7th days course-lesson-4-Secrets of karma

LESSON-4

SECRETS OF KARMA
Om Shanti

The meaning of Om Shanti is: I am a soul, Shanti- I am a Peaceful Soul. Being aware of my true form, I begin to realize the significance of the action, reaction and interaction.

4.1. CURSE OR BLESSING? - The result of my own actions on myself.

Before becoming aware of my own true identity, while I associated myself completely with my physical costume, there was no awareness that every action was having such a deep impact.

Now, with the recognition of the self as a soul, I become aware that every single action is leaving an imprint, a record, which I carry with myself eternally.

The Law of Karma, the Law of Action and Reaction has been explained most clearly by the Supreme Father, whom I call Baba-a term of love and close relationship. So Baba, the eternal Father, the incorporeal, the one who is Himself beyond the law of cause and effect, action and reaction, and is, therefore, free from all bondages, is the one who has explained very clearly what Karma is, and what the different effects of the different forms of karma are.

Up to now, we have found it very difficult to classify exactly what is right and what is wrong. Throughout history, our definition of right and wrong has been changing. Within the same period of history, different cultures, and different religions come up with different definitions and classifications. Even within the same religion, people of different generations will have different ideas of right and wrong, and even if I do not consider the external situation at all, but look within myself, I find that my own understanding fluctuates a very great deal. In childhood my understanding of right and wrong was on one level, in adolescence, it changed, in maturity, it has changed yet again.

But apart from my own growth and development and, greater wisdom, even within the space of one day, or even a few hours, I see myself coming to different conclusions. What seemed to be correct this morning, now in the afternoon, I am no longer sure about? In the clear hours of the early morning, when the intellect was unclouded, there was one particular decision taken. Now, having been influenced by the atmosphere, the words of human beings, my intellect wavers in its judgement. I am no longer as convinced as I was in the early morning. By the time nightfall has come, I have yet again changed my mind and now I am thinking of something completely different from that which had come in the early morning. And so, can I possibly arrive at a point where I can know absolutely what is right and what is wrong? Whilst I am limited by this physical costume, even the religion into which this body was born and the limitation of gender, of age, and of culture will colour my ideas, my thoughts and judgement.

If I can have knowledge from the Supreme Source and if I can be in the consciousness of my true identity, the soul, I am able to understand accurately right and wrong.

4.2. THREE QUALITIES OF KARMA

Baba has defined three specific types of action, of Karma:

SUKARMA: - action by which happiness is given. Such action would be pure action.

VIKARMA: - action based on the vices and therefore giving sorrow.

AKRMA: - action with neither positive nor negative effect.

 4.3. THE LAW OF KARMA

Let us define the Law of Karma. We can understand it very simply, just as we can understand Newton’s Law of Motion for the physical universe: that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This simple statement became the foundation for so much development in science and technology because the understanding of this simple fact-this truth-opened ups a whole world that had previously been shrouded in mystery.

In the same way, the Law of Karma, applicable to the spiritual universe, is an absolute. And it states, in a similar way, that TO EVERY ACTION THERE WILL BE AN EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTION, which means that, IF I HAVE GIVEN HAPPINESS I WILL RECEIVE HAPPINESS IN RETURN. IF I GIVE SORROW I WILL RECEIVE SORROW IN RETURN.

This has also been understood in Christianity. There is the saying, “As you sow, so you reap”. This is also known as the law of cause and effect. When we see certain effects, there is now a realisation that effects can only take place if there is a cause. So Karma (action) is the cause and the fruit of Karma is the effect.

Generally, when we have seen the fruits of Karma, they have been far separated from the karma which caused them. So we forget we responsible for these effects. When we see effects, then very often we point the finger of blame at others and say that others are responsible for our suffering, and we have even pointed the finger at God saying that it is He who has sent this suffering upon us. But the soul wonders; can the Supreme Father, the Almighty, the all-merciful, the all-loving, really wish the child to experience any suffering for any reason at all? The intellect rejects this and I realize that in fact, God is the remover of sorrow and the bestower only of happiness. So if there is the effect of sorrow, I have been responsible for the cause of sorrow.

