Understanding Law of Karma

What are most of us doing in between Birth and Death - paying off our karmic debts, creating more karma and thereby ensuring that we get reborn again. Is this what life is all about. What is the difference between an animal and a human being. Persons seeking moksha are those who are disgusted of being caught in the cycle of birth and death and want to get out of it. We have to bear the fruit of all our actions good or bad. Even if we do all good work, we have to take rebirth to enjoy its fruits. Now that most of us in this spiritual path, know that as a soul we are eternal and cannot be destroyed, we do not end up in some trash after we die, we continue to live on in some form or the other, therefore, we have to be clear what we want after our present life - another life?(of what kind?) or enough is enough? In case we choose the first option we should know that the life between birth and death is determined by our karmas. In the later option, we need to know ways to erase our past karmic accounts and stop creating new ones with mind focussed in one final direction. As per religious scriptures, this kind of desire is over and above material desires. Lord helps to fulfil this desire provided we take the first step. In either case, understanding of the Karmic law is must because obedience to this law and using it intelligently holds the key to our future life.

How Knowledge of Karmic Laws helps us - Knowledge of Laws of Karma makes us realise that everything happening around us is not arbitrary, nothing is happening by chance.. Each and every event of our life, is due to the operation of certain natural laws, the Karmic Laws being one of them. Therefore knowledge of these laws is necessary to place our future under our control. It is simple, once we understand the law, we are equipped to use it for our advantage. This use of laws will be dependent on the amount of knowledge we have about these laws. All laws of nature are expressions of the divine nature, and we have to learn to live and move within them. Otherwise they move us as per their nature. We cannot stop working of these laws by any force. These are certain preset conditions, once we know them, we gradually learn to master them and work according to forces of nature and get the desired results accordingly. Otherwise we remain in control of these laws and move around as puppets.

There are natural laws and there are artificial laws. Artificial laws are local, variable and may have a penalty that can be escaped. These are man-made, could be enforced legally. Man likes to work within laws set by him since ancient times. Earlier Kings made laws and now we have Governments making laws which are to be obeyed in order to live in the society. However, even the King and the Government too have to in turn abide by certain higher mental and moral law, the law which acts automatically and is in nature of things as are the laws of electricity or law of gravitation which man has understood well and has learnt to use to his own advantage.

Karma is second most important universal natural law after the Law of reincarnation. Past life regressions and NDEs recorded by modern doctors are a proof of working of this law. Just because you cannot see it, it does not mean that it does not exist. We all have mobiles, laptops, satellites doing so much for us and their mode of operation is through signals. We know there are signals but have we seen them???? But they are there for sure and are connecting all of us. A mobile in my pocket receives a signal and I get a call. There is definitely an invisible world operating around us. We are mostly concentrating on visible world and what can be proved in a laboratory. Law of Karma solves mystery of rebirth and reincarnation. Karmas have a direct effect on our mind and consciousness. If we understand it well, it refines our intelligence which we can use to create our own destiny instead of becoming a mere product of destiny. Morever, it increases our faith, provides us security and makes us fearless. To know and believe that everything around us is working in order is a relief to human mind which is mostly full of doubts so far as his future is concerned.

Karmic law is a Natural Law. Natural law is a sequence of conditions, such a condition being present, such another condition will invariably follow. If you want to bring about the second condition you must find or make first condition and then the second will follow as an invariable consequence. These sequences vary when left to themselves, but if a new condition is introduced the succeeding condition will be altered. The first condition is called the Cause and the resultant second condition is called the effect. Karma is law of cause and effect. It is a natural law of justice. A person may escape getting penalty under the Artificial man made law but he cannot escape from the effect of cause it set into motion knowingly or unknowingly. Whether you put your hand in fire knowingly or unknowingly, it will surely burn your hand. So is this law. And as they say it, ignorance of law is no excuse.

Yes, natural laws are eternal, changeless, undying, everlasting, unbreakable and existing in the nature of things. As we learnt to reckon with law of gravitation similarly we have to learn to reckon with Law of Karma. And Nature can be won over only by obeying to it. It needs to be understood that people on earth may not be aware of each and every karma of a human being. But there is a natural universal force which keeps track of every thought, word and activity of each and every individual on earth. Some say it is Self judging Self and then deciding what action to be taken to pay off karmic debts in the next reincarnation. Thus, whether we are judging ourselves or some natural force is judging us, a man can control his own future in proportion to the amount of knowledge he has about the working of this law.

