---
type: Concept
bundle: yoga-darshana
bundle_version: "0.2.0"
id: vasana
title: "Vāsanā"
iast: "Vāsanā"
devanagari: "वासना"
description: "The accumulated directional tendency arising from saṃskāras — not desire, not a mere subliminal impression."
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
  - Sāṃkhya
text_source: "YS 4.8-4.9, 4.24"
tags:
  - Yoga
  - Patanjali
  - vasana
  - tendency
  - latent-impression
  - samskara
  - karma
  - rebirth
not:
  - term: "desire"
    why: "desire (icchā) is a vṛtti activated in the moment; vāsanā is the deeper behavioral tendency that generates desire without being identical with it; vāsanā is the inclination toward a class of desire, not desire itself"
    instead: "Keep Vāsanā untranslated; do not substitute the English term."
  - term: "subliminal impression"
    why: "impression is saṃskāra; vāsanā is the tendency or disposition that emerges from accumulated saṃskāras; the distinction matters: saṃskāra is storage, vāsanā is the directional pull arising from that storage"
  - term: "karma"
    why: "karma is intentional action and its fruit; vāsanā is the dispositional residue that directs future intentional action; they are adjacent concepts in the causal chain, not synonymous"
  - term: "habit"
    why: "habits are behavioral; vāsanā is the subtler dispositional field from which habitual behavior emerges; dissolving vāsanā extinguishes the motivation for the habit, not just the behavior"
  - term: "unconscious"
    why: "the Freudian/Jungian unconscious is a psychoanalytic construct; vāsanā is a metaphysical concept in the Sāṃkhya-Yoga framework referring to a functional tendency stored in the subtle body"
related:
  - /concepts/samskara.md
  - /concepts/vritti.md
  - /concepts/raga.md
  - /concepts/dvesha.md
  - /concepts/klesha.md
  - /concepts/nirodha.md
  - /concepts/asamprajnata-samadhi.md
  - /concepts/kaivalya.md
timestamp: "2026-06-20"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Vāsanā — वासना

**Not:** desire, subliminal impression, karma, habit, unconscious

The subtle behavioral tendency arising from accumulated saṃskāras — the directional pull toward certain classes of experience, thought, or action that shapes citta's movement even without a specific present trigger. Where saṃskāra is the stored impression, vāsanā is the inclination that stored impression creates. Vāsanā is the mechanism connecting past karma to future action across even multiple lifetimes.

## Etymology

- Root: √*vas* — to dwell, to perfume, to scent; to remain behind; to desire
- *vāsanā* — the scent left behind; the residual perfume of experience; a wish, a desire, a tendency

The perfume metaphor is among the most precise in Sanskrit philosophy: a perfume is not the flower (the original experience) but what the flower leaves in the air after the flower is gone. You can identify the flower by its persisting scent. Similarly, vāsanā is what the original experience (vṛtti → saṃskāra) leaves in citta even after the experience has ended.

## Vāsanā in the Saṃskāra-Kleśa Chain

The complete chain from experience to future action runs:

```
Experience (vṛtti)
  → Saṃskāra (stored impression)
    → Vāsanā (dispositional tendency arising from accumulated saṃskāras)
      → Activated vṛtti (desire, memory, impulse)
        → Intentional action (karma)
          → New saṃskāra
            → [loop]
```

Vāsanā sits between accumulated saṃskāra and the arising vṛtti. It is the *genre* of preference encoded in the stored impressions — not a specific memory but a directional bias: "toward objects of this type, away from objects of that type."

This is why vāsanā is more fundamental than individual desires: dissolving one desire does not dissolve the vāsanā-tendency that generates desires of that class. The yoga project requires addressing the vāsanā-level, which requires addressing the saṃskāra-level, which requires nirodha.

## YS 4.8-4.9 — Cross-Lifetime Persistence

*tatas tadvipākānuguṇānāmevābhivyaktirvāsanānām* (YS 4.8)  
"From these (past actions), only those vāsanās whose ripening corresponds to those (actions) manifest."