The law of karma makes one take total responsibility for one’s own situation.

Sometimes only half the law of Karma is understood, and this is concerning the destiny. Someone may think helplessly, “Whatever is happening to me now is because of my past actions, so there is nothing I can do about it”. Certainly, it is true that when someone comes to understand he is responsible for the situation, a great deal of tolerance and endurance is experienced which was missing before. But equally the law of Karma states that if now I perform pure action I can create my own future in the direction of my choice. Not only am I has a slave of destiny, but the understanding of karma made me the creator of my own destiny. I chose the destiny I wish for myself. I may even be able to inspire others to choose their destiny through my own example and my own actions.

Karma has been called the seed. Just as from one tiny seed there can be an abundance of fruit, so too when one is performing action one is not always aware of the results that action will bring. One little action is performed and its repercussions may last for years and years. Generally what has been happening is that there has not been a simple action and reaction so that it is not just a case of one seed being planted and many fruits being taken, but the action has been mixed up with interaction, so that actions have been coloured by many different influences and they have crisscrossed with the actions of others. So today we find ourselves in a great web. We find ourselves completely entangled by the threads of our karma and if we try to trace back those threads we are even more confused than when we started.

4.4. BONDAGE OF KARMA

The real question of karma now is not simply to understand the theory of karma but to become concerned at seeing the karmic burden that I carry, the debt that I am carrying , what can I possibly do to ensure that I DO NOT INCREASE MY NEGATIVE KARMIC ACCOUNT( my bondages or my debts) anymore?

That is the first point: that I should not perform any action that is going to increase my karmic bondage. Then a second thought comes: what I can do  TO REDUCE MY KARMIC ACCOUNT? Or even: Is there possibly a quick simple easy method by which I can settle my entire karmic debt at a stroke?

And further there is even the thought: can I ensure that I perform SUCH KARMA THAT I CONSTANTLY HAVE A HUGE INCOME, A STOCK, A BIG FORTUNE WAITING FOR ME IN THE FUTURE?

4.5. FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE

Yes, through teachings of Raja Yoga, one experiences how it is possible to work

On all three levels.

A. No more “—“ With the UNDERSTANDING OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF KARMA and the LINK WITH THE SUPREME SOUL, one is able to ensure that there is no further sin, that there are no karmic accounts being increased.

B. Removing”—“With the FIRE OF YOGA, one is able to annual the past debts that have been gathered through so many births.

C. Creating “+” With the POWER AND THE INSPIRATION, THE RENUNCIATION AND THE DEDICATION FELT BY THE SOUL, it is possible to perform such pure karma that there is the guarantee that my future births will have purity, health, wealth and happiness.

Baba reveals the secrets of karma and we understand that, up to now, over the past many, many births (and for many souls, there has been a total of 63 impure births) we have been performing only impure action. We have only been gathering more and more debts.

Baba offers us a very simple touchstone by which we can immediately analyse an action to see whether it is pure or impure. It would be very difficult and complicated if there were to be a whole textbook that I had to carry around in my head to determine what was right or wrong action. Because when the moment of action comes, generally there are but a few moments within I must decide what I should do and what I should not do. I cannot at that time sit and thumb through my textbook and spend many hours reaching my decision.

Perhaps I would have been forced into a situation of impure karma in that intervening period. Perhaps the opportunity for pure karma would have slipped me by. And so Baba points out that impure karma is the result of a consciousness which is locked to the physical, known as body consciousness.

BODY CONSCIOUSNESS-THE ROOT OF VIKRMA. This means if I think of myself as a physical being man or woman, young or old, Hindu or Christian, black or white- my actions are going to be influenced by negative features. There will certainly be the influence of one or another major or minor vice, the major ones being lust, anger, greed, attachment and ago. I Can look back over my own experience and see that while the intellect has no awareness of its true influences governing my actions.

