The karma confusion – are our problems due to our present actions or past actions?

[Talk at hall program, Sydney, Australia]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Confusion. Do our problems come from our present or our past karma? I’ll take this in three parts and if any of you have any reflections or questions after each part, you can ask them. The first part is karma is action reaction correspondence but not a one-to-one correspondence.
The second point is that better to focus on our intention than on our situation. And last part how our spirituality can help us rise beyond our karma. So, first point I’ll speak this in 4.16 and 17 in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna says किम कर्म किम कर्मेति कवयो प्यत्रमोहिता तत्ते कर्मप्रवक्षामि यज्ञात्वा मोक्षसे शुभात् कर्मणोय बुद्धव्यम् बुद्धव्यम् चवि कर्मण अकर्मणश्च बुद्धव्यम् गहना कर्मणो गति So, he says that what is action and what is reaction? It’s very difficult to understand.
Therefore, we need to understand it carefully. Actually, गहना कर्मणो गति कर्म is actually quite difficult to understand. गहन So now, when you hear the word कर्म what meaning does comes in your mind? Sorry? Action.
Anything else? Previous actions. Previous actions. More specifically, reactions.
Reactions to previous actions. Isn’t it? So, I’m suffering some bad कर्मण. That means, it’s reactions to our past actions.
Now, these are two meanings that district. First is action. Second is reaction.
Both are called, both we use the word कर्म for it. Thirdly, we also talk about the law of कर्म. We talk about the law of कर्म.
What are we referring to at that time? Not referring to action or reaction. We are referring to the action-reaction correlation. So, the word कर्म can have multiple meanings.
So, let’s focus on what we are trying to discuss here. Basically, we all live our life based on a presumption of cause-effect correlation. Of action-reaction connection.
Say, if a relative, if a child comes back home and your child has got a black eye. If your child has got a black eye, what happened? Say, nothing. I just got it by chance.
What do you mean by chance? You don’t get a black eye by chance. Something must have happened. If you fight with someone, what happened? So, whenever we see some effect, we presume there must be a cause.
Now, similarly, whenever there is an action, whenever there is an action that we do, we understand as a part of intelligence, there will be consequences. Say, if a child wants to eat too many chocolates, the child may say, I just enjoyed it. But the mother will say, no, not so many.
The tooth will get spoilt. So, we all operate based on this implicit understanding that there is a correlation between action and reaction. That if some situation has come upon us, we want to look, what caused that situation? Or if you are doing something, we also look at what is going to be the result of that in future.
So, basically, one aspect or a central aspect of intelligence is to look for cause-effect connection in things. And when a child says, very small, unintelligent, child may not see the cause-effect connection. Like say, when babies are very small, they may cry and they can’t even say why they are crying.
And the mother can see only the effect and they wonder, they have to figure out, is the belly paining? Is there some ear pain? What is that? So, when we see an effect, we try to figure out some cause. Now, normally, we do function based on this cause-effect correlation. And in some situations, in some situations, the cause-effect correlation doesn’t seem to make sense.
Sometimes, we try to figure out, why is this happening? Say, suppose the doctor tells you that you have got flu. Then you may have to try to figure out, okay, you may ask the doctor, what caused the flu? What caused the flu? Doctor may say, okay, actually, maybe there is some germ in the air right now. Had you gone somewhere? Did you meet someone who had this flu? Did you come in contact? We ask them.
Sometimes, some diseases, it’s very difficult to figure out their cause. Like say, some cancer, why people get, it’s very difficult to know. Now, sometimes, when the cause-effect connection doesn’t make sense for us, at that time, also, what do we do? We immediately, okay, got this cancer, got this disease.
Okay, what medicine can I take? Now, when we ask, okay, we don’t know what caused it, but now it is there, what medicine can I take? When we are asking what medicine I can take, that means, we are still having faith in the cause-effect principle. Okay, I don’t know what cause produced this effect, but still I know, okay, if I take this medicine, maybe that cause will produce the effect of controlling this cancer or curing this cancer. So, we cannot function without some, without an implicit faith in the cause-effect connection.
And yet, there are times when the cause-effect connection doesn’t make sense. So, what we are trying to understand today is, how can we make sense when the cause-effect connection doesn’t make sense? So, for this, the principle of karma places us in a bigger context. Bigger context means, see, every event that happens, you could frame it in different contexts.
Say, if right now I am speaking, and I get a little cough. Now, it could be because there is something in the air. It could be because I have just drunk something or it is something which is affecting me.
It could be that I have got a residual cough from before. It could be that there could be various different causes like that. So, we try to find, we try to frame an issue in the most constructive context.
Say, if I get a cough right now, I might ask for some water, I might take some anti-cough pill or something like that. But if it is happening regularly, I might consult a doctor. So, whenever we experience some effect, to deal with it, we put it in the most constructive context.
So, with this point, when some cause-effect connections don’t make sense. So, what the Bhagavad Gita tells us is that, we need to look at it in a bigger frame. Bigger frame means, another example I could take is, say, if suddenly the power goes off.
So, one frame we might put it, okay, has somebody switched off the switch by any chance? Or, another could be, has the bulb got spoiled? Another could be, has the power supply been cut off? Another could be, is there a national power breakdown? Or, is there a terrorist attack who has destroyed our power plants? You could escalate this to multiple levels. So, similarly, the Bhagavad Gita tells us that action and reaction cause and effect are correlated. But the correlation is not necessarily one-to-one.
One-to-one correlation means, action A will lead to reaction B. But, it doesn’t always happen like that. Suppose, three people are walking along the road and there’s some water. And they’re so lost in talking that they don’t notice the water over there.
And all three of them fall. And then, the first person falls, but there is an overhanging branch somewhere. They catch the branch and steady themselves.
They’re just asleep. The second person falls, and just behind, there’s a lot of mud, and there’s a little puddle. And they fall into that, and their clothes get soiled.
Nothing is their hurt, except their pride. But, the third person falls, and just behind, there is a sharp stone. There’s a sharp stone, and their head falls on the stone, and they get a hemorrhage.
Now, of course, all three are inattentive. But, the same action, very different reactions. So, why the difference? That difference, within the immediate frame, it doesn’t make sense.
In a small retention, if at all there’s a reaction, it’s a small reaction. Sometimes, small action can lead to a big reaction. So, to understand this, you need to put it in a bigger frame.
Say, at the end of a month, three people go to a supermarket chain. And all of them buy something, some small item worth a few dollars. And when they come out, all of them have to pay the bill.
And one of them is charged two dollars. Another is charged two hundred dollars. Another is charged two thousand dollars.
Hey, what’s going on? Now, then you come to know that they have a credit chain in the supermarket. And, this is the end of the month, so the bill that they’re getting is not just for their immediate purchase, but it’s for all that they have purchased throughout the month. And the first person, this is the only purchase they have made in that supermarket.
The other person has purchased goods worth two hundred dollars. And the third person has, throughout the month, purchased goods worth two thousand dollars. So, there is a cause of a correlation, but it is not one-to-one.
This purchase alone doesn’t determine the bill you’re getting. At the end of the month, the bill you’re getting may be just because of this purchase, or maybe because of all the purchases throughout the month. Similarly, for us, when we face particular situations in life, they are not just caused by our immediate actions.
Although that immediate action seems to be the cause, that is like simply the triggering cause. But beyond that, there is also another cause. Just like if somebody has a gun and they press the trigger.
