These dormant impressions, whether we remember them or not, are the
chief factors in moulding our individual characters with which we are
born, and they are the causes of the inequalities and diversities
which we find around us. When we study the characters and powers of
geniuses and prodigies we cannot deny the pre-existence of the
soul. Whatever the soul has mastered in a previous life manifests in
the present. The memory of particular events is not so important. If
we possess the wisdom and knowledge which we gathered in our previous
lives, then it matters very little whether or not we remember the
particular events, or the struggles which we went through in order to
gain that knowledge. Those particular things may not come to us in our
memory, but we have not lost the wisdom. Now, study your own present
life and you will see that in this life you have gained some
experience. The particular events and the struggles which you went
through are passing out of your memory, but the experience, the
knowledge which you have gained through that experience, has moulded
your character, has shaped you in a different manner. You will not
have to go through those different events again to remember; how you
acquired that experience is not necessary; the wisdom gained is quite
enough.

Then, again, we find among ourselves persons who are born with some
wonderful powers. Take, for instance, the power of self-control. One
is born with the power of self-control highly developed, and that
self-control may not be acquired by another after years of hard
struggle. Why is there this difference? Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna was
born with God-consciousness, and he went into the highest state of
Samadhi when he was four years old; but this state is very difficult
for other Yogis to acquire. There was a Yogi who came to see