Live Session Tomorrow on Ashtavakra Gita - Chapter 2

 

https://youtu.be/0hxkXrcF1Ho

Sadhana Panchakam - Post 54

 

We learnt in Karma sessions about sanchita karma, thus:-  

Accumulated impressions: The karmas in the quiver are the accumulated deep impressions (Samskaras) that have been collected over our entire history. Some arrows have been added to the quiver (new Karmas) and others have already been shot (old Karmas), and are no longer in the quiver. 

The formula of karma: The total of the arrows (Samskaras) in our quiver today is the net of the new arrows added, minus the old ones that have been shot. These arrows and deep driving habits in the quiver are called "Sanchita Karma."  

Current karma = (Old samskaras) + (New samskaras added) – (Old samskaras that have played out)

Predispositions are awaiting opportunity: Along with the playing out of our current Karmas in flight, we also know that there are many predispositions, habit patterns, or Samskaras that are awaiting an opportunity to come into action. Though we may not know exactly what these are, by observing our actions we can infer some of these predispositions. 

Examining and attenuating karma: By a good job of preparation, balancing life, and learning to be a good archer, one can eventually examine the Samskaras in the quiver during Meditation. In this way, deeper habit patterns can be attenuated or eliminated through Meditation, provided one has become trained as a good Archer. 

Swami Sivananda roars,

 

“Tarkash (quiver), the case in which arrows are accumulated represents our Sanchita Karmas; the arrow that is ready for shooting represents our Agami Karma and the arrow which has left the bow, which cannot return and which must hit the target represents Prarabdha Karma. 

The store-room is the Sanchita. The articles that are put in the shop for sale are Prarabdha. The daily sale proceeds are the Agami. 

Sanchita Karmas are the accumulated works; Prarabdha Karmas are ripe of fructiferous actions; Kriyamana Agami Karmas are current works. 

The big storehouse for paddy represents Sanchita Karma. The paddy that has been taken out separately for the use of the current year corresponds to the Prarabdha; and the paddy that is growing in the fields in the current year represents Agami Karma or Kriyamana. 

Sanchita Karmas are destroyed by Brahma Jnana. One should enjoy the Prarabdha anyhow. (Vyavaharic Drishti only). 

Kriyamana Karmas are no actions as the Jnani has Akarta and Sakshi Bhava. God and Purushartha are synonymous terms. They are two names for one thing. 

In Mahabharata you will find that exertion (Purushartha) and Prarabdha combined bring about fruits. If you are ailing, you must do Purushartha. You must take medicine. You leave the results to Prarabdha. 

Throughout Yoga Vasishtha, Vasishthaji recommends Purushartha only to Sri Rama. Markandeya through Purushartha alone conquered death. Man is, doubtless, the master of his own destiny. 

Purushartha can do and undo things. Markandeya changed his destiny through his Tapas. Fatalism will produce abnormal inertia. God helps those who help themselves. Be up and doing. Man is the master of his destiny. Prarabdha is the result of your own thoughts and actions. Change your mode of thinking. Think: "I am the Immortal Self." The immortal Self you will become. As you think, you so become. This is the immutable law. 

You have now the habit of thinking "I am body. I am mind. I am Prana. I am Indriya or sense."Change your present habit of thinking and think, "I am Brahman. I am the all-pervading intelligence." You will conquer your destiny. If you are in the habit of writing in a slanting manner, you can change your habit and can write in a vertical manner. Even so you can change your habit of thinking. Conquest of habit is conquest of destiny. Fate or destiny is your own creation through your own Karmas. You are the master of your destiny. Change your mode of thinking. Instead of foolishly thinking "I am body," think "I am Atman, all-pervading." 

When the person attains the God-realized state, he becomes “dead” to worldly affairs. He no longer has the body and mind identity. He has risen to the absolute realm, from which standpoint Karmas do not even exist.  All the Sanchita Karmas become annulled at the moment of realization. It is said the fire of knowledge burns away all those Karmas, however big the bundle may have been.”

Karma is one of the fundamental realities which a human being cannot dispense with. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is firm on the principle of cause and consequences saying that as one acts, as one behaves, so does he become. The doer of good becomes good, the doer of evil becomes evil; this is an eternal law. One becomes virtuous by virtuous actions, bad by bad actions. 

Others say that Karma is the consequences of desires. As is his desire, so is his will; as is his will, so is the deed he does, whatever deed he does that becomes his consequence. 

Yajnavalkya tells Jaratkaru Arthabhaga that when the speech of the dead person enters fire, breath enters air, eyes into Sun, mind in moon, hearing in quarters self in space, etc then what remains of the person, it is the aggregate Karma that is carried forward. Verily one becomes good by good actions, bad by bad actions. 

Sankara says, since mind is the primary instrument of the subtle body, the quality of the mind is the quality of the subtle body. Therefore, when all the desires that dwell in the heart are cast away, then does the mortal become immortal and he attains Brahman here (in this life itself). 

