A look at Karma

From the very beginning, humanity has been faced with the problem of death and has, therefore, pondered over the mystery of life and death. According to the yoga teachings, we are born to work out our karma. As we sow, so do we reap.

Karma binds us, but it can also set us free. Karma is bondage, as long as we cling to the transient world of the senses. Once we turn to the infinite, karma will set us free.

When we observe the world around us, we find that some people are born rich, healthy and intelligent while others are born poor, ignorant and even diseased. The Rishies ponder over this apparent injustice and questioned the existence of an all-merciful benevolent God.

But it is absurd to blame God for our self-inflicted miseries and unhappiness. Few of us follow the teachings of scriptures in thought, word and deed?

We ourselves become the cause of miseries, when we violate the laws of God. God merely looks on, letting His laws measure out justice. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita:"As the Lord, I am equally present in all beings; there is none neither hateful nor dear to me."

God remains detached in all beings as the Atman. Having given human beings free will, He lets us write our own destiny. We do so and become bound by the chain of karma, which we slowly and painfully have to work out from birth to birth.

If there was no prior birth and if every effect has a cause behind it, then what is the cause behind the person who is born physically handicapped or mentally challenged? It is the past actions of our prior birth that makes us what we are and what we do.

Biologists propose the theory of heredity and claim that it satisfactorily explains human existence. If heredity is all there is, how can one account for the fact that the offspring of the same parents exhibit such a marked difference in temperament, character, intelligence etc.? Similarly, the children of the same parents brought up in the same environment do not possess identical personalities.

Some attribute the birth of a genius or mentally challenged to chance or accident of birth´. But there is no such thing as change in the universe. Everything in the universe is well regulated and follows laws. There is nothing accidental in this world. We see this all around us. Is it just change that makes the apple fall to the ground? Ignorance of a fact does not mean that it does not happen. According to the teachings of yoga, it is the law of karma that explains why each individual is what he or she is.

Nothing happens without a cause. Effect and cause correspond to each other. Neither heredity nor environment, nor even their interaction, can fully explain the facts of life. A physical process can produce only a physical effect, nothing more.

Only when a person understands what he is and why he is what he is, can he change his life and destiny. By knowing his karma, he can master it.

Karma means action, both physical and mental. Every action leaves its impression in the subconscious mind and has either a positive or negative effect on the life of a person. The impressions of the actions of past lives are stored in the super consciousness and germinate under a suitable environment. These constitute one’s inner environment, which along with the outer environment governs person´s actions.

Karma is divided into three categories:

Karma of our past lives that has not yet come into expression, karmas of our past lives that determines our present life and karma we are accumulating in this life that will manifest in the future.

Once a person loses his ego and ceases to identify himself with his action, to that person, actions will no longer be binding. Thus, the solution is not inertia but detachment and ultimately realizing who the doer is. 

The life of a Kriya Yogi is not guided by past actions, but by the direction of his inner Self.

Brahman/Ishvara

It is extremely difficult for many people to grasp the unity in diversity and the diversity in unity. This is especially seen in the idea of the Trinity, which is to be found in some form in just about every religion.

When reading the different Christian interpretations about the Trinity, we come to the conclusion, that there exists a lot of confusion and every time theologians attempt to make the idea clearer, it becomes even more obscured.

For some reason, theologians find it difficult to get the idea of a single absolute unity that manifests in a threefold manner. One problem is their insistence that there are three “persons” in the Godhead. They seem to resent the suggestion that the Three are really three aspects or manifestations of the Divine, or three ways in which the Absolute relates to relative existence and all sentient beings that are evolving within the cosmos.

In ancient India the sages clearly understood and expressed the truth that God is Om Tat Sat: divine creative intelligent energy, divine guiding intelligence within that energy, and primal intelligence that include those two.

"Tat" means ‘that’; it also refers to God only.

"Sat" means ‘truth’ & God is truth which is everlasting and unchanging.

So "Om Tat Sat" means; what is everlasting and unchanging is God, who is infinite Existence - Consciousness Bliss is denoted by Om. Within Om is everything. Om contains all. Om is all, Om is present everywhere, like light.

The Bible which refers to "Om" as "Word":

 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." which can be expressed "In the beginning was the Om, and the Om was with God, and the Om was God."

In Christianity Trinity is referred to as, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which corresponds to the above Sat, Tat, Om. Father corresponds to Sat, Son, corresponds to Tat and Holy Spirit corresponds to Om.

This threefold nature of God is beautifully related in his book "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda.

Sat or Father aspect of God is one who lives beyond this vibratory creation of ours.

"Tat" or "Son or Christ Consciousness" aspect of God is one who lives within this vibratory creation and is present

everywhere within space or vibratory creation and is called omnipresent God.

The Om or Holy Ghost aspect of God is the witness of this Tat or Son or Christ Consciousness aspect of God.

This Om is the invisible divine power, the only doer, the sole causative and activating force that upholds all creation through vibration. Om, the Word is the creative vibration that externalizes all creation.

Brahman as Ishvara in Yoga

The One Absolute, Impersonal Existence, together with his inscrutable Maya, appears as the divine Lord Ishvara or the personal God. By his divine power he holds dominion over all the worlds. At the periods of creation and dissolution of the universe, he alone exists.

Brahman always exists and Brahman is always one, never two. But Brahman can appear as many, Together with his inscrutable Maya. It is through Maya, the creative power of Brahman, that Brahman appears as many. Maya is as incomprehensible to the limited human mind as Brahman Itself, for Maya is Brahman, otherwise it could not exist.

When we get the seeming duality of Brahman and Maya we immediately get the appearance of Brahman as Ishvara, the Lord, and the personal God.

