After the Peace Pilgrimage in Hiroshima, Japan, I returned to Vietnam with a heartfelt intention to continue this journey: to reflect together on the suffering of the past, heal the memories that remain in our consciousness, and rediscover true peace within.
At 6:00 a.m., I set out for Củ Chi with 35 Vietnamese friends, traveling in two small vehicles and one large bus. Our first stop was the Bến Dược Military Memorial Temple, which honors approximately 45,000 people who sacrificed their lives for the country.
Returning to the “Land of Steel and Bronze”
Củ Chi was once known as the “Land of Steel and Bronze.” During the war, it endured such intense bombardment that it was at one point called a “white zone”—an area devastated and stripped of life. Countless lives were lost, and profound suffering remains deeply imprinted in the memories of many generations.
I have had a special connection with Củ Chi for many years. From 2010 to 2014, I taught yoga teacher training courses there. At the time, I felt that I was teaching yoga and yoga philosophy not only to those present in the classroom, but also to many souls in the surrounding area who were listening.
On the final day of one course, the sky was clear when a powerful wind suddenly arose. The atmosphere became joyful and mystical, as though many unseen beings were happily bidding us farewell. When we later reviewed the photographs, hundreds of white spots—commonly called “orbs”—appeared in them. Above my head was a very large circle of light that resembled a halo. It was a profound experience that has always remained with me, leading me to remember Củ Chi as a place in need of remembrance, love, and healing.
Today, as I conduct peace programs in many places, I carry with me a heartfelt intention: to help heal what happened in the past but still lingers in the human subconscious. Painful memories need to be acknowledged with compassion so that they may gradually be released.
We intentionally use the word inner peace, because peace begins within. Peace may refer to external circumstances or cessation of war, but inner peace is something each person can cultivate through a yogic life. Through the practice of asana, pranayama, and meditation, we connect with the peace that already exists within us. When we understand ourselves and live in harmony with ourselves, we can understand others, bring harmony into our relationships, and help create peace in our communities and throughout the world.
Remembrance at Bến Dược Memorial Temple
Before passing through the main gate of Bến Dược Memorial Temple, I asked everyone to remain solemn, refrain from talking, and silently repeat two mantras: Om Namo Narayanaya, a prayer for peace; and Om Tryambakam Yajamahe, a mantra praying for the liberation of those who have passed away and for peace for those who are still living.
After taking a group photograph in front of the gate, we slowly entered while chanting the mantras. In the middle of the broad pathway stood a majestic incense burner. The entire memorial complex was beautifully maintained, with tall rows of trees, flowers, greenery, and solemn architecture resembling that of a temple. Many leaders and generals have planted commemorative trees there.
Upon entering the main sanctuary, we observed one minute of silence. The resounding great bell, the drums, and the sacred music deeply moved many people. Two floral wreaths bearing the name Sivananda Yoga were placed respectfully before the altar.
At the center stood a statue of President Hồ Chí Minh. Along the three surrounding walls were bronze plaques engraved with the names of the fallen soldiers, together with their places of birth and the years of their birth and death. Most of them were very young—only 18, 20, 22, or 23 years old—when they sacrificed their lives for their homeland.
Everyone walked around quietly, reading the names one by one. One member of our group, Ms. Mỹ, found the name of her older brother, a fallen soldier who had been missing, and requested an official confirmation. Tarini was also deeply moved when she asked for help locating her maternal grandfather’s name. Among the tens of thousands of names, history was no longer something abstract; each name represented a life, a family, and a story that continues to be remembered.
Behind the temple, we sat together in a Peace Circle and chanted Jaya Ganesha. When other groups of visitors arrived, we lowered our voices and continued chanting softly. Many people shared that the energy of this place felt very pure, gentle, and sacred. Perhaps, through so many years of remembrance, prayer, and sincere offerings, those who passed away have found peace.
Each day, ceremonial tables at the temple are carefully prepared with Vietnamese food as offerings to the fallen soldiers. The enduring care and gratitude of the living seem to have transformed a land once filled with suffering into a place of serenity and sacred beauty.
Một Thoáng Việt Nam: Transforming Bomb Craters into a Place That Preserves Vietnamese Culture
Leaving Bến Dược Memorial Temple, we traveled to the Một Thoáng Việt Nam cultural and traditional craft village. Ms. Trần Thị Tuyết Nga, its founder and General Director, warmly and formally welcomed our group. As a war veteran, she has devoted herself wholeheartedly to preserving and sharing the values of traditional Vietnamese culture with both Vietnamese people and international visitors.
The site preserves many historical artifacts, statues, altars, and teachings of distinguished Vietnamese figures, military leaders, and poets. I was especially drawn to the memorial plaque honoring Trần Quốc Tuấn, also known as Hưng Đạo Đại Vương, who three times led the soldiers and people of Đại Việt in resisting the Mongol–Yuan invasions. Wooden stakes evoke the victory at Bạch Đằng and the wisdom of our ancestors, who harnessed the tides to defend their homeland.
At the center of the traditional house stood the Altar of the Nation and the Land, built with sacred soil gathered from all 63 provinces and municipalities, symbolizing the unity of the Vietnamese people. It is also a place where Vietnamese people can return to their roots and honor the ancestors of the nation’s many family lineages, from the earliest days of settling the land and founding the country.
Ms. Nga explained that this land was once a muddy bomb crater. She overcame many difficulties and used nearly one million cubic meters of soil to fill it, transforming a scar of war into a lush cultural sanctuary with brick pathways, rows of bamboo, climbing vines, flowers, greenery, and lotus ponds. It is a deeply meaningful image of transformation: from destruction to life, and from memories of war to beauty and culture.
