KARMA – ACTION & REACTION
Thought is an activity that sets certain energy particles into motion in a very subtle form of matter. Combining it with previous karmas forms a specific reaction. Wherever there is action, physical or mental, there would be a reaction. That means that wherever there is a cause, there is an effect. This must be remembered in the context of relative life only – as far as relativity extends, just as far as karma extends.
Karma could be in a very gross form, or it could be in a subtler form. The most important thing to remember is how much of an impression karma leaves on the mind. Many acts can be performed that leave no impression on the mind whatsoever, and when it leaves no impression on the mind, then that karma is non-binding, and that is what we are after.
We want to unbind ourselves from all karmic debts, and by unbinding ourselves, we become boundless. That is how to achieve freedom while we are still living, so we can perform any action we like, yet it becomes non-binding.
The adept who has reached a very high stage of evolution can do anything he likes and would not be affected by the karma he does.
IT BECOMES NON-BINDING
To the ordinary mind, he might seem to be a madman performing acts that ordinarily would be so binding, but he has reached the stage where whatever he does becomes non-binding. The reason is that he has transcended his ego and can stand aside and watch the ego functioning. He has separated himself in this instance as far as relative karma is concerned. He has separated himself from all the actions that man’s ego or personality performs, and he stands aside, watching them. It means that he is non-attached. That is the secret.
Therefore, when a person becomes enlightened, he is called a man who is beyond all laws. He is a law unto himself, which is why the Bible says, “Judge ye not that ye be judged.” That applies mainly to ordinary, average people, and it applies more so to the enlightened man. For whom is there that could understand the enlightened man?
There is a lovely little Zen story which might illustrate this point. Many pupils were sitting around a fire with the master, and the master pulled out a burning piece of coal and jabbed one of the pupils on the arm. Everyone was horrified! Why have you burned the chela? So, the master replies “This man was supposed to be burned alive, and I have done an act that will prevent him from being burned alive. This little burn on his arm will heal in a few days; in the other way, he would have lost his life.” This is just an analogy because nobody can take anyone’s karma away. But it is an analogy to illustrate that it is so difficult to understand the workings of a master. He might perform certain acts to teach. There would be a purpose that you might not understand today, but in a few years, that act will be so well understood that you will realise to yourself, “Oh, is this what was meant!”
THAT I AM THE GITA – WONDERFUL WONDERMENT
This applies to everyone. When I was ten years old and read the Bhagavad Gita, I understood something of it. When I was 20, I understood a bit more; when I was 25, I understood a bit more – it is still the same book. When I read the Bhagavad Gita today, what do I know now? That I am the Gita.
As our consciousness grows and awareness expands, we encompass the entire universe within ourselves. So, who acts? Who is the doer? The big I within yourself remains forever changeless, and the little I, with its millions of little ripples, ripples around, play around. When you reach the stage of non-attachment, then everything seems just a play, and when everything seems a play, how can you be affected by it? When you are not affected by it, you have become non-attached. Functioning from the small ego level, everything is work, but functioning from the big I level, you take the “irk” out of work, and what is left is the “w”, which stands for wonderful wonderment.
DETACHMENT/NON-ATTACHMENT
There is one difference to remember here. There is an excellent difference between detachment and non-attachment. Detachment is when you get so sick and tired of all the problems around you that you build a wall around you and detach yourself from your environment, or you escape to some remote cave. But, when you escape to that remote cave, remember you are taking the world with you. You are not leaving it. You are escaping.
Here is another famous Zen story which most of you must have read. Two Zen monks were going along the road, and they had to cross a river. A young damsel in distress had to cross the river, too. The one monk picks her up and helps her to cross the river. Both monks and this young girl crossed the river, and the monks proceeded on their path. It was a law of this particular monastery that these monks should not touch a woman. The monks walked on for a few hours, and a few hours more, and a few hours more, until they reached their destination. So, the one monk asked, “Brother, you have done something wrong. You touched this woman!” The other monk replies, “I left her there, but you are carrying her around in your mind.” It is a very famous story, and it is gorgeous.
FREEDOM WITHIN BONDAGE
The non-attached man lives for the moment, and no attachment or bondage is carried around with him. Apparently, on the surface level, he might seem bound to you, but he has achieved freedom within bondage, and even bondage has become freedom to him.
