Commentaries by Vee Jay Attri during the Book Study – Secrets of Karma
Let us prepare ourselves for the study from the Secrets of Karma. We were talking about anger; how any tendency for anger or hatred binds you karmically not only with people but even with the conditions of life. A very powerful story we read yesterday, one was about the prisoners.
The second one was about the combat between Yudhisthira and Shalya. We also mentioned that where it is necessary, it is important to use anger as a spiritual tool to make things work. Kind heartedness does not mean that we lose reasoning or intelligence.
So, there are times when we need to be tough on people and take harsh actions but all these have to be guided ultimately by benevolent attitude, by a compassionate heart. So, take hard actions from your heart. Idea is not to punish the people.
Idea is to help the people recognize their mistakes and help them to evolve spiritually. That is the main purpose of taking certain harsh actions. If everything is being accepted then, you would not be able to help anyone to evolve.
That is the most important reason why some of the spiritual masters, they are extremely harsh, extremely extremely tough, especially with their close disciples. For people who are coming and going, they will be seeing the great masters as avatars.
But for the disciples who are close to them, they know what it means to be close to great spiritual masters. So, these are all many levels of understanding of love and compassion that you need to be aware of. We shall continue with the story. We were talking about the snake and the saint. Very profound story.
As time passed, the villagers took the serpent for granted.
You still would recall that the saint requested the serpent or the snake not to trouble the villagers any longer and the snake happily accepted and be quiet without disturbing the people who were coming to the forest to pick up firewood.
As time passed the villagers took the serpent for granted, they pelted stones and beat it with sticks. The poor serpent could not do anything for he had given his word to the saint. Some days later the saint went to the forest and saw the serpent badly wounded and asked him what the matter was.
The snake replied “O master, you asked me not to harm anyone. But now that I am harmless people harass me.’’ The saint told him: “I only told you not to harm anybody but I did not tell you not to hiss!”
It is important to know how, when and where to apply spiritual teachings. Spirituality is not about smiling all the time and accepting everything. Some of the avatars like Lord Rama and Lord Krishna were great warriors.
So, you can be hard on people when it is necessary and show that you are angry but do not get angry. The important message is, act but do not react. That is the most important message.
Subtle traps
We are going to have a summary of the subtle traps. 7 points are there. You may gently close your eyes and just follow me:
Inner Reflection
1. I will be safe from subtle traps of karma. I will refrain from using pirated software, music or movies as they lead to the path to poverty.
2. I will think before I talk. I will avoid needless trouble with worthless talk.
3. I will not lie. I will avoid white lies and keep my spiritual path free of any obstacles.
4. I will see the good things in others. I will not criticise anyone as the defects I condemn are often a reflection of my flaws.
5. What comes out of my mind and my mouth will be good. I will neither talk ill of others nor will I listen to anyone speaking about badly of others.
6. I will have gratitude for everything and I will never waste any resources. I will not miss any opportunity and I will take full advantage of all good things and all good people in my life.
7. I will avoid getting angry as it karmically binds and makes me vulnerable to misfortunes.
This is the inner reflection for the Subtle traps. Alright, we move on to the next Chapter.
Chapter 3 – Art of Living
A very important chapter.
The ‘ART of living’ is the way to an empowered life. It is an art that will transform an adversity into an advantage.
There is usually something that makes you distress and compels you to resist and react. But you will notice that what you resist persist, and you end up facing the same situation over and over again.
Learning the ART will for help: Acceptance, Responsibility, Tolerance
When you master the ‘ART’; you will find long term solutions to the challenges of life and discover the hidden blessings even in adverse circumstances.
We shall elaborate on the ART. We begin with the first point:
Acceptance
The quotation:
“There are seasons and reasons’’
Anonymous
There are reasons why no matter what you do, sometimes certain conditions do not change. Many things happen in our lives due to reasons beyond our comprehension. There is an interesting episode in the Mahabharata that brings light to this.
King Shantanu proposed his intentions to marry Ganga for which she agreed on the condition that he would never question any of her actions. Driven by the passion King Shantanu agreed to this. Later, Ganga gave birth to her first son but soon after delivery she took the new born to the river and drowned him.
Bound by his word the king did not ask her anything. A year later when she delivered a second son she drowned him too. And in this way she drowned seven newborns. But when Ganga was about to drown king Shantanu’s eighth child he could not hold himself and shouted “Stop, and let him live.”
Ganga stopped and said “Since you have broken your word, I have to leave you.” The children whom I killed were seven of the eight Deities cursed to be born as mortals for the bad karma of stealing sage Vashishta’s cows.”
So, there was a very great sage by name Vashishta. These eight deities or devas were cursed by the sage Vashishta for stealing his cow. So, these are all stories. We do not know what would be the necessity for the great deities to steal the cow from a saint but everything is very symbolical.
It is conveying some deeper meaning or significance and it could be possible that whatever imperfections that we see in the physical plane is also a part of the imperfection in the planes higher. That is why, sometimes we use the word, “As above so below, so below as above.”
So, there could be a possibility that even in the so-called heaven that the scriptures define, there are many many turbulent things that happens. Not all the things that are happening in the heaven as per the scriptures are wholesome.
That is why it is said that the deities or the angels in the heaven also have got lots of tension and fear because any moment they can be attacked by the demons. So, there is a description in the scriptures how the demons constantly have a fight with the dwellers of the heaven.
So, it has been depicted that the king of the heaven called Lord Indra has several fights with the demons from time to time. So, it looks as if that even in the higher world or higher dimensions, no one is free of the activities that we are experiencing on the physical plane on the planet.
And of course, it is possible that there are so many worlds similar to ours, multiple of them, that is where we come to the discussion of several solar systems, several galaxies and several universes. All actually are habited by some people or some beings. We do not know who they are but the scriptures talk about many many such planes of existence, many planets for that matter where there are many beings who are inhabiting those places. Let us continue!
The children whom I killed were seven of the eight Deities cursed to be born as mortals for the bad karma of stealing sage Vashishta’s cows.
On their request I became their mother and tried to keep their stay on Earth brief to save them from the misery of earthly existence. The eighth one you saved will live but it shall be a life full of misery for him.”
So, the karma of stealing the cow of a sage is so intense, the scriptures say, that the eighth child which was saved by King Shantanu lived on the physical plane and it continued to have innumerable pain and sufferings.
This eighth child or the son whom King Shantanu saved was actually known as Bheeshma Pitama. So, he is a very important character in the Mahabharata. So all his life, though he did not want but because he has to follow Dharma, he had to give adherence and company to the unrighteousness prince called Dhuryodhana.
So, though he knew what is right and what is wrong but because of the bondage of the duty that he had to deliver, he had to support Prince Dhuryodhana despite all his wrong doings and he went to such an extent that he actually was fighting against the Pandavas whom he loved so much and so dearly.
So, all his life, Bheeshma Pitama had a very turbulent and very painful life and even his death was not free from pain. The scripture shows that he had a bed of arrows on which he had to lie on for three days before leaving for higher dimensions.
So, Laws of Karma are very precise and most importantly, in this particular episode, you can understand that the higher you climb on the spiritual path, the greater is the Karmic repercussion.
That means that, there is a difference in the act performed by an ignorant person and the same act performed by a knowledgeable person. So, the act might be the same but according to the degree of your spiritual evolution, the karmic repercussions are very very different.
That means, a young soul doing the same mistake will not have to face such a severe karmic repercussion, as you, an advanced yogi or a spiritual practitioner need to face. These are all very very important aspects of karma that you need to be aware of.
Further reading: Secrets of Karma, Page 54 – 61