Hari
Om
Each 'Choose-day' we will investigate the process by
which we can reassess our activity and interaction with the world of plurality
and become more congruent within our personality.
KINDLE LIFE. We continue exploring points raised by HH Pujya
Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda-ji in the publication of this name. Remember, you
can purchase, (very economically!), the book from Chinmaya
Mission Publications or if you
prefer, the Amazon Link. Thus you can read
Gurudev's words directly and bring your own voice to the discussion.
Chapter
Eleven comes to a subject which many think
they know, but few actually properly understand. THE LAW OF KARMA.
In
many respects it is as simple as 'what goes around comes around'. Accepting the
fact that action executed, every decision taken, must undergo its consequences
whether expected or not, is a little more difficult. Firstly we have to absorb the concept of
vaasana-s. These are the 'programming' of our individual computers, if you
will. For as long as we work on our vaasana instructions, so long we will be
caught up in desires, agitations and the actions resulting from seeking to
quell them. The actions will 'imprint' according to the result obtained, which
in turn leads to affirming existing vaasana-s or creating new ones which will
bring on further action.
It
is the law of cause and effect which governs karma; as scientific as it gets!
Let us look a little closer. Each person is who they are based upon the yield
of past actions. From birth, through to end of life, if actions are of noble
and pure intent that person might be said to be one of dignity or goodness.
Equally, we see others who live with viciousness and immorality and we mark these down as 'bad eggs'. Everyone has a
concept of what is acceptable behaviour and what is not. What drives this is
not only the circumstances around them (which can be seen and easily
'accused'), but also the very nature of each individual, the personality with
which they are born. Hence we can find 'bad eggs' arising from otherwise agreeable
roots and conversely we see giants of virtue coming out of the worst of
circumstances.
Thus
we can conclude that what drives a person's life is not so much the
environment, but how they respond to it
- and this is ascribed to karma. We can look at this and say, 'well that was
their destiny' and leave it at that. How lacking in curiosity would that make
us?!
Karma
is not simply destiny (which has the sense of being written in stone and
therefore nothing can be done about it). It is much more dynamic than this. To
fully understand karma is essential in Vedanta, for it clarifies how it is we
even have come to be reading the philosophy itself. The 'destiny' part of
karmic law is that which is called प्रारब्ध/praarabdha. It is the the 'effect' of the
causative past not just in current life but in all previous existences. It can
be seen that balance has to be brought to bear, deeds answered for, and to this
extent at least, we do have to live out destiny. However, along the way each
jiva (the individualised soul is called this remember!) has the capacity to
climb the spiritual ladder, cancelling out the karmic account and developing ever
greater strength to correct the course of praarabdha. This self-effort is called as पुरुषार्थ/purushaartha (wealth of cosmic man) and this
is the seed of the phrase "Lord helps those who help themselves".
Thus it can be said that the present praarabdha is a result of past
purushaartha. Equally, every action from this moment of understanding can have
purushaartha behind it with the intention of ensuring an improved praarabdha
as we go forward, leading to final liberation (moksha) from the whole cycle.
In
short; what one meets in life is
praarabdha...how one meets it is purushaartha.
We
have the power of our future within ourselves. Through our purushaartha we
really can make a difference to our soul's journey. Whether we choose between
preyas or shreyas [this is where your little workbooks come in handy folks -
remember these are the paths of pleasure or good…] may be written at birth
according to praarabdha, but if we have earned enough karmic brownie points, we
will come to understand that choices can be made to change or improve our
paths. It is not that we can completely wipe praarabdha's slate, but it can be
said that the future is a continuity of the
past, modified with purushartha in the present.
Now
the mix gets a little more complex. Yes we have freedom of choice between
positive or negative actions in terms of our purushaartha; however, those choices are still, to a large
extent, coloured by the depth of our praarabdha. Gurudev gives the excellent example of a boat
on a river. Without an engine (no choice), it must only flow as the river
flows; if we add an engine (purushaartha) we can certainly give the boat an
independence of the river...but for as long as it remains on the river, despite
being more steerable, it is still to some extent governed by the current
already in place; thus if going down river the boat is actually going faster
than it's engine is driving it, but if it is going upriver, it may be battling
to maintain speed. This is what explains
how, even when we have a basically good and well-planned life, we can hit heavy
'back-currents' and we wonder what we did to deserve the strife! We may never know the source of the eddy or
the whirlpool. All we can do is seek to regain balance through purushaartha, titiksha,
shraddha and so on.
We
are, then, a product of our past, but have the ability to be producer for the
future. Praarabdha (law of destiny) applies only to past action and makes of us
victims. Karma (law of consequential action) though, ensures the ability to
create, with a view to quelling praarabdha. The logic behind this is well seen
in present life with things such as education (the more effort put the better
the qualification) and such like; what can take a little more to absorb is that
there are many, many, many lives which contributed to praarabdha and there may
be many more to endure until purushaartha can yield the most positive result of
all - the balancing of our karmic debt and we can sign off the cosmic account.
Further
to the individual karma, there is community karma. We will only touch upon this
here because the subject will arise in various forms throughout Vedantic study.
It is important to note, though, that part of karma is that we are born
wherever it is our praarabdha can best play out in present life… and this means
that very often those with similar cosmic balances will be born in similar
places. This is what gives character to culture and variance in etiquettes and
so on. This is a big concept. Just take
note of it for now.