When my guru became a monk, he wore ochre robes, and when I visited him a short time ago, he had an ordinary shirt like me and things like that. So, I said, “Swamiji, what happened to the ochre robes?” You know what he tells me? He says, “It is a great stage to reach renunciation, but it is a still greater stage when you develop the strength to renounce renunciation.”
This comes from strength, where you can be in the world and yet not of the world. That is what it means. If you study all the scriptures in the world carefully, they say the same thing over and over again, perhaps in different words at different times according to the needs of the people. Certain things were reported in a certain way so that people of that particular time or age could understand.
DETACHMENT
Detachment means escaping, and it is not evolutionary but rather devolutionary. People are escaping every day here and now. Some people escape into the bottle; some people escape into total licentiousness or escape into drugs. These are all escapes, and going away to some remote cave is also a similar type of escape. One is done with chemicals; the other is performed with another mental chemical. So that is detachment, where you cannot face your problems, where you are unwilling to face your problems, and then you escape from the issues.
NON-ATTACHMENT
Non-attachment is being right in the middle of everything and not being affected. For example, we have two yogis—you have yogis and so-called yogis—who are the greater of the two? The man who sits in a room surrounded by all erotic images. He sits right in the midst of them, goes away into deep meditation, and becomes oblivious to it all. That is the one yogi.
Yogi, number two, goes to a forest where everything is so quiet and peaceful, and all the conditions are conducive to meditation, and he goes into meditation. Who is the more significant?
Yogi number one is more significant. The real yogi is the non-attached man who becomes more simple than simple, more ordinary than ordinary. Many people could pass an enlightened man on the road and would not look around to see, “Who have I passed?” So simple, so ordinary. He might turn up in a beggar’s dress with a begging bowl or drive down the road in a Rolls Royce – yet he is an enlightened man. Who are we to judge? If you want to see the top of a 10-storied building, you have to stand on the top of another 10-storied building. Standing down here, your view of what is up there is distorted.
The non-attached man involves himself in everything around him, yet he is unaffected. If you wish to call it that, no impression is created in his subtle body or mental body.
THE KARMIC WHIRLPOOL
When no impression is created, there is no samskara, for samskara, or the impression, must react in a particular manner to produce an effect. In turn, that effect produces another cause, and the cause produces another impact, so you are in this whirlpool of karma, this karmic whirlpool.
Being in the whirlpool, you are just whirling around. That is why, for example, in Buddhism, they say, “I want to get off the wheel of karma, the wheel of birth and death.” Why do they want to get away from birth and death? – because bondages produce birth and death itself.
THE AVATARAS
An avatar, the Incarnation, takes birth by volition. A particular atmosphere is created in the world that attracts and demands the presence of the Incarnation to bring about balance because nothing can exist in an imbalanced stage. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that when evil rises or becomes abundant, I take birth from age to age to teach, to bring the balance created by this evil.
The forces of nature create a magnetic field whereby the Avatara is attracted, and the Avatara, the eternal wanderer who has never rested, sits on the fence. He can merge away into total Unity, where birth for him is unnecessary, but he is the servant – not of mankind only – but to every existence in this universe. He is the servant, the server, of the entire universe. For a split second, he is in this world – you might call it 70 years – from there, he moves on to another world, and another world, and another world. Wherever he is required, the Avatara is there. He goes. He could have total peace without being bothered and merge away into Unity, but it is his will, his volition, that he takes birth.
We have had Buddhas, Christs, and Krishnas- great statesmen like Krishna.
Buddha was born into a princely family and renounced everything. After renouncing everything, practising extreme austerity, and living the life of a prince, he found the middle way, the way that neither of the extremes is any good—the middle road.
Krishna was born a king. He was a great statesman. He was the negotiator between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. He was instrumental in this great war of Kurukshetra on which the Bhagavad Gita is based.
Christ was a great rebel, the greatest rebel the world has ever produced. He rebelled against all the things that were going wrong at the time. He rebelled against slavery by a foreign kingdom; he rebelled against the laws that were so misinterpreted at that time; he rebelled against all of them: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Romans. The most despised man that lived was that man called Jesus. His people turned against him, yet he would take that suffering upon himself! Now we think he suffered. But did he suffer? It is our viewpoint. To him, that very pain and suffering was a joy. It was a dedication.
