Sunday Service Reading #48

From Rays of the One Light
The Law of Karma – Bondage, or Soul-Release
(to long readings) (link to longest reading)

Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.

The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians contains this oft-quoted statement:

Be not deceived: God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

In Autobiography of a Yogi Paramhansa tells a story from the life of the Benares saint Trailanga Swami:

A skeptic once determined to expose Trailanga as a charlatan. A large bucket of calcium-lime mixture, used in whitewashing walls, was placed before the swami.

“Master,” the materialist said, in mock reverence, “I have brought you some clabbered milk. Please drink it.

”Trailanga unhesitatingly drained, to the last drop, the containerful of burning lime. In a few minutes the evildoer fell to the ground in agony.

“Help, swami, help!” he cried. “I am on fire! Forgive my wicked test!”

The great yogi broke his habitual silence. “Scoffer,” he said, “you did not realize when you offered me poison that my life is one with your own. Except for my knowledge that God is present in my stomach, as in every atom of creation, the lime would have killed me. Now that you know the divine meaning of boomerang, never again play tricks on anyone.”

The well-purged sinner, healed by Trailanga's words, slunk feebly away.

Yogananda goes on to say:

The reversal of pain was not due to any volition of the master, but came about through unerring application of the law of justice which upholds creation's farthest swinging orb. Men of God-realization like Trailanga allow the divine law to operate instantaneously; they have banished forever all thwarting crosscurrents of ego.

Not by reason alone, but by Self-realization, are the ins and outs of destiny fully understood. Their web, though tied forever to the post of ego-motivation, is too intricate to be perceived as a single thread. Only great masters can see it with clarity. It is visible to them in all its workings—not from within the tangle, but from above, in superconsciousness.

As Sri Krishna said in the fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita:

He who beholds inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among men; he is one with the Spirit; he has attained the true goal of action (perfect freedom).

Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.

VIDEO of Jyotish's Service on this Subject from 11-29-09

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Jyotish's Service on this Subject from 11-29-09

VIDEO of Pranaba's Service on this Subject from 11-30-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Pranaba's Service on this Subject from 11-30-08

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Asha's Service on this Subject from 12-2-07

MP3 for Download (or online listening) of Dave Warner's Service on this Subject from 12-2-07

Long Readings from the 3 Volume Set:
Rays of the Same Light

#48: The Law of Karma – Bondage, or Soul-Release
("Reincarnation: Karma and Soul Release" in the original book)

This passage is from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, Chapter 6, Verse 7:

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Commentary

This oft-quoted passage is a beautifully explicit, and at the same time simple, description of the law of karma.

Karmic law states that Nature responds in kind to every action; that the past, present, and future of each individual, and of everything in the universe, are parts of a single continuity, like the links in a chain.

Karma is the natural corollary to the doctrine of reincarnation. Together, these doctrines explain life's countless anomalies: the effortless attainment, on the part of some people, of wealth, success, and good health; and the poverty, failure, and ill health that pursue others from birth no matter how hard they struggle to hoist themselves out of the quicksands of their misfortune.

Either there is a reasonable purpose to life's tapestry, or else all is pure chance, and the threads of events roam back and forth haphazardly with neither cause nor consequence. If indeed some purpose exists, then the law of karma merely fills out more completely a picture that we all instinctively recognize and accept. Certainly, people behave as though they expected their actions to bear at least some kind of fruit.

If, however, life is meaningless, as so many modern thinkers claim, then we may as well throw all caution to the winds. For in this case, life gives us carte blanche to behave entirely as we please, and to entertain no sense of responsibility for anything.

The fact is, even the most extreme exponents of meaninglessness believe that the individual is responsible at least for his own well-being. They deny only his need to consider the well-being of others. Thus, these existentialist philosophers — not much less so than anyone else — cannot but recognize the fact that some sort of connection exists between action and its self-completing consequences.

The law of karma takes the observable consequences of action to their logical conclusion. This law is based on the demonstrable fact that no action is an isolated event. An act is inevitably influenced by many causes. It produces in its turn, not one, but an infinity of results. The law of karma displays a unity throughout the universe, where, to anyone gazing only at isolated events, chaos may appear to reign.

The law of karma embraces every level of reality. Even Newton's law of physics, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction," is a karmic law.

Whatever we do in our lives bears commensurate results not only in terms of what we ourselves hope to accomplish, but in terms of moral truth.

If we go against cosmic law, then exactly to the extent and in the manner in which we have erred, we attract retribution. And if our actions support the law, then we attract compensation, in terms of greater harmony and fulfillment in our lives. If, for example, we extend help to others, then we attract help in return — if not from them, then from others.

A beautiful feature of the karmic law is its perfect justice. How often in life do we extend help to others only to be misunderstood by them, or blamed, in return! Under the karmic law, however, no good deed is ever wasted; no bad deed is ever uncorrected.

St. Paul addressed the typical attitude of people who view their individual acts as isolated events, failing to look beyond them to the broad tapestry into which their lives, like threads, are woven. Foolish people, ignoring the importance of the larger picture of reality, contribute nothing to it. They imagine that they live in a purely personal reality, and deceive themselves into thinking that what goes unnoticed by man will not be noticed by God. God, as St. Paul said, is not mocked.

We can never act apart from the Lord. Nor can we act apart from His cosmic law. Our duty to Him, to the universe, and also to ourselves, is to contribute to the overall harmony and beauty of His creation, and to the well-being of His creatures.