Now, the trigger pressing is the initiator. But if inside there are no bullets, then nothing will happen. Or if inside there are paper bullets, then it’s fun.
If it’s a stun gun, then it might shock the person. But if it’s a machine gun with real bullets, it may kill the person. So, now, pressing the trigger is definitely a cause.
But it is not the only cause. So, similarly for us, when we do actions, and we do a particular action, and a situation comes in our life because of that. Sometimes, we just make a small mistake and we just speak one harsh word and then people hold that harsh word against us for a whole lifetime.
Sometimes, one small wrong phrase gets us into a huge amount of trouble. Have you noticed this happening sometimes? How many of you have had this experience? One small word but big, big trouble. And when this happens, it was a mistake, but a small mistake.
Why make it so big? Nowadays, in today’s age of social media, sometimes on Twitter or on Facebook, somebody can make one comment and if it’s politically incorrect, then it can just snowball. And people can get into big, big trouble. Recently, it happened that I think an Indian cricket team was here in Australia.
Some Indian cricketers made some statements which are considered offensive. And they thought they were joking but they had to be suspended from the team for some time. Sometimes, something says snowball.
Other times, they have made much more objectionable statements. But why this difference? Basically, the cause-effect connection is not a one-to-one correspondence. And it’s not a one-to-one correspondence because sometimes, the action that we do is the entire cause.
Or sometimes, the action that we do is just the trigger for some previous cause-reaction to come to us. So, that’s why karma is complicated. If it’s a simple one-to-one correlation, it won’t be that complicated.
Now, we may say, actually, why is this so bad? I make a small mistake and I get into a big, big trouble because of that. Yes, it’s like that, but we have to know that it’s not only always negative. Sometimes, you may make a big mistake and not get into much trouble because of that.
I know one devotee in New York, New Jersey, near New York, he was telling me that he wanted to go somewhere early in the morning and he was so tired, he slept, he woke up, he got into the car and started driving. And then, this fell asleep while driving. And then, finally, he just woke up and started driving for several minutes without even noticing.
And he had almost reached his destination. Sometimes, when somebody might nod off for a moment, it can be catastrophic. They say, while driving, sleep kills.
It kills sleep. Don’t sleep while driving. But sometimes, a big mistake can also, may not give any major consequence for us.
So, this non-one-to-one correspondence of action-reaction, it doesn’t always work negatively for us. Sometimes, it works positively also. Sometimes, you make a big mistake and you get away with it also.
So, the basic point is that there is a cause-effect correlation but it is not a one-to-one correspondence. So, sometimes, it may be many-to-one or it may be one-to-many. Many-to-one means many past events, like say, when we get a bill.
Then, it is a many-to-one correspondence. All the bills from the past, we are getting, we have to pay them right now. And sometimes, it may be one-to-many.
One-to-many means that we do one action but it leads to many consequences. So, that’s why the correspondence is there but it is not simply one-to-one. And that’s what sometimes makes it very complicated to understand things.
So, this is the first point about karma. That karma is a cause-effect correlation but it is not one-to-one. Any comments or questions about this? Yes, please.
How does our free will come into this? So, in the sense that depending on your past karma or the kind of karma you have made, it’s a pretty difficult situation to understand but there are ways to actually come out of it. I know there is human intervention which can be talked about. Yeah, good question.
So, where does free will come into play in this karma in action-reaction causation? Yes. Once I was in New York. So, one person was saying, actually, karma determines everything.
We have no free will. So, then I told him, okay, I don’t have free will to answer this question. No, no, please answer this question.
I don’t have free will. So, we do have free will. No doubt about it.
But what our karma does broadly is, you could say that karma determines our situation. We determine our responses to the situations. It’s like if you are driving a car, so then we might get a weather forecast it’s going to be very stormy weather.
So, karma determines, by karma we mean the past karma that we have done, the reactions to that. That will determine the weather. So, what will happen in our life, that is determined by our past karma, the situation that we get.
Of course, it’s a little more complicated because past karma also determines the kind of car that we have for driving. That means, our body-mind machine is also a product of our past karma. So, some of us may have very healthy bodies.
Some of us may have very sickly bodies. Some of us may have outstanding brains. Some of us may have outstandingly poor brains.
So, the vehicle that we get is also a result of past karma. But still, how we drive is up to us. Sometimes the weather will be stormy and the vehicle also may be a little rusty.
And if that combination, stormy weather and rusty vehicle, then if a person drives recklessly, it can lead to disaster. But, if they drive carefully, then they might even navigate through that difficult situation safely. So, we could say that past karma determines our situations, but we determine how we act in those situations.
And sometimes, the situations themselves may be very restrictive. So, we could say, past karma determines the scope over which we can act. यथा आकाशिस्तोनित्यम् वायु सर्वत्रगोमान् तथा सर्वानि भूतानि मस्थानित्य उपधारया। In 9.6, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that just as the wind, although mighty, moves within the framework of the sky, so similarly, we move within the framework of our past karma.
So, sometimes by the past karma, the framework might become very restrictive. Say, if we decide to choose this job or this job or this job, that time we have choices. But if we choose a particular job, then our framework becomes restrictive.
The kind of boss we have, the kind of colleagues we have, the kind of work pressure we have, we have to work within that. So, basically, we may think that this job is like this, but the job might turn out to be something different, some different way. But that’s just the framework we get by our past karma.
But within that, how we act is always up to us. Any other questions? Yes. So, if our psychological framework also comes from the past, then aren’t we forced to act in particular ways? We are different from our minds.
The Bhagavad Gita explains that our existence is three-dimensional. The body, the mind, and beyond that is the soul. So, to understand this, we could compare this to a computer system.
The hardware is like the body, the software is like the mind. And we, as souls, are the user of the hardware, software, and the mind. So, now, based on the kind of software we have, certain kinds of actions will come up as default in the device.
But that doesn’t mean we have to choose that. Sometimes, if you install software, usually, after you click the install button, you want to install this. Yes or no? Or wait, whatever.
Yes or no, usually. Now, some software, the default option is no. And then you have to click to yes, and then it will install.
But some software, the default option is yes. If you don’t want, you have to consciously click no. And some software, the default option is yes, but they will give you very little time.
If you don’t shift from yes to no within 10 seconds, it will automatically select yes. And it will get installed. So, like that, by our past karma, our mind, when certain options come up before us, some of those options become like default choices.
Now, we can change the default choice, but we have to be more conscientious about it. We have to be more alert about it. So, if somebody is always very pessimistic, then that person, no matter whatever situation they are in, they will always think negatively.
Some people, they can find solutions to all problems. And some people can find problems with all solutions. Now, the second mentality is not always a bad thing.
It’s because some people might be just too optimistic. I can fix this. I can fix this.
I can fix this. So, we also need people with a little critical mentality. This is not so realistic.
Have you thought about this? So, being cautious is good. But when a person always or compulsively keeps thinking negative, then that’s bad. So, as I said, for some people, when an idea comes up, the default option choice is yes.
It’s a good idea. Let’s do it. For some people, the default option is no.
I don’t think this is going to work. So, now, those people who are too optimistic, in English, the word is polyamish. Polyamish are people who are unrealistically optimistic.
So, for them, all the default option is yes. Okay, is this really going to work? Let me think about it. So, they have to they need someone to ground them.
Some people are too pessimistic. Somebody has to uplift them. Don’t be so paranoid.
Just move forward and think. So, we do have free will. But free will is when the propositions come inside us.
