Role Of Emotions

Inside the soul, there are four components – thoughts, feelings, emotions and ‘sanskaras’. Thoughts and feelings are present more on the surface of the soul in the conscious. Emotions and ‘sanskaras’ on the other hand are less easily perceived and lie below thoughts and feelings.

‘Sanskaras’ can be defined as the traces left on the soul due to actions performed by it and also due to its interactions with others in relationships.

Emotions, on the other hand, are impulses associated with the ‘sanskaras’ and are very close to these traces.

The internal functioning of the soul is cyclic - ‘thoughts gives rise to actions, actions give rise to ‘sanskaras’, and ‘sanskaras’ give rise to further thoughts’. This description becomes complete, when we add an additional component – emotions. The deepest component inside the soul is the ‘sanskaras’. Next up from ‘sanskaras’ are the emotions, above that are feelings and then finally the uppermost component inside the soul is the thoughts.

Thoughts can be caught instantly. Feelings can be seen and perceived if I stop for a moment and check. Emotions are deeper than both of them and are very close to the ‘sanskaras’, and just as its difficult to see all the ‘sanskaras’ of an individual, we can't always see their emotions. Feelings, being more towards the surface, can be clearly identified, but you have to go deeper to see the quality of emotions a person is creating and the quality of his/her ‘sanskaras’.