Commentaries by Vee Jay Attri during the Book Study – Secrets of Karma
Let’s proceed for the study, Secrets of Karma. We were talking about the difference between right and more right yesterday. Let us continue!
It was right not to violate the rules of war but it was more right to violate them for the sake of Dharma.
We are referring to the duel between the great warrior Bhima and Duryodhana.
Dharma is also one’s duty towards people and other beings. Fulfilling your karmic obligations is also Dharma and there are many levels of Dharma to honor. For example, if you are a teacher, it is your duty to teach your students with devotion and love.
Keep checking these two important factors; devotion and love, let all your actions be inspired with devotion and love. Any activity that you do, let there be all the time the vibrations of devotion and love. Then, what you transmit, what you do has got greater power.
Doing an activity for the sake of simply doing doesn’t really help you to grow fast. So, the example taken here is the role of a teacher. If you are a teacher, you have to teach with so much love and devotion. You are not simply teaching to complete the academics of the students, you are teaching for the souls to evolve.
They become better citizens, better humans. Even some of the great intellectuals coming from the best of the best schools and colleges are morally so weak. Their character is so horrible. I had witnessed many a times, some of the most intelligent politicians using so abusive words that nobody can even imagine.
Then, what kind of grooming has happened to these people? The problem is most of the time with the teacher and the system. So, any activity that you do, all the time do it with the quotient of love and devotion. This is so important.
When there is a factor of devotion and love, then, the energy that you transmit is very very important. It is no longer kanras, it becomes mannras. Kannras means something that is sweet to the ears but it is not touching the soul, the mind of the person.
So, you will many a times, come across people who appreciate so much about whatever that you are doing and then, after that, no transformation. So, hearing because you want to spend some time in listening to something good without taking it to the level of your soul is not useful.
And what helps you take it to the level of the soul? That is exactly where we come to the most important bridge. The bridge between knowledge and awareness is contemplation. It’s only through the power of contemplation, the information becomes a very powerful tool. It becomes wisdom.
If you simply listen to something but do not do any contemplation, it simply remains as an information. So, the bridge between information or knowledge and awareness is contemplation.
So, even if one or two points are striking during our study, make a note of it and please do contemplate. Try to discover a higher level of truth, higher level of meaning contained in all these important messages. We shall continue!
For example if you are a teacher, it is your duty to teach your students with devotion and love. If you are paid for your services, it is bad karma not to deliver your duty with sincerity and dedication.
So, many a times, we come across people blaming their employers. Yes, not all employers are good, that is perfect. So long you are serving an organization, you have an obligation to serve it with dedication. After all, you are being remunerated.
How can you be remunerated and then, at the same time you talk bad of the employer, bad of this, bad of that and not delivering your duty? If a particular system is not suiting you and it is not actually helping you to grow, you have the option of quitting and looking for another environment.
But so long as you are part of an organization which is compensating for your services, devotion is utterly important. You have to serve with absolute dedication and devotion. This is very very important. It is not about the organization. It is not about your employer, it is not about the conditions and situations. All the time it is about you!
What are you becoming using these environment conditions? That is exactly what you need to take a look at. So, every condition, every situation is providing an opportunity for you, the soul to evolve. There cannot be any coincidence. If you are attracting bad people, bad organization, again there is something very intense for you to learn in that condition.
Before you leave any organization or setup or a situation, ensure that spiritually, you are successful, that you are not defeated and that you are not going to leave an environment because you are sad, because you are unhappy or because you are frustrated.
That is not the way, because the learning is not complete and these situations will have a tendency to follow you again in some other environment. So, the key to progress is being aware of what is being taught in any set of conditions.
So, rather than blaming the system, rather than blaming the people, look at yourself and check what is it that is so important for me in this condition. There has to be a reason why I have attracted this situation. Contemplate on that, get the message and if you have to quit, quit triumphantly, successfully, joyfully and spiritually victorious. We shall continue.
If you are paid for your services it is bad karma not to deliver your duty with sincerity and dedication.
It does not matter who does what. That is not my problem. Other people are not working, other people are not cooperating, we don’t worry about them. For my side, let the contribution be 100% so that tomorrow when I face God, I have a clear consciousness.
It is all the time between you and your creator, the Supreme Being. Do not allow anybody to come in between. So long as you know what you are doing is 100% perfect to the best of your ability, you can simply forget about everybody else.
Even God is not being spared. People had crucified the great master Lord Christ. Buddha’s life was not easy on the planet, so also, the life of Krishna, so also the life of Rama. You and I are still very very fortunate compared to these great beings and great masters.
That is basically the norm of the world, the norm of the universe. So, there will always be ‘bad people,’ not bad the way we basically say. It is not bad per say because there are reasons, because it’s a part of the divine plan.
So, given that the world has been created in this manner, you have to now ponder deeply, “why did I attract any particular situation? Is there a reason for that?” Buddha wouldn’t have become Buddha, Christ wouldn’t have become Christ, had these people not been in his life.
That is exactly how growth happens, greatness happens. No greatness ever happens in a mediocre environment where there are minimal challenges. Is it clear? And that is why, many at times I tell people, whenever you are confronted with biggest of the biggest challenge you say, ‘Maza aa gaya!’
What do you say? ‘Maza aa gaya!’ Wow! What a happiness! Maza means literally not happiness but then, somewhat translated. Some of you who know very good Hindi, you can possibly share it on my WhatsApp. Tomorrow, I will again talk about it. So, confronting with mighty challenges, don’t get bogged down by it.
You have to be like a ball. The harder you are hit, the higher you rise. The greater is the challenge, you should say, ‘Wow, maza aa gaya’, Thank you God! Don’t say ‘Ayo bondie!,’ you say, ‘Wow bondie’ Thank you very much, what a wonderful blessing that I have a mighty challenge, using which I can skip 100 lives ahead.
I don’t have to face this again forever in my evolution. What a blessing it is!’ So, life needs to be joyfully embraced, not with pain, not with sadness. You have to keep on reminding yourself that you are a warrior. Is it clear?
Delivering one’s duty should not be considered to be an act of kindness or compassion. It is also not part of your ‘service and sharing’.
So, there is a difference between service and sharing and your fundamental obligation. It is your obligation to take care of your children, your spouse and your family. You cannot say I’m tithing to my family. That becomes a fundamental part of your duty.
This is just doing your duty for the sake of fulfilling your obligations and developing skills or virtues connected with it.
So, your immediate environment, your family itself is a school for you. This we have reminded you several times. Within that school, your family, there is so much of lessons being given to you, otherwise, you wouldn’t have chosen a specific family.
Whether it is your spouse or your children, you will find that everybody provides you a set of lessons, sometimes very very tough. Don’t try to quit and run away. You have to embrace them cheerfully because you had chosen them for a specific purpose for evolution, for learning the lessons.
We have a foundation for supporting people yet it forms part of our duty and we still have to do tithing.
So, the author is actually talking about his own life, where the author has got a foundation to support.
The only thing that happens there is service, but that becomes a part of the obligation because the foundation is actually a place for the person to serve. That is the chosen path.
While that is happening, still with regard to tithing, that is a subject which is very very different. So, we should never mix up things.
So, just like you would not say, ‘I’m tithing to my family’, in the same way if you are sustaining an institution, over and above that you have to do tithing for people outside the boundaries of the institution. That is a very very important message. Tomorrow, I will elaborate a bit more on this.
Further reading: Secrets of Karma, Page 116-117