We have to be conscious enough to not just go along with the default proposition. So, when we have a habit, that means that is the default proposition for us. And when we have an addiction, that means the default proposition, the default option is not only already there, but it’s like very fast, it is clicked.
And it moves forward. So, yes, if we are addicted, then you could say the free will has become significantly compromised, but is never entirely lost. Even if a person is addicted, say somebody is addicted to alcohol, then when the urge comes, they just can’t say no.
There is a British thinker who said, giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I have done it over a hundred times. So, what happens, the next time, I’m going to give it up.
The next time the default option comes, they click it immediately. So, in those situations where certain attitudes are default, they may not have control when that urge comes. But still, they do have control between the urges.
When the urge to smoke comes, I have to smoke, I can’t give it up. I have to drink. But still, it’s not that the urge comes with the same intensity 24 hours a day.
It may come after 6 hours, it may come after 1 day, it may come after 3 days. What are we doing in between? We do have free will. If at that time we are gaining some knowledge, we are developing our inner strength, maybe we are practicing some spiritual practices by which we develop our own intelligence and sharpen it, then, we will be better equipped to resist the urge when it comes.
So, we always have free will even if our mind is inclined in particular ways. But based on the particular inclination of the mind, the free will may be less or more compromised. Thank you.
You had a question? Okay, good question. Okay, yeah. That’s a good point.
So, say, when we are overcharged, so when we get into a very complicated situation because of a small mistake, should we try to analyze why it happened? And what if two people one of them likes to think a lot, one of them just wants to move on. See, that’s a particular disposition each of us have. And it’s not a matter of what is good or what is bad.
We have to see what is effective. What is effective means that sometimes in our lives, when a particular complication comes up, we can try to figure out. Say, if we just we speak, we go to a get-together and we greet someone and that person snuffs us.
When that person snuffs us, we will actually feel annoyed, we will feel angry also. Why did they do that? Now, if we enquire, we might be able to find out maybe last time I did something and that upset them. So, for us to think to our capacity to look back could there be a cause that I can find out? That is helpful primarily not just to rectify the situation but also to prevent at least the recurrence of the situation.
So, yes, thinking backward to see if somehow we can make sense of things is helpful but only to a finite degree. So, we could say that actually tomorrow I am going to speak on this in the Sunday Peace class that thinking about thinking how much you think. So, simply speaking we would say that if you have a graph of time versus problem solving problem solving capacity if we don’t think about things itself then we may not get any clarity we may not learn anything.
It is said that those who don’t learn the lessons from history will have to learn it through their own experience. So, we want to think and see if there is something to learn for us. So, in that sense, the more we think about a problem, we may get greater and greater clarity.
It is like a line moves upward the graph moves upward but beyond a particular point it reaches a flat. We think, we think but we don’t get any clarity. Why did they do like that? Why did they do like that? Sometimes we keep thinking so much about other people.
I did this, why did they do that? Sometimes people are mysterious not just to others but even to themselves. Even you confront them and ask why did you do like that? Did I do like that? So, we are just wasting our damn thinking in that situation. And after some time the more we think, this graph goes down.
We have become more and more confused. So, like some people say that I was confused earlier now I am not so sure. So, if we have to ask and see what is effective is trying to trace the cause helping us gain clarity or it is simply confusing us.
So, depending on situation sometimes we can learn by analysing deeply and sometimes we just have to move on recognising that maybe this is beyond my capacity to analyse this thing at least. So, see don’t focus on what is right or wrong we all will have certain default options to see what is effective in a particular situation. So, this was the first point.
Okay, you have a question please. Okay, that’s a good question. See, sometimes if you could understand whether my situation I am getting is it because of yesterday’s karma or some distant karma or some remote karma then my understanding is that I could rectify it.
So, is it useful to try to find out? As I said, we can try to find out to our capacity. But trying to go too much into the past can be very confusing. The whole purpose of karma is not so much post-mortem as prognosis.
Post-mortem means a person has died trying to find out what is the cause. Maybe cut the body, put it into various bags and then try to find out. So, karma is rarely used for specific post-mortems.
Okay, I am in this situation you see the Ramayana, the Mahabharata when somebody goes to some difficult place the Bhagavad Purana, people will say that must be because of some past karma. I must have done some past karma because of which I am getting this situation. But very rarely do people if ever people try to go and investigate what was the karma.
It’s not so much for post-mortem because it’s very difficult to know. Even in the case of diseases. If you see suppose somebody if he had some fever we go to doctor and doctor says you have got malaria.
Now when we okay malaria, how did I get malaria? What is the common cause usually? Some of our our humanity’s oldest friend. One of humanity’s oldest friend. So, anyway mosquitoes bite us.
Now, okay if some patient says to the doctor please tell me which mosquito bit you. And where? Now, we can go to a certain level of specificity but we are finite in using. We cannot go beyond that to a very high level of specificity.
Now, if a doctor finds that there are too many people getting malaria then they may say okay is there some area where there are a lot of mosquitoes? Do we need to do some cleaning of the city? Or whatever. We might think of a generic measure but even in our day-to-day life we don’t go to an infinite level of specificity. We go to a certain level of specificity and stop over there.
So, trying to go too much into the past is not very helpful. To the extent we can with our intelligence we can. But beyond that it’s not very helpful.
Some people try to consult astrologers to try to find out and astrology today is like a big business. So, astrology basically what it does is it gives us a weather forecast. You’re going to drive on this road the weather is bad in this city.
You want to go on this road, the weather is good over here. It’s like a weather forecast. But even weather forecasts are not very reliable.
So, one of my friends, one of the devotees in our room has written a book called How to Mess Your Life with Astrology. So, we could just get the astrology. Can I have some water? Okay.
That’s fine. That’s okay. Some people outsource the responsibility for decision making to the astrologer.
What should I do in this situation? You tell me, I’ll do it. Ultimately, we are responsible. And we have to make the decision.
Sometimes, even if we know this weather is stormy, this road is stormy, but it’s a very important way to go and we still go with it. Sometimes, the road is clear, but if we drive carelessly, we may still meet with an accident. There’s no bad weather, but still we may meet with an accident.
That’s why, trying to go too much into that post-mortem mode is not very helpful. Use our intelligence as much as we can, but focus on prognosis. Prognosis basically means that we understand that we are responsible for our actions.
Actions will have consequences. And even if we don’t see the consequences immediately, they are going to be there. Just as we are reaping some consequences of actions that we don’t know.
Similarly, the actions that we are doing, we may not know the consequences are going to be there. We may not see the consequences coming right now, but the consequences are going to come. So therefore, we have to be careful about our actions.
That’s the broad essential principle that I can focus on in Karma. So, Karma knowledge, otherwise we can get obsessed with the past. And that’s not very helpful.
So, this was the first point. I spoke that Karma is action-reaction correlation, but not a one-to-one correspondence. So, the second point, I partly addressed it in the question and answer, but the point was that focus on your intention, not on your situation.
That means, that when we are in a particular place in our lives, say, we get some small mistake, but we are going to be in big trouble because of that. Rather than, why is this situation happening to me? What is my intention right now? Is my intention to try to make things better? Or, what is my intention simply to feel better by pushing the responsibility to someone else? By blaming someone else? Many times, people try to find a scapegoat. Whenever the problems come, it says that success has many parents, and failure is an orphan.
So, what happens is that when we face particular situations, and especially when it seems to be disproportionate. We have done no mistake or we have done a small mistake, and big problems have come. At that time, it’s very easy to become resentful.