Puja for Universal Peace
After offering incense at the ancestral altar, we performed a traditional Indian puja to pray for universal peace. Ms. Nga shared that while deeply honoring Vietnamese culture and our homeland, we should also open our hearts and pray for all humanity.
At the center of the puja was a large stone Shiva Lingam from the Cham culture. Its lower part represents feminine energy, while its upper part represents masculine energy. The Shiva Lingam symbolizes the harmony of yin and yang and the union of cosmic consciousness with cosmic energy—the two aspects that bring this world into being.
Beside the Shiva Lingam, we placed a statue of Ganesha and images of the spiritual masters of the Sivananda tradition. The presence of the masters helps us understand the deeper meaning of worship, so that ritual does not become superstition but remains a path of understanding and spiritual connection.
The altar also held a small statue of Vishnu, believed to be approximately one thousand years old. Although only about 20 centimeters tall, it radiated a powerful vitality and possessed a uniquely captivating beauty. Vishnu symbolizes preservation, inner peace, and peace throughout the world.
Ms. Nga shared that, in preparation for this day of prayer, she had visited the Cát Tiên Sanctuary—where traces of Shiva Lingam worship remain—and the Cao Đài Holy See in Tây Ninh to seek blessings and pray for the ceremony’s successful completion.
One by one, each member of the group came forward to offer milk, water, and flowers to the Shiva Lingam while we chanted the 108 names of Lord Shiva together. The solemn ceremony served as a bridge connecting Vietnamese culture, Cham culture, and the spiritual traditions of India in a shared prayer for peace.
Afterward, everyone enjoyed a generous vegetarian meal beside the lotus pond. The dishes were light and wholesome, beautifully presented, and given meaningful names.
A Peace Circle in the Rain
After the meal, the group gathered in a Peace Circle. I gave each person a topic to reflect upon and share. Rather than speaking in general terms, each participant looked deeply within and spoke from personal experience. A flower and a microphone were passed from one person to the next. As everyone began to open their hearts, heavy rain started to fall.
The topics shared by all are centered on restoring inner peace: ahimsa—nonviolence; satya and satyagraha—truthfulness and the power of truth; selflessness and service; courage; forgiveness; grief and loss; yoga and meditation; self-mastery; and conscious action.
Some remembered the soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in service to their country. Others expressed regret for having lost their temper or behaved harshly toward their children. Some admitted that forgiveness was very difficult, yet they remained committed to trying. One person spoke of losing a close friend and wept for a beloved cat who had been a companion for 17 years. Through grief, there is inner realization how important it is to keep the heart open.
One person shared that she needed to become gentler and more feminine in the way she treated others. Another said that living truthfully had led her through a divorce, but had also helped her rediscover peace within herself and with her children. Someone who had previously been very afraid to visit Củ Chi and Bến Dược Memorial Temple felt happy afterward for having made the journey, connected with others, and gained a deeper understanding. Another person sincerely apologized to the younger generation for words spoken in the past that may have caused them pain.
One participant read a poem written at the vegetarian restaurant:
“Live without anger, resentment, or blame.
Live with a smile through trials and hardships.
Live by rising toward the morning light.
Live in harmony with all living beings.
Life is movement, yet the heart remains still.
Live with love, but without attachment.
Live in peace and joy, untouched by fame or gain.
Keep the mind unchanging amid life’s countless changes.”
These verses embody much of the spirit of yoga. To live without anger, resentment, or blame is to avoid identifying with our emotions. To smile in the face of hardship is to maintain a positive outlook. To rise toward the morning light is to continually seek light and wisdom. To live in harmony is to cultivate peace in our relationships.
“Life is movement, yet the heart remains still” recalls the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita about seeing inaction in action. “Live with love, but without attachment” expresses the spirit of non-attachment in Jnana Yoga. Regarding fame and material gain lightly reflects the virtue of aparigraha—non-possessiveness. And “Keep the mind unchanging amid life’s countless changes” reminds us of the Atman, our true Self, which is eternal and unchanging even as the outer world is constantly changing.
Another piece of calligraphy displayed these words by Master Thanh Sơn:
“We do not know what tomorrow may bring,
but whatever it brings, it is all right.”
It is a simple reminder to let go and trust in the face of the unknown.
Asana for Peace and the Closing of the Circle
After the Peace Circle, we practiced an asana class for peace. Through the breath, gentle movements, and relaxation, everyone brought the message of the day deeply into their own body and mind.
At the end of the day, we gathered once more in a closing circle. Many participants felt deeply moved and grateful to have been there. Some had initially decided not to come because they were tired or busy, yet after spending the day together, they felt renewed and full of energy, with their fatigue gone. Many shared their stories through tears.
One person recalled the story of a poor elderly woman who ran a small roadside food stall. When someone felt sorry for her and remarked that her life must be very difficult, she replied that she was not suffering at all, but felt deeply blessed. During the war, whenever she heard a sound, she had to jump into a shelter. Now she could live in peace without hiding from bombs and gunfire—and to her, that alone was an immense happiness.
One person compared the atmosphere at the Ba Chúc Memorial, where approximately 3,000 people were killed—a place that still feels heavy—with that of Bến Dược Memorial Temple, which commemorates approximately 45,000 fallen soldiers. Through many years of continual remembrance, offerings, and reverence, Bến Dược today feels serene and carries a profoundly uplifting energy. The sincere remembrance of the living has the power to heal the past.
Some realized that they now understood their parents more deeply. Their parents had lived through the war, and some of the difficulties in their personalities and lives may bear the imprint of those years of fear and uncertainty. This understanding opened the heart to compassion rather than judgment.