*jātideśakālavyavahitānāmapyanantaryaṃ smṛtisaṃskārayorekārūpatvāt* (YS 4.9)  
"There is unbroken connection even when separated by birth, place, and time — because memory and saṃskāra are of the same form."

Patañjali here makes the cross-life claim explicit: vāsanās are stored in the subtle body (sūkṣma-śarīra) and persist across embodiments. They do not require proximity in time or place to remain connected to their originating karma. The subtle body is the vehicle that carries these tendencies from one birth to the next.

This explains what would otherwise be puzzling: why someone is born with strong inclinations toward certain activities, certain emotional patterns, certain relational dynamics — tendencies that are not explained by the current lifetime's experience alone.

## YS 4.24 — Citta Colored by Countless Vāsanās

*tadanantaraghṛhītacittamapi paranugṛhītatvāt* — *anekasaṃskārāṃśasaṃkīrṇa cittam*  
(Vyāsa's gloss on YS 4.24) "Citta, colored by countless vāsanās, exists for another (Puruṣa)."

The image of citta "colored" by vāsanās is central: citta in an ordinary unexamined state is so thoroughly saturated with accumulated vāsanās that it lacks the clear Sattvic transparency needed to reflect Puruṣa accurately. Each vāsanā adds another tint to the glass — another distortion between witness and witnessed.

## The Dissolution of Vāsanā

Patañjali's path addresses vāsanā at multiple levels:

- **Yama and Niyama** — create new saṃskāras of non-harming, truthfulness, contentment that compete with the old vāsanā-directions
- **Prāṇāyāma and Pratyāhāra** — reduce the Rajasic energy that activates vāsanās into desires
- **Samprajñāta Samādhi** — the absorptions refine citta and reduce vāsanā-density through the accumulation of nirodha-saṃskāras
- **Asamprajñāta Samādhi** — *dagdhabīja* (burning of seeds): vāsanās are dissolved at their root; the subtle body is no longer capable of generating the kleśa-driven vṛttis they would produce

## Cross-References

- [Saṃskāra](samskara.md) — the stored impressions from which vāsanā arises; the two are intimately related but structurally distinct (storage vs. directional tendency)
- [Kleśa](klesha.md) — the five affliction-roots; vāsanās are the kleśa-tendencies encoded in the stored impressions
- [Rāga](raga.md) — the pleasure-following tendency; rāga as a vāsanā is the dispositional pull toward pleasure-objects
- [Dveṣa](dvesha.md) — the pain-avoiding tendency; dveṣa as a vāsanā is the dispositional push away from pain-objects
- [Nirodha](nirodha.md) — the cessation that terminates the vāsanā-vṛtti-saṃskāra loop
- [Asamprajñāta Samādhi](asamprajnata-samadhi.md) — the state in which vāsanās are burned at their root
- [Kaivalya](kaivalya.md) — liberation; when vāsanās can no longer produce vṛttis colored by avidyā

## Audience Metaphor

Vāsanā is the magnetic bias baked into a compass. The compass (citta) can swing in many directions, but there is a persistent pull toward certain objects, experiences, or patterns of thought. That pull is vāsanā. The saṃskāras are what magnetized the compass — each rāga-saṃskāra adds a bit more north-magnetism toward pleasure; each dveṣa-saṃskāra adds south-magnetism away from pain. Yoga practice demagnetizes the compass so that citta can orient freely toward Puruṣa rather than being perpetually pulled by accumulated valences.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) 4.8-4.9, 4.24
2. [Yoga Bhāṣya of Vyāsa](/references/yoga-bhasya.md) on YS 4.8-4.9
3. [Sāṃkhya Kārikā](/references/samkhya-karika.md) (kārikā 44) on subtle body and vāsanā
4. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.5-6 (vāsanā and rebirth)
