Samskara

Saṃskāra combines sam, 'together, completely,' with the root kṛ, 'to make or do.' Literally it means 'putting together,' a forming, refining or impression. In yoga psychology it names the subtle imprint that experience presses into the mind — a groove left behind, ready to shape what happens next.

As the shortDefinition says, a saṃskāra is a latent trace of past experience and action. Every perception, thought and deed deposits one; accumulated and reinforced, they form vāsanās, the tendencies and habits that quietly steer behaviour. They are the mechanism by which the past lives on in the present mind, mostly unnoticed.

Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras treat saṃskāras as central to how the mind (citta) works: impressions generate mental fluctuations, which in turn lay down further impressions, a self-perpetuating cycle. The practice's aim is nirodha, the settling of this activity, so that even the deep imprints gradually lose their compelling grip.

You meet saṃskāras whenever a habit fires automatically — a reflexive worry, a familiar craving, a well-worn reaction. Practice works with them twofold: weakening unhelpful grooves through non-reinforcement, and cultivating wholesome ones through steady, repeated, mindful action. Meditation gradually reveals these patterns rather than leaving you unconsciously driven by them.

A saṃskāra should not be confused with karma itself, nor with a memory you can simply recall. It is not the action, but the imprint the action leaves; not a stored picture, but a disposition shaping future response. And such grooves, however deep, are workable — softened by awareness and fresh action.