Swami Sivananda

Karma - Part 1

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We learnt adequately about the need for retracing to our source, the way we were created by God as His own image and also learnt that Sadhana is all about our self-efforts to take up a chosen path- Bhakti or Jnana or Karma, not with a restricted view as set of rituals but as precious means to the glorious goal of starting the journey as animal man, evolving to Man and culminating as God man.

But we often, rather most of the times see in our own life and in other’s life that there is something called as destiny which forces us to behave in a particular way, which pushes various experiences in life to us upon which we think we never had any control.

If Swami says “not even a blade can move without my will” and we often observe that there is a huge contradiction between what we are and what we get in our life, a major question dawns on our mind

"If everything is to be determined by God on one hand and my destiny or fate on the other hand, then, how do I take up spiritual sadhana with conviction??? 

Is the conviction itself not God’s will or my fate??? If I am not getting the desired conviction to take up the spiritual path with zeal and zest, then is it not that it is not in my fate to evolve as God man in this life????

Are the following questions not very relevant and must they not be answered by the scriptures/ God’s instructions in a convincing manner so that I can have a ray of hope that I can still hope to take up sadhana, hope for evolving into a better soul in spite of all the events happening in my life in spite of my good actions/good thoughts and interest in spiritual path???"

Questions

1)I am very unclear and confused. Bhagavan Shri Krishna says that all that is happening is predestined and nothing moves without His sanction. Then He says in BG 2.47 'Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself.'  Are these two declarations not contradictory in themselves? Does it mean that God creates all adharma and then descends to destroy adharma?? Why should he witness adharma in the first place at all?

2)Rather, the famous question we dealt in the post WHY GOD CREATED MAN- O Lord, if You have to create me, push me into the roller coaster of life, fill me with ignorance, make me take up so many actions out of ego, suffer for the actions again and again and at last after several births, to realize You and reach You, then why did You create me in the first place at all. With no creation, with ONLY YOU, how peaceful it would have been? (Gup chup tamasha dekhe, waah re teri khudayi, kahe ko duniya banayi????? Here we are suffering and you say, it is a sport for you to create us!!!!!) 

3) I have always been a pious man, given in charity and donated to the temple.  Never thought of any harm to any one in m life. I am regular in attending weekly bhajans, take up little seva in my free time, visit holy shrines once in a year, regular in visiting temple etc. Then why am I made to suffer like this?  On the other hand, I find people with no interest in spirituality, with no interest to do any charity, not following principles in life, prospering enormously in front of my eyes. Why this contradiction???

4)What is fate? Why is a person born in a particular place to a particular parents, some rich, some poor, some beautiful, some wise etc.?

5)After we are born in this world with certain predetermined benefits (like being rich, wise etc), one has to lead an ongoing good life. At this juncture what is the role of God? Is He going to change my fate in my present life, or does He have no control at all, once fate is determined by my past actions? Why I should pray to God?

6)How can I do my duties if everything is predestined? I want to do them and I want to follow the teachings of God, but circumstances prevailing at certain times sometimes push me to take any optional decision which ultimately proves to be disastrous.

7)Some people claim that what is to happen in this life is already determined by God (i.e. fate). Their idea is that we do not have much control on our life. We are under the illusion of Maya. Others think that only because of our intelligence and our carefully executed efforts, we achieve desirable ends. My question is, do our efforts really matter?

Dear ones,

In the next few posts, we will dive deep together into the theory of Karma which is a major theory accepted in Hinduism and also in in all those religions which believe in the theory of re-incarnation, i.e., the belief that man undergoes several births and deaths.

We will take the lessons/teachings in the later part of our scriptures, teachings and writings of accepted Masters in Indian philosophy to learn convincingly  about  this otherwise mysterious, self-contradicting concept which threw up so many questions given above.

May God be with us and  help us to learn together and help us in resolving all complications that we have made unto ourselves (Uljhan ko suljhao, mere prabhu….Sat Guru dev, Rah dikhao prabhu)!

Love.