Positive Thinking 11 – A of Activity – Spiritual vision inspires positive action

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Transcript

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Hare Krishna, Welcome back to our discussion on positive thinking, we are discussing the acronym IDEA, to describe the spiritual fundamentals, we discussed I, D and E till now, identity, divinity and eternity, now we will discuss A, activity, our activity determines our destiny, that there are reactions to our actions, that there are laws governing the behavior, the interactions of things has been time and again vindicated by science, that most of science functions because nature functions according to laws, so for example when one electron hits another electron, there is a law governed behavior that results, and that allows for prediction, that allows for application, that allows for manipulation, and that’s how science is able to work, so now if we look at science, we will see that there is orderliness seen from the microscopic level to the macroscopic level, even in patches where we don’t see any orderliness, still there is some orderliness through some statistical models, through some level of observational sophistication, and even when no order seems to be there, scientists keep pressing on looking for some order, and in many cases in scientific history they have found an order, so the point is that just if there is order from the microscopic to the macroscopic level, in all of nature, then why should human beings be an exception, why should there not be an order that governs our behaviors, and that order is conveyed through the law of karma, it’s like we have Newton’s third law of motion, that to every action there is a reaction, similarly there is the law of karma, which says that to every action there is a corresponding reaction, so this corresponding reaction is something which we need to understand as a subtle thing, because when we talk about actions, there is the motivation for the action, there is the context for the action, there are various subtle factors which come in, and so that’s why there is divine supervision, there is reincarnation, all these factors come in, that means we may not get the reaction within the same time zone, we may get one reaction now and we may get another reaction later, so the principle under the specifics of karma is something which we will discuss later, right now let’s focus on the principles, and the principles are that there is action-reaction gene, and this is how we operate in our day to day life also, if somebody comes home, if our room partner comes home and there is a burner mark on the hand, we ask what happened, that means the very question what happened means this burner mark must have had a cause, so we need to recognize this causality, and move forward according to the understanding of this causality, so now if we look at the principle of causality, to every action there is a reaction, and every reaction comes because of some action, this is in essence the law of karma, and by understanding the law of karma, actually we can become empowered and inspired to create a better destiny for ourselves, otherwise without an understanding of karma, we can become very disheartened when life goes wrong, when things turn out badly, we may end up thinking that life is just a cosmic lottery, and I’m just an unlucky guy, so life sucks, and in that way we may lose hope, but if we understand that the things that happen to us are reactions to the things that we have done in the past, this understanding, if along with that we understand that we have free will right now to choose our actions, then we can by choosing right actions now, create right reactions for us in the future, and thus create a brighter future for ourselves, so positive thinking here, how does it relate with the principle of karma, firstly when we understand the principle of karma, we understand that life is not cruel, the world is not out to get us, that actually the world is only giving us reactions to what we have done, and by changing our actions we can change our situation, we can improve our situation, and secondly by this understanding itself that we are not victims, this itself gives our positive thinking a boost, and further when we act rightly, we understand that we are going to get positive fruits, and that itself further enables us, inspires us to become positive in our action, in our intention, in our understanding, conception of life, so our activities can be classified into broadly three levels, there is karma, there is akarma, and there is vikarma, so karma is action that is done in harmony with the principles of morality, and teaching the scripture, such action enables us to move onwards steadily in our connection, in our connection with the higher principles of life, so moral actions are in karma, vikarma are immoral actions, actions done against the principles of morality, against the injunction of scripture, such actions cause bondage, such actions bring suffering as a consequence, so karma gives good reactions, vikarma gives bad reactions, and the third category of action called as akarma, akarma is not inaction, but it is action that gives no reaction, so this means that if we work for the service of God, then whatever we do, because of working on his behalf, we go beyond the law of karma, so just like a cashier may count millions of dollars, but the cashier doesn’t have to pay tax for those dollars, because the cashier understands that I am counting this on behalf of my company, a soldier may shoot during a war to protect the nation, the soldier is not considered responsible, the soldier may even get a medal of honor for having fought gallantly in the war, so similarly when we work with the pure intention for the service of God, then that action enables us to stay free from the action, this is the most auspicious action, by working as instruments of God’s compassion, we can make the highest positive contribution in this world, so thus we can actually make not just our actions positive, but even our, make not just our thoughts positive, but our actions positive, when we understand the principle of karma, and when we harmonize with the supreme by acting as his instrument, acting in our karma, thank you, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,