The eternal wanderer is always the servant. He does things voluntarily, but it is non-binding to him because he is non-attached. He ate fish; he drank wine; he went to houses of ill repute; he dined with publicans and sinners and was not affected. He was non-attached. That is what man is trying to achieve.
THE NON-ATTACHED MAN
The non-attached man is forever joyful. He might express anger to achieve a purpose. He might go to the temple and throw down the tables of the moneylenders and set free the birds and beasts that were to be killed and sacrificed and show extreme anger, but that was for a purpose.
There is a difference between that anger and the anger that you might have. Your whole being is in that anger – your entire mind, body and soul – that even if you are put under a doctor’s test, your heart will be racing, and your glands will be secreting adrenaline. You are so involved in that anger.
Not the non-attached man! He will slap you on the face now, and five minutes later, he will kiss that very cheek he slapped. He gave you five minutes, ten minutes, a night, two nights, two months to think: “Why was I slapped? What did he tell me? What was the message contained therein?” That is how the teacher teaches. The Avatara’s are non-attached. They are born without attachment. They could never be attached because they were born of their own volition.
Just imagine the Avatara. He has captured the entire universe within himself and then taken the whole universe and brought himself down into this little frame of a body. Imagine the whole universe to be the top of an ice cream cone, and he brings the whole essence of the universe down to the narrow end. That was the suffering of Jesus. That was the suffering of all the Avataras.
Christ was crucified, Krishna was shot with a bow and arrow in his heel, they tried to poison Buddha so many times, and Rama was banished to the jungles for 14 years. Those were not suffering. The real suffering was to bring himself down from that vastness into that littleness, and then, through that littleness, he could communicate with others that are little.
The finest teacher in your kindergarten can only be a good teacher if that teacher can become like the child the teacher is teaching. Then, there is a significant effect: communication. That is why the Avataras, although non-attached, take birth where this communication can take place. That is non-attachment.
EVERYONE CAN BECOME NON-ATTACHED
You do not need to be an avatar to have that non-attachment. He is born that way; that is his job. But everyone can become non-attached. Non-attached because if he learns the art of viewing anything objectively, every thought that passes his mind or goes through his mind. He could step aside for a split second and see them not in his mind but outside his mind as if it is happening on a cinema screen, and then he becomes non-attached. And, with practice, this is perfected. All our problems lie in the fact that we get affected.
Auntie Mary said something two weeks ago, and little Janie is still worried about it. That happened two weeks ago, and Auntie Mary might have forgotten what she said. Dear little Janie got so affected that it still runs through her mind after two weeks. If it were left there, there would be no effects or suffering.
PAIN & PLEASURE
This principle applies to pain and pleasure because one cannot exist without another.
Have fun, and have pleasure. Why not! Every kind of fun is good if it is legal and moral. Have fun, but do not be attached to that pleasure, and do not try to build expectations on that pleasure because expectation is the seed of disappointment. ‘
You go to a restaurant this afternoon, and the cook might have been in a good mood. He was in form and prepared a beautiful meal, which you thoroughly enjoyed. Two weeks later, you return to the same restaurant expecting, “Ah, two weeks ago, it was such a fabulous dinner, and I am looking forward to another fabulous dinner.” While driving there, your mouth is watering, but the cook might be off form that day, and the dinner is lousy – you would feel disappointed and let down. If you did not have expectations in the first place, you would not feel let down.
Let things happen for the sake of it happening. Everything is growing, growing, growing; everything is perpetuating itself. Allow it to perpetuate – be the observer. That is the start when you become the observer, and as awareness expands, your observation could develop where you stand aside. You watch the entire universe unfolding in its own creative intelligence and creative power all the time. Some people call it “Cosmic Consciousness,” where you are apart from the universe and, being apart, you can observe the entire universe.
But that is not where non-attachment leads you only. From that non-attachment, a magnetic force forms between you and the universe. From non-attachment, in a spiral form, you reach an attachment. This attachment is a different kind of attachment. It is an attachment of non-attachment. When this magnetic field develops between the entire universe and you, standing apart, an attraction takes place. The Heart expands, the Heart develops, and great Love is felt. The first has been in a coldness because you are a part of that Cosmic Consciousness. You are conscious of the Cosmos; therefore, it is Cosmic Consciousness. There are two; there is duality.
