Article: ‘How You Relate to Karma Determines Your Life’

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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 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

by Swamini Brahmaprajnananda Saraswati

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Krshna suggested to Arjuna – nimitta matram bhava.

I remember talking to a Vedanta student in Brazil who was an experienced surfer. Initially when one gets on the surfing board you are at the mercy of the waves. You are at the mercy of balance and at the receiving end of the wind. You fall several times. You complain about things not being right – the board is heavy, you are heavy and so on. You complain about the weather, the waves, the wind everything because things are happening to you. And then some of the experienced surfers teach you to balance yourself. You start to take responsibility and apply the lessons and in a few weeks or months you are a master of surfing. You become so good that you don’t remember the principles any more. You have learnt to dance with the situation of the waves, the wind and the weather. Experienced surfers speak of how surfing happens through them, not to them nor by them. This is also what people refer to when they speak of the zone or when a flow of ideas occur through you. You have allowed yourself to be an instrument as you surrender to the moment. In that surrender you see what needs to be done and you do. When people function like this we can bring forth amazing gifts to the world. Everyone has some talents and abilities that are unique to them which are much needed for the world. But we are too obsessed with ourselves and our judgments that we set ourselves up worrying about what will happen to me if this does not work out? And we are back in the cycle of being at the mercy of thoughts happening to us. Through the disposition of Karma Yoga one can be an instrument of change in the world.

I suggest that you pause and look at any aspect of your life where you feel that things are happening to you, some aspects where things are happening by you and things that are happening through you. If any aspect requires changing you will get your answers immediately.

With continued exposure to Vedanta, our relationship to situations change.

4. Situations happen in me; I as Consciousness illumine all situations and am unaffected. This is how a wise person relates. All that is here is me, consciousness. The body and mind are but forms that don’t have an independent reality of their own. Situations that occur with the body and mind happen in me. I, consciousness light up the play of karma and hence the twists and turns in the person’s life.

Just as the light is unaffected whether it shines on sewage or whether it shines on a fragrant garden of flowers so too I am in and through all situations of this life. Nothing is opposed to me. This is not a behavioural response born of dissociation but of knowledge of the ultimate reality as oneself. I accommodate and illumine everything.

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See you next year!