Thought for the day sixteen

The Hindu philosophy is considered to be the oldest. There are many important things which perhaps we read for the first time. One term used is Karma. Karma in simple terms means work or the deeds we carry out. Each one comes on to this earth with a purpose. The body gets deteriorated like an old cloth. The soul or atma is indestructible.  So, like we get new cloth stitched, the soul gets a new body. We carry what is called as Vaasanaa from birth to birth. This decides our basic trait. We see many pairs of twins with behavior and characteristics which is not same between them. Why? this is what is explained as Karma.

We all have three types of karmas. Praarabdha, Aagaami and Sanchita. If we consider the three types of karmas as seeds, Praarabdha karma is seeds which have already got sprouted. This karma has to be eaten by us at all costs. We cannot escape this. If our behavior is good and we try to emulate good things, the Aagami karma would not get the sprout. If we continue our good behavior throughout then the sanchita (which is stored seeds) will get totally burnt off. Then we would not have any more births and deaths.

The author is talking about this karma in this article. The life is shaped by our previous karma, which now becomes our destiny. We can get rich only if we are destined. No stoppage for this. If we are not, on the other hand, destined not to become rich, then we won’t be helped by anyone. When this is the case, we should not engage in a blame game thinking that because of so and so I am poor. Otherwise, I could have had all the things in the world.

Jealousy will not get us anywhere, but will only give us restlessness. This restlessness will lead to loss of peace of mind.

This may not be believed by people who do not believe in rebirth. So, let us see it from another point of view.

Let us take the example of twins again. One of the twins would learn music. He/she loves music. But the other one hates music. Both of them are from the same background. They get the same food; they grow up in the same ambience. But their behavior is very different as chalk and cheese. How any one explain why it is so different?

This is where the belief in vaasanaa comes. Yes, due to the karma of previous birth, we take birth again. Once we start doing only good deeds the non-sprouted karmas get totally reduced to ash. It is like the gold going through the fire to become pure.

I have read many books on Vedanta and Gita. But the books I loved are written by a Swamy Parthasarathi of Mumbai. He has given a very lovely analogy for the whole Gita as well as Vedanta.

He gives a very lovely analogy for the famous Kalia daman in Bhagavat. Kalia would be in river Yamuna and making the whole water poisonous. The cowherds requested Lord Krishna then a young boy. Krishna goes inside the river, searches for the serpent Kalia and dances on his head.

Kalia could not bear the beating of Krishna’s feet and prays him. Krishna orders him to get out of Yamuna and stay somewhere else along with his family.

Swami Parthasarathi had given an analogy for the above.

Think your heart as a pond. In the pond you have a serpent with 7 heads and a tail. Lust, anger, stinginess, infatuation, pride and jealousy and ego being the 7 vices which we have. The tail is the fear. We have to get the serpent out of our heart. Then the pond becomes totally pure. Once we do not have any vice, peace will come and engulf us. We can live peacefully.