These vāsanās have no beginning, for the desire to exist is eternal.

When did latent impressions begin? Patañjali answers: they have no temporal origin. Anāditva means absence of beginning.

The reason is that āśīḥ, the primordial desire for existence, to continue being, is eternal. This fundamental impulse, called abhiniveśa in the second pāda, was not created at some point; it is inherent to manifestation itself.

As long as there is individual consciousness, there will be the impulse for preservation. And as long as this impulse exists, there will be action, and therefore, creation of impressions.

This may seem discouraging: how to free oneself from something without beginning? But the same principle offers hope: what has no beginning has no absolute existence either. It is a flow that can be interrupted.

Yoga does not seek to find the start of vāsanās to undo them from there; it seeks to cut the flow in the present through discernment and detachment.