Which path of yoga burns our karma to what extent?

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Transcript

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Yeah. So, now regarding your question about Krishna saying in the Bhagavad Gita that that he will through Bhakti remove all the sins, but also that it says that that even knowledge can burn all the sins. So, is it that which processes karma, jnana, dhyana, bhakti, which processes, burn our karma to what extent? Okay.
So, you could say that the word karma itself has multiple meanings. Karma can refer to the actions that we do. Karma can refer to the reactions that we get.
Karma can refer to the system of action-reaction. Karma can also refer simply to action. Yeah, we cannot live without doing some karma.
So, when we are talking about self-transformation, purification, liberation, the law, the system of action-reaction will always be there. We are always accountable for our actions. So, that doesn’t change for anyone.
But now when we consider the actions that we do and the reactions that we get for that. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that the prarabdha karma, that doesn’t change because that is associated with our body. Say, by our past body, by our past karma, we have got a particular body.
If Krishna takes away the prarabdha karma, the whole body will also go away, will not be able to live at all. Now, that body may have some good karma associated with it, some bad karma, depending on how healthy, sickly, or how good-looking, not so good-looking, how intelligent, not so intelligent the body is. So, generally, the prarabdha karma stays with us.
Now, if you consider the other processes, Vidyabhata also uses a word called karmāśaya. Karmāśaya is the impressions within us, which impel us to certain actions. Āśaya, āśaya for karma, the impressions that impel us towards karma.
So, essentially, purification is different from regulation. Regulation means I stop doing something wrong. Purification means I stop desiring to do that wrong.
The desire itself within me goes away. So, all, any kind of yoga practice requires certain amount of regulation. Without that, we cannot be practicing yoga itself.
So, some amount of discipline, some amount of giving up of anti-spiritual activities or immoral activities. In that sense, the karma that we do, some amount of it has to stop. Of course, you can do yoga even when you are doing that karma, but that’s not a full practice of yoga, proper practice of yoga.
Something is going on just. Now, as far as, when, if you consider the verse 4.36-37, where Krishna talks about this. So, there he is talking about how the fire, just as fire burns, say, driftwood, wood to ashes, similarly, knowledge will burn what? All work will be burnt.
Now, what that means, essentially, is that there will be, you will move towards freedom from karmic reactions. You will not be bound by karma. How exactly will this happen and what is this jnana? See, all the questions about jnana, we have to understand that there are, that words have different meanings in different contexts.
So, jnana is not reserved only to jnana yoga. Jnana is basically knowledge and bhakti also requires jnana. That’s why we have samanda jnana, for example, in bhakti, knowledge of our relationship with Krishna.
So, bhakti is about, so the jnana, Krishna has talked about earlier, in the previous verse 4.35, he says that, that knowledge is So, if you get this knowledge, Arjuna, then you will not fall into illusion again and you will see all living beings as spiritual and as in me, as mine. So, this is not just the jnana from karma or the jnana even from jnana yoga. It is more of a bhakti jnana, where we see Krishna, me, Krishna is the word in me very clearly over there.
So, he is talking about how we are situated in him. So, that is devotional knowledge. So, in that sense, what Krishna is telling in 4.36 is not different from what he is saying in 8.66, but there also he is talking about bhakti only.
So, there, specifically, Krishna is saying that, Arjuna, if you think you are doing some fighting, fighting this war, there will be some sinful activity, have sinful actions you may have to do, whatever reactions may come, I will protect you from them. I will free you from them. So, that is a universal as well as specific declaration.
So, in general, Krishna says that, in 6.40, he says that, anybody who is engaged in auspicious work will not meet with destruction. One who does good will never perish. So, now, kalyanakrut, auspicious work, Prabhupada explained in the parpot and Adharacharya also explained that, any striving for transcendence is auspicious.
So, whether it is through jnana yoga, whether it is through ashtanga yoga, whether it is through bhakti yoga, it is auspicious. And that stays with us from lifetime to lifetime. So, because, see, when we say that our material assets we lose at the time of death, but our spiritual assets will stay with us.
So, spiritual assets can be our attraction towards Krishna, which is the highest spiritual asset, but it can also be the attraction towards transcendence in general, the attraction towards spirituality, the attraction towards knowing what is there more in life, beyond our, beyond the mortal material world around us. So, if somebody has cultivated that, that will always stay with them. So, in that sense, all yogas, they have that imperishable aspect to them.
That what is cultivated, what attraction towards the spiritual is cultivated will stay always. This is not 6.40. See, 2.40 also says the same thing. 6.40 is an assurance, 2.40 is Nihavikarmanaswasti.
That’s a good point. These both are 40. Interesting.
So, now specifically with respect to karma, generally Krishna doesn’t intervene unless somebody wants him to intervene. So, if somebody is not approaching him, just like say in jnana yoga or ashtanga yoga, unless they approach him, they are more or less, it’s not that Krishna abandons them, but it’s just that they don’t want them, so Krishna doesn’t intervene directly. So, in that sense, the karmic reactions that come upon them, they may have to transcend them by their own spiritual strength.
Even in the case of devotee also, sometimes some difficulties may come. Why exactly they come, it’s difficult to say. Usually the understanding is that Krishna takes a devotee’s karma and then orchestrates in such a way that is suited for the devotee’s spiritual advancement.
So, difficulties will come, but they’ll help the devotee to grow spiritually. So, generally, Krishna’s intervention, if we consider in terms of either minimizing the karmic reactions or removing them, that is something which will get normal only through bhakti. But apart from that, see, pain is not necessarily quantifiable.
Pain also depends on our attachments, pain also depends on where our consciousness is invested. If somebody is very attached to their looks, and then they get some injury by which their looks get spoiled, then that person will be much much more devastated by that than somebody who is not that attached to their looks. So, that means, in one sense, there’s a physical event and there is the impact of that event on us emotionally.
So, by any practice of yoga, the emotional impact of that event can be minimized. Because yoga takes our consciousness to a transcendence. So, in that sense, every yoga practice can help us to go beyond some amount of karmic reactions.
Because the reaction may come, but, kāre kāraṇa kartrūtve hetu prakṛtṛcchate, puruṣaḥ sukha-duḥkhānāṁ bhoktrūtve hetur ucyate. In 13.19, Krishna says that, actually, it is the cause and effect, this happens within material nature. But pleasure and pain are experienced because of the desire to enjoy.
So, yoga raises us above the desire to enjoy gradually. So, then whatever happens, it will not hurt us that much. So, that can happen by any yoga practice.
Of course, by bhakti yoga, we can just not turn away from the world, but we can turn towards some supremely attractive object. So, in that sense, it’s much, you could say, the absorption that’s possible is much deeper, much sweeter. So, transcendence would be more.
But then we have to be sufficiently attracted to Krishna. Sometimes, even the ritualistic devotees are not that attracted to Krishna. And somebody might be a very advanced yogi, who has turned their consciousness towards spirituality, even if it’s not towards Krishna.
So, they might be more transcendental to the body, in what we might be. But in general, Krishna’s intervention, it’s what comes only in bhakti. Okay.
Thank you.