Samskaras

Ramana Maharshi: But when the waters evaporate and return as rain on the hills, they once more flow in the form of rivers and fall into the ocean. So also the individualities during sleep lose their separateness and yet return as individuals according to their samskaras or past tendencies. It is the same after death - the individuality of the person with samskaras is not lost.

Q: How can that be?

Ramana Maharshi: See how a tree whose branches have been cut grows again. So long as the roots of the tree remain unimpaired, the tree will continue to grow. Similarly, the samskaras which have merely sunk in the Heart on death, but have not perished for that reason occasion rebirth at the right time. That is how jivas [individuals] are reborn.

Q: How could the innumerable jivas and the wide universe which they produce sprout up from such subtle samskaras sunk in the Heart?

Ramana Maharshi: Just as the big Banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so do the jivas and the whole universe with name and form sprout up from the subtle samskaras.