Many people said they now better understood the difference between external peace and inner peace: external peace is generally understood in relation to outer circumstances, while inner peace begins within. One participant expressed gratitude and felt a deeper connection with her own father after the pilgrimage. Everyone wished to bring peace into their daily lives, rather than experience it only on one special day.
Through these heartfelt reflections, everyone developed greater empathy for those seated with them in the circle. From that shared understanding, each person felt strengthened to live in peace and spread peace to others.
As the pilgrimage came to an end, everyone boarded the vehicles, said their farewells, and returned home. But what we carried with us was more than the memory of a journey. It was the understanding that inner peace is not a distant ideal. It is created through every breath, every word, and every conscious action—through forgiveness, gratitude, remembrance, and our willingness to open our hearts to our own suffering and that of others.
When a person finds inner peace, they can bring peace into their family. When families live in harmony, communities can begin to heal. And from such small circles of truthfulness, empathy, and love, peace can spread throughout the world.
I want to record my impressions of our Hiroshima yaatra—a sacred pilgrimage for peace.
The Journey Begins
It was one extraordinary day. We left the Tokyo Yoga Center at 6:00 a.m. and traveled for four hours by Shinkansen, the high-speed bullet train, to Hiroshima. We spent the entire day at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and returned to our hotel after dark, at around 9:00 p.m.
Our group numbered more than twenty. Three local Sivananda Yoga teachers from Hiroshima joined us, along with Neelakantha, whom we knew well. A graduate of the Sivananda Yoga Health Educator Training, an audiovisual documentarian, and a participant in our two-day Tokyo retreat, he lives in a nearby town and came to welcome us. Four others from the Tokyo retreat also joined us. Seven traveled by train, seven by plane, one by bus the previous day, and four were local. We also counted the Gurus as one among us.
We followed the itinerary in our Sivananda Peace Circle Protocol booklet.
From our small hotel, we walked about ten minutes to the Peace Memorial Park. It was a beautiful, spacious place, with broad stone walkways, large trees, and small shrines. We first arrived at the great Peace Bell.
A Window Opened for Our Peace Mission
The night before our departure, a very large typhoon was heading toward Tokyo. We followed its path online. Strong winds and heavy rain were expected, and I imagined my large body being blown away while holding on to Swami Adiparashaktiananda! Yet I was not afraid. Come what may, I felt that this first official peace mission must go forward.
Silently, I prayed. I could not imagine that we would remain trapped in Tokyo, unable to travel to Hiroshima. If the typhoon made landfall, there would be no trains and no planes. We braced ourselves. Then, unexpectedly, the typhoon turned northward during the night, and we were able to board our train. Atmashakti called it a miracle. After we arrived that morning, we heard that train services were disrupted by the storm. It was as though the universe had opened a small window for our peace mission.
This pilgrimage had been prepared for six months through many preliminary Peace Circles. The first one in India took place in Ayodhya, following our visit to the Gandhi Museum in Delhi. We also made a deeply moving visit to Varanasi, encountering directly death at the burning ghats. Swami Padmananda facilitated many Peace Circles in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and we held two circles during the Tokyo retreat.
Our Peace Circle booklet outlined the protocol and explored essential themes: ahimsa, satya, selflessness, grief, nonviolent communication, forgiveness, yoga and meditation, and conscious action. It was translated into Vietnamese and Japanese. We also prepared 300 peace buttons and thirty white-and-blue T-shirts in Vietnam, along with three orange shirts and two yellow ones.
The Peace Bell
Hiroshima calls itself a City of Peace, yet it is also a city of continuing remembrance and grief. I was deeply moved because everything there speaks of peace. I was relieved to feel that its grief was not rooted in bitterness. It was an active remembrance, carrying the determination that such evil must never happen again.
Swami Adiparashaktiananda and I sounded the Peace Bell three times: once for Asia, once for Europe, and once for the Americas. I trust that Africa and Australia were included, as a map of the entire Earth was engraved on the bell, together with Sanskrit writing.
Swami Padmananda recorded its sound. She said that every step we took might be upon the remains of someone who had disappeared there. Throughout our visit, she chanted the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra—Om Tryambakam.
The energy was extraordinary and elevated, as though we were inside a sacred church. We felt uplifted. Swami Adiparashaktiananda reminded us, “All is for the best. God’s will is supreme. In the face of suffering, we find God.” The Peace Memorial Park bears witness to this truth. It is sacred ground formed from eighty-one years of suffering: the suffering of those who died, the survivors, their descendants, the Japanese people, and visitors from around the world.
As we approached the heart of the park, I could no longer contain my emotions. I tried not to sob because I was leading the group, but I felt overwhelmed—not only by those who died in Hiroshima, but also by the suffering that continues everywhere today. Wherever we turn, we find ignorance, violence, abuse, threats, and cruelty.
Since childhood, I have been deeply involved in this work: facing grief of humanity, actively alleviating suffering, and helping myself and others awaken to the True Self beyond it. I knew that I was supposed to remember the Atman while bearing witness to the atrocities committed here. Yet, from my very first steps, even before beginning our Om Namo Narayanaya peace walk, I found myself falling apart.
Bearing Witness at the Atomic Bomb Dome
We crossed the bridge and arrived at the Atomic Bomb Dome. The structure that survived the blast stood beside the river—a stark and beautiful testimony to what had been.