So, whilst I have been unaware, I have not been able to settle any accounts at all.

Even though the birth I took was the result of past karma, instead of setting my karmic accounts with the family into which I was born, as I grew older I merely continued to accumulate more and more karmic accounts. This was because there was ignorance of what was action and of how my karmic account was being increased. And so, as a result of my body consciousness, there was impure action and I found myself in the trap of sorrow. I was giving sorrow to others and experiencing sorrow for myself. There is another possibility.

SOUL CONSCIOUSNESS- THE METHOD FOR SUKARMA.

It possible to perform actions in the highest consciousness of the self, and this is the action which brings happiness to the self and also happiness to others. This is the action which is described as sukarma, pure action, action with positive results. It is interesting to analyse this a little further.

If we simply define pure action as that action by which happiness is given, we arrive at a little complication. Because I discover that I can give only that which I have myself. And at this moment in time, I do not have an unlimited stock of happiness, or even enough happiness to share with one other person let alone many souls, or all souls. I do not have eternal or permanent happiness.

The happiness I have fluctuated from moment to moment, from hour to hour, so how can I possibly give happiness to another?

There is one method. Where can I find happiness? My happiness comes when I have a connection with the source of bliss- the source of all happiness. So the first stage of pure Karma (pure action) is to perform such actions by which I come closer to the Supreme Being so that I am able to take happiness.

And in fact, the highest form of service I can perform for another individual is not even to give the happiness that I have myself, directly, because they would still only be associated with a limited source of supply. BUT ANY ACTION THAT I PERFORM BY WHICH ANOTHER SOUL IS BROUGHT CLOSER TO THE SUPREME IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF KARMA and is classified as sukarma(pure action). This now very radically changes my view of sin and even charity.

SIN AND CHARITY---

Previously I may have thought that sin was only the gross offences against the law of the land-to steal, to kill etc.-perhaps I thought only these were sin. Now I realize that practically every action that I was performing was sin. Even actions that sometimes could have been neutral, actions which bring neither negative nor positive result, such as my sleeping, the sustenance of my own body, my own survival, even these have not really been neutral actions. Even they have been tainted with impurity and, generally speaking, they also have been sin. And now my view of charity also changes immensely. If I serve on any physical level, it is a service, but a very limited one. If I give medicine, If I offer my services as a nurse, yes, this charity, but it is on a limited level. Why? Because in fact, ill-health has come as a result of past bad karma and I may relieve the symptoms but I will not have really cured the patient, which means that I may help them in their immediate moment of distress, but I have not taught them how to change their karmic situation completely and thus cancel their past karmic debt so that they never again have to experience ill health or pain.

If I have simply given them medicine, I have helped them for today but not for all time. Yet if I could share with the spiritual knowledge through which they themselves could come closer to  the Supreme, that would be the highest form of karma and they would come to know how to settle their karmic account.

If someone is hungry and I feed him, how long can I continue to feed him? I can not take the responsibility of feeding him for life. I do not even know about my own self. So I may feed him for one meal or even for one day but how much better it is if I can, again, explain to him the philosophy of karma and, by helping him come closer to the Supreme Being, enable him to have the strength with which to earn his own living, so that he may not only feed himself but he may become an instrument to feed others also.

 So just a couple of very simple examples have been given of what we have considered being charity. Hopefully, it will be clear that charity on any physical level is but limited, yet it is now possible for the soul, with the awareness of karma, to perform charity on an unlimited scale. And of course, the result of giving, the result of serving, of bringing others closer to God, brings immediate fruit-instant results- in that I myself come so much closer to my Supreme Father.

And so I now have a very different view of karma, of sin and charity, from the view I had previously.

4.6 MY LIFE’S ACTIVITIES

Let me see what sort of actions are taking place in the day to day life of an individual and, as I see them, I can understand how far there is sin and how far there is charity.

