The Power Of Habits

All of us have certain habits which we very much do want to get rid of,but find it very difficult to do so.I read an article that says that habits that we born with are called samskaras,if it is an indivudual habit that we picked up in our life it is called vasana,but the collection that we have,that is our nature is our samskara. These are old habits which we devloped from our past lives and they do not change with form.This is very beautifully explained with a story.Read on......

There was a mahatma who was sitting in deep meditation by the side of a river. Just at that time a hawk came flying over with a little mouse in its claws. The mouse was wiggling and wriggling and it fell out of the claws of the hawk and right into the lap of the mahatma who was meditating. The mahatma jumped -- "Oh, my, what is this poor little creature?" He was a Mahatma who had some siddhis, spiritual powers, so he picked up the mouse and said, "You poor little mouse! Oh, I feel so sorry for you! Such a fate should never have to happen to you again. If I let go of you, maybe some other creature will catch you." He just uttered "Abracadabra," and the mouse turned into a little baby girl. He called the baby girl Kanti. He took her to his wife, and said, "Dear, you've wanted a child for so long. Here's a child." Then he explained what had happened. His wife said, "OK, I will raise the child as my own daughter." She did so, and when the girl was 16, she had become a beautiful young lady. "Sixteen," they thought, "we'd better get her married now." Since he was a great siddha, he thought, "I'll get my daughter married to no one less than the sun god." He looked at the sun, concentrating to make the sun god come down. The sun god took on a form and appeared in front of him. "Maharaj Swamiji, what can I do for you? Did you call me?"

The mahatma said, "Yes," and he said to his daughter, "Kanti, come here." Kanti came to him, and he said to the sun god, "I want you to marry my daughter."

Kanti looked at the sun god and said, "Daddy, this man is so hot, even stones will melt near him. He'll burn me to ashes. I don't want to marry Him, Daddy."

What could he say? He addressed the sun god: "I'm sorry, but can you suggest somebody else? Somebody even more powerful and greater than you?"


The sun said, "Yes, there is somebody."

"Really, how is that?"

"The cloud. The cloud is greater than I. He can cover my rays. He can prevent me from shining."

So the mahatma prayed to the cloud to come down. The cloud came rushing down. The mahatma said, "Sir, I'd like you to marry my daughter, Kanti."

But Kanti looked at him and said, "Father, he's so loud when he talks! He roars. He's like thunder. My eardrums will split every time I talk to him. I don't want a husband like that. I want a soft-spoken husband."

"Ah, what to do? All right. Do you have any suggestions?" the mahatma asked the cloud. "Yes, yes, the wind -- the wind is much more powerful than I. He blows me all over the place."

"All right." The mahatma prayed, calling the wind god down. The wind god came: "Yes, can I help you?"

"Yes, please marry my daughter, Kanti."

"Father, this man wanders all over the place: he has no steadiness at all. He'll be with me for a moment, and he'll be off to the other side of the world the next minute. What kind of husband is that? Can't you find somebody more suitable? Please?"

"All right. Wind god, can you suggest somebody else?"

"Yes, there is somebody that I'm unable to move."

"Ah, yes, who is that?"

"The mountain."

The mahatma invited the mountain god Himavan to come. Himavan came before him.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'd like you to marry my daughter Kanti."

But Kanti said, "Daddy, he's so hard-hearted. His heart is like a stone. I don't want a stone for a husband."

The mahatma said, "I don't know what to do. Do you have any suggestions, sir?"

"Well there is someone more powerful than I."

"Really, who is that?"

"There is a mouse. He's able to make holes inside me. He can hollow me out completely."

The mahatma invited the mouse.

"Oh, Daddy he's just what I've always wanted! I've always been looking for such a person to marry. He's so tiny but he's nice, perfectly suitable. He's everything I ever wanted in a husband."

"All right," the mahatma said. "It's true I changed your form, but I couldn't change your samskara. I couldn't change your nature. I forgot about that."

So he changed Kanti into a little mouse and she and her husband lived happily ever after in a hole under the mahatma's hut.

This is the power of samskara: that even though we change our form we take the same samskara with us into this form. So what to do? What's the way to get rid of these deep-rooted habits?


Jai Gurudev.