We sat in a circle on the ground under curious eyes and began to share. People from the United States, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Hiroshima, and Tokyo spoke about their childhood memories of learning about the atomic bomb. We shared the pain of hearing people say that the bomb was good because it ended the war. Others told stories about grandparents who lived through that time and survived. We spoke of the different kinds of casualties and of suffering transmitted from one generation to the next. There were many tears. Together, we learned to honor grief.
One person expressed surprise at seeing so many tourists while so few were engaged in meditation, prayer, or dialogue in this extraordinary place. We felt that more kirtan and more Peace Circles should be offered here for healing.
The kirtan uplifted us immediately. If we forget God, evil can happen. An Indian passerby who joined us with his wife said, “If good people do nothing, evil happens.” He belonged to a spiritual organization based in London and India. He offered dakshina, bowed to me, and acknowledged the importance of spiritual leadership.
Neelakantha said, “Swami Sita helped us to heal something very deep in the Japanese subconscious—a feeling of being a loser.”
But humanity lost, Neelakantha—not Japan alone. We are all lost in war. In war, there are no winners and no losers. Hiroshima belongs to the whole world. It is a City of Peace and eternal remembrance—a place that transforms grief through forgiveness and light. Sometimes it takes great suffering for humanity to learn the lesson of Oneness.
Remembering the Children
We shared from 2:00 until 5:00 p.m. Then we walked to the memorial honoring the schoolchildren who lost their lives. Their names are inscribed on bronze plaques near the great statue of the Goddess of Peace, whose face reminded us of Quan Yin and whose form has two large wings.
We offered strings of two hundred colorful paper cranes at the Children’s Peace Monument and rang the bell. Thousands of children died without ever having the chance to live out their lives. We remembered them with tenderness and prayer.
Peace Puja Beside the Eternal Flame
We then walked to the Eternal Flame. The setting was profoundly beautiful: the symbolic tomb, the flame surrounded by water, and the Atomic Bomb Dome visible in the distance.
Near the memorial to a mother and child, we prepared our Peace Puja. We had carried statues of the Gurus and statues of Lord Krishna and Goddess Lakshmi from Tokyo. I added a box containing cloth from Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnudevananda, which I had received during my Acharya initiation. In this way, the Sivananda lineage was present with us beside the Eternal Flame, at the edge of the trees.
We performed a full abhishekam for Lord Ganesha, the Shiva Lingam, and Mother Durga. We repeated Om Tryambakam, Om Namo Narayanaya, and Om Sri Durgayai Namah.
I felt Mother Durga to be the presiding deity of Hiroshima—the Divine Mother who protects, confronts the demons, and emerges victorious. Om Sri Durgayai Namah.
We completed the puja in the gathering darkness, with arati, the ringing of the bell, and the darshan of the moon above the trees. It was magic. May peace prevail. May the Divine Mother protect us all.
The Peace Memorial Museum
The following day, we visited the large Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It presents a powerful reconstruction of Hiroshima before and after the bombing. When we walked through its pitch-dark corridors, the reality of what had happened truly hit home. We saw photographs of young students full of life and, afterward, pictures of them burned and bald, lying in pain. We saw paintings depicting unbearable scenes. The most striking ones for me were a painting of stacks of bodies filling the river and another of people with hanging flesh. There were photographs of the devastation and heartbreaking testimonies from survivors.
One of the most powerful exhibits showed the bomb exploding above the city and the destructive force radiating across a vast area. Its message was unmistakable: such an atrocity must never be allowed to happen again.
Approximately 140,000 people are estimated to have died in Hiroshima by the end of 1945. Many others suffered and died later from injuries, illness, and radiation exposure, and not every death was fully accounted for.
I saw an exhibit showing the pained face of Pope Francis, who had visited, and the solemn face of President Barack Obama, who signed in support of nuclear nonproliferation at that time. I also saw pictures of nations’ delegates at conferences discussing deterrence and the use of the atomic bomb. I prayed for wisdom for our world.
Yoga Is Peace in the Making
A full yoga class was held beneath the trees, just across from the Atomic Bomb Dome, beside the river. One participant shared that she truly felt the intensity of the yoga class while lying on the ground near the epicenter, where so many people had died. She was now relaxing and breathing, with the images she had seen in the museum revolving in her mind, while at the same time hearing the Peace Bell nearby.
The yoga class brought the five-day peace retreat from Tokyo to Hiroshima to a meaningful conclusion. The fact is that many people do not make the connection between asanas and peace, yet asana, pranayama, and meditation are at the very heart of peace.
We held a final sharing circle, once again listening attentively without moving for two and a half hours. We chanted Jaya Ganesha and talked about our gratitude for being there. We shared our admiration for the resilience of the Japanese people—how they persevered and rebuilt the city after only a few years. We talked about the silence of a Japanese grandfather who was unable to share, perhaps because he was still in denial or suffering from PTSD.
Someone mentioned the necessity of taking responsibility for wrong actions and egoistic thinking that contribute to war, and how recognizing our part in conflicts is the way toward acceptance and true healing. We talked about our determination to continue, one step at a time, holding on to our inner peace in our daily lives. We promised ourselves that we would take action to help and share.
“This kind of peace retreat really helps us become aware of what peace truly is,” exclaimed Swami Padma afterward. “We need to do more and more of it.”
Yoga is not merely talking about peace. It is peace in the making.
When the body becomes steady, the breath becomes calm. When the breath becomes calm, the mind becomes peaceful. From peace of mind come clarity, compassion, forgiveness, and wise action.
“Peace of mind is happiness. Yoga shows the way,” Swami Vishnudevananda said. He was the one who imprinted Hiroshima in my mind years ago, in the 1980s, as he remembered to commemorate the 6th of August by having us walk around the village of Val Morin with banners and posters: “No to nuclear bombs!”