From the duality of non-attachment, you proceed further where an attachment occurs and start falling in love with the universe. That very attachment that takes place now on a higher level of the spiral brings in you that devotion, that love, that entire self-sacrifice, that dedication. Then that is called God Consciousness because that whole universe has become divine to you, and a magnetic pull draws you nearer and nearer in a worshipful manner to the Divine.
GOD CONSCIOUSNESS
A great Indian poetess who lived 400 years ago wrote a lovely poem. The gist of the poem is this: “Oh, Lord, I do not want Nirvana; I do not want to merge into Unity Consciousness. But let me be born again and again so that I could worship at Thy feet.”
You are conscious of that mighty Force, the all-mighty Power, Divinity, where you still want to remain apart and be the servant; dedicate yourself to that total devotion and love without motivation, just for the sake of that love. Then, you have reached God’s Consciousness, and in this stage, you have your choice: “What shall I do from here? Do I want to merge away into that which has created this deep magnetism, this deep magnetic attraction?” And when you feel you want to merge away, the next step comes automatically, and you merge away in all that exists. That is Unity Consciousness.
WHEN YOU ARE NON-ATTACHED, NOTHING CAN HURT YOU
You see how you start from the ordinary karmic level, objectifying every karma, viewing it as if it is apart from you. By viewing it, objectifying every karma, you slowly but surely, gradually become non-attached to every action. When you become non-attached to all of your activity, then you experience great peace within yourself. You experience great relaxation within yourself. Your awareness expands. Your Heart palpitates with Love, Love, and Love – because you are non-attached. Nothing can hurt you.
Things hurt you because you are attached to things. You have a beautiful diamond ring to which you are connected. Let us say you should lose it. You feel so hurt. Because you are attached to it, your mind will always go on to that diamond ring, “Oh, I have lost my ring, I have lost my ring, I have lost my ring”. Yet that diamond is none better than a piece of glass. It might be worth more while you are living, but I would like you to take that piece of glass with you when you leave this body.
So where is the value of it? It has no value. You are attaching importance to all your possessions because you feel insecure. You think that all these possessions that you have is providing you security. It is making you more and more and more insecure because it is creating in you a greater and greater attachment. And because of greater and greater attachment, you are in this whirlpool of karma, cause and effect.
So here we start objectifying. In this world, people are so attached to little things. They are even connected to little compliments. A person does a deed and then says, “Oh, that chap never even had the decency to thank me!” You have done your deed. You do your deed for the sake of doing your deed. Finish! Then you have done it. The past is gone!
LEARN TO OBJECTIFYING
“Mull over it, think about it, and then put it into practice.” Learn to objectify; it is not so difficult. Any thought that comes up, any emotion that comes up can be viewed as apart from yourself. With a bit of practice, you become very successful at it. Once the objectification occurs, it is not overnight or immediate, but it becomes much easier and quicker if you regularly do your spiritual practices. Then, you develop a greater and greater sense of non-attachment from that objectification of your thoughts. As you develop a greater and greater sense of non-attachment, nothing will change in the world.
The same old Auntie Mary will be there, and you, Janie, are still there – but you will not be hurt. That is the difference. You have changed, but the world has not changed. This world will remain as it is for another couple of thousand years and thousands and thousands of years hereafter. The world was the same 2.000 years ago. People have the same faults and frailties, and for another 2.000 years, the world will still be the same. However, the individual can change where nothing affects; nothing can hurt. And when nothing can break, remember, you cannot remain a vacuum. It has to be filled with something. If no pain is left, it is filled with its opposite: pleasure and joy.
YOU ARE ALWAYS FULFILLED
You cannot be empty. You are always filled – all the time. You are always fulfilled. It is just the required recognition, the cognition of that fulfilment. That is all that there is that needs to happen to man.
Nothing can remain a vacuum. We remove negativity by putting in positivity. If you have a jar of dirty water, you need to put it under the tap. Let the tap run; eventually, all the dirty water will be gone, and that jar will be filled with clean water. But let the tap run; put on the tap! No one is going to switch on the tap for you. You have to do it. That is your little, minute contribution to this great happiness.
Man has to do so little, and we think we must do so much – everything is done for you. The very oxygen in the air that makes you live and breathe is there for you without you doing anything. The very food grows there without you doing anything.
