(Kadamba Kanana Swami, June 2011)
When we are looking at a child we say:
“Oh nice innocent child!”
No….the child is carrying with it the experiences from last life. They’re there….the previous life is there. We cannot remember, but they are present in the sub-consciousness.
I also find very interesting is that the Srimad Bhagavatam recognises a sub-consciousness. Then it’s not Freud who invented the sub-consciousness! But actually we do recognise the sub-consciousness, and sub-conscious influences….that is very interesting. Generally that is considered Freudian – he invented that, but we can see that the Vedic literature contains a concept of sub-consciousness.
However, there is a difference between Vedic psychology and Freudian psychology, in that the driving forces that come from the sub-consciousness are in the Vedic concept of being rooted in the previous lives.
How many previous lives? Not only the last life, but how many?
All of them! Krishna knows all of them! Therefore Krishna understands in full the depth of our contamination!