Why is this happening? Why is this happening? And, resentment is utterly unhelpful. Going back to the car metaphor, driving a car metaphor, being resentful is like driving a car with the brake pressed. Everything that we do is just a waste.
We steer the car, if the brake is pressed, nothing moves forward. Like that, sometimes, when some situation comes in our life, it’s just so frustrating. It’s so unexpected.
So, we could say, we feel it’s so undeserving. I didn’t do anything like this. Why is this happening? So, we get caught in that why.
Once we get caught in that why is this happening? It shouldn’t be happening. That can just freeze us. Krishna says, Krishna says, when the mind becomes infected by ignorance, then the mind keeps replaying things that have already got over.
That is, to keep fighting battles that are already lost is to be lost. If something has happened already, it’s over. Okay, that mistake happened or this situation came up.
It’s over now. We can’t rewrite the past. To keep fighting battles from the past, it is just useless.
Okay, let’s move on. Now, what can I do? So, rather than worrying so much of the situation, let’s focus on our intention. Now, intention means, am I trying to am I trying to blame someone or am I trying to make things better? If we don’t get this right, the difficulties, they can make us, either difficulties can make us bitter or they can make us better.
It’s up to us. The difficulty has come. We can’t do much about it.
Some people infer, when the bad situations come in their life, my destiny is only wrong. Everything that I do goes wrong. Nothing works in my life.
Maybe I must have done a lot of bad karma in the past. Maybe my whole life is ruined. Now, one thing about karma is that nothing is permanent.
The good times in our life are temporary and the bad times are also temporary. So, when we talk about karma, it’s important that we use it to recognize that we can by our actions create a better future for ourselves. We just focus on I must have done something bad, that’s why bad things are happening in my life.
We think like that, we are actually not making anything positive, we are only making things negative. That’s why there’s a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge means to know that tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom means to know that tomato should not be put in a fruit salad. So, theoretical knowledge is not enough. So, the idea of karma, it can work in both ways.
So, if I have done something, if I am in a very bad situation, I can think I must have done terrible karma in the past, that’s why I am suffering. I don’t know how much bad karma I have done. I don’t know how much bad suffering is going to come in my life.
Maybe my whole life is going to be filled with suffering. My life is ruined. My life is useless.
So, that is like putting tomato in the fruit salad. But the whole purpose of karma is not to blame ourselves, but to take responsibility for ourselves. What do I mean by take responsibility for ourselves? It means that, okay, I am in a bad situation right now.
I must have done something in the past because of which it has happened. But, my actions matter. And, by doing good actions right now, I can create a better future for myself.
And understanding this is actually very simple. If we are in a very bad situation right now, no matter how bad a situation we are in, we can always make it worse. You may say, who wants to make it worse? I am already in a bad situation.
No, that’s not the point. Nobody wants to make it worse. But the point is that if we can make it worse, that means we are not completely powerless.
If we can make it worse, that means we can make it better also. So, no matter even if we are going to a very bad situation, instead of focusing on the situation, focus on the intention. Am I just beating myself down, blaming myself, blaming others, blaming destiny, blaming karma? Or, am I taking responsibility? If we take responsibility, we can move forward.
In whatever situation we are in, we can create a better future for ourselves. As I said earlier, karma, bad karma that might be facing some problems in our lives, that is like a, it’s nothing in the world is permanent. It’s a phase.
So, we could say that the difficulty that we are going through right now, it is like a dark phase in our life. But the darkness is the darkness of a tunnel, not the darkness of a dungeon. A dungeon is where you are permanently trapped with nowhere to escape.
A tunnel, it’s dark, but if you keep walking, keep walking, you won’t come out of the tunnel. So, similarly, so, is our, if we are going through some difficulty, right now, the title of this was the karma confusion, title of this class was. So, are our problems because of our present actions or our past actions? So, as I said, sometimes the present action, the problem that will result are disproportionate or not commensurate with the actions that we have done, then we could say that there is some past karma involved with it.
So, it’s because of a combination of past and present karma. So, sometimes the present karma might be 1%, the past karma might be 99%. And sometimes the past karma might be 99% and the present karma, present karma might be 99% and the past karma might be just 1%.
So, the exact combination may vary. But the important thing is that we can always take responsibility for our actions. And this is where our power lies in all situations.
So, if we understand that the principle of karma is not for blaming ourselves or for blaming anyone, it is for taking responsibility. So, focus on our intention. What can I do in this situation right now? What do I want to do? Do I just want to feel sorry for myself? Do I want to be resentful and make things worse? Or do I want to make things better? Actually, when you hear it this way, it makes it very simple.
Who wants to be resentful? But actually, taking responsibility is work. Blaming is a shortcut. Or playing the victim.
That is also a shortcut. Oh, you know, this person betrayed me. This person did like this.
Oh, life is so bad. The economy is so bad. People are so bad.
There was a philosopher. You could say, fool-off-hopper. Not a philosopher.
He was asked, do you believe in hell? They thought that he was an atheist. He obviously doesn’t believe in hell. He said, yes.
What is hell? He said, hell is other people. So, he had so many bad experiences with people. He was so suspicious about relationships.
He said, the other people are hell. So, he almost became like a misanthrope. Hating all of humanity.
Now, it’s easy to play the victim. To become resentful. But, it is utterly unhelpful.
So, if we focus on our intentions, then, the principle of karma can be empowering. If we focus on our situation, the principle of karma will appear disempowering. I repeat this point.
If we focus on our situation, because the situation is not in our control, the principle of karma will seem to be disempowering. Oh, I don’t know what all bad karma I have done. I don’t know how long it’s going to last.
How long the situation is going to go on, I don’t know. So, focusing on the situation, the principle of karma will seem disempowering. But, focusing on our intention, if there is an action-reaction correlation, that means, right now, if I do the right action, I will get a good result in the future.
Maybe immediately, maybe in the distant future. But, I will get it. So, if we focus on our intention, the principle of karma becomes empowering.
And that’s why I said, when we are going through situations, focus on the situation, focus on the intention. This was the second point. Any questions or comments about this? Yeah.
When you say, we should not think too much of the situation, my question is, how do we understand our mistakes to correct them, right? And the second thing is that I have understood Krishna teaches teaches by giving some difficulties. So, because we are like a kid for him, so, by making the situation be difficult for us, so, we will try to focus on Krishna, towards Krishna, try to celebrate Krishna, try to find whatever our bad things, our mistakes we have done. So, I don’t think what mistakes I have done, then how do I… Okay, good question.
So, if we don’t consider what mistakes we have done, then how do we learn? Learning happens at multiple levels. Not all learning is conscious and volitional. It’s like, say, I am right now speaking English, but if you ask me, when exactly did I learn the English alphabet? I don’t remember that.
When did I learn English grammar? I don’t remember that. So, there is much learning that has happened at a subconscious level. So, when we are driving on a road, if you are in India, you drive on one side, if you are in America, you may drive on the other side.
Now, initially it’s conscious contemplation, but afterwards subconsciously it happens. So, it’s not necessary that every situation needs to have a consciously learned lesson. Some situations can happen.
That’s why I said that we have to see whether thinking is helping or not helping. So, sometimes we can make out, okay, I made this mistake and that’s what led to this whole issue. So, let me be careful with it.
But sometimes it might not be any mistake on our part, but still the issue has come up. So, we have to see whether, again, it is effective. And as far as what Krishna wants to teach us, again, sometimes the lesson is simply that we need to raise our consciousness to a spiritual level.
