Karm (Karma)
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Pronunciation for English-speaking readers
‘kar’ is much like the ‘cur’ in ‘curl.’ ‘karm’ is like ‘curb’: like ‘curb’ with an ‘m' instead of an ‘b' at the end.
The ‘r' is NOT silent. Indeed, many from the states above Delhi tend to say 'cur-rum' ('rum' as in Yoo hoo hoo and a bottle of...)
But the second ‘a’ in Karma is silent. If you can say ‘curl’ and ‘curb’ without an ‘a’ at the end, you should be able to say curm.
Kaama (as in the song Kaama Kaama Kaama Kaama Kaama Chameleon ) is not correct. Kaam (again, with a silent ‘a’ at the end) refers to recreational sex, as in Kaam(a) Sootr(a).
Karm Yog
Our karm shape our lives
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Dec 18, 2019 Times of India
Karma is a term that is featured in every English dictionary today. For far too long, the word has been either grotesquely oversimplified or needlessly mystified. So what is karma? The word literally means ‘action’.
Action does not necessarily refer to what you do in the outside world, whether they are acts of charity or villainy. Instead, karma is action on three levels: body, mind and energy. Whatever you do on these three levels leaves a certain residue; they impact you.
Your five senses are collecting data from the outside world, every moment of your life. You are literally being bombarded with stimuli at every instant. Over time, this enormous volume of sense impressions begins to assume a certain distinctive pattern within you. This pattern slowly shapes itself into a behavioural tendency. A cluster of tendencies hardens over time into what you call your ‘personality’ or your ‘true nature’.
This becomes your karma; an orientation to life that you have created for yourself in relative unawareness. What you consider to be ‘myself ’ is just an accumulation of habits, predispositions and tendencies that you have acquired over time without being conscious of the process. In other words, karma is like old software that you have written for yourself, unconsciously.
So karma simply means we have created the blueprint for our lives. When we say, “This is my karma,” we are actually saying, “I am responsible for my life.” Karma is not a law that is imposed from above.
It is the natural basis of all existence.
It makes each one of us squarely responsible for our own destinies.
Karma is an internal cycle generated by you. These patterns are not oppressing you from without, but from within. Externally, it may be a new day. You may have a new job, new home, new life partner, a new baby. You may even be in a new country. But internally, you are experiencing the same cycles – the same internal oscillations, the same behavioural shifts, the same mental reactions, the same psychological tendencies.
The karmic information within your system is encoded in different kinds of cycles. The largest cycle is the solar cycle. This is a period of 4,356 days (nearly 12 years). If your life is in accordance with a solar cycle, it means you lead a very healthy life. As the cycle decreases, life becomes progressively more imbalanced. If your life runs in three or six-month cycles, you are in a serious state of psychological imbalance. If your life is determined by a 28-day cycle – the lunar cycle and also the shortest one – you could well be considered deranged or psychotic.
Now, if we do not break these patterns, nothing new will ever happen in human life. That is why, many times, the more successful you become, the more frustrated you get, because somewhere, unconsciously you sense that you are simply going around in circles.
With yogic practices, the aspiration is to move towards the solar cycle, so that your balance and stability is assured. You may not be able to change what you did in the past, and the mental and emotional karma you accumulated. But you no longer slide into short spin cycles. You no longer wear your karma as a skin-tight garment; you learn to wear it loosely. With this you move towards becoming the master of your destiny.
Action: and attitude to action
The Times of India, Sep 11 2015
P N Vijay
Karma Yoga, our actions and attitudes
Hindu scriptures discuss at length the issue of action and the attitude that one needs to have while performing it. This is broadly termed Karma Yoga; karma means action and yoga in this context means attitude to action. Action is inevitable. Man has to act because that is his very nature. Even if he is still, his mind is active. If we are not active our health will get affected.Hence what actions have to be performed and how they have to be performed is important for both emotional well-being and spiritual development.
Scriptures say that while action is inevitable, it generates fruits or results which bind you and affect your spiritual journey to Self-realisation and liberation. So, how to get around this dilemma? The answer is to perform right actions with a right attitude. But this alone is not enough to get liberated.Action by itself is inert; but detached action is an essential pre-requisite which we cannot do without. It purifies our mind and takes us to the path of knowledge with the right frame of mind. Otherwise scriptural knowledge may lead to cognitive transformation but you will remain emotionally unstable with alternate bouts of happiness and misery.
