Commentaries by Vee Jay Attri during the Book Study - Secrets of Karma
Chapter 1
We shall continue from the study Secrets of Karma. We will just go through parts of the introduction, not everything because parts of the introduction is about the author’s experience on the journey with karma.
So, it says, no matter what you do or accomplish, if you do not have the right understanding of this force; this force is referred to the force of karma that governs your life, neither will you find the long-term solution to your problems nor will you experience lasting peace.
Furthermore, you should work on the root cause of the sufferings to get rid of them but as you tend to focus more on the effect than the cause that created the misery, the effect keeps on recurring in one form or the other. This is the most important aspect of our life, why transformations do not happen.
It’s very easy for you to be carried with the magnitude of the challenges that we are facing on a daily basis. One of the most important issue, challenge or problem with our life is what we call forgetfulness. Repeatedly, there is a tendency for us to forget. We forget what kind of inputs resulted in the effect or outputs that we are experiencing.
Later we realize, “Yes, I should not have done like this, I should not have said that and so on!” but there is a tendency for us to repeat these activities over and over again. That is exactly where we come to the subject of what we call Sadhana, spiritual practices.
If you do not have consistent practice, it is very difficult for you to have greater control over the vehicles. One of the most important purposes of spiritual practices is to repeatedly remind you that, you are a spiritual being having a human existence.
This is one of the most significant aspects of the teachings of the great Buddha, when he talked about the four noble truths and the eight fold paths. The first limb of the eight fold path is what is called right view point.
Right view point simply means that you the soul, you look at things from the point of a soul, a spiritual being but if you forget that you are a spiritual being and look at life as a human, there is a possibility of repeated errors. There is a possibility of forgetfulness and a tendency for you to be overpowered with emotions.
Different vehicles of the body
Together with the physical body, you have an astral body; it is called in Sanskrit, Kamakosha. Kama is desire, kosha is body; Kamakosha is the body of desire. It is also called the vehicle of emotions.
So, every time if you are overwhelmed with emotions, it could be anything; sadness, grief, anger, hatred, rage, during those moments what you do not realize is that instead of you, the spiritual being, the vehicle has taken control of the situation.
The poorly tamed vehicle will simply go by whatever it has been programmed to do over and over again. This is a very mighty challenge, not only for you and I, this has been the challenge for even very advanced spiritual practitioners.
In the ancient times, the scriptures talked about some of the great rishis as we know today, were lured by attractions. So, when damsels appeared they were completely knocked out, they had gone to the extent of forgetting their austerities and get married to these celestial beings, we call them apsaras.
There has been several such stories that are written in the scriptures. Whether they are right or not, at least we can consider them to be a symbolic aspect of life; that a person who is not practicing awareness that he or she is a spiritual being will be automatically be defeated by illusion, we call it maya.
If you look into your own life, the reason why you have a tendency to repeat your mistakes is because you forget that you are a spiritual being and consequently, because of that forgetfulness, neither the goal is remembered.
Now, what you need to do wisely is also not remembered. You tend to focus more on the effect and the cause, forgetting that you are a spiritual being and that is exactly how problems recur in life over again. If there is the awareness that you are a spiritual being, the vehicles will be under your control.
We in fact talked about the degree of control of some of the great Saints, including St Francis of Assisi. He was naturally in a state of soul consciousness, as a spiritual being and functioning. So, every time he was working, being a grand karma yogi, he was able to sustain his connection with his spiritual existence while he was performing or delivering his duties.
The scriptures mentioned that, at times when St Francis of Assisi was engaged in certain very serious activities or works and when the body started asking for food he used to say, “You beast, you keep quiet, I will feed you later!”
It looks like a very simple statement but if you ponder upon this deeply, you will realize to what level this great Saint has mastered the self. This is an extraordinary example of self-mastery.
Such kind of souls demonstrating physical mastery as well as emotional mastery, in esoteric traditions, are the souls who had entered the path, who had crossed the probationary level and slowly embarking on the first initiation. So, these are all certain prerequisites that have been outlined in certain esoteric scriptures.
Karma, The Universal Law
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; what you sow is what you reap.
St Paul
Translated from Sanskrit, karma is action and the consequence of the action. It is the force of nature that balances a cause with a corresponding effect.
That means nobody is there to monitor you. There are certain laws that have already been impregnated into the etheric body of mother earth. As per some of the teachings, karma is brought to our solar system from some other constellation. What I read, was from the constellation of Cyrus but regardless of that, it appears that at some point in time, the laws of karma were not part of our solar system.
So, looking at the rapid degradation of the souls, perhaps it could be possible that the great beings decided to bring the laws of karma and impregnate them into the etheric body. With careful observation of this statement, it could be that these laws are not in some way universal, in the sense that, not all the solar systems or galaxies or different universes, have the same laws applicable.
Though we use the word universal, we are using it in the context of application to our solar system. We are using the word universal because as per the scriptures when you say Brahman, that is what we call the Cosmic Egg, often it is referred to our solar system.
Consequently, when you say Brahman, it has been interpreted as universe and therefore, we say universal laws but in reality it is not necessary that the laws of karma that you and I are experiencing forms part of everything in the creation. This is an important insight.
Further reading: Secrets of Karma, Essence of Karma, Page 5