Only by reincarnation can the karmic law be justified. For only thus can coherent patterns of cause and effect be established. If, on the other hand, the fruits of action are reaped randomly by anyone who happens to get in the way of the flow of energy, then we are dealing not with a law, but with Chaos. Without reincarnation, it would be impossible to explain life's countless anomalies.

Why are some babies born healthy, and others, sickly? Why is virtue so often unrewarded in life, while those who "inherit the earth" are so frequently the sinful? The traditional explanation of religious people, that "God's will is unfathomable," is offered only to silence inquiry. In the same spirit, ministers used to cry from their pulpits, "If God had intended for us to fly, He'd have given us wings!" Can we seriously believe that the Lord gave us intelligence with the proviso that we not use it?

The Bible says, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." (Genesis 9:6) In the single link of the chain that is a human incarnation, we often see murderers die unpunished, and even admired and envied by all. One lifetime, however, is a very small segment in the long sequence of events in an individual's existence.

According to karmic law, every deed, both good and bad, returns with the greatest impact to its point of origin: to those persons, in other words, who performed it in the first place. Wrong actions beget suffering. They do not always beget it immediately, however.

The threads of action and reaction continue endlessly. The tapestry is as broad and as durable as the cosmos itself. The stronger one's sense of personal "doership," the more forcefully the consequences of his deeds return back upon himself. The weaker the sense of "doership," on the other hand, the more the consequences of his deeds, too, become dispersed outward.

In the case of completely selfless actions, the good that one does accrues to all mankind. Thus, with increasing spiritual development, the thread of personal involvement becomes finer and finer until it achieves invisibility.

The ultimate goal of life is to escape the endless network of karma and reclaim our soul-freedom in God. Karmic law is a reality. While seeking guidance from it, however, in our efforts to live by right principles, we should not let our will power become paralyzed by the seemingly overwhelming influence of the law.

For God's grace is supreme. Loving dependence on Him can free one from even the direst karmic retributions. As Jesus said of the woman who had been judged a sinner, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." (Luke 7:47)

Again, there is the story in the Gospel of St. John: "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:1-2) Jesus had a clear opportunity, here, to expound on the law of karma and its effects — or, alternatively, to reject this teaching outright as fallacious. Instead, he chose to concentrate on the power of God's grace to nullify karma. He replied, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

Paramhansa Yogananda once remarked, "How many people excuse themselves with the cry, ÈKarma! It's my karma!' If you really love God," he continued, "dwell in the consciousness of eternal freedom in Him!"

The Bible lays great emphasis on the importance of the law. Jesus came, however, to show also that the law is only a means of purifying our hearts, in order that we might learn to love.

Love, again, is a stepping-stone to receiving grace. And grace brings to the soul the highest reality of all: perfect union with God.

Thus, through the Holy Bible, God has spoken to mankind.

This passage is from the fourth Chapter, the eighteenth Stanza:

"He who beholds inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among men; he is one with the Spirit; he has attained the true goal of action (perfect freedom)."

Commentary

This most important teaching on the law of karma concerns the problem of how to get off the wheel of rebirth (as Buddha described it), and achieve freedom in the Infinite.

Karma means, quite simply, action. If action binds us to the wheel of rebirth, one might ask if the way to get off that wheel is not to stop acting. Freedom, however, as the Bhagavad Gita explains in many passages, lies not in refraining from action, but in acting with a sense of inner freedom.

In any event, it would be impossible to refrain from acting while remaining centered in ego-consciousness. For in this case even inaction is only another kind of action. One's thoughts and feelings continue. Suppression builds up inner pressure, to the point where at last it may cause an explosion.

Even the thought, "I am not acting," is a kind of action. Energy, whether kinetic or potential, is always energy.

Then what about the state of coma? Even in this case, the ego clings tenaciously to the body. Nor is suicide an escape, for physical death is survived by the ego. Its rejection of earthly existence, moreover, is also a form of action — one, moreover, that will require additional hard work to expiate.

The Bhagavad Gita repeatedly counsels man to act joyfully, without attachment. Western critics who speak of Hinduism as a passive religion greatly misunderstand this central point in the Hindu teachings.

How is it possible to act enthusiastically, yet at the same time with nonattachment? This stanza of the Gita gives us the answer. It tells us to see inaction in action, and action in inaction.

The enthusiasm called for on the spiritual path is not emotional. It is motivated by inner soul-joy. God is Bliss itself. At the same time, active as He is in the ever-changing universe, He remains forever changeless and unaffected. Although dwelling in everything, He yet is never of anything. Divine inaction lies at the heart of every action in the universe.

To see inaction in action can be understood in a personal as well as in an abstract sense. The yogi sees activity as merely manifesting itself through him; he never sees himself as the doer. And he also sees all movement in the universe as proceeding from the heart of Eternal Stillness. Movement itself, he realizes, is an illusion. Everything is but a dream in the forever unmoving consciousness of the Infinite.

To see the opposite, action in inaction, can be understood on two levels also. First, it means to recognize in outward inactivity a form of activity. Second, it means to realize that effective action springs from a center of stillness.

The worldly person identifies productive activity with a flurry of outward movement. Actually, however, the most creative contributions in history have always proceeded from inner calmness. Great deeds are never done by those who run about restlessly in circles.

Worldly people have difficulty accepting meditation as a constructive activity. The yogi, however, sees meditation as the highest activity of all. It frees the mind from useless attachments, and directs it away from useless pursuits. The yogi, filled with the bliss of inner communion with God, does everything in a spirit of freedom. Any karmas that he initiates accrue, then, to the welfare of others. They have no further binding effect on himself.

Thus, through the Bhagavad Gita, God has spoken to mankind.

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