Not anything specific that we have to learn about a particular course correction. So, we don’t have to worry too much about that. So, applying this principle of karma inside your corporate environment, I’ll give you a scenario.
If you are in a managerial position, you tend to deal with a lot of politics and sometimes the politics can be really gross and detrimental and it can lead to loss of a job either yours or somebody else’s as well. So, in this situation, to protect your own self, you have to stand up and fight. Right? So, that is your reaction to the situation for your own protection.
But sometimes it can lead into feeling of guilt because the environment itself is so hostile that you do something and then feel bad about it. So, how do you compute the degree of your reaction? How do you actually decide what should be the degree of your reaction so that you protect yourself at the same time you don’t get into the mold of guilt? Okay. Good question.
So, sometimes in a political environment, we have to fight but when we fight, we may feel guilty. So, how do we protect ourselves but not overreact so much that we start feeling guilty because of that? That’s one. And also, what is a benchmark to define that this reaction is appropriate Okay.
How do we decide which reaction is appropriate? Broadly, the Bhagavad Gita is a realistic book. It is not just an idealistic book. So, it says that in 18.45-46, Parajanakrishna analyzes how we function in the world and he says that in this world, whatever we do, there are faults with it.
And it is like, the example, whenever we light a fire, along with the fire, smoke will come. So, with every work, there is some fault. So, don’t just give up the world because the fault is there.
You see, in the Mahabharata, in the Pandavas, they were subjected to so much political conspiracy against them by the Kauravas. And they had to deal with it. So, if we are in a particular situation, we have to be pragmatic.
Pragmatic means practically intelligent. How to move forward. Now, there could be three broad modes of functioning.
We could call them as passive, aggressive and assertive. So, passive means, whatever anyone does, what can I do? We just resign ourselves to our fate and do nothing about it. That is unhealthy.
People will walk over us and eventually, we will become very pessimistic, resentful, bitter. That is, in the Bhagavad Gita, three modes of material nature, sattva, rajas, tamas. Goodness, passion, ignorance.
So, being passive is in the mode of ignorance. Being aggressive is in the mode of passion. You did this to me, so I will do that to you.
You do this, I do that. So, it is simply, we start a chain of action-reaction that just keeps multiplying. Sometimes, there are vendetta wars that happen between dynasties.
You know, one family, the child is, some person is injured and then they hit back and they kill a child, kill a young man, this person. And they go and kill ten people in that family. And they come and kill a hundred people in this family.
And then they kill a thousand people in that tribe. And then they blow up this whole tribe. So, it is escalated endlessly.
So, being aggressive is also undesirable. But being assertive means being purpose-centered. Purpose-centered means, okay, what am I here for? I will have to get this job done.
And this person is coming in the way of this job. This person is coming in the way. Then, I will have to stand up and protect my purpose.
So, I am, if I take a stand and I am fighting, I am not fighting primarily against them. I am fighting for the purpose which is important. And if for that purpose I need to fight, yes, I will fight.
You see, in the Bhagavad Gita, the whole Bhagavad Gita is spoken in a sense, before the Kurukshetra war, Arjuna was confused, should I fight or not fight? And Krishna tells him, through the Bhagavad Gita, that he should do his duty, which is fighting at that particular time. The Bhagavad Gita is not a call to war. It is a call to dutifulness.
And the dutifulness, the duty at that particular exceptional situation happens to be war. But even in that situation, Krishna tells in 11.55 in the Bhagavad Gita, that Arjuna, you do your work, but how do you do your work? mat-karma-kruna-mat-paramo mat-bhakta-saṅga-varjitaḥ nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu yah samāmeti pāṇḍaḥ So he says, nirvairah sarva-bhuteshu Do not have any animosity towards anyone. You can fight, but don’t treat them as your enemies.
You are not fighting against someone, you are fighting for Dharma. Your purpose is to establish Dharma. And if somebody is opposing Dharma, you have to fight against them.
But don’t be inimical. We may be functionally fighting against someone, but internally we don’t have to be hostile or inimical towards them. So being assertive means standing up for a cause.
Being aggressive means getting into a personal agenda of settling scores. So we don’t want to become aggressive, we don’t want to become passive, we need to be assertive. And as far as understanding in a particular situation, what is the limit, we ourselves have to see how we function the best.
Again, this is determined by effectiveness. So sometimes, for some people, you just, like some dogs, they show their teeth and some thieves run away. The dogs don’t have to go and bite, but just showing their teeth is enough.
Some of the dogs don’t have to show their teeth, they have to bark. Sometimes they have to chase. Sometimes they may have to bite.
But we have to, with experience, understand what is adequate. We don’t have to go excessive, but by experience we learn what is enough. And that’s how we move forward.
Okay. Okay, please. In Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna that, so, when, let’s say, for example, when people eat meat, the people who are killing and eating, they have to go to something of that animal.
But they are also creating their own karma. How does this, the wording of Krishna apply in our real life? Okay. So, Krishna tells Arjuna that, you are simply the nimitta, I have to stand everything.
And our people who are killing animals, are they also, the animals are being killed because of their own karma, and the people are the nimitta. But then, people are the instrument. But then, they are also creating their karma.
So, how does all this work in our lives? That’s why, it’s complicated. But, there are some important points over here. Krishna doesn’t say that, I have to stand everything.
Not everything. What he says is that, Krishna determines the consequences of actions. So, it’s like, if somebody is a 10-storey building, Krishna doesn’t determine that they will jump off, and they will break their bones or commit suicide.
But, if they jump off, then what is going to happen is determined. See, by Krishna’s arrangement, actions have consequences. But, we may forget gravity, but gravity won’t forget us.
But, but, we are not forced by gravity. We choose. It’s not that if I am standing on the ground, standing on the 10th storey, the gravity is not going to pull me down.
If I come out, then I am pulled down. Say, recently, two Boeing airplanes crashed, and then all that particular brand of Boeing has been pulled down. Now, suppose Boeing comes out, they are investigating, why did these planes crash? Suppose Boeing does an investigation, and they say, the planes crashed because of gravity.
That is no explanation. Gravity is always there. Planes are meant to fly, despite gravity.
So, when Krishna is saying, that I have destined, what has he destined? He is saying, that the Kauravas, they have done such grievous misdeeds, that they need to be penalized. And their penalty is already determined by me. Now, if you fight, you will get the credit of establishing Dharma.
But if you don’t fight, their penalty will come in their own way. In some other way, it will come. If Krishna has said, everything is destined, then why is he even speaking the Bhagavad Gita to tell Arjuna to fight the war? Even Arjuna’s fighting would be destined.
But the whole Bhagavad Gita is spoken, so that Arjuna can choose to act responsibly. So, everything is not destined. What is destined is, certain actions will have certain consequences.
But, what actions we do is not destined. So, now Krishna is telling Arjuna, in that context, that don’t think that by not fighting the war, you will save their lives. Because they have already done such grievous activities, that they have been punished.
So, you are not fighting, will not save them from the penalty. That’s the point. But now you decide, whether you want to act responsibly as a Kshatriya, or you don’t want to act responsibly.
You can be an instrument, or you can choose to not be my instrument. But your not being an instrument, will not stop the reactions coming to you. Now, with this understanding, we look at say, animals being slaughtered.
We really, we have to focus, this is going to be my last point, which I will come to briefly, that we, our focus has to be always not on what is other people’s karma. It has to focus on, we have to focus on what is our dharma. Not on what is other people’s karma, but what is on our dharma, what is our duty.
