Good and Bad Sanskaras: How Our Past Deeds Help or Hinder Us

Question

So these sanskaras (impressions) that lie within — do they only create obstacles, or can they sometimes also help us? After all, in many lives we must have done good deeds too, right?

Answer

Of course, they definitely help too. They’re actually helping us all the time.
Suppose I’m trying to do something difficult, and it happens easily — how did that happen so smoothly? Because the good impressions, the punya sanskaras within, came forward and supported me.

But we rarely talk about those helping sanskaras, do we?
We only talk about the ones that trouble us.

It’s like this — imagine you’re wearing a spotless white shirt, and there’s just one small stain on it. What catches your eye all the time? Only that little stain. You keep thinking, “Why is this mark here?” and that’s all you can see.

In the same way, there are plenty of helpful sanskaras constantly working in our favor, but we hardly notice them. We just keep receiving their help, unaware.
Our focus stays only on that one “dot” — the painful or negative sanskara that bothers us. We keep thinking about how to cleanse or redeem that one.

There’s a reference to this in the Ramayana:
When Hanuman was about to leap across the ocean, he first encountered the demoness Surasa, and then Mount Mainaka rose up. The text says that Mainaka Mountain “pressed down Pātāla” beneath it.

What does that mean symbolically?
It means: when we are about to do some noble or elevated work, the Mainaka within us — our positive force — keeps the lower world (Pātāla), where our old sins lie, held down. Because if those sinful impressions were to rise up at that moment, they could create obstacles in our good effort.

So that phrase — “Mainaka pressed down Pātāla” — symbolizes keeping our negative sanskaras from surfacing while we engage in righteous action.

In Pātāla, both good and bad impressions lie stored. If the bad ones rise, they block our good work. But the good ones are always active — we keep enjoying their fruits continuously.

That’s why we shouldn’t let ego arise.
When something succeeds easily, it’s not just “I” who did it. It’s the power of those old punya sanskaras — the merits from past lives — helping us now. We should remember that, and keep our ego low.