Knowing that action is inevitable, we should perform right actions. Scriptures divide actions into sattvika karma, raajasika karma and tamasika karma and require us to perform only saatvika actions.
Saatvika karmas are mandatory actions, which result in good for society and you. Mandatory actions are personal cleanliness, eating and sleeping, daily prayers, and doing karmas for one's forefathers. Other saatvika karmas include doing one's job sincerely so as to earn and main tain a family, tending to one's family, caring for the environment, feeding the poor and so on. Working for a living and looking after family is essential for the contin uation of the species and for the good of society and all this will bring you joy. Planting trees and keeping rivers clean are karmas that will lead to well-being of all.
Raajasika karmas may be good for you but not for others; but they do not harm others. These include amassing wealth without giving anything in charity, helping only your family members without doing anything for the community , spending money on your clothes, jewels, holidays and other personal luxuries without giving something to the less fortunate, striving hard for fame and power.
Tamasika actions are those which not only do good only to you but harm others. These include hurting others physically, using your power against others, helping family to the detriment of others, and damaging environment for personal pleasures.
Right actions should be performed with a sense of detachment without desire for results, says the Gita. The world is governed by results and this attitude may seem naïve and impractical.But scriptures teach us that a detached state of mind improves your effectiveness and performance because it removes stress and anxiety. Desire for results and expectations plays havoc, preventing you from realising your full potential.
All we need is a change in mindset.When i was a young lad my cricket coach would say as i went out to bat, “Just don't bother about the score and play your strokes.“ Golf hero Jack Nicklaus says, “Keep a good back swing and hit hard; don't bother about how far it goes.“ Ramana Maharshi said, “Moving from effort to effortlessness releases is cardinal for Self-enquiry.“
Transcending, changing Karm
Transcending Karm With Sadhana
The Times of India, August 19, 2016
Shri Shri Anandamurti When the mind is influenced by sattva guna, the sentient principle, Atman, soul or Self is reflected upon the mind. When the mind is influenced by tamoguna, the static principle, it gets embroiled in the mundane world; and when it is influenced by rajoguna, the mutative principle, it reaps the consequences of its actions. When people are goaded by the propensity of mundane enjoyment they become desperate for uninterrupted pleasure, and end up drifting in the flow of the static force.Since this flow is unrestrained, with no opposing force, it directly hits the vasanabhanda or pot of desires, causing a mutative reaction.
We undergo reactions according to the nature of our original actions. If someone harms a sick person, a saint, a refugee, or an honest person, he will immediately undergo a reaction of the same intensity. This is because sick, infirm and saintly people never obstruct the original actions of wrongdoers. Whatever the original actions of a person may be, good or bad, samskaras, reactive moments, are created. Until all these potential reactions are expressed, liberation is impossible.
As long as one has a physical body, one cannot be free from action.Hence sadhakas or spiritual aspirants need to be ever vigilant to ensure that new reactive moments do not enter their vasanabhanda. Through proper cosmic ideation sadhakas can be filled with Consciousness. No new bundle of samskaras will be created while their old samskaras will be exhausted more quickly.
We often notice that after initiation a sincere sadhaka suddenly experiences tremendous pain or pleasure. Those who suddenly feel tremendous happiness become so absorbed in this blissful state that they completely forget their ideology, and those who suffer immense torture sometimes leave the path due to their inability to face such difficulties. A true sadhaka needs to remain unaffected by both pain and pleasure for it is only through pain and pleasure can one's samskaras be destroyed and a new karmashaya bundle of samskaras dominated by Consciousness be created.
The way to Cosmic Consciousness is to practise Ashtanga Yoga (the eight limbed yoga). Firstly, free your mind from the influence of the pranendriya and motor organs and lead it towards Consciousness. Then, the karmashaya becomes flooded with more and more Consciousness. And through the practice of asanas and pranayama, one could increase the degree of control of the mind over prana. During the first stage of sadhana mind and body become increasingly pure. This is anubhava.
An awareness dawns in the mind: “I am not this body.“ This awareness is called prajina. Sentient prajina is known as prasamkhyana. The effort to make prajina sentient is the second stage of sadhana, when the karmashaya is filled with Consciousness the possibility of a spiritual aspirant's rebirth is destroyed for good. Burnt seeds never sprout. However, even though it is burnt, the seed still exists.
