Every time we have dejected kind of thoughts, oh, I'm nobody, I'm nothing, I can't do this, why should I bother, I don't care, these kind of thoughts are grouped together and create that kind of samskara. And these samskaras are all stored in the mind from so many past lives, but the ones from the most recent lifetimes are more close to the surface of our conscious mind and they have a greater effect on the mind.
They are part of our destiny as well. Our external life, the physical things that happen to us or don't happen to us in this life, many of them are the result of our past good and bad actions. It's part of our physical destiny or our external destiny.
We have an internal destiny also. Which samskara, which is lying dormant in our subconscious mind, is going to reflect up into our conscious mind at what time, on what day? How long is it going to stay in our mind? And then according to the strength of that samskara and the quality of it, it's going to affect our mood and we'll feel more depressed. or greedy to enjoy the world, or spiritual, devotional, depending upon the effect of that samskara.
Obviously this is going to have an effect on the ups and downs that a devotee experiences. Some days you're just not naturally feeling devotional, and other days you are. Your mind very easily goes towards devotion. So these samskaras also every devotee undergoes. These are further compounded by the associations that we're having. Let's say we're having a bad samskara. a non-devotional samskara, and at the same time we're surrounded by very worldly people who are also influencing us in that way, that's going to compound the effect of that samskara. Vice versa is also true. If you're around very devotional people who are influencing you in that way, that can actually help you to deal with that bad samskara. And if you're having a devotional samskara, it will help to improve it.