It is not so simple to understand the main concept of karma, 'As a man soweth, so shall he also reap'. One has to go deeper into its meaning. Karmic laws do not mean an eye for an eye always. Newton's third law of motion states that to every action there is equal and opposite reaction. Similarly, this law works on principle of Cause and Effect. Once a man sets a cause in motion, it will bring back its matching effect eventually. If you put your hand into a running fan, it will cause injury irrespective of whether you did it knowingly or unknowingly. If you helped someone you will get back the result sooner or later, though not necessarily from the same source. The result 'effect' will be as per the intention with which you 'caused' help to someone

It is not Punishment - The word Karma sounds like a punishment...because first thought that comes to mind is of fear. That I will get back what I have given out and as a human we know we have given out many negativities around us. We may have hidden our fears, insecurities and low opinion of self from the world but we cannot hide them from ourselves. And most of the human beings do not have good opinion about themselves and they love everything in the world but themselves. Inwardly, all are insecure and fearful despite being a huge success outwardly. Most of us have no relation at all with our own self. We do not have time to interact with ourselves...to check out what is going on inside us and what we really want. We are so very busy in life.

We as a human being give out so many things to the world. Some say Karma is interaction of our inner world with the outside world. Simply speaking Karma..it means action. Action of what? Of everything...our thoughts (yes thoughts, intentions), words and activities. Thought is the foundation of it all. It is said that about 70,000 thoughts cross our mind in a day and we do not remember most of them. However, some thoughts do catch our attention. Negative or positive, if we linger longer on few these thoughts, it persists and changes our attitude accordingly and then inspires us to take necessary steps to accomplish the same. Once desired result is obtained, we find mind dwelling on another thought. when our mind is dwelling on so many thoughts simultaneously it creates stress and if desired results are not obtained the result is horrendous. Most of us do not realise the importance of monitoring our thoughts. Some thoughts we cannot see because we do not want to see them or acknowledge them. They are not gone. These thoughts get stored in our subconscious mind. For example a smoker reads the warning on cigarette pack but he doesnot want to see or acknowledge it. Where does that go....It is stored inside his mind and keeps making him guilty and produce 'not feeling good' kind of feeling within him on and off. Now this needs to be dealt with by the smoker. Brushing away the dust under the carpet doesnot help in wrong run. We need to do inner cleaning everyday but we avoid. Some of us won't even think in terms of inner cleaning because our vision is so badly covered that we feel that none knows meaning of 'morally right' better than us.

Swami Vivekananda has said that it is very difficult to live with a clear conscience. If anyone has ever lived with a clear conscience throughout his life than that person is the most successful person in the world in spiritual terms.

Each of our thoughts has energy and the moment we think, we start giving out vibrations in the atmosphere around us and draw a response from the Universe. If we continue to think same thoughts again and again and that too intensely and with emotions, the outcome manifests itself sooner or later...this lifetime or next lifetime...but could be spoken or unspoken, conscious or unconscious.

We do not abuse a person openly but if there is an intention/thought of doing so in our mind, then it is karma. We are sowing a seed and if we continue to abuse this person mentally in our mind and not conveying it thinking ourselves as holy or victim (since the person holds a strong position in our life and we are not able to retaliate) we are mistaken. Karmic laws, like any other laws are real, existing and natural. Newton found them way back when he said 'to every action there is equal and opposite reaction'. How it works? Today A buys some food for B in order to help him. B will do it for someone else, who will do it for another....and one day someone will buy some food for A to help him out. It may happen in few hours or months or lifetimes, but it will happen. A will get back what he gave out.

Karma is what is actually going on inside us and not what we am doing outside. 'Why' we are doing something is more important and relevant in karmic laws than 'What' we are doing. In karmic philosophy our outwardly activities are of least importance. The most important thing is our inner intentions and reasons of thinking, speaking or doing something. We get results based on our real intentions behind any of our actions - thoughts, words or activities. If a mother is feeding her baby thinking in her mind that 'today I am taking care of you, tomorrow you take care of me' then she is sowing a negative karma. This is not karma of service and love to baby but karma of selfishness. Many parents hit out at their small children in name of discipline without realising that they were hitting out knowing fully well that the small child is dependent on them and is unable to retaliate. The same child when grows up rebels against his parents because now he is in a position to retaliate. We normally do not hit out at person who is stronger than us, isn't, then why a child? No wonder we have elders complaining that their children do not take care of them in old age. It is result of karmic seeds sown by them. If a donation is made with the intention of getting publicity, the publicity will be got but it will be much lesser compared to result of what the person had got if the donation was made with pure heart with the intention of help. You give our help you get back help. Not necessarily from same person but from someone else, whom the Lord chooses (who owes you from some past karmic account). This is called Cause and Effect.

The karmic laws are always precise and unpartial. However there is time gap between cause and effect. For example, we plant different variety of seeds, some of them give fruit immediately, some years later and some wither away. The food of these seeds are our true intentions. We may cheat the world but we cannot cheat forces enforcing karmic laws. A Hitler will have to pay for his 'wrong intentions' this is ensured by karmic laws. None is spared. Haven't we seen good people suffering in life. It is their time to endure effect of the causes they set in force. Tomorrow it could be our time to endure the effect. Therefore we should not look down upon people who seem to be going through bad times because today it is their day, tomorrow it would be ours. To err is human and we all have made many mistakes knowingly and unknowingly. So many times we don't even realise that we have hurt someone simply because we are looking at the situation from our point of view. We do not check our intentions. Mostly we are saying and doing things as per prevalent fashion, social customs and traditions. People with strong conscience know it in their heart that they have done something which they should not have but they say ' I didn't want to do it but I had to do it despite knowing that it was wrong(as per their own conscience)'. This will give back a negative effect.