Even though karmashaya is filled with Consciousness, the vasanabhanda has to be offered to Parama Purusha in complete surrender. The only way to merge the vasanabhanda into Consciousness is to ideate on Parama Purusha and forget everything else.This ideation on the Supreme Entity is called purusakhyati ensconcement in the Supreme Cognitive Faculty, when individual identity merges in Parama Purusha.
Breaking free of our Karm
The Times of India, Aug 08 2016
Nayaswami Devi People frequently ask, “Why have you followed the spiritual path for your whole life?“ There are many answers to that question, but a big one is: “It brings me inner freedom.“ By this i mean, freedom to change negative patterns that have kept me in their clutches; freedom to respond with calmness and kindness even when others are angry or challenging; and, simply , freedom to enjoy whatever life brings. We've all had those painful moments when we look in the mirror and realise that we've actually been the cause of a lot of the problems in our life. Swami Kriyananda would say , “When you see a fault within yourself, don't despair, but rejoice. It's been there all along, but now that you've seen it, you can start working to change it.“
So what are some spiritual tools that help us to break free of our karmic patterns? Karma is simply energy generated by past thoughts or actions that we've steered in a certain direction.This understanding gives us a handle on the subconscious patterns that control our behaviour, and the ability to direct the flow of energy in a positive direction.
With conscious awareness and determination, replace a negative pattern with a positive one. If, for example, you've been critical of others, attracting in turn criticism back to you, use your will power to offer acceptance and support to everyone.Though the battleship of our karma may be slow in changing its course, in time a new direction will be set, heading us now towards the open seas of freedom. Use affirmations repeatedly with deep concentration to change chronic patterns of thinking. Find a prayer or affirmation appropriate to a specific karma that you're working on, and let it be your constant companion.For example, if you have a problem with mindless snacking, use these words of Paramhansa Yogananda whenever temptation comes: “Today I will rise above the consciousness of food and know that I live by the pure peace of silence.“ peace of silence.“
Be patient: The deeper the karma, the longer the time required to change it. Don't constantly dig up the spiritual seeds you're sowing to see if they're taking root. Let them grow in their own time to become mighty plants.
Bring the problem to God in meditation and prayer.
Some years ago i was faced with a test that was causing me a great deal of pain. No hat i did to free myself from matter what i did to free myself from the clutches of this karmic beast, it tenaciously confronted me every day.Finally i went to Swami Kriyananda to ask his advice about how to break free of it.
With wisdom and love, he said, “Everything that you're doing is good, but ultimately it's God's grace that frees us from our karma.“ From his words i understood that our sincere efforts and desire to be free draw the grace that brings release. We have to do our little part, and then God steps in and unties the knots of karma that have kept us bound.
And so it happened in my situation.Though it took some years, ultimately the karma was dissolved in an unexpected, beautiful, and deeply satisfying way that i couldn't have envisioned myself. Through the grace of God and Guru, may we find freedom from all limitations.
Altering destiny by changing karm
It is said that we are making fresh karma every moment and that every thought has to materialise.If a person had some thoughts about a realised guru and those thoughts were not fulfilled during that lifetime, would the guru have to take birth again to fulfil the thoughts of the other person, inducing the cycle of birth and death endlessly?
The concept of karma is a very different concept from the concept of thoughts and feelings, and a difficult concept to understand. Karma has been classified into prarabdha karma, karma of destiny; sanchita karma, accumulated karma; and many other divisions: individual karma, social karma, global karma and universal karma.
We all create mentally, we all think.However, that does not mean that the person we have thought about is forced to act according to these thoughts and wishes. You come across many people in your lifetime with whom you want to live, study, marry, or just be with. If that is not possible for some reason, what you are asking is, “Does that person again come back as your husband or wife?“ If it were so you would have 10 husbands or 10 wives, because our likes and dislikes change constantly. We think and create situations in our minds; we create karmas and eliminate karmas every moment.
I think this example of a guru is not really a correct one, because if it can apply to a guru, it can apply to your girlfriend or boyfriend as well. It can apply to your father and mother, your son and daughter too, because the feeling is the same. As far as the law of karma is concerned, there is a process of elimination. The same is true with thoughts: you think, then you eliminate the thought, it goes away and another thought comes, then it goes away and another thought comes, then another.
