have long debated the influences that shape and contribute to people’s opinions contributes to their opinions, beliefs, fears, talents, tendencies and so on.
Empiricism is largely associated with the clean (blank) slate theory, also known as Tabula Rasa. According to this theory, all individuals, irrespective of race and ethnicity, are born as equals and “morally neutral”. The unique sensory experiences that each individual is exposed to form his/her personality.
Contrary to Empiricism, Nativism asserts that individuals are born with innate capacities. The theory of innate ideas is very old and has been called ‘innatism’ when Descartes, the French metaphysician declared that the innate ideas had been placed in humans by God.
Chitta, Samskaara, Vaasana, Gunas
Chitta, one of the four parts of antahkarana*, is the store-house of memory.
*Manassu, Buddhi, Chitta, Ahamkaara
Some aspects of the chitta are:
The conscious mind or the ‘jaagrat chitta’, where one is in the wakeful state.
The sub-conscious mind or the ‘samskaara chitta’, where lie embedded a record of all past experiences and actions. These may or may not surface to the conscious level. As the soul traverses through various births, every action results in mental impressions and psychological imprints collectively called Samskaara. These present a preordained course of life and predetermined tendencies and preferences.
The sub- subconscious mind or the ‘vaasana chitta’. Vaasanas, a combination of samskaaras, or beliefs and knowledge accrued in past lives are reflected at a conscious level as habitual tendencies or a person’s disposition in the present life. Vaasanas are stronger than mere impressions.
Vaasanas are said to be in the form of seeds. Vaasanas, whether pure or impure, lead to bondage, resulting from good or bad deeds that one performs. Destruction of vaasanas (or at least reducing them) is essential for spiritual progress. Using the ‘buddhi’ to crush the seed and not allow it to sprout is called vaasana-tyaaga. Meditation produces heat which burns the seeds of vaasanas and renders them incapable of sprouting.
Like the Freudian depiction of an iceberg to define the proportions and positions of the Id, Ego and Super ego, in the image below, an iceberg has been used to depict the three aspects of the chitta, mentioned here.
Gunas: The three gunas are satvik, rajasic and tamasic which are innate to every soul. These gunas colour the outcome of samskaaras and vaasanas; that is, these tendencies coupled with the nature of past impressions make every individual behave in a unique manner.