Indeed, Swamiji’s peace missionary spirit lives on today in this Hiroshima pilgrimage.
Suggested excerpt: A personal reflection by Swami Sitaramananda on the Sivananda peace pilgrimage to Hiroshima—bearing witness, honoring grief, practicing prayer and yoga, and renewing the commitment to peace.
Suggested category: Peace / Yoga Philosophy (choose the closest categories already used on your site).
Suggested featured image: the opening group photograph in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome.
Publishing: In WordPress go to Posts → Add New, copy the article text, use each Heading 1 in this document as an H2 on the website, upload the corresponding photographs to the Media Library, set the opening group photo as Featured Image, preview on desktop and mobile, then publish.
Karma is action and consequence of action. It Implies that we are born as consequence of past action and thought. Action comes also in terms of thoughts. This life has a cause and what we do in this life will have a consequence in the future. So, we have to see the big picture to understand your life at the present. There is a reason for certain things to happen that way, and there is a way you can then get out of it, alleviating it.
Karma is a general term that indicates everything, indicates your life. Your life comes as a consequence of something and whatever you choose and do will bring about some consequence in the future.This life is an opportunity to make a different choice considering the same thoughts and similar circumstances. Now, you have been given a different choice. Now you can set your foot in the right direction for a better future life.
Bhagavad Gita said that nothing that you have done or studied or any effort that you have made will go to waste. It is a chain of lives and you improve your life slowly. To remedy to Karma, you need to understand that this personality, this life is not really the real picture. You have to learn to see the big picture of your soul’s life. It is the history of your soul.
Karma has many aspects. You think wrongly that karma is something that’s happens to you and that there’s good karma and bad karma, but it’s not correct thinking.There’s no good karma, there’s no bad karma. It’s only your journey of accumulating knowledge and decreasing ignorance. Your life journey is to accumulate knowledge and decrease ignorance
Karma comes from desire and desire comes from ignorance, i.e. not knowing who you are, so you would just project an idea of who you are. You need to understand that you are already everything, complete and whole , you are the immortal Self, satchidananda Atman . Remember the Self. You know that nobody can hurt you. Nobody can touch you. It’s only the cosmic play. Really, you are untouched and you’re unhurt.
The journey of life is the journey of purification for you to get to understand this Truth. You keep thinking that you are this limited self and therefore have plenty of desire which continuously will create new karma. And you keep evolving in the cycle of karma we call the wheel of birth and death which never ends.
The main thing to remedy to karma is the Karma Yoga attitude. It’s not about other people. When you do karma Yoga, it’s not that you do service to other people. Of course, you have to have an attitude of service and of love, but really you are working out your karma, it is for yourself. It is the smartest way to turn your karma to dharma. Karma is that which binds you because of your inherited tendency of thinking in the past, and dharma is that which liberates you by the right thinking about your duty and what you are supposed to be doing in this life.
For example, before you feel that lying and manipulating a situation will be to your advantage. That’s your pattern, that’s the way you think. Now, you were given the same situation but you choose honesty and straightforwardness and you find strength in having good character, even though you might be tempted to cheat away and nobody would know, but you will choose a different ethical attitude, to honor your duty and your responsibility. This is the way you work out and heal your karma.
Three guidelines on how to heal karma. Healing is to restore wholeness.
Consciously, care about your present duty. Everyone has a specific duty in life. You consciously do the best you can to fulfill your duties, not following the likes and dislikes of your subconscious mind. You exercise your conscious choice and turn Karma to Dharma.
Be detached and be the observer. Assert your immortal Self: It means, while in action, in the battlefield of life, when the karma is pulling you down and it is difficult, keep your head above water and keep an eye on your self- realization goal, on your fulfillment. Keep thinking: “I am satchidananda, and I’m actually progressing.”
We need to accept all tests and challenges in this life as only temporary. With karma, we have to accept, not run away. If you do so, the karma will move through faster and will not create so much damage and suffering and imprint in your mind.
Twelve areas of karma and how to heal
These areas of karmas came from the framework of vedic astrology which is the science of karma. Of course, this is only a guideline considering that there are it is multitudes of ways and scenarios how the karma can play out.
1. The body, yourself : The body is like a battlefield on which the karma is playing. You’re born as a male or as a female, tall or short, black or white, beautiful or handicapped, with a lot of prana or innately weak, whatever it is, it’s part of the setup of the karma. The body is limited and can’t do all what you want, it goes through the process of growth and of aging. The body is an instrument and it serves the purpose of your birth .
Remedial: Accept the body and cherish it as your precious vehicle to fulfill your purpose, your dharma. Honor the body and not mutilate it. You are not the body but you need to take care of it. Try to increase prana in the body and conserve prana for a long meaningful life. Try to not over-care of the body, not over identifying with it, not using it for wrong purpose. With the body, you have the organs of action whose function are elimination, reproduction, moving, grasping, speaking. Use the organs of action and organs of perception, the senses, correctly, not over use them.
2. The family of origin, your relatives, your financial resources, your mouth, your speech. Your family of origin can be supportive or you can be deprived of family support. The way you eat can be supportive to your life or it can be problematic. Your speech can be supportive to you or not. You can be deprived of financial resources to sustain your life or you can be wasting your money.
Remedials:Nurture healing voice (connect your voice and your soul and express it, like when chanting kirtan) , healing speech (you heal yourself and others through speech and not aggravating relationships) , healing food (honor the body and not harming the body), use financial resources for healing purposes. Be grateful for support received. Give support to others when you yourself have not received support. Remedy to the karma of not having money by donating money, so that money karma can no longer be the criteria to make you suffer by your feeling either greedy, needy or feeling lack. Be free of that idea that money is the purpose of my life. Do not waste money in sensual search for pleasures. Learn to think about it correctly to work out your karma.
