vasana, which literally means "scent," is karmic residue, the stuff -- as ineffable as a smell -- that remains from a past life. each life produces vasana, which remain dormant until one is reincarnated in the same species...the intangible vasana is the bridge between those existences. more subtly, you are passionately attracted to another because of the vasana rising from the other, setting off the memories of your previous love. every act of love is a reenactment.

indian erotic poetry is redolent with fragrance. on every page of the great sanskrit anthology, vidyakara's treasury...lovers inhabit an atmosphere of saffron, sandalwood, human sweat, lotus, mango blossoms, and the flowers for which there are no translations: garlands of bakula, pink bandhuka blassoms, ketaka petals bent by bees. the lover's mouths are as perfumed as their hair. in tamil, the same word means "to be united, to wed, to embrace" and "to emit fragrance."

eliot weinberger, karmic traces.