If all the thoughts were retained in the mind you would go crazy , because you do not know how to eliminate karmas consciously , wilfully; whether through action, meditation, bhakti yoga or jnana yoga, nobody knows! How is it done? What is the process? What is the system? Internally , something is constantly eliminating, changing and destroying sanchita karma, the karma that we accumulate in our day-to-day life, and it retains only those karmas which affect our life very deeply.
Most of the karmas that are related to the empirical objective world, the experience of time, space, object and senses, are easy to eliminate. However, karma which goes beyond the scope of the senses, mind, intellect, emotions, time, space and object is difficult to manage. This is known as prarabdha karma, the karma of destiny .
I am sure that by thinking that you want to study under this guru or the other guru, you do not create prarabdha karma. It only remains a thought unless you are powerful enough to bring about a total change in the structure of karma which is related to you and the other person. For that you will need to be either a complete lunatic or a Self-realised person, because only these two types of people can do it. People in-between cannot do it.
(Courtesy: Bihar School of Yoga.)
Overcoming Karm(a) through Wisdom
Swami Lalitananda Giri, The Wisdom Way Of Overcoming Karma, May 15, 2017: The Times of India
Why is a person born with everything in life, while another struggles to fulfil even his basic needs? A silver spoon for some, and not even a small piece of bread for another? This is hard to digest and understand. Who decides it anyway? Do we just follow a course as per algorithms set by a fate-maker?
Adi Shankaracharya pondered “Who am I?“ and Buddha was intrigued seeing a child, an old man, and a corpse; the answers eventually led him to salvation.
Karma is a mystical word in Indic texts; it has also been adapted in the English language, and refers to our actions and their outcomes, which are akin to the cause and effect principle.
Bhishma, at the battlefield (Mahabharata), lying on a bed of arrows that pierced every inch of his body, wondered in agony as to what actions of his past had led him to this excruciating pain and humiliation.He asked Krishna, “I have scanned my 72 previous lives, but could not find a single action which could have resulted in me lying here, on this bed of arrows.“
Then Krishna explained to him that in his 73rd life Bhishma, as a child, had playfully pierced a sharp thorn into an insect. That action resulted in his current suffering.
Paramahansa Yogananda said, “Before you act, you have freedom, but after you act, the effect of that action will follow you whether you want it to or not. That is the law of karma. You are a free agent, but when you perform a certain act, you will reap the results of that act.“
As a shot arrow cannot be recalled, so too your action, which automatically results in karma; good or bad, however, it may be. But there are many ways and means to mitigate, lessen, or eradicate our karmas from fruition. Start thinking positively, which will help in reducing the effects of past actions, rather than accepting failure with an excuse that, “It must be my karma ... I can't seem to succeed in anything,“ and so on, and make a greater effort.
Wisdom helps us to make the right choices in life so that we are not influenced by our samskaras. It also inspires us to resist our bad habits. Wisdom and discrimination help us to understand the nature of people with whom we associate and this, in turn, helps us choose who we associate with.Wisdom enables us to know which desires we should try to fulfil and which we should drop. Most people do not analyse themselves, and so never realise how bound they are by influences of past actions.Begin to analyse yourselves more, to understand why you are as you are.You may have noticed that some children are born with certain moods and habits. They brought these tendencies from the past; for in this life they have not yet had time to form such patterns of behaviour.
Our lives are getting increasingly complex day by day. Unless we exercise good judgment in our everyday lives, we are likely to get into trouble. The best way to avoid difficulties is to develop the wisdom to know what benefits us and the will power to follow what wisdom says.
Changing Karm, inter alia, with Kriya Yog
Nayaswamis Jyotish & Devi, Keys To Changing Your Karma, March 29, 2019: The Times of India
Karma is how God gives us the lessons we need to evolve spiritually. Paramhansa Yogananda describes karma as a mechanism created by God for our “education and entertainment”. Yet, rarely are we either educated or entertained by our karmic tests – unless we accept them in the right spirit.
Karma is the spiritual equivalent to Newton’s law of action and reaction in physics: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If we put out positive, loving energy, we receive positive, loving energy in return.
If we put out negative energy in the form of judgemental attitudes or dishonesty, that same type of energy comes back to us.