3. Communication skills, your own self-will, the way you express yourself, your relationships with your children. This is about reaching out beyond yourself and your family of origin. Some people have problems of communications and expression, some have extraordinary skill of communication, enjoy themselves and give joy to others through their communication. Your creativity, your way to connect and express your higher mind can be through your children, progeny or your intellectual and spiritual expressions.
Remedials: Practice Compassionate communication skill . Learn to express truthfully your needs and listen to others. Learn to surrender to God’s will and seeing the big picture about your life and the life of others to remedy to blockages in communications. Help to connect people or networking people for a higher purpose. Take care of your children as instruments of God’s creativity and not as your possessions. Seeing the sacred and the divine all around.
4. Your core heart and your peace of mind, your happiness. What makes you happy, your relationship with your mother, your home, your house or property. Your heart and peace of mind can be disturbed. You can be sad, depressed, angry, restless, needy, emotional, isolated and have emotional difficulty and bad relationship with your mother.
Remedial: Practice openness of heart, learn to love, practice contentment, open your heart and have a loving disposition. Remedy to your difficult relationship with your mother and thus with your own emotions by devoting yourself to the divine Mother. Heal all your heart wounds, forgive, forget and keep loving and being at peace with yourself and with all. This is the key to liberation from karma. Try not to be fearful, victimized, defensive or manipulative of emotions.
5. the way you use your intelligence to follow dharma, your creativity, your education. Your intelligence is to understand the way how the universe works in order for you to follow your dharma. You might have the karma to have good education, good intellect and have power of discernment and discrimination coming from past merits. You might inherit blockages in your study and your spiritual study, coming from past demerits (wrong thoughts from before that block your knowledge)
Remedials: Care to follow guidance, ethics, and dharmic behavior, spiritual education, study of scriptures. Purification of intellect through Mantras.
6. Your obstacles and over-coming obstacles in terms of your own weaknesses, creating debts, enemies or diseases.
Because you have weaknesses so you create obstacles to yourself. These obstacles can create debts, enemies or diseases to yourself. Everyone has weakness, more or less pronounced. Everyone needs to pro-actively remedy to your weaknesses by practicing the 4 paths of Yoga that will help strengthening any weakness that you might have.
Remedials: Strengthen your weaknesses to overcome obstacles, proactively leading the guidance of Yoga Life (understanding the law of nature) and the 4 paths of Yoga to self-develop, self-discipline, and achieve self-purification thus diminishing impact of weaknesses.
See obstacles, conflicts and diseases as an opportunity to review your lifestyle and negative thinking. Learn the principles of health and live according to the law of nature which is the divine law. Learn to work selflessly (doing karma Yoga), to give instead of to consume, to be disciplined instead of being indulgent. Learn to see your own atman in other. Stop fault finding. Learn to forgive and have the vision of unity. Turn your weakness into strength.
7. Your enjoyment coming from good or problematic association with partner in business or in life. Story of rejection, story of abandonment, story of disloyalty, unfaithfulness, betrayal, treachery, infidelity, untrustworthiness. All these are manifestations of the karma of your relationship with the partner.
Remedials: Learn to see the Self in others, treat others as you would treat yourself. Detachment instead of passion Learn to honor commitment and responsibilities.
8. Karma with the hidden forces in the psyche and the astral world. The karma there will manifest not in your life but it is in your mind. The working of your psyche can bring spiritual insight, intuition, and enlightenment, revealing way to liberation, leading to freedom from suffering or you can become victim to dark forces in your mind that would bring miseries to your own self and others.
Remedials: learn to uplift yourself through the power of Satsanga and association with wisdom, wise people or good people, so you can get out of your own psyche. Renounce siddhis, occult practices, dark associations, exploration of astral realms.
9. Your good fortune and luck or lack of blessings and luck coming from your good or negative association with spiritual or religious teachers. Your religion and your faith. Your good dharmic guidance received or negative guidance. Your good relationship with your father or father figure.
Remedials: Cultivation of respect of teachers and spiritual traditions, practice of humility in the pursuit of Self Realization. Discrimination in the choice of teachers or guide, avoiding tamasic and rajasic teachers and methods. Abstention from guiding people when not having purified oneself. Become a sattvic teacher and a sattvic student. Replace negative relationship with birth father with the positive relationship with the Divine Father. Cultivate trust, faith and security of being protected, remove doubts and anxiety. Remember that “Paths are many but Truth is One”, “Names and forms are many, but God is One”.
10. Karma about work and career, about acquisition of name and fame or lack of recognition, about positive or negative contribution to the welfare of society: You can derive satisfaction or unhappiness from your work, have sense of purpose and mission or lack of sense of your place in life, lack of fulfillment and recognition. Not knowing what your career is.
Remedials: Development of selflessness through the practice of selfless service (Karma Yoga) is the remedial to purposelessness. Patanjali said that non-acquisitiveness, absence of greed or realizing that material possessions are not the end and goal of life will help you to discover your purpose of birth. Name and fame are illusory so renunciation of ego and name and fame will help you to counteract that karma. Become the instrument to Higher will instead.
11. Karma with your community, society, environment, your friends and your gains and success in life. Your environment can be conducive to your growth, success and fulfillment or it can be detrimental to your growth and success in life. It might be that you will meet with unfavorable environment and society, or the opposite, you will be favored by the circumstances and connections.