So, if we start focusing on small situations on other people’s karma, we could become, we could become either monstrous, or at least monstrously insensitive. What do you mean by monstrously insensitive? Say, if a baby is crying. If a baby is crying.
Should the mother think, baby is crying because of past karma? No. What is the mother’s duty? What is the parent’s duty? Take care of the baby. But sometimes, although the mother takes care of the baby, still the baby keeps crying.
Maybe she has got some painful disease because of which she is crying. That time you can say, okay, something more is going on. But my duty is to try to take care of the baby.
So, now, it could be that those animals are destined to die. But, those who slaughter those animals, they are not thinking that I am giving the destiny to those animals. They are simply thinking, I am earning my living by this.
And because they are earning well, they are inflicting a lot of pain to others, they are going to get the karma for that. They are going to get the karma for that. So, now, is those animals destined to be slaughtered? We can’t really say that so clearly.
Because we live in a very artificial society right now. Some people say that, oh, if you don’t eat meat, then animals will overrun the world. Well, you know, it’s a good attempt at an argument.
It’s not even an argument because the animals that are slaughtered are not growing in the wilderness and taking over the jungles. The animals that are slaughtered, they are cultivated like vegetables in factory farms. So, they are grown to be killed, to be slaughtered.
So, if we human beings had not grown in the factory farms, they would not be in that condition at all. So, if we start going into what is whose karma, we can justify horrible things also. We have to focus on what is our dharma.
What is my duty in this situation? And we act accordingly. Okay? So, let me just complete one last point and then we can have a few questions after that. So, as I said, the first point I spoke was that karma is not a one-to-one correspondence.
Second point is, amid difficulties, focus not on the situations, focus on your intention. And last point is, our spirituality can raise us above our situations. It raises ultimately above our karmic situations.
How does that happen? What does spirituality actually mean? For some people spirituality means, oh, when I go to a place, I feel good about it. I feel very good. Okay, that good feeling can be a part of spirituality.
The Bhagavad Gita also explains spirituality is a level of reality. Spirituality is not just a state of mind, it is a level of reality. It is like, I said, hardware, software and user.
So, body, mind and soul. The soul is spiritual reality. So, if we consider say a three-story building.
In that three-story building, there is a ground level. Actually, some countries have ground level, some countries have level one. What do you call over here? Ground level.
Then level one, level two? Okay, in America it is level one, level two, level three. There is no ground level. So, if you have ground level, level one, level two.
So, three levels are there. Now, the ground level is like physical reality. The level one is like mental reality.
The level two is like spiritual reality. So, suppose there is a flood and there is a storm. Now, the water is rising, rising.
The water is covering the ground level. You might get very… Say, from the first level, the first level is there, but there is like, it’s a complete open air. The wind is flowing so much that actually sometimes the first level can be more chilly, more stormy than the ground level also.
But the first, second level, the second level is well insulated. It’s protected. So, similarly for us, when we face difficulties, it’s like a flood coming at the physical level.
And, the mental level is the mind. Sometimes the mind gets more agitated. So, we face a problem and sometimes the mind is complaining about the problem.
It’s a bigger problem than the problem itself. Like, suppose the weather becomes very hot. Now, some people, right from the morning, they wake up and they just keep replaying the same track.
And, after you hear it 10, 15, 20 times, the heat doesn’t annoy you as they’re saying it’s so hot. So, similarly, our mind is like that. Our mind is a complainer.
It keeps complaining. It’s so terrible. And thus, it makes the problems worse.
So, we could say that there is a flood at the ground level and, along with the flood, there is a storm at the first level. So, at the mind’s level also, we are disturbed. But, if we understand that spirituality is not just a state of mind, it is a level of reality, we rise to the level 2. The level 2 is completely protected.
Then, although there is a flood and there is a storm, in level 2, we feel safe. We feel secure. So, the spiritual level of reality is where we can raise our consciousness by our spiritual practices.
So, spirituality can refer to a state of mind. It can also refer to a level of reality. Spirituality also refers to the process by which we can rise from the ground level to the first level and the second level.
So, there are many processes of spirituality. The Bhagavad Gita recommends Bhakti Yoga as the most potent. Mayi Sarvani Karmani You just devote yourself to me and you will come to me.
So, Krishna lifts us up. So, when the flood comes at the ground level, if we can raise our consciousness to the second level, we will feel secure. There will be a flood still, there will be a storm still, but we will be safe.
So, what our spirituality does is, it helps us gain security within by understanding that we as souls are eternal, that we as souls are parts of God and God is ultimately in control. Krishna is so expert that all the bad things may be happening and even we may have made mistakes because of which bad things have happened. But Krishna can bring good even out of the bad.
So, when we rise to the spiritual level of consciousness, we take shelter in Krishna. We chant his holy names, we hear his kirtans, we hear his message, we hear his fast chants, we pray to him. By this our consciousness rises to the third level.
And there, we experience peace, we experience calm, clarity. And then, even if the storm goes on, there is no storm inside us that is making things worse. Krishna can bring good things in and out of the bad.
So, we may have done many bad karmas in the past, but if we take shelter of Krishna now, Krishna says, I will give you the intelligence to make good decisions. So, we connect ourselves with Krishna. We, as we absorb ourselves in Krishna, by our past karma, the storm will be there, the flood may be there, but we stay secure.
We get a secure place during that time. And eventually, the storm and the flood will subside. And then, we will be able to move forward again.
So, for us, what Krishna, what our Krishna consciousness, our spiritual advancement does is, it raises us above the situations created by our past karma. And thus, it gives us inner security. So, I earlier talked about overthinking about the problem and making things worse.
So, if we have made a habit of thinking about Krishna, that is the karma that we can do right now. Thinking about Krishna is not the activity that we can do right now. And by that, we can create an attachment to Krishna.
The more we habituate ourselves to, say, meditating on him, hearing about his wisdom, then, the more thinking about him will become easier and habitual and relishable. And when we create that habit, in the storm, we won’t panic. We’ll rise up.
We’ll rise up and we’ll have security over there. To conclude, one example that Krishna is like the ultimate GPS. See, we may have made many mistakes.
Say, suppose you are driving. And the GPS says, turn left. And we turn right.
Then what does GPS do? It recalculates. It recalculates. Does the GPS say, you didn’t obey me? Get lost.
The GPS never does that. The GPS immediately readouts. So, similarly for us, Krishna is like the ultimate GPS.
Now, we may make wrong choices. We may have made wrong choices in the past. But Krishna won’t hold it against us.
In whatever situation we are in, no matter how many wrong turns we may have taken, right now we can take a right. If we turn towards Krishna, Krishna is there to guide us. And, by his guidance, we will get help in two ways.
One is, we will get relief amidst problems. And then we will get relief from problems. Relief amidst problems means, when a storm is there, the flood is there, but if we connect with Krishna, then we rise to the second level.
So that we don’t feel so disturbed. That we have some calmness. We have some confidence.
The problem is there, but we get relief amidst the distress. And then eventually, the storm will go. We will get relief from distress also.
And thus, turning towards Krishna and taking shelter of him is the best foundation for us to deal with whatever difficulties we might be in. That is not a substitute for practically dealing with the difficulties. But sometimes there’s practically very little we can do.
And whatever little we can do, our agitated mind prevents us from doing it. So if we first take shelter of Krishna, first connect ourselves with Krishna, rise to the second level, and then we look down and we deal with the situation. So sometimes we just try to fix the problem first and if it doesn’t fix, we turn towards Krishna.
