Earlier, in one of my blogs, I quoted that all the learnings of the soul are never lost. They stay as impressions.
These impressions are different from the higher level of knowledge represented say for instance -in the books. The knowledge in the books, as presented as a sequence of words and sentences, is structurally and grammatically correct with the choicest of the words used. In the ‘Chittam’ they are stored in a different form that is understandable to the divine energy but ADHRST to us -humans.
In the 398th Thirukural, Sage Thiruvalluvar has presented the below couplet:
Orumaikkan thaan katra kalvi oruvartku
Ezhumaiyum emap pudaithu.
Which means – ‘The learning acquired in one birth protects a man in the next seven.’
The acquired knowledge has to be stored in a local context for presenting it to the new skin of the soul post death. It is widely believed that it is stored in the soul itself and is called as ‘Chittam’. I call ‘Chittam’ as loci of all root thoughts.
What can be stored in the Chittam?
I believe the below forms of knowledge are stored in the ‘Chittam’
1. Knowledge acquired in pursuit of excellence in education
2. Outer world experiences as part of living
3. Sensual experiences
4. Experienced emotions/feelings
5. Experienced tanmatras
6. Any punishments endured by the souls as part of corrections imposed by the law of karma
7. Any blissful experiences endured by the souls as part of blessings from the law of karma
8. Some remnants of the process of death- which I believe is the root cause of fear of death in all living beings
We then have the below logical question.
How can this stored knowledge surface in the current birth?
1. As an intuition
2. As a sudden thought (please refer to my blog on the vak system - https://www.mayoan.com/post/33-the-vak-system-or-the-system-of-speech-in-humans)
3. As an ability to learn fast, assimilate fast and in excelling in what was acquired in the past.
4. Feelings of familiarity and quick co-relations
With divine blessings, there may be other interventions that I do not know of yet.
But the below may not be stored in chittam:
1. Full language capabilities - like the full grammar/style of English language
2. Full subject matter expertise -say like in the contents of a scholarly book.
3. Knowledge in fine arts
4. Professional knowledge and practices
Reference: