Commentaries by Vee Jay Attri during the Book Study – Secrets of Karma
Alright, let’s continue with our wonderful study on the Secrets of Karma. We started a new chapter, Karmic Obligations. We shall go through it once again, just for maintaining the continuity.
“There is no growth except in the fulfillment of obligations.’’
Antoine de Saint- Exupery
Karmic obligations are duties to fulfill in one’s lifetime. More than just doing what is needed, fulfilling your obligations with love and dedication is the way to finding lasting peace, joy, and success in all levels of your life.
We had mentioned earlier, any negligence towards fulfilling your obligations at all levels becomes a karmic liability that actually follows you for many lifetimes. Whenever there is a tendency to ignore your karmic obligations, then similar obligations have to be fulfilled in more challenging situations or conditions.
Therefore, when the situations are conducive, when the opportunities are given to you to fulfil your karmic obligations, you take advantage of that. It is not just a mere act of fulfilling the obligations. It is about learning the lessons connected with fulfilling your obligations.
So, there are so many levels of karmic obligations. We are going to talk about them one by one.
Sometimes, certain demanding responsibilities in very challenging conditions could be the result of unfulfilled duties or negligence in delivering your obligations in your past lives. You have to fulfill them in this life to neutralize these karmic debts.
We have seen this happening with many people. It is an extremely challenging situation they are into, in fulfilling their obligations. On one side, they have their own physical challenges and many other challenges of life and amidst all this, they are compelled to take care of many many activities of their life, including the weak and the elderly.
So, these are all things to understand very, very carefully. Let there be no negligence in fulfiling any level of your obligations.
There are many levels of karmic obligations. We will look at seven of these.
Let’s begin the first one. We begin with the wonderful quotation.
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy spirit?’’
St Paul
This is by St. Paul from the Holy Bible.
1. Karmic obligations towards oneself
So, the quote is very very profound, a reminder to make us realise that this vehicle, what we call the body or the physical body is referred to as the temple of the holy spirit. Here, the holy spirit refers to you the soul. We call it the Jivatma or the Atma in an embodiment or an incarnation.
So, you the soul, you have a vehicle which is so precious to you. Why is it so precious? Because it is through the vehicle you actually evolve. Whatever that you can do in the plane of matter demands that you need to have a vehicle and without the vehicle, achieving illumination or enlightenment is impossible.
As a matter of fact, many at times in the scriptures, it is written that the human embodiment is more precious than the embodiment in other planes of existence including the existence in the planes called higher mental plane. The scriptures call it Swarga.
So, scriptures say that more than being in the paradise, it is better for you to be on the plane of matter or the physical plane because here exactly is where we have the opportunity to learn the lessons to grow spiritually and very rapidly, and together with that we have the advantage of listening to the great wisdoms of the great masters and the avatars.
Your body is sacred as it supports you to fulfil your karmic obligations and spiritually evolve. It is your duty to take care of your body properly and refrain from negative habits and activities that make it ‘dirty’.
Dirty here means physically and etherically or energetically.
People who use their wealth to abuse their body will lose their wealth and health, if not in this life, then surely in another lifetime.
So, there is a beautiful caption that says ‘You lose what you abuse!’
The human incarnation is precious. Those who commit suicide are ignorant of the fact that ending life does not end karmic debts. It merely delays the payment of ‘dues’ to make it even more difficult, with added ‘interest’.
Meaning, every time you go to the extreme, there is always a penalty attached to it. Very unfortunately, the souls who leave the body in this kind of adverse situations realize the importance of the human embodiment after leaving the body but it is too late to realize.
So, if you are listening to me, you have to understand how precious is our embodiment, the human embodiment is.
So, spending our time once in a while in leisure activities is very beautiful, but if you make it a habit to spend most of your time only in leisure and entertaining the physical body, this is actually a very intense karmic burden on yourself because you the soul, the Jivatma, its main purpose of coming into the plane of matter in a human embodiment is for fulfilling certain obligations, both material as well as spiritual.