That’s okay. At least we’re turning towards Krishna. But if we turn towards Krishna first, pray to him, take shelter of him, get that inner security and clarity, and then deal with the problem.
We’ll be able to deal with it much better. So whatever we may have done by our past karma, it doesn’t matter. Krishna is always with us.
And Krishna will help us move through that. Whatever karma may get us through, Krishna will get us through. Whatever karma may get us through, Krishna will get us through.
So I’ll summarize. I spoke today on this theme of the karma confusion. Do all our problems because of our present actions or past actions? So I talked three points.
The first was that action and reaction are correlated but it’s not a one-to-one correlation. And I explained through various examples. Say somebody slips and falls, but different magnitude of injury happens.
So somebody is given a bill but the bill will be $2, $20, $200, based on how much $2, $200, $1000, based on how much they have purchased with it. So similarly, action and reaction are always correlated. Even if we can’t make sense of the correlation, I don’t know why I got cancer, but still we still believe in action-reaction.
What medicine can I take? And that cause will have the effect of curbing or curing the disease. So we always implicitly accept action-reaction correlation and when we can’t make sense of the action-reaction correlation in the immediate context, then we have to put it in a bigger framework. Bigger frame of reference is the soul is eternal and the soul can be carrying some karma from a previous life also.
So by this, we can, by understanding that there is no one-to-one correlation, we can avoid getting obsessed over the situation itself. That brought us to the second point that amidst difficulties, focus not on the situation, focus on the intention. Focusing on the situation may make us feel, oh this is a playing a victim.
Feel sorry for ourselves. And the karma narrative, karma philosophy can also play into that. Thinking, oh I must have done terrible karma and this is going to ruin my life.
No. Whatever difficulty we are in, it is like a tunnel, not a dungeon. No karma is permanent.
Therefore, if we focus on our intention, that means do I want to just blame others or blame myself or do I want to take responsibility? We always can choose our actions. We can’t choose our situations, but we can choose our actions. So karma may determine the weather, karma may determine the car we have, but we determine how we drive.
So by focusing on our intentions and trying to take responsibility for our situations, we can create a better future no matter how dark our present is. And the third point I said is, by our spirituality we can rise above our karmic situations. We talked about this three level building.
So by our past karma, a flood may come at the physical level, that’s the ground level. A storm may also come at the mental level. Sometimes that storm is more problematic than the flood was.
Sometimes the mind’s complaining about a problem is a bigger problem than the problem itself. But either way, if we can rise to the spiritual level, spirituality is not just a state of mind, it is a level of reality. And there is a process for rising that level of reality.
So by the practice of bhakti yoga, if we rise to the level two, that is where there is security and safety. So we can, by practicing spirituality, raise our consciousness to the spiritual level and experience core security. Security in us.
And especially if you practice bhakti yoga for rising upwards, then we also understand that Krishna is in control. And Krishna is so expert that even through our mistakes, He can keep acting and keep guiding us. Like a GPS round turn, you can still get us back on track.
So, by taking a shelter of Krishna, by directing our consciousness towards Krishna with difficulties, we will first get relief amidst distress. And eventually we will get the security and the clarity to deal with the issue by which we will also get release from the distress. So whatever karma may get us through, Krishna will get us through.
Thank you very much. Do we have time for questions? Any other questions? Okay. So, if we kill pests in our home such as spiders or cockroaches, do we get karma? There is the principle of Jeevo Jeevasya Jeevanam.
What Darwin talked about. The world is a brutal place. It’s like a jungle where survival of the fittest is there.
So one living being will often pray for another living being. In some ways, killing is unavoidable. I was at a medical conference recently where they asked me to speak about karma in the world of medicine.
So I was telling that if you want to think of it in that way, a doctor who gives antibiotics to a patient, a doctor is like a cold blooded murderer. Because we are planning systematically to kill all the germs in the body. But then what do you do? If you don’t kill those germs, the germs will kill you.
So, we can’t be paranoid. We have to focus not so much on dreading. I don’t want to do bad karma.
We have to focus on doing our dharma. So a doctor’s dharma is to save the patient’s life. And certainly, wherever killing is avoidable, we should always avoid it.
But in some situations, it is unavoidable. Now with respect to pests, it depends on how many and how troublesome they are. It’s best if we could prevent it.
Say, if we keep the house clean, and by that we can avoid the pests, that’s the best. But if we can’t, and the pests are troubling us, they are multiplying, then what can you do? Will we get karma for it? Yes, we will. But every single action has its own karma associated with it.
Walking on the road, we might step on some ants. So we can’t just keep fearing and dreading and trying to avoid bad karma. The focus should be on trying to do our dharma.
So, if we try to do bhakti, then that can also raise the law of karma. It’s best if you can prevent and avoid it. But sometimes it’s just not possible.
As I said, the world is a place which is filled with problems, with faults. So all endeavors are covered with faults. So we sometimes have to know the need for it.
But prevention is always better than elimination. Yes, please. You always explain that group karma, for instance, you mentioned about the two aircrafts and a group of people are flying or something, is it a karma that we are wrong here? How is it? So, is there something called group karma, say a whole plane crashes and all the people in that plane die? Or say now all of us are here together.
Is this because of some group karma? There is the understanding that there are multiple, all of us have done multiple levels of karma. That means that, see, if we consider a karma water tank. Karma is like a water tank.
So, there is some water we have already stored in it. There is some water that is going in and some water that is coming out. So now all of us have a karma tank in which there is some reservoir of good karma, some reservoir of bad karma.
Some stock of good and bad karma is there. Now how this good and bad karma comes upon different people at different times, that is karmana dahi vaneti, that is broadly determined by destiny. So, if say people die together in some mass casualty like a or a mass disaster like an airplane crash, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all of them have done the same identical karma because of which all of them are getting that situation.
We have to understand that they may all have done different karmas but karma is like a stockpile. So that part of the stockpile of karma gets exhausted when, by what is proportionate to their particular loss of this body that they have. The soul is eternal but the soul when we die, the soul gets separated from this body.
So, yes, there is a principle of mass karma but mass karma doesn’t mean that everybody who is in that situation has done the same karma. We all have done different quantities of we all have done various karmas and that stockpile, from that sometimes at one moment a large withdrawal may happen by which a large number of people might suffer. Now having said this, we have to also understand that there is an immediate cause and we are going to address the immediate cause.
So, if there is a technical flaw in the flight, then it’s not that we can say it’s because of the past karma. We have to address issues at this level as much as possible. And if they are not addressable at this level, then we can understand that maybe there is something from the past.
So, yes, people who suffer in a mass disaster, there is something called mass karma. Now, all of us who have come here, is it because of mass karma? Yeah. At one level, the opportunity to practice spirituality, that is not necessarily coming because of past karma.
That comes because of Krupa. So, whenever you want to grow spiritually, there are two things. There is fortune and there is intelligence.
To get the opportunity to practice spirituality, that is a matter of fortune. To take the opportunity is intelligence. So, now, our past karma can make us inclined towards spirituality.
Or our past karma can make us disinclined towards spirituality. But our past karma doesn’t determine whether we become spiritual or not. It’s up to our choice.
And if we get the opportunity, that’s mercy. So, I wouldn’t say our coming here necessarily is mass karma. Because we are coming to Krishna as the master.
Any other questions? Yes, please. Okay. So, if we work in a particular place where other people may be eating meat or we may have to serve meat if we are in a supermarket or a hotel or something like that.