Swami Kriyananda describes good karma as anything that brings us closer to God, and bad karma as anything that takes us farther away from Him. Is winning the lottery good karma? Not if we spend that money on ourselves and increase our sense of ego.
The power of a particular karma is determined by the energy and will power that went into creating it. These same two factors can also change our karma. For instance, if in the past you tried to hurt people by unkind acts, you can neutralise that karma by devoting equal energy to helping and uplifting others.
When we’re facing a difficult karma, the first thing we need to do is to detach ourselves by accepting karmic tests as coming from God. Also, we need to control the tendency to blame others and bring a positive reaction to it that will help expiate the karma.
Detachment also means accepting whatever comes and being grateful for it. Accept not only what comes, but also what doesn’t come. If you can catch yourself when you first start to have a negative reaction, at that moment it is easier to neutralise the karma.
How do we become free of karmic patterns? When we respond to karma in the right way, we pass the test and don’t have to repeat it. Otherwise, we get to retake the test, sometimes over a period of lifetimes. It’s important to become aware of your karmic patterns, the things that happen repeatedly. If a karma is repeating in your life, that’s a sign you should spend time working on that particular karmic pattern.
Generally speaking, if we respond to adversity with the right attitude, then what initially looked like bad karma becomes something positive spiritually. But there’s a subtler form of bad karma that comes from identifying with the body and the material world. This type of karma can make us restless, impede our efforts to meditate, or prevent us from going deeper into the spiritual life. To overcome karma of this type we need to work on removing the subconscious blocks and inner conflicts by focussing our energy strongly in positive new directions.
The most powerful antidote for our past bad karma is the practice of Kriya Yoga, which works directly on the vrittis in the spine, where our karma resides. Through the deep practice of Kriya, we burn up, or “roast”, the seeds of our past karma. Our job is to respond to karma with the right attitude and effort, but it is divine grace that ultimately frees us from all karma.
Nishkâm Karm
See also the page Bhagwad Gita
I
Hemant Dharmat , Karma Philosophy "Daily Excelsior" 5/2/2017
During his discourse with Arjun in their chariot stationed amidst the battlefield of Kurukshetra with the contending forces in battle array, just before first salvo was to be fired in the epic War of Mahabharta, Lord Krishna said, “You have the right to perform your duty but never over fruits of your work. Have no attachment with the results of your actions. And do not also be disinclined to function” (Chapter 2, Verse 47). Working relentlessly without any desire or attachment to the results of your karmas is the underlying principle. The verse may be read with the following so as to grasp its correct meaning: “The work, that is commenced out of delusion, without considering the consequences, loss, violence and one’s own competence is called ‘Tamas’ i.e. a dark deed” (Chapter 18, Verse 25).
One is required to dutifully obey and carryout official orders of the superior authority, which as per ones’ own perception may have pleasant or unsavory outcome. If there is no liberty for making personal decisions, one would remain untouched by the associated ‘punya’ and ‘pap’ provided one carries out ones duties completely unattached to the results. Renunciation to the fruits notwithstanding, one has to perform his bounden duties with utmost dedication and sincerity. However, where an individual is vested with decision making powers, he must let better sense prevail and desist from adopting evil ways or treading an unrighteous course. Lord Krishna said, “Those with malicious intent, evil doers, cruel, and wicked, I repeatedly cast them in demonic species” (Chapter 16 Verse 19).In the Mahabharta War, Lord Krishna had punished Ashavathama to suffer agonizing pain till eternity for his evil attempt to kill Pandava’s unborn heir in mother’s womb.A karma begun thoughtlessly, which not only during working stages could be harmful, but would also be disastrous towards the end for oneself, coworkers and the society; is said to be the product of ‘Tamasik’ mindset.
Therefore, before initiating work, one must consider all the pros and cons; loss to himself and to others; would it cause violence resulting in injury or death of fellow human beings; if any species would perish in the process; what precautions could be taken to prevent someone from being hurt or killed; would it degrade environment irreparably or have detrimental effect on humanity and whether one has the necessary ability, wherewithal and resources to accomplish the karma. Once the aforementioned issues are taken care of, one may chalk out strategy, work out plans and initiate action without the least attachment to its fruits. For, our action done without forsaking attachment with the results; causes tension in this world and binds us beyond to the cycle of deaths and births. Lord Krishna said, “O mighty (Arjun)! The selfless worker who neither bears malice towards anybody nor longs for anyone merits being considered a sage at all times; because the one who is free from the opposites of likes and dislikes is comfortably released from bondage” (Chapter 5 Verse 3).
