MenoSundays; Life Lived Lovingly

Thank you for responding to last week's intro to exploring The Law of Karma. This is such a vast subject, not one that stands solo. Whilst these posts arise from the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, there is a universality (secularism) to the principles that can be recognised, regardless of one's background or philosophical leanings. It is a challenge to "nutshell" the concepts, and questions and doubts will certainly be raised - and that is fine! Advaita welcomes the questioning mind, the searching spirit, and the doubting intellect. 

In many respects, it is as simple as 'what goes around comes around'. Accepting that action executed, every decision taken, must undergo its consequences, whether expected or not, is a little more complicated.  Firstly, we have to absorb the concept of vaasanas - the impression left by experiences. These are the 'programming' of our individuality. As long as we work on our vaasana instructions, 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 leads to affirming existing vaasanas or creating new ones that will bring on further action.

It is the law of cause and effect that governs karma. Let us look a little closer. Each person is who they are based upon the yield of past actions. From birth through to the 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 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 we even have come to be reading the philosophy itself. The 'destiny' part of karmic law is that which is called praarabdha. It is the 'effect' of the causative past in current life and all previous existences. It can be seen that balance has to be brought to bear, deeds answered for, and to this extent, we must live out destiny. However, along the way, each jiva (the individualised soul) 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 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 to ensure 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, and how one meets it is purushaartha.

We have the power of our future within ourselves. Through our purushaartha, we can really make a difference in our soul's journey. Whether we choose between preyas (path of ease) or shreyas (path of good) may be written at birth according to praarabdha, but if we have earned enough karmic points, we will come to understand that choices can be made to change or improve our paths. We cannot 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 and negative actions in terms of our purushaartha; however, those choices are still largely coloured by the depth of our praarabdha.  Gurudev, Swami Chinmayananda, gave an 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 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 its engine is driving it, but if it is going upriver, it may be battling to maintain speed.  This explains how, even when we have a 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 can be producers for the future. Praarabdha (law of destiny) applies only to past actions and makes us victims. However, Karma (law of consequential action) ensures the ability to create and quell 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 favourable result of all - the balancing of our karmic debt and we can sign off the cosmic account.

Yes, I am aware that you are also being introduced to the concept of reincarnation here. However, even in accepting this is the one and only existence we have, does it not make the urgency of positive living, living life lovingly, all the more imperative? Even if we have only these most fleeting "three score and twenty" to display our light of consciousness, is it not better to ensure our actions speak positively for us?