One need not wait for the time when the body falls, it comes about the moment ignorance is eliminated. Krishna, therefore, recommends the performance of actions without desire and giving up the fruits of actions so that he may remain free from the good or bad consequences of the actions. 

Maitri Upanishad says that since it is the Mind which absorbs the effects of the performance of previous actions giving an appearance to the mental responses, the mind which should be investigated. By freeing Mind from sloth and distraction and making is well-established he becomes liberated from Mind. That is the supreme state. 

Only through sadhana and through no other means can one really work towards SELF REALIZATION, upon which, the sanchita karma, the quiver in store, yet to be discharged, are rendered useless. 

Like the potter wheel keeps rotating even after the potter has stopped making pot, for some time, like a car still keeps moving a few yards even after the driver has set the gear to neutral, the arrows which have been discharged from the quiver, the prarabdha karma, still are on play and even a jnani has to undergo the impact of such in flight arrows or the prarabdha karma. But in His God realized state, he is unaffected by the pleasure / pain that prarabdha karma brings to him and He verily abides in SELF and exists in undiluted bliss.

 

Love.

 

Sadhana Panchakam - Post 53

When we see a mirage, it is our knowledge of geography that tells us that it is not water. Knowledge has the power to rectify a false perception. In the same way, where previously the world appeared real, now with knowledge it is clearly seen as a projection of the Self. The world is still the same, but now it is seen differently.  

Brahman is the infinite Cause of all the finite manifestation. Having evolved from the root (Bhru), Brahman is That One which became effulgent, or bursts forth in abundance.  

Yajnavalkya said, ‘That the knowers of Brahman call it the imperishable, neither gross nor fine, neither short nor long, neither glowing red nor adhesive like water, neither shadow nor darkness, neither air nor space, unattached, without taste, smell, eyes, ears, voice, mind, radiance, breath, mouth and without measure, having no within and no without. It eats nothing and no one eats it’. Of That One, it is said, neti neti, it is nothing like any other things seen here. 

Brahman, the Prime Existence is the formless and the eternal and all that is perceived alone is not all that represents as the Prime Existence, unperceived also being the Prime Existence. Sun does not cease to exist because a blind person does not perceive. The Prime Existence is an eternal reality, all; manifestation being a temporary phenomenon.  

When Yajnavalkya explained Ushasta Chakrayana that Brahman is within as his self, who breathes in with your breathing in, who breathes out with your breathing out, who breathes about with your breathing out, who breathes up with your breathing up, it was not understood him saying the explanation was as one might say, ‘this is a cow’, ‘this is a horse’. Yajnavalkya clarified, ‘You cannot see the seer of seeing, hear the hearer of hearing, think the thinker of thinking, understand the understander of understanding They who know the breath of the Primal Breath, the eye of the Eye, the ear of the Ear, the mind of the Mind, only they have realized the ancient primordial Brahman’.  

Therefore, Kena Upanishad points out: That which is not expressed through speech, That which is not thought by the mind but that by which the mind thinks; That is Brahman, not what the people here adore. Brahman is all the things that exist, the Existence in entirety.

This world is the manifested aspect of the Lord. He was alone in the beginning when there was no creation. After creation also He remains unattached and free like the ether in the pot. The earthen pot is full inside and outside with ether but the ether is not at all affected by the existence or non-existence of the pot. 

Even so the Lord is all-pervading and full, inside and outside of all beings, and remains ever non-attached. He guides the actions of all beings but He is not the actor. He is the mere witness of the activities of the organs. He gives power and strength to the organs. So He may be said to be the actor but at the same time He is Akarta (non-doer) and Asanga (non-attached).

 

 At the highest state of existence, A Jnani roars,

“Only when you suppose creation to be a reality, the questions who created it and how it was created and so on arise. People who are not endowed with a sharp and discriminative intelligence, who cannot understand the true import of the Vedantic Truths and who cannot live in the spirit of those teachings, struggle themselves with these knotty problems. But the moment they realize the underlying Reality, all doubts vanish like darkness before bright light.

Because the world was never created at all, the points who created the world, how and why it was created etc., still remain unanswered to our entire satisfaction. How can a thing which has no existence be described? Why should anyone discuss such points like How many teeth does a crow have? How many eggs does an elephant lay? How deep is the water of the desert? How many horns has a hare got? How many children did a barren woman give birth to? These are useless and irrelevant questions.

In reality the Jiva or the individual soul creates this world of names and forms on account of his own ignorance and delusion. When he attains knowledge of the Self by the Grace of his spiritual preceptor, he dissolves the external world into himself and sees his own Self everywhere. He sees oneness everywhere. He becomes struck with wonder when he thinks of the world of duality. The world of diversity appears to him like a mere dream and he exclaims in surprise, Where has this world full of the charms of Maya disappeared now which was glaring before my very eyes till this very moment!”

 

Love.