Remedials: Be an honorable contributing member of the community, care for the environment (nature, people, animals), care for friends and connections. Respect the web of life. Avoid taking advantages of society or environment, people and friends. Avoid unethical behaviors to gain financial success at the expenses of others.
12. Karma with losses and unfortunate events: Story of sufferings coming from material losses or separation from loved ones, story of losing one’s self over to addictions, pleasures and expenditures. Lack or loss of self-confidence, lack or loss of success and fulfilment. These losses might lead you to hospitals, jails, ashrams, or make you go in exile or in foreign countries.
Remedials: Replace the loss of one’s self in a negative manner (addiction, indulgence, expenditures) with the positive loss of oneself in a positive manner (through charity, selflessness). Counteract through active practice of humility and charitable actions, volunteer losing of ego through selflessness and charity, volunteering in hospitals, jails, ashrams, or service to the forlorn , the down trodden and the homeless.
17 guidelines in working out of karma
1. Detachment from the plays of karma: Learn wisdom and courage then and there while living our life. Do not run away from battle, or pretending that it doesn’t exist, or suppressing the issue, or not doing self-enquiry. Observe the plays of karma and find your Atman/Self through it, through the battle of life. You might not be able to change the karma right away, but you can make self-effort. All efforts will not go in vain.
2. Turning Karma to Dharma: be detached and selfless. How do you detach? take a distance and do not take yourself too seriously, that’s how you alleviate your karma. Alleviate yourself from all ideas about being good or bad at something, remove expectations about yourself and others. Remember the Self. Remove fears. Know that in reality, you are untouched and you’re unhurt. Be peace and be Love. All else is just purification.
3.balancing likes and dislikes tendencies of the mind: adapt, adjust, accommodate, reduce strong egoistic tendencies stemming from misidentification.
5. Care for the present duty: Accept the tests and challenges.You are learning. Do your Duty and not someone else’s duty.
6. Always keep our eyes on the goal of Self-Realization through Satsanga and scriptural study. Keep accumulating self-knowledge and decreasing ignorance (spiritual ignorance is not knowing the Truth about Self and Reality).
7. Increase plus, decrease minus ( increase Knowledge, decrease ignorance) There’s no good karma, there’s no bad karma. It’s only your journey of accumulating knowledge and decreasing ignorance. Life is a series of plus and minus: doing things that will help yourself to get out of ignorance is called “plus” and doing things that would repeat your pattern is called “minus”. Eventually, the balance of plus and minus will show your progress and eventually will liberate you from karma.
8. Practice of Prayer and humility: You need to pay, “I don’t want anything, it is your will. It’s not my will. I do the best I can, I offer the result.” Have a prayerful attitude day after day, breath after breath, while doing your best and doing your duty. Avoid pride and presumption. Increase faith instead.
9. Surrendering to the karma helps it to be remedied faster. Karma will finish when you do not notice it anymore and there is no more suffering. If you are suffering from something, you’re learning. If the suffering is recurring, but it’s also alleviating with time, that means that you are progressing. The True Self is blissful and not suffering.
10. Be patient, it’s a gradual change of karma. Alleviation of karma means that you will refine your idea of how you think about things. So, it’s your thought that creates the karma and to relieve yourself from karma, you have to have different thinking or different attitude about life, about things, about yourself, and about others.
11. Develop the attitude of being an instrument only, and offer the result of your actions, in praise or censure, in success or failure. Keep the mind even. Think, “it’s not about me, it’s not about them. It’s not about whether I like them or not like them; it has nothing really to do with it.” You offer the results of your actions; that means you offer this karma up in order for you to continue to progress. Do the best you can, make the effort but learn to let go. Do your duty and persevere, this too shall pass.
12. Do not compareyourself to others: Every karma is unique, don’t compare yourself to others. Avoid envy, jealousy, contempt, judgement and uncompassionate actions or thoughts when you do not understand the karma of someone. Also avoid blame and expectation that people has to understand your struggles. Don’t judge them, don’t condemn them, and know that they’re making the best that they can in the context of their own karma.
13. Avoid competition, ambitions, desires: In our feverish world of competition, where everybody is looking for answers outside, we believe that our happiness is in the material possessions, and sensual comforts. We think that our happiness has to be at the expense of somebody else and we compete with each other. We make sure that we get the best place, and the best part of the cake. We fear that someone else’s happiness is at our expense. We don’t like people that are happy because we are not happy. We believe in external success and not internal peace as success. We’ve been pulled in all directions by our ambitions, and by our desires, and we suffer from disappointments and angers that follow desires.
14. Do not worry about the future: Take care of your duty in the present, and the future will be taken care of: so, don’t worry about the future. Don’t plan too much. Be in the present, and then your long-term future will be taken care of; The moment that you release yourself from your karmic knot, then “a brilliant future is awaiting you”, according to Swami Sivananda. Dharmic life brings happiness.
15. Understand that Karma is endless, be wise: In the pursuit of happiness, we have made many mistakes and have created endless karma. The greater the level that you understand that the karma is endless, is your level of wisdom. Karma is endless and the cycle of births and deaths is difficult to break. We have gone through many lifetimes of ignorance thus the imprints in the mind are deep and the suffering experienced can be intense as the result.
16. Turn Within: happiness is within. Yogis affirm that in order to find happiness, we need to achieve peace of mind first. This means that we need to eventually recognize that there is no end to the desires, that the objects desired, in fact, are our own projection of our own illusions externally. We eventually learn to turn within, avoid the love and hate, the up and down, the dual tendency of attraction and repulsion, and always running towards something or running away from something. This is when Yoga and meditation come into our life and we catch the taste of peace, and understand, finally, that it comes from within. We decide then, consciously, to make an effort. to be calm and to focus within.
