Hari
OM
Story-day is for cultural exploration, puraanas and
parables and finding out about leading lights in spiritual philosophy.
Last week we read the first half of a discussion by
Gurudev on the matter of Karma versus Prarabdha. Today, the conclusion.
The mind
is made up of a soft matter, as it were. As each thought passes through it, an
‘impression’ is left, on the mind-stuff like a scratch and when similar
thoughts are repeated, it deepens into a canal. Every subsequent thought wave
has got a tendency to flow through that ready-made thought-canal. Thus, if the
impression or the canal made is of good thought-waves, then a good character is
maintained and strengthened by the subsequent thought-waves flowing
irresistibly in that direction.
Let us
take an example and examine the working of the mind. If you have got a tendency
to get angry and want to nut out that tendency you should first of all feel
sorrowful or repentant about it. Then you will have already suppressed the
anger to some extent. Of course, pent-up anger will burst forth at a later date
if you merely suppress it. But, if you be intelligent, you should divert that
anger-energy into some other profitable direction. You should not succumb to
the anger-weakness, meekly saying, “It is my Prarabdha.”
Carve out
a new canal in your mind with repeated good thought-waves. Repeat to yourself,
‘I love all - I am very, very tolerant.’ Go on repeating the self-suggestive
thoughts, ‘I am kind, I will never get angry, I am tolerant,’ etc., and in a
very short time, you will observe that you have no anger at all in your mental
make-up. First of all, you should cognise things. Be aware of your weakness. Be
fully aware of them. Man is his mind. He is the very composition of his mind.
When one performs some actions, repeatedly, one’s mind gets fixed with certain
impressions. It is in a world of reactions related to the outer
world-of-objects that we live. The quality of one’s experiences depends upon
the quality of the mind which one brings up to undergo the experience. The
mind, being what it is, is ordered and set by the various impressions, it has
gathered in its different transactions in Life. Thus, when we control and
chasten the motives and thoughts in the mind, we purify it. Each moment of our
life, we are not only living the fruits of past actions but also creating
those for tomorrow. Each moment we are preparing ourselves for the lives yet to
come. Prarabdha is caused by the actions done in the past. It is only the very
self-effort of the past. So, if our Prarabdha be a sorrowful one now, let us do
such acts today so that we can now determine or order a happier life for us in
the future.
The Law of
Destiny does not explain to us how, even while we live the preordained and
Prarabdha-controlled pattern of circumstances, we can have in the immediate
moments, a freedom to create afresh. This idea is not explained in the Law of
Destiny. So it shatters our morale, and a soul-killing defeatist mentality
comes to choke us. It takes away the fire, the enthusiasm, the grit in Man and
makes him a dull, inactive individual, a mere dumb animal.
A happier
morrow is built up only when we live today a Life Divine. Religion has been
asking us to entertain and live such values of life so that while living them,
we shall be creating an ordered life of fuller joys for the morrow. Not only in
this life but also in the next life we shall be able to enjoy the fruits of our
Divine actions. Use the main righteous path; avoid the by-lanes, the narrow,
thorny, unrighteous path. We must start and constantly keep on to the right
path, to reach the Supreme, our Goal. If our course is in the right direction,
then we shall certainly reach in time, our destination, the Supreme.
Yet another way of looking at it and coming to the same conclusion
is by reviewing life in the light of Time-flow, wherein the future, through the
present, is ever becoming the past. Anything that is now in the future must in
time arrive to become the present—and erelong should pass on to be the past.
We have
already said that human intellect cannot rest without seeking the cause of
things. This causation-hunting-urge in us is not generally investigated
seriously and thoroughly. If we do so, we shall discover certain facts in it
which shall reveal to us the inner meaning and the deeper significances of the
Law of Karma.
From the
seed the tree comes: the seed is the cause, and the tree is the effect. From
cotton, the cloth is made: cotton is the cause, and cloth is the effect. Now, in
all conceivable examples the cause is, like the father of a child, anterior,
and the effect, like the child born, posterior, with reference to time: father
was in existence before the son was born. Cause is thus that which was, and the
effect is that which is. The past causes the present; the present will,
therefore, cause the future!
In short, it is said that the future is not a mystery—an unknown miracle that man must wait for
its stunning revelations. The past modified in the present alone is the future.
The things to come are not ordered by a mere continuity of the past it can
never be. This freedom to modify the past, and thereby create a future, for the
better or worse, is Purushaartha: self-effort.
To illustrate: if down a river, running at 2 miles an hour, a log is
floating, then it will also move at the same speed at which the river flows.
But supposing, the log is fitted with a motor and manned by an intelligent
driver; the log will have an independent movement of itself—no doubt, conditioned by the flow of the
river. When the speedometer shows 10 miles an hour, the log will move 12 miles
in an hour down the river, and only 8 miles an hour, if it is moving upstream.
The flow of the river will always be there; but due to the machine and the
intelligence of the driver, the log has developed a limited freedom’ of movement now. Similarly, the plant and
the animal kingdoms move, directed and guided by their natural instincts and
mere impulses. But on reaching the human level, man acquires his reasoning
capacity and is a captain in his discriminative faculty. Using these two, he
can steer the ship of his life safely to his destination—the Goal, the Ideal.
Viewed
carefully, the present in itself has no existence; it is a mingling of the past
and the future…the passage of the future to the past is the present. The living
present is at once the tomb of the past and the womb of the future. This
tomb-womb present has roots going deep into the past and branches spreading
around everywhere into the future. To consider, therefore, that the present is
but a product of the past is undignified. To think that
the future is but a product of the present is unintelligent. There is no
slavery; nor is there full freedom. There is limited freedom, which, if
intelligently used, can redeem us from all entanglements.
Thus, the Law of Karma, when correctly understood, is the greatest
force of vitality in Indian philosophy. It makes us the architects of our own
future. We are not helpless pawns in the hands of a mighty tyrant - God - who, it is believed, has created us
weak, and fearful to lead our lives of limitations and pains. If we are weak
or sorrowful, it is all because of our own willful actions. In our ignorance, we
in the past had pursued certain negative values of life, and their fruits have
come up now to give us the pattern of circumstances we are living today.
Never
mind. Take heart. By living rightly today, the Divine values of love, kindness,
tolerance, mercy, etc., we shall order a nobler pattern for our future. By
careful self-policing, detect the wrong tendencies in us. Eliminate them
through constant and willful effort. Develop Positivity and thus come to be the
God of your own future life. Be a GOD!
TODAY WE MARK THE MAHASAMADHI OF
HH PARAMAPUJYA GURUDEV SWAMI CHINMAYANDA-JI
HIS PRESENCE IS EVER WITH US!
ॐ श्री गुरुनात महराजकि जै !!!