Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 48

Chapter XVIII

 

Activity and Action

 

Spiritual versus materialistic lands

 

The countries of the world fall into two categories: countries in which the people are devoted to activities with spiritual motivation (karma-bhumi) and countries in which the people pursue the pathways of the senses (bhoga-bhumi), with no higher purpose to guide them. The categories emphasize the ideals of the people down through the ages. India (Bharath) is the land of Godward activity, where the people have discovered the proper goal of all activity, namely the glorification of God resident within and without.

 

Activity (karma) is inevitable; it is immanent in every thought. It is of two kinds: material and spiritual, connected with this world and drawn from the Vedas or scriptural injunctions. Activities that merely sustain life are material. Activities that elevate the human into the divine are based either on the Vedas or on later sacred texts (sastras) or codes of law (smrithi). The activities can be mental, emotional, or physical. They are also determined by the activities that the individual has adopted in either previous lives or this life. 

 

Secret of actions and reactions

 

The Vedas (sruthis) and the codes of law (smrithi) of India have thus classified karma on the basis of the consequences it creates in the life of the individual. The word karma is short and crisp; it is used freely by all and sundry. But the idea and ideals it conveys are of great significance to mankind. Karma is not simply physical; it is mental, verbal, and manual. Each one can read into it as much value and validity as their reason can unravel.

 

Karma subsumes every activity of people — worldly, scriptural, and spiritual. All three strands are, in truth, intertwined. The worldly karma entails merit or demerit; the scriptural karma is saturated with the experience of generations of good seekers; the spiritual devotes itself to the cleansing of the heart so that the indwelling God may be reflected therein. Karma is a stream that flows ever faster and faster, turning the wheel of life and keeping it incessantly active.

 

Karma means movement, or that which urges the movement. Air moves in space; the moving air results in heat. It is the friction caused by aerial motion that makes the latent heat manifest. 

 

Living beings are able to maintain the temperature of the body as long as air is breathed in and out. The quicker the breath, the warmer the body. Warmth is the characteristic of fire. Fire is the origin of water. The Sun, as one can see, raises clouds. 

 

The particles of water get mixed with other elements and then harden into “earth” (ground, soil). The earth produces and fosters plants and trees, which feed and foster humanity, keeping people hale and hearty. These plants give the grain upon which people live, and the seminal fluid that produces progeny is the gift of the grain. Thus is the activity (karma) of creation effected and continued. This is how the codes of law texts (smrithi) summarize the process.

 

In short, activity (karma) is observable here as movement, as progress, as evolution, and as hereditary effect.

 

continued....

 

 

Love.