Strange Are The Ways of Karma
Karma. It is common to hear this word in India in a casual conversations. When someone is going through a period of pain or misery, typically they exclaim “My karma!”. It means, this suffering that I experience now is of my own doing in the past. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has spoken at length regarding this word. In his talk titled “Karma” from An Intimate Note To The Sincere Seeker he says, Strange are the ways of Karma. The more your understand, the more amazed you become. Further ahead in the same talk he makes this statement, All the struggle in the world, whatever there may be, is the bondage of Karma. Its ways cut across all logic and reasoning.
The earliest memory of this word is from my childhood. When I was perhaps somewhere between 5–10 year old my father once told me a story. He said that when you do good Karma then you earn Merit and when you do bad Karma then you earn Misfortune. He told me that god keeps two Pots for every being — one for Merits and other for Misfortune. A good deed credits some Merit and a bad deed credits some misfortune. So when your merit pot is full you enjoy good life & abundance. And when your misfortune pot spills over, you end up in some really big trouble or suffering. And these pots keep getting filled and emptying over lifetimes based on your actions. So I asked him what should be done to fill the merit pot. And he said, serve a glass of water to elders and guests in house when they are thirsty or water the plants in our garden. And I promptly started doing that. As I grew up, I started suspecting whether the story was real or was it just a ploy that my father used to make me do some work for him. My father though a man with good heart, was known for pulling pranks on others. He is long gone now, but I realized that he meant it in all sincerity. Bringing relief and joy to others does make life an enriching experience.
A good act, cannot be good unless there is “good” intention behind it. As a child we used to do good things with the intention of earning Merit or Goodwill, call it what you may. Later in life, everything got measured by return on investment (ROI). If I spend X amount of time, money and energy on something, I better get Y out of it. The intention for any action was to gain something. And this has been going on forever now. Try asking yourself from time to time, what is the intention of your action? Are you looking for some benefit for yourself from it? If you look at any of our “sustainability” problems whether it be plastics or pollution or anything else, they begin with benefits to the individuals but harm to other beings. But we find it extremely inconvenient and expensive to let go of them.
A simple question I asked myself — if I do not get something in return, will I stop doing actions for others well being? I will not. For some reason this is very clear to me. If someone asks for help, I provide help, no expectations attached. It is part of me. And I find that this is part of everyone. Whenever I needed help, I got help, many times without even asking. So the well being of others is ultimately the only intention necessary. And a natural one, we need no effort for it. So I now watch my intentions for an actions more often. I know of instances where my actions seemed good, but somewhere there have been hidden intentions to gain something out of it. Those thoughts of leveraging on someone’s position, predisposition, vulnerabilities, fear or a situation, just come from nowhere and stay hidden somewhere within. Such actions seldom bore intended fruit, and have instead always caused bitterness in relationships. They also caused guilt and heartache at some point. I promise myself over and over again not to give in to any temptation, and keep my intentions pure. Knowledge and meditations have helped. Surrender to Gurudev has helped.
In his talk — “The Washing Machine”, Gurudev says, Our body is like a washing machine. Our mind is like cloth. Love is like pure water. Knowledge is detergent. Each lifetime is one wash cycle. The mind comes into body to get cleansed and pure. But if you put in mud instead of detergent, your clothes become dirtier than before. You will have to go on putting your clothes in the washing machine to get them cleaned. And the process repeats again and again.
So Karma is not just an action, but an action along with its accompanying intention. But what precedes the actions and intentions? Why act at all? Do our needs alone propel them? Our thoughts and creativity? Our wants? Those hidden intentions, where do they form? I have been exploring these questions for sometime now. And dear Gurudev has been revealing bits and pieces over the years. Or rather I should say, he has revealed everything but my ability to grasp is developing in bits and pieces (laugh). Writing about any topic here is like putting the pieces of puzzle together. Lets dive a little deeper into this in my next post, to continue to understand the strange ways of Karma. And also wonder together — why Gurudev calls it a bondage.