“Whoever perceives all actions being performed in every possible manner by nature alone and thinks him as non-doer, has the right perception” (Chapter 13 Verse 29). “Who is endowed with ‘sattavguna’ (positive outlook), and has unsuspecting mind; he is considered wise and his renunciation as genuine; if he is neither inimical towards uninteresting karma nor is attached to interesting act” (Chapter 18 Verse 10). “For it’s just not possible for anyone to completely abandon all karmas. So whoever relinquishes the fruits of his actions is called a renouncer” (Chapter 18 Verse 11). “Attaining ‘Gyan’ (knowledge of scriptures) is better than ‘Abhayas’ (practices of Yoga, Pranayama etc. without spiritual awareness); meditation on My form is better than ‘Gyan’; and relinquishing attachment to the fruits of all the obligatory duties is indeed better than meditation; for lasting peace is attained through renouncement of the fruits of ones ‘karma’ (Chapter 12 Verse 12). “Therefore, always perform your duty properly, but without attachment to its results. For, the one who continues to undertake duties without attachment to the fruits, achieves Supreme Destination”. (Chapter 3, Verse 19).
“But the person who remains absorbed in meditation of the Self, finds ecstasy in the Self and is content with the Self; he has no duty to perform” (Chapter 3, Verse 17). Lord Krishna said, “Bharata! Just as the unwise perform their duties with attachment, so should the wise person devoid of all desires undertake action for peoples’ welfare” (Chapter 3, Verse 25).Because the visible world is transient, everything around us is losing its sheen every moment. Our parents, brothers, sisters, spouse, children, close relatives and friends, none would stay with us forever. All our possessions of which we are so very proud of belonged to someone else before, these would either perish during our lifetime or would be owned by another person when we are no more. One would even have to cast off the ageing body someday. Nothing in this universe is eternal except the Self. Therefore, the sage who has realized the inviolability of the Self and remains ever lost in its glory, is not obliged to work. But just as our hearts beat and our eyelids blink without our intention; so also a sage devoid of all desires and ever absorbed in his Self keeps doing something or the other for humanity’s wellbeing.
Actions, good and bad
A Mammoth Memory Bank
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Karma, The Mammoth Memory Bank, March 17, 2020: The Times of India
It happened. One day, Shankaran Pillai got fed up with his wife, and left home. After three days of wandering the streets, he went to a restaurant for breakfast. “I want a proper home-cooked meal,” he told the waitress. The waitress brought him all his favourite dishes and Shankaran Pillai ate with gusto. But then he called the waitress again. “Do you think you could nag me just a little?” he asked plaintively. “I’m still homesick.” So, it doesn’t matter what it is: Once you’ve gotten used to something, whether pleasant or unpleasant, you cannot drop it!
Karma literally means ‘action’, but from where does this action arise? From volition, which, in turn, is determined by identification with a narrow sense of individuality. This identification arises from memory. You believe you are an individual because your memory tells you so. It would not be amiss, therefore, to describe karma as memory.
Everything that you consider to be yourself is a product of your past. Your body is just a heap of food you have ingested over time. Your mind is a heap of impressions and ideas you have imbibed over time. Both are creations of the past. So, what you call your ‘personality’ is simply an accumulation of memory. The essence of everything you consider to be yourself is karmic. You may not remember consciously what happened 30 years ago, but it is working on you. Experiments substantiate this: If someone who knows no Chinese, for instance, is exposed to the language when he is in deep sleep, years later, under conditions of hypnosis, he can actually utter the same ten Chinese sentences.
Similarly, what happened 30 million years ago is still encrypted in your body. Everything that ever happened on this planet is still remembered, because your body is just a piece of this planet. Your mind has forgotten life as a unicellular being, but your body remembers. Your mind has forgotten your great grandmother, but her nose still sits on your face. Genetics is essentially memory. Although people think memory only means mind, the volume of memory that the body carries is many billion times greater.
The attraction to one’s karmic patterns is powerful because most people experience safety in the familiar. When you are 18, life seems full of possibility. But as you grow older, it often feels like choices are shrinking. As the karmic substance increases, the discerning mind takes a backseat, and you work increasingly by habits, patterns and cycles.