So, what do we do at that time? It’s more important to be Krishna conscious than to be karma conscious. Now, one part of being Krishna conscious is also to be karma conscious. Because karma is also the principle that has been given by Krishna.
But if we become too conscious of karma, we can become very insensitive. If we are dealing with people, if somebody is eating meat, we can’t be discourteous to them. We have to be polite to them.
If we happen to be in a job where meat is being served and we have to sell it or serve it or whatever, if we can avoid and change that job, that’s good. But if we can’t, there is karmic implication that comes when we work in particular situations. But that karmic implication also depends on how directly we are involved in it.
If somebody is eating meat, they are involved in it. If somebody is killing the animal, they are also involved in it. Now, if somebody is directly killing, they can see the animal suffering at times.
That is certainly much more serious karma. Some people just in the culture, they just grew up eating meat. They don’t even know where meat comes from.
They don’t even know that animals are slaughtered. So, they are also getting some karma. But they are not conscious of it.
And how much we are conscious of also determines how accountable we are for some things. So, there are different degrees of implication depending on how much we are associated with something. If we could avoid getting involved in those things, that’s good.
But if we can’t, then we try to make sure that at least we keep ourselves pure and we practice our bhakti seriously. Generally, jobs that involve direct violence, direct killing of animals, at least that devotees should not do. But by the extended chain of connections, we can be, every one of us can be implicated.
Because we are all living in a contaminated environment. So, we focus more on being Krishna conscious. Say, suppose somebody has a job like that.
And they say, this is a terrible job, I won’t take the job. And say, this job is reasonable, they are earning good amount, they don’t have to work too much. And they take some job which is very far away.
And they have to travel a lot. And it’s very stressful. And then they can’t practice bhakti at all.
Then, they will be avoiding the karma, but they are going away from Krishna also. So, it’s more important to be Krishna conscious than to be karma conscious. And you don’t have to be paranoid.
See, karma is not like a mysterious contagious disease that is about to pounce on us. Karma is logical. It is not diabolical.
Karma is logical, not diabolical. So, if we are working with the best of our intentions, doing what we can responsibly, trying as much as possible to avoid bad karmic activities, then, karma is not going to be diabolically victimizing us. Thank you.
Yes. Prabhu, the time of birth of a child has a birth chart and some influences. So, is it some karmic influences of stars? Because nowadays we see, due to modern technology of cesarean, people decide the birth of their child in a particular order, so that he is not hungry and so on.
So, how does that karmic creation still come in? How does it affect the stars? Okay. So, in, say, the karmic influence of the stars is determined by by what moment we are born. So, if we can control or predict that moment, and people change that moment so that they can avoid bad influences, then, how is karma playing out over there? Okay.
So, first let’s understand, what do we mean by the influence of the stars? See, the stars, astrology is a complicated subject, I don’t want to go into it in details, but, broadly speaking, what the dharmic texts explain is that we live in a multi-level cosmos that is interconnected, deeply interconnected. So, now the kinds of interconnections may be so subtle that we may not understand. Say, like, a doctor may see a person and then they see that, okay, oh, you are anemic.
We might just see the person and say that, oh, your nails are white. So, the doctor sees more, same thing, but they see more because they have more knowledge. So, they can see, we can see the color of the nails, the color of the skin, but they can see much more because they have knowledge.
So, they can see a connection over there. So, like that, knowledge enables us to see connections. So, now, when we say that person is monolithic or whatever, that doesn’t mean that that particular celestial object is the cause of suffering.
Rather, it is our own past karma that is coming to us. And the broad pattern of how the karma is going to come to us, that is indicated by the position of certain celestial objects. So, now, if we adjust our birth so that the celestial objects are not in an unfavorable position, we are not changing our karma.
All that we are doing is, we may be changing the way the karma will manifest in our life. Because we have free will right now. So, by our free will, we can change certain things.
And as through technology we get more control, we might be able to control certain things more than what we were able to control in the past. But, it’s not that somebody… we cannot trick karma. So, it’s like, you know, you come at, if you are born one minute later, oh, you know, Mars is going to ruin your life.
And you use technology to be born one minute earlier and now you have escaped all your karma. You cannot do like that. But, so, it’s more of a readjustment of how karma might manifest in our life.
It is a change of the karma itself. So, one last question? Okay. Does anyone not want to ask a question? Yes, please.
He said that the result of karma is predestined and no one can change it. But, if somebody is practicing Krishna Consciousness, Krishna is to take care of that person. So, does he alter the result of karma he said, or he gives that person more confidence to get through that process? Okay, good question.
So, if you practice Krishna Bhakti, how does, exactly does it alter our karma? Okay. See, at the first level, Bhaktivinoda Thakura is a prominent acharya in our tradition. And he explains that there is prarabdha karma.
Prarabdha karma is the karma that we are already going through. Like I said, karma will determine our car and karma will determine our weather. But we determine how we drive.
So, we could say the particular body that we have, that is determined by our karma. So, some people may have a very attractive face. And some people may not have a very attractive face.
Now, just because somebody becomes a devotee, their face is not going to change. Whatever body that we have, that is the installment of, that is one installment of karma which can’t change. But, our face may not change, but the expression on our face can change.
We can be resentful, we practice bhakti, we become cheerful. Sometimes even a very attractive person, if they are resentful, they don’t look very attractive. And sometimes a person who is not very attractive also, if they are cheerful, that itself brings attractiveness to it.
So, the prarabdha karma, in terms of the kind of body that we have, that itself can’t be changed. But, there are also layers that the mind can be changed significantly. And, how does Krishna help us? We could say that Krishna helps us in multiple ways.
One is, first of all, Krishna gives us the knowledge to Bhagavata that what kind of karma, what kind of consequences. By that, we will not do further bad karma. Not only that, Krishna gives us purification through bhakti, through the higher taste.
Sometimes, we know this is bad, but we can’t give it up. When we practice bhakti, then we get the higher taste. So, at least, we don’t create further bad karma.
That is itself a big help. And as far as the past karmic reactions that are coming to us, Krishna can help in both ways. One is, he relieves amidst problems.
The problem comes, but Krishna gives us the strength to resist it. Krishna raises us above. It’s like, say, if a person, a mother or a teacher is beating a child.
You are not doing your homework, a stick is being beaten. The stick comes and hits, but the child is wearing a thick glove. Then, I saw, say, the mother knows that it is a stick and the child has not done the homework.
So, the child is going to be beaten with the stick in the hand. Nowadays, of course, teachers don’t beat like that, but consider the hypothetical situation. So, now, the mother doesn’t want the child to be punished.
But at the same time, the mother doesn’t want the child to be irresponsible also. So, when the child is going to the school, the mother puts a nice, thick glove on the child’s hands. And the child goes with the glove.
The teacher says, you have not done your homework? No. Come here. Show your hand.
The stick hits. There is a lot of noise. But the stick doesn’t hurt.
The stick hits, but it doesn’t hurt. So, for us as devotees, that glove is the remembrance of Krishna. It’s Krishna Consciousness.
If we have Krishna Consciousness, the glows of life will hit, but they won’t hurt that much. Of course, sometimes the child is going to the law school. Why do I need to have this glove? Then the child will be beaten.
Sometimes, we have Krishna Consciousness. What is the use? I don’t want to do this. Just give it up.
Then, karma will hit us. But, if we take shelter of Krishna, even if the karmic situations come, we will get the strength so that they won’t hurt us that much. And, of course, Krishna can, in some situations, release us from problems also.