Hare Krishna.
The concept of Karma is one of the central beliefs of Hinduism. The Bhagavad Gita and all Hindu scriptures say that our actions will have consequences when they are performed with selfish desires and expectations. Actions could be good or bad. But actions performed and accumulated for the cause of Dharma and the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna are the best Karmas. Action performed for Dharma and the Supreme Lord is also called Bhakti Yoga.
The main purpose of this post is to describe how a spiritual person directs his action in his present life so that he can avoid bad Karmas and start accumulating good karmas. That he has to suffer in this or the future life for the bad Karmas is a well known fact. For him also there is no escape from bad Karmas. Undoubtedly a spiritual person undergoes intense pains and sufferings to discharge the bad Karmas.
As per the Bhagavad Gita, it is advisable to exhaust all the bad Karmas in this life itself because any bad Karma left undischarged in this life gets carried over to our next life.
As per our scriptures, human beings alone have the capacity to discharge all their past and present life Karmas while they are still alive. That is possible if and only if a person becomes spiritual and adopts the path of Bhakti Yoga.
It is true that once a person enters the spiritual path he is gradually able to reduce or discharge his past life and present life Karmas. That being so, by the end of his present life, a spiritual person would have been a free and liberated soul. But this generally does not happen in most or almost all the cases, unless he is on the Bhakti Yoga path. There are certain reasons to explain this situation.
It is seen that even if a person is able to discharge all his Karmas, his very presence and activities in the material world makes him act, feel and think about material activities and material things. This happens even to a person on the Bhakti Yoga path. These actions adds to his positive or negative Karma though he is also spiritual.
Then there are other issues also. Karma not only attaches to us by our own thoughts, feelings and actions, but it also attaches to us due to people around us. A spiritual person is very sensitive to the Karmas of others and people around him. A spiritual person generally does the following to avoid such Karmas:
- 1. He would never come in public or meet people. He would rather avoid connection with even the worldly news.
- 2. He would never attend any functions like marriages or deaths. But the shastras say that he should respect his mother as an avathar of the Lord. Therefore the only function he attends is his mother’s funeral.
- 3. He would never sit on an asana or seat that his not his.
- 4. He would generally cook his own food and wash his clothes by himself.
- 5. He would never touch others, allow others to touch or feel him. He will maintain arm’s length at all times.
All the above and many other things are done because thoughts, feelings and actions of others do effect a spiritual person. In the process he himself suffers the bad Karmas of others. Even his close disciples’ Karmas act on him. This leads to actions or reactions within him. Giving an audience to other people easily triggers his feelings and causes reactions.
In such situations you will find a spiritual person spending most of his waking time by himself, shutting his mouth, ears, tongue, touch, eyes and thoughts and meditating on the Supreme Lord.
Most of the times a spiritual person is very calm as long as he is by himself. But if someone tries to take him on or irritate him, he can become very hostile and lethal. Indian scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita are full of incidents when Maharishis have lost their tempers and burnt their adversaries to ashes by a mere look. Lord Shiva, though very benevolent, was very nasty if and when provoked. In order to avoid such severe situations , a spiritual person prefers to lead an isolated life, away from the human civilisation, so that he does not lose his self control and commit a wrong. Many spiritual persons are therefore known to give up family and friends and have lived in forests or mountains.
A spiritual person is as prone to add to his Karma as much as any one is. The only difference being, he will try to discharge the Karmas, in this life itself, unlike a non-spiritual person who is unable to discharge his Karmas. In the end, a bit of Karma of a spiritual person invariably gets carried over to the next life, in case he has to be reborn. A spiritual person’s capacity to absorb other people’s Karma may be high, but he has to suffer a lot in the process.
Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that by resorting to Bhakti Yoga alone a person would have erased his past and present life Karma. This is possible by devoting full time to the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. The way a person can prevent further additions to his Karma is:
- 1. To surround himself by those who are similarly placed in devotion and bhakti. And
- 2. To constantly utter the Holy name of the Supreme Lord Krishna in his wakeful state.
When he utters the name of the Lord in his wakeful state, the name percolates deep into his body, mind, senses and the soul. And the Lord’s name echoes even when he is asleep.
It is therefore better to start uttering His name at all times, irrespective of our age and state of health. Always be in Krishna Consciousness and accumulate the best Karma.
HARE KRISHNA
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