The inherent power of human intelligence has been fragmented into atomised forms of thought and emotion. These have become a source of unspeakable suffering and destruction. Since people are so identified with their fragmented individuality, shaped by their memory, they see everyone else similarly. Eventually, however, it is the universal that prevails. Creation is like a video game: Once it is over, nothing is left on the screen. Not even a flicker to suggest what once was.
The time has come for human beings to transcend the distorting lens of karma – the lens that makes them confuse the projection for the real, their fragmented memory-driven psychological creation for the incredible majesty of life itself. The time has come to wake up to the fact there is only one crime against life: To make-believe you are something other than life.
Actions and their consequences
If you have performed a good action, you will reap the consequences of that action after death. But the mind can experience its good consequences, if and only if, it has a body . One experiences joy and agony , pleasure and pain, only if one has a brain, nerve cells and nerve fibres. If there is no physical body , how can there be any experience?
‘There is neither heaven nor hell’
So the thought of experiencing that pleasure in heaven is nothing but sheer fantasy . There is no logic behind it. That is why , in Ananda Sutram, it is said, Na svargo na rasatala There is neither heaven nor hell.
Where is the question of pleasure and pain in the absence of the physical body? So, the fantasy of heaven is completely erroneous. You have to come to the world again so that past samskaras attain fruition. One has to perform actions in order to restore the mind to its normal state from vikriti, the distortions caused by previous actions. What does a wise person do, then? In the Mahabharata, when the five Pandavas were in exile, they were spending their days in great suffering during their exile in the forest, even though Yudhisthira, as king, had performed great acts of charity .Then, Draupadi caustically remarked to Yudhisthira, “Very t well, very well.“
So what did Yudhisthira say , spe then? “I do not expect anything tr in return whenever i do anything good. I desire no result. I want to offer the good results of my good actions to the Lord, and i should reap the bad consequences of my bad actions. I will not give those to the Lord. I should not come to this world to reap the consequences of good actions that are done through me. Whenever i do anything, i offer it to the Lord `O Lord, take the consequences of this auspicious action.' I also say, `Let me have for myself the inauspicious consequences of my inauspicious actions.'“ This is indeed the path of a pure, saintly and truthful person. This is the secret behind escaping from the good consequences of a good action.
One may say that it is nice to undergo the good consequences of one's righteous actions.
is not the way things are. There But this is not the way things are. There is no real good gained by this. While experiencing the good consequences of one's righteous actions one may commit three or four wrong acts. Thus one has to then come again to reap the consequences of such unrighteous acts.One has to transcend the cycle of actions and reactions. One must desist from wrong actions. “I will restrain myself from unrighteous actions. I shall not do anything unjust, come what may . I shall fight against evil. I shall fold my hands before a righteous person.“
This is the lifestyle of a righteous person. “I shall be vociferous against injustice and shall remain humble before a righteous individual. I shall commit no evil. I shall do as much good as possible, and while doing so, I shall tell Parama Purusha at every step, that i desire no reward and want nothing auspicious, in return for my good deeds.Let these be Yours.“
Kinds of Karm
Kinds of Karm and their Consequences
Talk: Pandit Shriram Sharma, June 12, 2018: The Times of India
The feeling, intent and circumstances behind any action is important. To understand the deep meaning of the fruits of action, we must understand what the three types of actions are.
Sanchita karma can get one through without any intent. The environment impacts the individual. So too the company of bad or good characters. Similarly the association of pious persons will also leave some impact on the individual. If this impact is not willingly adopted, it will leave very faint and weak imprint on one’s consciousness.
Another example of sanchita karma can be actions undertaken under pressure and unwillingly. The doer will not perform such acts – at work or at home – if he is not under pressure. The impact of such sanchita karma lies dormant for long periods without turning into any fruit of action. But, if similar acts or deeds are willingly performed later on, these imprints too get activated and result in fruits of action. Good and bad sanchita karmas result in fruit or get destroyed according to other actions, depending on the intent and circumstances.
Prarabdha karmas are actions performed willingly and with deep intent. Their imprint on consciousness is very strong, especially if they are negative karmas. Our inner consciousness acts as judge and starts preparing for the fruits of prarabdha action. For creating appropriate fruit of action, matching jivatma is required for culmination of similar fruits of respective actions Sometimes it may take two or three lifetimes.