How to break free this Karmic Cycle - The Bhagvad Gita advises us to (1) do work without any desire for its fruit; and (2) do not have feeling of do-er ship in mind. Do it for God as we are instruments of God. Wise have advised us to take everything with equanimity. Offer all our thoughts words and activities to God. We create karma when we do things for 'I', my family, my relatives, my livelihood. This type of thought binds that karma to us. In order to be free, ancient scriptures have advised that we should do all our activities thinking them to be done in service of God and not for ourselves. Sai has advised us to watch the show of the world as third person. HE wants us to be the 'drishta' (the witness) of the whole drama around us where we too are playing our part due to karmic reasons.

We have to love ourselves and others too. However, being kind and sweet to all does not mean that we have to become a 'doormat'. We have to maintain our dignity, respect and love ourselves, act out in our best possible way (trusting our own inner instincts instead of taking advice from all and sundry everytime) and then leave the result to God. Maintaining a caring and helping nature does not mean that I need not be stern with wicked and manipulative people. God doesnot want us to cross a busy traffic signal with eyes closed. God wants us to use our own mental faculties, follow our heart and keeping wise intentions carry out our day to day activities. Each one of us have different level of intellect, we have to act according to our own intellect if we are convinced that it is correct. We may seek advise in case of doubt but ultimately decision has to be ours because it is our karma and therefore our responsibility. None else is responsible for my karma. Whatever is happening in my life is my own responsibility and shirking from it and blaming someone else will not help. Laws are Laws and ignorance of law is no excuse. However, a mentally challenged person will suffer less for a negative karma compared to the same karma performed by a person of normal intelligence because he chose to ignore reasoning.

For this reason only, Lord Buddha said ' Believe nothing, no matter who said it, not even if I said it, unless it agrees with your own reasoning, your own common sense'. Karmic laws pay accordingly. A blind person did not see a frog in grass and stepped over it and killed it while a person with perfect eyesight saw the frog and still stepped over it. If he immediately regretted, he might get less severe return but if he shows no remorse, he is likely to pay back strongly for causing suffering to the frog. Whether we knowingly or unknowingly put our hand in fire, it will burn our hand. So is the working of karmic accounts. The karmic accounts are settled no matter what. If you helped someone unknowingly, you get help back from a person who did not actually intend to help you. If you harmed someone unknowingly, you will be harmed similarly.

Swami Sadanand said that "Intense tapas(austerity), samadhi(spiritual absorption), mantra sadhana(repetition of name), the (obtaining) grace of God, selfless service, satsanga(company of saints, sages, pious people) create a powerful positive karma in a short period of time and this can neutralise the effect of previous negative karmas". These include Sanchita Karma(accumulated ) and Kriyaman Karma(potential). However it is difficult to get rid of 'sticky karma', the Prarabdha(active karma) which are like arrows already in flight and will get exhausted only after we bear them.

All Spiritual Masters of the World teach us the same thing.  Even our own Ascendent Master Sadguru Saibaba of Shirdi has tried to explain the same thing to us.  If we follow and practice words of Holy Masters, they can help us invisibly and transcend us from all the Karmas and free us from the karmic bonds. In an instance in Sri Sai Satcharita, Sai gave an assurance in this regard by effecting a gift of 'dhotar' to his dearest devotee. We too are his devotees. However, it is our choice what we want. Do we want better circumstances in our next birth or we want no rebirth at all but want complete freedom from the cycle of birth and death. Sai has said that his treasury is full and he can give so much but people do not want liberation instead they want worldly comforts and thereby they get stuck up in the cycle of birth and death. If like Arjuna, the seeker, we neither want to enjoy pleasures of this world nor do we crave for honor of the heaven, Sai just wants two pice of Faith and Patience to take us out of this Cycle.

Sri Sai Satcharita is full of incidences where in the above aspects of laws of karma are contained. Saibaba often advised his devotees that to do karma is in your hands but the fruit is not in your hands. Give up the feeling of Doership because wire puller is some other higher force....the SELF which lives in each of us. As human we could be lacking in the Will Power to use karmic laws to our own advantage. Sai has advised his devotees to leave aside the cleverness and just remember him. 'Sai Sai' mantra will help us wherever we are. The story of Chenbassapa and Veerbhadra is a proof how Sai came to help Basappa (frog) from the jaws of Veerbhadra(snake). But we have to do our part of being a good devotee. What can Shirdi do if 'devotee is sleeping indolently' and not following and practicing the advise of his/ her chosen Sadguru, who is always working on us and changing us internally.

Knowledge backed with intelligence should be practiced while performing duties of the various stations of the life. When faith and patience is added to it, then the devotee is totally under the protection of Sadguru Sainath (spiritual master) for he loves us unconditionally. No doubts about that.

Vandana Ritik Mulchandani

Noida