Can karmic reactions come at the mental level?
Is mental health the result of karmic reaction mental health problem the result of karmic reaction or is it coming as a physical stimulus do mental reactions influence? yes of course Baldevidya Bhishma says in Govinda Varsha his commentary on the Vedanta Sutra that sometimes some people get bad dreams so I know one person he is afraid to sleep because as soon as he sleeps he starts getting nightmares it's a terrible condition to be in so now Baldevidya Bhishma explains that in the dream state Ishvara uses the dream state to give us reactions reactions to our minor karmas reactions to our major karmas come in the Jagat Goswami Chakra so I may meet with an accident I may get a fracture in my arm that's a major reaction coming as a physical one but in a dream my car collides with another car and it's also painful it's scary but if we could say that the dreams exist at the mental level the body is not involved physically so much so there is an example of a reaction at a mental level similarly if we consider every desire that we indulge in there is a physical reaction somebody drinks alcohol repeatedly then they are going to suffer from some liver diseases or other health issues but a more damaging consequence is that that desire becomes stronger so indulgence and generally another way is that I might be living in Sattva Guna in the mode of goodness but then if I keep indulging and they go down to Rajoguna and Tamoguna and that brings it into a whole mindset which makes me more vulnerable to negative emotions so mental reactions do exist the mental level is also real and now specifically when something happens to us whether it is a result of past karma or whether it is a result of present karma or present situation that separation is very difficult to us say I am walking along the road and I slip and fall and I fracture my leg now did I fracture my leg because of my past karma I meant to slip and fall or was it because I was just lost in my own world and I did not see that there was water spilling over me it is both it is both karma is a complicated subject but generally we say karma is action this action produces this reaction but actually in our daily life sometimes a small action causes a big reaction and sometimes a big action may have a very small reaction we may sometimes drive drunk for 6 hours and nobody catches us and sometimes somebody may have to drive drunk for 5 minutes and they are put in jail and a big reaction comes so basically the law of karma we sometimes think of this we think of karma as this action produces this reaction action produces reaction but which action produces which reaction so for somebody who is meant to have a healthy body they may walk on the water but they might just look around they might slip on the water when there is a pole nearby and nothing happens to them somebody else who has got a bad karma at that time, they slip on the water and not only fall down but their head falls where there is a sharp rock over there and they crack their head so the same slip may happen and both may happen because of inattention right now but the consequence may be very different for both because it's not that A will produce B as a reaction to A alone when A produces reaction B that also is determined by our past karma so similarly with respect to mental problems also two people A and B and both of them are chastised for making some mistake now A just takes the chastisement like a blow on the chest and moves on and B gets chronically depressed so both of them are chastised for it and since they are not guilty they just give up now why such a big reaction because by their past karma they were in a vulnerable position at that time so mental reactions do exist and for us rather than focusing on why something has happened is it because of present karma or past karma our focus should be on how best I can deal with it and what that means practically we will discuss in the afternoon.