Fragrance

Fragrance:

in yogic philosophy the term is vasana and it loosely translates to fragrance or garment, something that clings to the essence of a person. I prefer thinking of it as a fragrance, a particular odor of personality that’s released our through interactions with others, with life really, our deepest tendency of thought brought to surface and offered to the world. A vasana is a subtle pattern of thought and action that we display by habit, it’s our past impressions rehearsed so often that they’re now released as a fragrance to the present moment. Our vasanas tell people who we are, or at least as our past behavior now indicates.

the analogy often used is that of an orange, that when one is squeezed all that’s ever released is juice and pulp, the very stuff that makes an orange unique from other fruits. We will only get orange juice from an orange, and every fruit is particular as to what it gives. The vasana of fruit is very simple. Ours is a bit more complicated, a lifetime of accumulated experiences, habits, energetic patterns that now shape our present behavior. Yogic seers might even say that vasanas can be traced through multiple lifetimes all the way to our reactions and habits now. Regardless, they are deeply ingrained, almost beyond our notice in their display, and we simply call them our tendencies, how we respond to situations that life offers.