Brahman is without any qualities or traits, but Ishvara possessing innumerable qualities. So although we cannot conceive of Brahman, we can know Ishvara, even though we cannot comprehend His total being.

Ishvara, as an emanation of Brahman and arises as the first step or first born in creation.

At dissolution of the universes He merges into the bosom of the Father and only Brahman remains.

It is Ishvara who creates, sustains, and dissolves the universes, and this all takes place within Him as His creative thought, the Cosmic Dream.

Ishvara is Consciousness Itself. And in this capacity omniscient and omnipresence, He interacts with all beings. Those who wish, can enter into an intimate relationship and communication with Him, He is father, mother, brother, sister, and friend.

We have presented the triune nature of God in Christian and Yoga terms and explained the Existence of God as transcendent Reality and its first expression, which in Yoga is called Ishvara and trust that it will bring greater clarity to otherwise confusing issues.

THE MYSTERY OF LIFE AND DEATH a yoga perspective.

The problem of death is not really a mystery. The truth is that there is no difference between life and death. Nothing is actually dead. Just as atoms in inanimate matter, like metals, are in continuous motion and rapid vibration, so similarly, the atoms in the flesh of a corpse are in continuous motion and rapid vibration.

Different forms of matter are the manifestation of the same life force, just as ice, water, snow and steam are the different manifestations of the same substance.

At birth something enters the world, while at death something departs. This something is the theme of all religions and they have attempted to probe it and have come up with certain answers. People are immensely interested in this `something´. The actions of prior births produce the character of individuals, leading to new actions that in turn help further evolution. This process ends in liberation, the destiny of all living beings. A person is born in accordance with his karma; the subtle body enters the womb of the mother and proceeds to manufacture the gross body. At the appropriate time, the baby is born.

The individual passes through the various stages of life and gathers the experience and impressions of its action in the subconscious. As soon as the karma that had caused the birth is exhausted, the astral body is separated from the gross body. This phenomenon is called death. In reality, however, it is only the separation of the two bodies.

The indications of life and death are the presence or absence of the prana the vital air commonly called breath. The absence of the prana stops the functioning of the heart. Thus, when the breathing and heart beating stop, the person dies. However, a realized yogi can consciously control these two and remain in a state of absolute tranquility or samadhi. He gains control over life and death, which is the means to enlightenment. When the yogi is no longer dependent upon the breath and the heart for his existence, then a higher knowledge will move upon him. He no longer fears death, as death for him means freedom from bondage - liberation.

At death, the embodied Self moves from one place to another. Death itself is either painful or peaceful according to the karma of the individual. If the individual has attained the state of conscious separation of the Self from the Body during his lifetime, death holds no pain for him. He will have foreknowledge of the time when his karma is to be exhausted. When the time comes, he consciously leaves the world. This can be achieved only by the regular and faithful practice of meditation.

Death is not the end of an individual, just as birth is not the beginning. What then is death? Death means that the Self, along with the subtle body which is comprised of the mind with all its impressions, leaves the gross body. These impressions become the seeds of future birth. It is mostly the last thought of an individual that decides his future birth. The last thoughts are molded by the predominant desires of his life. Therefore, desires are the root of birth and death. By destroying desire, one strikes at the root of karma and escapes from the cycle of birth and death.

This, however, is possible only by sincere meditation. The Gita clearly says," He who gives up all desires and moves free from all attachment, egoism and thirst for enjoyment attains peace." Such is the stage of a God-realized soul. Having reached this stage, he has overcome delusion; remaining established in this stage, even at the last moment, he attains the bliss of Brahman (God). When an individual realizes the immortality of the Self, he attains liberation and the cycle of birth and death stops for him. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each individual to attain liberation with the grace of God and liberated ones.

As God is infinite, the embodied souls (jivas), according to the yoga scriptures, are also infinite.

When one has attained human birth he should act sensibly, using discrimination, to know the will of God. Then, by the practice of meditation, one can develop intuition and quicken his evolution toward liberation in one birth.

Mystery of death - Yoga Concept

Coming and going is all pure delusion. The soul never comes nor goes. Where is the place to which it shall go, when all space is in the soul? When shall be the time for entering and departing, when all time is in the soul?

The earth moves, causing the illusion of the movement of the sun; but the sun does not move. So Prakriti, or Maya, or Nature, is moving, changing, unfolding veil after veil, turning over leaf after leaf of this grand book- while the witnessing soul drinks in knowledge, unmoved, unchanged.

All souls that ever have been, are, or shall be, are all in the present tense…Because the idea of space does not occur in the soul, therefore all that were ours, are ours, and will be ours, are always with us. We are in them. They are in us…

Nature, body, matter moves on, creating the illusion that the soul is moving. Thus we find at last that that instinct (or inspiration?) which men of every race, whether high or low, have had to feel, vie the presence of the departed about them, is true intellectually also.

The whole secret is, then, that our father has given up the old garment he was wearing, and is standing where he was through all eternity.  Will he manifest another such garment in this or any other world? I sincerely pray that he may not, until he does so in full consciousness.

I pray that none may be dragged any whither by the unseen power of his own past actions.

I pray that all may be free, that is to say, may know that they are free. And if they are to dream again, let us pray that their dreams be all of peace and bliss

Any part of the Self and Cosmos is Immortal consciousness, which are constantly undergoing the process of transformation from invisible to visible and visible to invisible existence.

If a person is unaware when their visible form is transformed into invisible existence, they develop great fear and refer to this disappearing state as death. In reality, the concept of death is due to ignorance and the inability to experience the invisible state of our existence. Through the practice of Yoga, we experience and realize oneness with the visible and invisible state of the Self and are capable of controlling them according to need. In this state, the fear of death disappears and a person realizes that there is no death.