You know the bird’s story in the air; it finds its worm, and the lily grows in the field, but all of King Solomon’s wealth could never produce the beauty of that lily. It is all there; it is all done. What are you worrying about? I do not know!
Yes. It is all there. There is a way to gain this realisation. It is to acquire this refinement by spiritual practices, regularly done, which refines you to the extent where this great awareness dawns upon you. You are not creating this awareness either; it is dawning upon you – also for nothing. You only have to do that little thing.
LET US FACE OURSELVES
If we face ourselves – and that is the message I am bringing to this world: let us face ourselves! The primary purpose of all these meditational practices allocated to you is to make you face yourself. Once that is done, the integrative process starts, where the mind, body, and spirit function harmoniously. And that harmony leads you to non-attachment, where karma no longer becomes binding to you. You are karma-less.
The karma-less person who has achieved this is like a spinning top. The top has been set in motion, and when it reaches its peak, it seems still, yet it is in wondrous motion. That is what happens to life. You are always in motion, yet you are so still. Have you seen the top spinning at high speed? It seems to be standing still, yet all the motion is there. That is where you reach. That very motion that used to rock you and used to make you feel drunk and dizzy, that same motion produces stillness in you. It is to heighten the speed and vibrations that you do by meditation.
When these vibrations are heightened, and you find that stillness, you have reached the peak, and then you only wait for the body to fall off whenever it gets tired or when the organs are worn out. You have achieved your goal in life. Then, some things would happen when the top is spinning off. The top is still again, but a different kind of stillness: the stillness found at the peak of evolution and the stillness found where no evolution is necessary – no more spinning is necessary.
That is how one frees oneself from karmic ties. First, objectification leads to non-attachment. Non-attachment leads to happiness because you are not affected; when you are not, you are not creating a cause. When no cause is made, it cannot produce another effect; if another effect is not produced, another reason that could arise from there cannot be created again. That is the purpose of life. From stillness, we came, and to stillness, we returned. That is all: to become still. “Be still and know that I am God.” That passage is so beautiful! And do you know how far away it is? So close, so very close. You are standing on the brink of it.
It is like the man standing beside a river and being thirsty – this beautiful river filled with water for you to drink. You are part of that river, for the very essence of that river is within you. And there is water here, there, everywhere – for you too are water. Even science tells you that 80% of your body is nothing else but water.
That is the secret of karma and karma yoga. That is the secret of joy, where you go beyond pleasure and pain and emerge untouched in the land of bliss – like the beautiful lotus growing in mud, yet so pure. We go beyond the mud of our karmas, for good and bad karmas are both tying, they are both binding. We go beyond them, both good and bad. Good karma will give you some more fun and more pleasure. But the greater pleasure you feel, the more significant pain you are going to feel. The more sensitive you become to one thing, the more sensitive you become to its opposite. That is how the human mind works.
There is a little story about Milarepa; he said, “When I was a young boy, I used to do black deeds. When I grew up and gained understanding, I did white deeds, good deeds. Now, I do neither.” He is trying to say that he has gone beyond the law of opposites. That is where karma and the process of evolution are leading you. You are forced in that direction even if you are unwilling to be led. The only difference is this: if you can achieve it in this lifetime, why wait for another 200 million lifetimes and go through that mincer of pain all the time when release is here and now in this lifetime?
That is the basis of karma, and it is because of karma that a person has to be born again and again and again. And that we want to be free from where birth and death become the same thing to us. For life is but death, and death is, but another birth, and you can only realise this if you can stand apart from it – in the world, but not of the world – and enjoy it all.
I still like my ice creams. I still want a nicely cooked meal. Why not? Enjoy! Develop the senses to its highest pitch and enjoy it all. You do not need to become ascetics. What for? They are screwy!
Therefore, I always say that I am a guru for the householder. How can we find self-realisation and self-integration by living in this world as a householder and a homemaker? Wife and children and friends and all the glory that be! Those of us doing our practices regularly will find in a not so far away distant future that every action we perform is but an offering, a dedication. So, if you need bread, you have got to have bread. Even gurus eat, so why do you not eat? But everything is a dedication, and what is needed comes to you. Some effort is required, though.
Do you now understand how karmic laws work?
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1978 – 15
