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How You Relate to Karma Determines Your Life
This article is an excerpt from Swamini B ‘s weekly podcast – ‘Vedanta – the river of wisdom’. The way we relate to our life situations is the way we relate to karma. Karma is a Sanskrit word that means an action by a human being which is subject to certain laws of Bhagavan. Karma produces karma phala, the result of actions which are visible and invisible. The invisible reslts are in the form of punya and papa. Punya is the results of our right actions and paapa, the results of our wrong, harmful actions. Punya is converted to sukha, experiences of happiness and pleasure while Paapa is converted to dukha, experiences of sadness. The Vedas reveal that the human body is the result of our karma and we have the choice to do, not do or do karma differently. We can change our karma. Everyday new karma in the form of favourable and unfavourable situations unfold. We are called upon to respond on a moment-to-moment basis to situations. Our relationship with karma follows the trajectory of four ways of relating to our life situations. These are: 1.Situations happen to me. When we talk about the events in our life, we see ourselves at the receiving end. They’re doing it to me, it’s happening to me - the break up, the neglect from parents, the bullying by seniors in school, the politics at work, the barrage of media news - things happen to me. There are some terrible situations where one is a victim of circumstances. I am not talking about 36
World Yoga Festival 2021 - Official Programme
that here but referring to the victim mentality. To the extent that we see things happen to me, we cannot help but feel, overwhelmed, being swamped, being unable to cope. When things happen to me it implies that these things are in opposition to me and it is me standing against the entire overbearing situation. 2. Situations can happen by me. This change in perspective is based on responsibility which revolves around – How am I going to be with this? We recognise that there is always a choice. The other you are dealing with, your partner, your ex partner, your child or your work. You see the experience and choose to respond to it from a place of freedom and agency. One no longer sees oneself at the receiving end but as responsible for and a creator of one’s experience. Although what you do is less than what you cannot that might be enough for the change you want to contribute to. Rather than focus on situations that are ‘happening to me’, we start to focus on our abilities and powers. Situations can happen by me. It is less overwhelming as it is built around sense of agency. Despite all that has happened in your life, a new moment in time does not carry the baggage of the past. It is fresh, complete and fully available. The movement from ‘to me’ to ‘by me’ is a shift to taking responsibility and a necessary step of growth. But the thing with the appetite for responsibility and achievement is that when you try to shape experiences by yourself and things don’t go your way you start to blame yourself.
Responsibility can slip into over responsibility. One can start blaming oneself for anything in the name of self improvement. 3. Situations can happen through me. As one becomes more aware of the things one cannot change and develops the courage to change the things one can, one starts to open one’s eyes to what else is going on in the world. One opens up to the possibility of laws and principles that shape situations. One opens up to the complex matrix of karma that criss crosses in a complex network across all our lives. Maybe situations are not about what happened to me or what happens by me. Maybe life is about what can happen through me? Maybe situations are not as personal and as targeted as I had earlier imagined. Maybe the symphony of Bhagavan is going on and I have been asked to play a small part. Maybe I am just an instrument like a flute. Rabindranath Tagore, one of the great poets of India wrote a poem called ‘The little flute’ where he refers to the reed being carried by thou i.e. Bhagavan through hills and dales and how you Bhagavan breathe through it melodies that are eternally new. Being an instrument is what Bhagavan