If a murderer succeeds in evading the law, he will be subject to justice of inner consciousness. The sin will keep growing like the seedling of a tree and will keep looking for another appropriate seedling for fructification. In the meanwhile, the guilty jivatma may enjoy the fructification of some other good prarabdha deed. That’s why sometimes the person seems to be enjoying a good life despite being his bad karma. Therefore whatever results we are getting in this life are results of our own prarabdha karmas. We should not accuse fate, God or any other for the misfortune visiting us. This is the result of our own deeds some time ago or perhaps so long ago, that we have no inkling of them. Out of nowhere and suddenly the fructification of prarabdha karma confronts us in the shape of death, injury, house collapse, or wealth lost. It does not come as deliberate deeds of another person. Deliberate acts of other persons are new karma and the sudden events happening out of nowhere are result of prarabdha.
Kriyamana karma involves bodily acts and generally, result is instant. Hand burns on touching fire, carelessness in eating results in upset stomach and illness, consumption of alcohol results in intoxication, and eating poison results in death. Labourer gets reward for work as salary. Acts which have no specific intent and are bodily acts are kriyamana acts.
Result and fructification of sanchita karma are uncertain; those of prarabdha karma are certain but timing is uncertain. The result of kriyamana karma is immediate and sometimes instant.
Pain, suffering and sorrow will look unwarranted and unwelcome because immediate impact appears bad. However in the long run, they are for the purification and reform of jivatma, for ultimate merger with Super Consciousness. (The writer is founder patron of Gayatri Pariwar)
Karm, Vikarm, Akarm and Moksh
B Shankar, Why Waste Precious Opportunity To Moksha?, June 16, 2018: The Times of India
Humans are ever engaged in action as it is almost impossible to live without action. In life, we play many different roles like being a student, employee, son, daughter, spouse, parent, citizen and so on. We are generally guided by our family value system in our actions.
Karma means prescribed duties. But today, an average human being goes about his life for the sole purpose of meeting material ends, be it towards material wellbeing, prosperity or professional excellence and the list can be endless. Karma includes all desire-based actions.
Vikarma is prohibited action, generally based on baser qualities like greed, lust, and anger, for example. Akarma is action performed without the notion of akarta bhava, doership and does not mean not doing work.
Sometime in our life, we do ask ourselves whether there is a higher purpose than the current materialistic way. The answer is ‘yes, there is’. In the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna says, “I have two prakritis, powers of manifestation, the lower and the higher.Lower prakrti is material Nature, consisting of earth, water, fire, air, sky, and so on. Higher prakrti is my manifestation as jivas or centres of consciousness.”
Creation and dissolution has a purpose for the jiva – to help the jiva to regain its divine nature, overcoming domination of material nature in the state of ignorance. Karmas, good and bad, accrue to the jiva in the course of the creative process giving it different embodiments. This entanglement in the cycle of births and death is samsaraa. Delinking of jiva from this cyclic process of time is the ultimate aim of evolution.The attainment of delinking is called moksha. Attaining the Supreme is the way to moksha. This is the higher purpose of life one should strive for.
Human birth is a precious gift granted after a long struggle of evolution and is the only vehicle for reaching enlightenment. It should not be wasted.
The long cycle of transmigration, whose genesis is desire prompted action,can only be broken by understanding the nature of Self, which is not the body.
We come into this well-furnished world without anything of our own and we need to understand that all creation functions as per His will.
So what one is expected to do is to shun vikarma at all times and remembering the higher purpose of life, work, controlling the senses by the mind and doing duty in a dedicated way without caring for fruits. Fruits of all actions should be resigned to the Lord, and this is called Prasada Buddhi, graceful acceptance.The yogi has still the sense of agency, the feeling of doership. At a higher level of perfection, the sense of agency is also resigned, this is known as Isvarararpana Buddhi, offering of choice of action to the Lord. Soon the yogi would begin to feel that he is the Atman and he would remain as the spirit, the pure witness –this state is called ‘Naishkarmya’ or egoless passivity of the spirit. This is the essence of karmayoga.
Through devotion and resignation to Divine will, complete peace and perfection is attained even in the midst of all work. Thus it is that bhakti completes the Gita doctrine of dedicated and detached work.The purpose of human life is achieved by this yogi and Universal Self becomes a matter of experience and he enjoys Life Divine.