Survival:-  Firstly, there are those actions that I perform for my own survival: I need to work for myself, to earn my own living, so that I am not karmic bondage to anyone else, thus accruing further debts. I need to feed myself (my Body). I need to look after my own physical being (life). So one entire category of  Karma out my day to day timetable is taken up with a this-a fair number of hours-my eating, my sleeping, my drinking, my preparation, my working, all come into this first category, actions performed for the self.

Responsibility:-  Secondly, these are those actions perform out of responsibility for others, and equally, when a man goes out to work it is not just for his own livelihood, but it is also to support his family. Similarly, when a woman is looking after the home, she is not merely doing this for her own self, but it is as valid a job as working outside in an office, for she is also fulfilling the responsibilities to others around her.

Leisure:-  The third category of karma is one which has grown larger and larger in Morden society, and that is the action which is not necessary, as such, but I am performing, or  Pursuits that I am following, as mere diversions for my mind. The entire field of leisure activity could come into this third category.

Service:-   Then fourthly, a category which is generally so minute, in fact sometimes totally neglected, covers actions performed for the service of others.

Analysis:-    Now let me look at my timetable and see which of these four categories have been sin, and which have been charity? It is possible for any of these categories to be either. For instance, in the question of my own survival, the actions I am performing are perhaps based on ego, greed, or possibly lust and anger. In which case those actions will be not just neutral but they will be sin; negative action.

Even simply in the question of carrying for my body it is possible that there is such ego or great vanity that the care that I take of my physical body must be maintained and I will do so with a sense of detachment, and so there will be neither sin nor positive karma, but there will be a simple procedure for eating, living, sleeping. Survival.

Because I am a soul in a human body, living here on the physical world, in this field of karma, some actions are essential- for instance, I must take care of my body. Yet it is even possible to make the actions involved in the maintenance of the physical body pure actions. How? By being in the consciousness of myself as a soul, and in the consciousness of my Supreme Father, I realise that this physical vehicle is an instrument through which I can serve my Supreme Father. Through my eyes, I can pass on the vibration of purity. Through my lips, I can share the message that He has given. Each and every one of my physical senses can be considered to be in trust. I AM IN FACT A TRUSTEE OF EVEN THIS PHYSICAL BODY.

It has been given to me on loan by my Supreme Father in order to carry out his work. And recognising this to be so. I will treat the body with care, with renunciation, but also in that highest stage of consciousness. And every action will become pure karma.

Within the second category of actions, my responsibility to others, I may be motivated by greed, anger or attachment. And generally, this is what happens every day in every situation. But if I am a Yogi, the place where I work is the place in which I share the vibrations that I have gained from the Supreme. My actions will no longer be based on motivation for more money, more comforts, but I will work and see to it that I have the correct wage of my effort so that there is no further karmic involvement. But my place of work in the field of service in which my example and my vibrations will inspire others to remain peaceful, pure, and positive. My example will bring other souls closer to the Supreme

As a mother, as I cook, I will not just cook following the desires and dictates of my children’s tests, but I will cook knowing that whatever is being prepared is in fact that which God has provided. So whatever I cook must first of all be offered to my Supreme Father. So I will cook with that highest devotion and purest love knowing that I am to offer it to Him first. And having been cook and offered, when it is shared with my family it will provide not only nourishment for the physical body but it will also provide nourishment for the souls because it will have been filled with that love and purity.

So in the fulfilment of my responsibilities, I can perform pure karma.

The third category:  Today the leisure pursuits we will follow are generally a further pull on the physical senses. Today the soul is dominated by attractions of the senses and will seek artificial excitement. It no longer realises happiness lies within the self and so my actions are such that I am pulled into deeper and grosser body-consciousness. And sometimes my leisure pursuits are such that I create sorrow and cause grief to others. Yet I am blinded because I am concerned merely with my own enjoyment, which I pursue on a very physical sensuous level.