In the absence of the fulfilment of those obligations, any amount of pleasure cannot give you lasting peace. So, you can hide yourself from facing the challenges or realities of life for some time but once that phase is over, what remains is a great void.
That is exactly what you need to remember. So, many at times, you come across people having everything but there is so much of emptiness because of lack of fulfilment of obligations that have been given to them in a lifetime.
The human incarnation is very precious. Those who commit suicide are ignorant of the fact that ending life does not end karmic debts. It merely delays the payment of the debts to make it even more difficult with additional interest.
So, even if there is no purpose of living for oneself, one can still dedicate his or her life serving people in need of help and support such as orphans or disabled children or elderly, and generate good karma to build a better future.
So, if you feel that life is not very very meaningful or purposeful, dedicate your life in the service of others, uplift people. In doing so, gradually you will find that your own life automatically enhances. That is why Saint Francis of Assisi said: “It is in giving that you receive.”
The more you dedicate yourself to help people to evolve, to help people to become better or alleviate the sufferings of the people, the greater will be the blessings that come in your own life. This is exactly what we call the Divine Grace.
2. Karmic obligations towards spiritual teachers
“The syllable gu means darkness, the syllable ru, he who dispels them. Because of the power to dispel darkness, the guru is thus named.’’
Advayataraka Upanishad
This is actually from Upanishad.
Spiritual teachers or gurus are embodiment of wisdom and love. Their contribution in your spiritual journey is truly immeasurable.
Spiritual teachers are not 100% perfect. Hence, if a teacher is unable to fulfil your spiritual needs, you may look for another Master, but without any judgment or criticism, for any pain you cause them will be a heavy karmic burden that may take even lifetimes to work out.
The spiritual path is a long journey and all the teachers who come on your path take you at least one step ahead. Every step in this journey is vital for your evolution.
Hope you understood it. So, if your spiritual teacher has taken you even one step ahead, that is so important for you because without that one step, you cannot take any further steps ahead. So, because the teacher helped you to take one vital step that enables you to move forward and therefore you are having a karmic obligation towards a teacher.
Karmic obligation need not mean that you have to worship the teacher or serve the teacher. At least, have the gratitude and whenever possible do some blessing for them. This is very important.
Bless your spiritual teachers with good health and support them in every way possible. All that you give to them will return you in greater abundance.
That is why in the eastern tradition, the Guru takes a greater role than even God; first the Guru and then God. This is what the tradition says.
3. Karmic obligations towards parents
Parents are our ‘first teachers’ and their blessings are necessary for our growth and success. Some people leave ailing parents alone and live independently to enjoy their privacy.
Unfortunately, you cannot be happy when you neglect your karmic obligations. If your parents choose to live on their own, or you have to stay away from them due to work or other circumstances, then continue providing all possible support to them.
There are exceptions. So, even if there is an exception, fulfilment of the obligation is extremely necessary. That means there is a possibility that sometimes people take a path of renunciation or on the spiritual path, there is a demand for one to focus on certain responsibilities given to them by the spiritual teachers.
So, given that the teacher comes first and then anything else and therefore, fulfilling the duty of the teacher first and then taking care of the family becomes of extreme importance. So, that is an order of priority.
Sometimes you may attract difficult parents due to karmic imbalances that stand from your past life. You have to work on your karma with them. The guidelines in Chapter 5 can be of help in healing such relationships issues.
We shall be coming to chapter 5 very shortly. So, I think it is very very straightforward. First, you take care of yourself, you got a karmic obligation towards yourself.
You have to feed your body on time. You have to exercise your body properly. You have to refrain from doing any activity that is injurious to your body or your health. That is the first obligation towards the self.
Second obligation is towards the spiritual teachers and third one towards the parents. All these are extremely important guidelines to follow. So, you can actually simultaneously fulfil all your obligations. That is exactly how the soul evolves rapidly in a very balanced way.
4. Karmic obligations towards family
Family is your ‘first school’ where you learn together with people who are karmically connected to your or with those working out a similar karma.
Further reading: Secrets of Karma, Page 78-80