Friday 30 May 2014

KARMA (Part 1)

If one were to follow the episodes posted by Velayudham Karthikeyan on his blog Sitthan Arul, we will realize that at the end of each episode there is a teaching or moral behind the happenings and it is closely linked to one's doings and actions, and ultimately ties with one's Karma.

Karma is the machinery that moves the world and all of creation. The world is a playhouse or a stage and we are all dolls or puppets, driven by karma. But there is a way out. The ever compassionate Siddhas show the way and means to overcome one's karma and put an end to the circle of birth and rebirth, that results from karma.

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami clearly spells out Karma, its origin, its effects and recommendations to reduce, nay to absolutely rid of karma in his book MERGING WITH SIVA – Hinduism’s Contemporary Meta Physics, Himalayan Academy, 2005,  
"Every action, every effect, in the universe has been preceded by a specific cause or set of causes. That cause is in itself an effect of prior causes. The law of karma is the law of cause and effect, or action and reaction. When we cause a traumatic disruption within ourselves or within others, the action is imprinted in the memory patterns of the muladhara chakra. The seed has been planted and will remain vibrating in the depths of the mind even though consciously forgotten. We carry it over from life to life, from birth to birth until one day it blossoms into the fruit of our action - reaction. Since we have forgotten our past life and are only left with the pranic reverberations deep in the memory cells, we don’t know the causes. In fact, there seems to be no cause for many of the things that happen to us in life, no reason or justification. This can be frustrating. However, that is karma, and it is generally written off by saying, "That’s karma. It is an effect to a previous cause."
We sometimes cannot understand why certain events are taking place and they seem to be beyond our control. It is frustrating indeed as the Swami says. This is where the Siddhas come to our aid. As we do not have the ability or capacity to recollect our past, they help us by revealing them to us through the Nadi. 

The Siddhas are gifted with the Siddhis to look into the past, the present and the future. Tavayogi tells me he had seen his past through meditation. For those who are not into meditation the past can be known by reading his/her Nadi. Siddhas maintain records of events, happenings and participants in the Nadi as revealed in the Jeeva Nadi to the Jeeva Nadi Guru of Chennai.

The night Buddha attained enlightenment, he went through several stages of awakening. One of it was where he had the recollection of his previous lives. Sogyal Rinpoche in his book THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, quotes Buddha’s the Middle Length Sayings originally quoted in H.W.Schumann's The Historical Buddha, London, Arkana, 1989. The author narrates Buddha’s experienced. 
"I remembered many, many former existences I had passed through: (he mentions a hundred thousand - Editor) in various world-periods. I knew everything about these various births: where they had taken place, what my name had been, which family I had been born into, and what I had done. I lived through again the good and bad fortune of each life and my death in each life, and came to life again and again. In this way I recalled innumerable previous existences with their exact characteristic features and circumstances. This knowledge I gained in the first watch of the night." 
In the second watch of the night, Buddha gained knowledge of karma. 
"With the heavenly eye, purified and beyond the range of human vision, I saw how beings vanish and come to be again. I saw high and low, brilliant and insignificant, and how each obtained according to his karma a favorable or painful rebirth." 
This is what the Siddhas reveal too in one's very first Nadi reading, where he is told about his past birth and subsequently his past karma. For one to realize God without any hindrance he has to first know his karma. Only when the karma is reduced can man approach God. It is an important aspect in the spiritual path.

Paramahansa Yogananda says it beautifully, "Knowledge of the law of karma encourages the earnest seeker to find the way of final escape from its bonds."

A lot of importance is given to karma by these Siddhas. One's karma is revealed by the Siddhas through the Nadi readings. When one reads the Nadi for the first time, the Siddhas reveal the past birth and the past karma. The idea in revealing this information is to enable him to perform Parikarams or atonement so as to lessen the effects of karma. He is required to perform appeasement and atonement for his wrong doing to other beings and creatures.

Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal says if there is karma then there is birth. Karma is the cause of birth. Birth is a result of past karma. If karma (both good and bad) is erased there is no reason to take birth again. Man needs to live his life, distinguishing between the good and bad karma, which takes shape as a result of links with the past births. This birth is a result of past actions. Confusion and suspicion too is a result of past karmas and it does not make advancement in spiritual practices possible, says Agathiyar.

The idea in taking birth is to gain sufficient experience over several births and eventually head back towards the abode of God. Man needs to evolve. That is the reason he is born again and again. He comes here to gain experience, know the right from the wrong, bring about changes in him, his family, his friends and the world around him. Knowing what he did in the past (past karma) is of utmost important. It allows him to change his ways so that he does not make the same mistakes again.

Man has to arrests his thoughts. These thoughts attract similar thoughts which creates a scenario and brings personalities into play. The thoughts being very powerful, lead to actions. He then gains an experience from his actions. When thoughts subside, there is no need for new situations to arise. What he has on his hands is to face the outcome of earlier thoughts that have taken shape and was now his karma. If he faces the situation calmly, taking it upon himself, without resisting, he then has exhausted that particular karma. No fresh karma means no reason to take birth.