या मनोवासना पूर्वं बभूव किल भूरिशः । सैवेयं कर्मभावेन नृणां परिणतिं गता ॥ १३ ॥
yā manōvāsanā pūrvaṁ babhūva kila bhūriśaḥ | saivēyaṁ karmabhāvēna nṛṇāṁ pariṇatiṁ gatā || 13 ||
Translation
The tendency of the mind, which in the past arose in so many ways: that very tendency, in people, has ripened into the form of action.
Word by word
- yā
- which
- manō
- (manaḥ) of the mind
- vāsanā
- the tendency
- pūrvaṁ
- in the past
- babhūva
- arose
- kila
- indeed
- bhūriśaḥ
- in so many ways
- sā
- that
- ēva
- very
- iyaṁ
- this
- karma
- of action
- bhāvēna
- into the form
- nṛṇāṁ
- in people
- pariṇatiṁ
- has ripened
- gatā
- gone
Meaning
This is the answer, and a key word of the whole Yoga Vāsiṣṭha enters: vāsanā, the latent tendency, the scent that a thing leaves in a cloth after it has gone. Action does not stand on its own. It is what a mental tendency becomes when it ripens (pariṇati). Another commentary quotes the Veda: "what one thinks in the mind, one speaks in words; what one speaks, one does in deed". So "past action" is not a heap of finished events in storage. It is a live inclination in the mind now. And what is in the mind now is within reach, which a heap in the past would not be.