Baba on Sanskaras

"The very foundation of all my explanations is sanskaras, which no religion has explained." (LM 835)

"I will give you some very new facts concerning sanskaras; truly, no philosophical books explain the term properly." (LM 2250) 

According to Wikipedia, sanskaras are the imprints left on the subconscious mind by experience in this or previous lives, which then color all of life, one's nature, responses, states of mind, etc.

To read what Meher Baba has said on the sanskara, it is best to begin with his discourse The Formation and Function of Sanskaras.

In Baba's book God Speaks he most often refers to sanskaras as "impressions." The word "impression" appears in God Speaks 585 times. They are the catalyst of evolution, both of species and of rising consciousness – and it is the termination of sanskaras while retaining full consciousness as a human being that leads the soul to the goal of Realization.

In Infinite Intelligence Meher Baba gives the analogies of tinted glasses and film frames in a movie projector to explain sanskaras and their effect upon experience.

Many Baba lovers don't believe me when I tell them that Baba gave a teaching that no religion ever gave. They are sure it was said before by Buddha and is in the Buddhist canons or that Adi Shankara (the 8th century founder of Hindu Advaita) said it. But they are wrong.

In 1956 (a year after God Speaks was published in English) Baba asked a disciple Thirumala Rao to translate God Speaks into Telugu – a major South Indian language. Two years later Rao came to Meherabad and laid his completed translation at Baba’s feet and then proceeded to give a short speech. In his speech Rao reported:

This book cannot be coordinated with any accepted tenets of philosophy in all its aspects.

Yet Baba’s lovers refuse to believe this, so conditioned are they to think the Dharmic religions already knew what Baba came to teach. 

Baba had a unique system of sanskaras. While the concept of a sanskara (mental impression) has roots in Buddhism, no Buddhist other than Hindu had ever developed Baba’s system. I told someone this and he refused to believe me, literally saying Baba only said that he explained these things “better” than others in the past. That’s not what Baba said. Here is what Baba actually said and I’ve highlighted the pertinent parts.

"The very foundation of all my explanations is sanskaras, which no religion has explained." (LM 835)

"I will give you some very new facts concerning sanskaras; truly, no philosophical books explain the term properly." (LM 2250) 

Where does Baba say he only explained the concept better! Or that he only clarified a few things. He literally said he gave “very new facts.”

What is unique in Baba’s teaching is that it is a system of psychic emergence. The way he explains this emergence is in terms of sanskaras. In the past, Dharmic philosophers only related sanskaras to action. But Baba relates sanskaras to experience. They are responsible both for physical evolution and the evolution of consciousness. I have written and written about the uniqueness of this concept. And yet I’ve only reached deaf ears.