As soon as I become a yogi, that which is bringing the highest satisfaction to the soul, that which is bringing the greatest contentment to the soul, is coming closer to the Supreme and bringing others closer to the Supreme. So my entire leisure activity is now pure karma, bringing the soul supersensuous pleasure-a joy which is beyond the senses.

 

So the third and fourth categories are no longer separated, they become the same.

 

The service of others are being performed on an unlimited level.

 

There is an expression sometimes used in India: “If you feed a man a fish, you feed him for one meal; you feed him for one day. But if you can teach a man how to fish you can feed him for life... So knowing that the real service I can perform for any soul is to teach that soul how to come closer to the supreme, the soul will seek ways will spend its time and energy in bringing other souls closer to the Supreme, the soul will seek ways, will spend its time and energy in bringing other souls closer to the spiritual wisdom that the Supreme Father is imparting and also through one’s own pure elevated actions. It is possible for every moment of our consciousness day to be performing pure action.

If I have done this and I have transformed my sanskara, It is possible to spend the night (during which I sleep to give the body rest) serving  others, for the soul can serve by giving inspiration even through its sleep, even through its dreams.

So it is possible for service that means pure karma, to be performed for 24 hours.

And the period of history through which we are now passing, known as the Confluence Age, the junction of the old world and the new world is the opportunity we have to perform the highest actions of all

4.7. THE FIRE OF YOGA

When the soul experiences a link with the Supreme  it is inspired to share that which it has taken from the Supreme with others. And so the pattern of karma is totally changed. The fire of yoga annuls our past sins and changes our very Sanskars, and the power from the Supreme gives us the strength to perform pure actions, in order to collect our stock for the future.                    

Every seed of action sown now, filled with the power from the Supreme Soul, bring thousand fold rewards, thousandfold fruit, not only for the self but also for all others in contact with the soul. While there is karma from one to one, from one human soul to another human soul, the give and the take is only one to one. But when the seed of karma is filled with the love of the Supreme and the power from the Supreme, that seed becomes so powerful that it brings thousandfold fruit.

So every action performed in the remembrance of the Supreme Father is action through which I receive benefit, and benefit comes to all around.

4.8. MEDITATION-FOR ELEVATED ACTION- PURE KARMA

Sit for a few minutes in meditation, in an easy manner. Maybe you would like to follow these ideas.

SUGGESTED THOUGHTS FOR MEDITATION
 

My thoughts- my consciousness-gathered to a point... I, the soul, the radiant light, sit in this body.... my costume for action...my costume for happiness...

The things of the world drop away... I fly to the world of light...to the Supreme Region ....my Home...

Within I the soul is my Sanskars...my tendencies...my latencies...These are the record of my past karma. I realise that I am carrying negative and positive Sanskars...negative and positive karma residues...

I meet my Father, Baba...the ocean, the Shining Star, the benevolent Friend... I am saturated, drowned in His light...in His divine qualities...of Supreme Love...Supreme Bliss...Supreme peace...Supreme Joy. My old negative forces are submerged... the hand of loving Father caresses and soothes my troubled soul...and slowly emerges my real, my original nature of love...peace...bliss.I am filled with contentment...

Now I journey back to the world of action. I am full...overflowing with the power of Truth so that now I can perform actions that are true, that is pure, that can uplift my brothers.

4.9 HELPFUL METHODS FOR THE DAY

Power of thought- As the thought, so is the result. Thoughts create actions, and so spread vibrations and the law of karma will return those vibrations to you. Pure thoughts are the most valuable treasure of one’s life

4.10 STUDY

This lesson of karma may have brought the student great relief, or great happiness, already, but it also provides guidelines for the future for the highest fortune

QUESTIONS

4A.  What is the Law of Karma?

4B.  Who is responsible for our having sorrow or happiness?

4C.  How can a soul erase negative karma?

4D.  How can a soul create a stock of happiness for the future?