Dear All,
Let us re capture our learning visually today.
Divyatman,
The
essence of the flow seen above is captured in Vedanta as the knots of Samsara
which is termed as Hrdaya Granthi.
The
knots of samsara
(ignorance,
desire and action)
Avidya (ignorance), Kama (desire) and Karma (action) are the knots (Hridaya Granthis) that have tied the deluded Jiva (individual) to this Samsara (wheel of birth and death).
AVIDYA-
We learnt and by now, we are clear that avidya is forgetful ness of
one’s divine nature.
KAMA
-In the light of our learning of MBCA in all our previous posts,KAMA is to be
understood as desires arising out of the 3 Kleshas- Raga, Dvesha and abhinivesha,
once Avidya results in Asmita- Identifying oneself with the “ I” ness .
As
soon as man was enveloped by the veil of ignorance( avidya) , he forgot his
essential blissful nature and began to run after sensual objects to seek his
pleasure through the avenues of the senses.
KARMA-He
began to exert, to do selfish Karmas, to realize his objects of desire. He lost
his original freedom and became bound.
Karma is explained as karma bandhanam. Bandhanam is bondage and it is explained thus because, as we learnt in the MBCA posts and as clearly depicted in the above flow, Karma or actions performed due to Desires ( 3 Ego- Raga, Dvesha, Abhinivesha), is bound to result in the impressions/ after effects of such an action getting stored in the memory bank chitta and till the time, this bank is not cleared totally, till the time the memory bank storage is capable of being retrieved as Samskara , resulting in manifest Vasana, the cycle of KARMA- DEATH AND REBIRTH TO CLEAR KARMA- SANCHITA/PRARABDHA KARMA-DEATH-REBIRTH TO CLEAR FRESH KARMA can never be broken and one can never get released from this vicious cycle.
As various treatise speak about this 3 knots- Avidya Kama Karma, the author, while teaching
sessions related to MBCA, introduced or modified the 3 knots to include
Vasanas or V in between Kama and Karma and thus, to those few who have taken
these sessions, the cycle became imprinted in their learning as AVKK
(Avidya-Vasnas-Kama-Karma)
The
significance of including Vasanas in this cycle is explained in the
following example.
A
student always ranks first in his collage for 2 continuous years.
In
the 3rd year, a new student jobs his class , transferred from some
other collage.
The
final 3rd year exam results are awaited.
To
the surprise of the earlier student, in the 3rd years exams, the new
student gets the 1st rank as announced by the collage Principal.
Now,
till the time the result was announced, perhaps, the 1st student did not
have any impression stored in his mind about the new student.
Once
the result is announced, the ASMITA of the earlier student, his belief
about his being the 1st student and the attachment towards this 1st rank, Raga
, has attacked the student and with such attack, he throws some words of abuse
at the new student and walks away
The
abuse, expressed through mind- karma indriyas, has resulted in impression
about the new student stored in the mind lake, memory bank chitta, of the 1st
student.
Now,
it has to be carefully observed and understood that till the time some action
is not undertaken by us due to KAMA, there are no impressions stored in
our chitta and therefore no vasanas can arise in our mind later.
Let
us be more clear on this most important aspect in the next post.
Love.
