Important
and distinct actions leave a deep impression on the mind; other
actions fade away from memory. When we write a diary, we mention
only two or three outstanding events. When from these daily accounts
we make up a weekly summary, many event of these will drop out and
only the most outstanding events remain. In the same way, in a month
or six months, in a year or five years, very few outstanding events
alone remain in the memory and it is these which form our samskara.
Though innumerable actions take place, and endless knowledge is
acquired, in the end, the mind retains very little of it all.
All those various actions, all that
varied knowledge came along, and did their work and disappeared. Out
of all this action only a few lasting samskara are left. And these
form our capital. We conduct the business of life and accumulate
samskara. The merchant keeps his daily, monthly and annual accounts
of income and expenditure, and at the end arrives at the single
figure of profit or loss; in the course of our lives, we enter on
the credit side various samskara, but at the end a single, firm
clear, figure remains in the account. In the last moments of life
the soul begins to think of this final figure. As it looks back on
all the achievements of a lifetime it realizes that the gains are
just two or three things.
This does not mean that all those
actions and all that knowledge have been wasted. They have done
their work, and that is all. After the thousands of transaction, the
net result is just a loss of five thousand rupees, or a profit of
ten thousand rupees. If there is a loss his heart sinks, and if
there is a gain it bounds with joy.
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