Sri Ramakrishna often used to tell how our samskaras deeply influence our life and thus it is extremely difficult to get rid of samskaras. To illustrate this idea, he used to narrate the following anecdote.
Once there lived a very pious Hindu who used to devotedly worship the Divine Mother and chant Her name. The followers of some other religion conquered the country to which he belonged. They forced him to embrace their religion. They told him, “Now that you have been converted to our religion, you must take the name of our God and from now on you must repeat only His name. You must stop repeating the name of your Divine Mother”. With great difficulty the man repeated the name of the God of the religion to which he had been converted, but every now and then unconsciously blurted out “Jagadamba”. The converters were infuriated by this and they were about to kill him. They demanded that he should repeat the name of their God alone. But, the man was a very pious and holy person. He pleaded with them not to kill him. He said that he had been trying his utmost to repeat the name of their God, but Jagadamba has taken complete possession of his personality and Her name has occupied all the space in his body upto the neck. Hence, whenever he tries to repeat the name of any other God, Jagadamba pushes that name out.
The point to be noted in the above anecdote is that however much one may come under a new influence, it is very difficult to get rid of the samskaras or old tendencies. Hence, it is very necessary to regulate one’s life so that through the various practices and observations the right samskaras are formed which would standby one in times of need.