Life : A rendezvous with Karma

Of late, I have been pondering over the events happening around me, some of which pleasant and some not so pleasant but many of them uncannily making me aware of the play of karma in one’s life.

Karma theory is known to be a play of cause and effect. As you sow, so shall you reap. It is as simple as that and may be even simpler than what one understands. However, the phrases destiny and freewill have often confused the understanding of ‘karma'. It is perceived that destiny is something that has been inflicted upon us against our freewill. But there is nothing actually like destiny and freewill. It is all freewill, only 'karma'. What is taken to be the play of destiny today is a result of freewill exercised in the past whether in this birth or in a previous one. We are the creators of our own world.

Understanding it a little more, it is not actually the actions alone that constitute one's 'karma' but a whole combination of thoughts, feelings and actions. Let us take the oft quoted example of one ripping open someone’s belly with the intention to kill and ripping open someone’s belly by a doctor intending to save the other’s life. Action is the same but the intention and thus the imprints gathered by the two people are different and thus would result in different effects for both of them.

This made me ponder over the emphasis laid by spiritualists and religions on ethics and values in our daily lives. Sri Sri Ravishankar, Founder of the Art of Living has talked many times on the role of ethics in businesses and corporates. I have started to get a glimpse of the enormous truth of existence that he has been propounding by laying emphasis on ethics. As a very gross example let us take a transaction of an individual selling a product or providing a service. Let’s observe the intention in the transaction. First case scenario: the seller wishes to sell it at the best price for maximising his profits and second case scenario: the seller sells his product or service to provide to the need and comfort of the customer though against a price.

In the first case the intention being maximisation of profits, the individual may have extracted an undue price from a gullible customer or may have adopted unethical practices or may have sold a substandard product for maximising his own profit. In these cases he would have caused discomfort or distress and a feeling of being cheated, to the customer. Yes the cash flows in but what did the seller earn? Discomfort, distress and a feeling of being cheated. In the second case the seller was careful to see that the customer gets comfort and convenience from his product and at a fair price leaving the customer satisfied with his purchase. What did the seller earn? Comfort, convenience and satisfaction! Now, cash is only a means for attaining comfort, convenience and satisfaction. But driven by a desire for maximising profits while compromising on quality and customer satisfaction, what does the seller attain?

Can we observe every transaction, thought that we go through? Each thought, each feeling, each emotion, each action goes into creating our world. This implies that all the wrongs that we feel were done to us, all the insults that were heaped on us originated from within us!

The difference between the enlightened masters who walk on this planet and the ordinary folks is precisely this, they are aware of this truth of existence and are able to overcome it whereas ordinary mortals not being able to live this truth, toss around in life in the hands of their own karma and creating more and more spirals of web around themselves.

Living in a heightened state of awareness of this truth, can one choose one’s karma? Yes, it is possible if one were to go by what the enlightened one’s indicate. Being in awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings and actions. This is possible only when one is living entirely in the present moment responding to each situation with awareness. But is it really possible to respond to situations in their present context only without being driven by the past experience, anger, hurt or even patterns of behaviour cultivated, consciously or unconsciously and relied upon till now? Even if one were to have the intention of choosing one’s future behaviour, is the future not emanating from one’s past? For example the choices made in the past, the environments created around one self, etc, etc. What about the impressions carried over from the past? What about the imprints one may be carrying in the deep recesses of one’s subconscious that may compel certain types of behaviour or situations even without one willing them now?

This is where the relevance and need is, for a ‘Guru’, a spiritual master. In olden days, in India, people understood the nature of a Guru, an enlightened one at that. That is the reason they would travel for miles at end and for months to have a ‘darshan’ of an enlightened one. They experienced peace and freedom from problems by just being in the presence and within the sight of an enlightened one. The wiser ones among them understood cleansing they were undergoing at the subtler levels of mind and spirit, a cleansing of the unwanted karma! Such visits were akin to intense pilgrimages.

In the present times, in the presence of Sri Sri Ravishankar, millions all over the world have experienced the same inner peace, the silence of mind. At a personal level, I have experienced the silence of greatest of inner turmoil by just one ‘drishti’ (glance) from Him. And the inner transformation I have witnessed within me since I first met him is beyond my own comprehension. Such is the power of ‘darshan’ of an enlightened one.

What is the physiology and chemistry of ‘darshan’ and what happens during this phenomenon of ‘darshan’ is something worth trying to understand. May be another time I will deliberate upon it with my views and experience.