17. Yoga is the path of moderation, Yoga shows the way: The path of Yoga is the path of moderation. How Yoga will help? Yoga has two keywords that are very helpful for you in this journey of Hatha Yoga and karma yoga: “effort and relaxation”. How do you apply? Make an effort and at the same time be ready to surrender, to accept; that’s the way you get out of the karma. Learning Yoga will help you to slow down; slow down and accept, relax, and realize that seeking happiness outside of ourselves leads us nowhere. Yoga shows us a way out. By practicing regularly, your life’s mission will be revealed to you.
END
Swami Sitaramananda is a senior acharya of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and is director of the Sivananda Ashram Vedanta Yoga Farm, California and the Sivananda Yoga Resort and Training Center, Vietnam. She is acharya of China, Taiwan, and Japan as well. Swamiji is the organizer and teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Health Educator Training (SYHET) program, an 800-hour program on yoga therapy, accredited by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT).
Swami Sitaramananda is the author of “Essentials of Yoga Practice and Philosophy” (translated in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Russian), “Positive Thinking Manual”, “Karma Yoga Manual”, “Meditation Manual”, “Swamiji Said, a collection of teachings by Swami Vishnu” in His Own Words. She is responsible for the Vietnamese translation of “Completed Illustrated Book of Yoga” (CIBY) and “Meditation & Mantras” by Swami Vishnu. Many of her video & audio lectures on Yoga life, philosophy, and psychology as well as articles and webinars can be found on this website.
Swami Sita is an ardent supporter of the integration of the Vedic sciences such as Vastu, Jyotish, Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta. She is an international teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’ Training Courses and Advanced Yoga teachers’ Training courses, as well as Meditation and Vedanta & Silence Courses both in Sivananda Ashrams in Vietnam and in Grass Valley, CA.
The topic of today morning is about how to find your goal and your purpose in this life. Very often we find ourselves in transition, asking ourselves questions “What I’m going to do? What’s my next step? I like this, I like that, but I like this too. I don’t really know what to do”. Often times, we find ourselves in mild or severe depression, due to the sense of lack of direction and a feeling of meaninglessness. This is when we need to know about what our Dharma is.
What is Dharma?
Dharma means your highest duty or your mission in life, the right thing to do. We can talk about Dharma only if we understand the word Karma. The reason why we do not understand our Dharma is because we are functioning out of Karma. The level that you can get out of your karma or be detached from your karma is the level that you understand your Dharma. People know what they like, but they cannot do it, they cannot fulfill it. They live life and always feel frustrated, or always feel that they want to do something, but never can really do it.
The lucky ones are those who are able to do it, because of the circumstances of life and their inner motivations meet together and they feel fulfilled inside and outside. But you cannot blame the circumstances. If the circumstances are not favorable and you are not able to express yourself and fulfill your Dharma, you cannot blame the circumstances because it’s also your Karma. You have to work it out. Every situation is just perfect for you to work it out. It might take a long time, but if you do the correct practice, then you’ll be able to one day fulfill your Karma and Dharma both together. So, how to do this?
We need to understand Karma
When you are steeped in the karma, usually you are kind of in the dark. Karma means specific circumstances that you have to experience and live through because of the result of what you have thought and done in the past. And oftentimes it can be difficult, which means you are struggling. You are in the dark is not necessarily a happy state. Sometimes you might be happy and then again unhappy, happy and unhappy. It is not really the true picture. You’re still trying to understand what is asked from you. You are trying in this life using your means, your skills in order to be happy to get what you want. Sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes not. So, karma is something you have to experience, and it comes from a distant past. It sets up certain circumstances of your life.
Karmic relationship
Karmic relationships would help you eventually to see who you are, which is the immortal Atman that is in everybody. And it’s not the separate self that is different from everybody. Karmic relationships help you to find yourself. The purpose of struggling in work is not exactly the same as the purpose of struggling in relationships. Relationship is the question of love, the question of how to love and serve others as one’s own Self.
Your work – you are not the doer
Your work, your activity and what you find yourself doing, also can become your means to find yourself. You struggle with it, you try this and try that and eventually in that struggle, it’ll help you to know that you are not the doer or actor. The question of struggling in activity or in work is to ultimately find out that the energy that I have, the skill I have does not belong to me, and I’m only the instrument in the hands of the Divine. God is the supreme actor or doer and this body and mind are the instruments.
The moment you understand that, you will find peace. When you still have the idea of the doer-ship that means you are still thinking: “I am doing this, because I want this, and I like this”, “I don’t like this, and this is me against the world”. Then at that time, you’re still struggling, you’re still steeped in karma. Like I said at the beginning this means that you’re still looking, you’re still not finding peace.
Finding your Dharma starts with selflessness or Karma Yoga
It’s so simple. Dharma has to start with selflessness. If you want to find your Dharma, if you want to find your mission in life, “what is the purpose of my life?” then you need to practice what we call Karma Yoga or the yoga of selflessness. It means, in daily life, you would have to offer yourself to something higher and bigger, larger than yourself without condition, acting as an instrument of something higher. And then you will say, “I will be abused if I am selfless, I will be then taken advantage of”. It is not true because nobody can take advantage of you unless you allow it.
Because you are the one that owns your consciousness, yes or no? If you decide from your end this is what I like to do, then you can do it and offered it up consciously. Whether the person decides to take more or not it doesn’t really matter because it comes from you. You are the one that decided I want to offer this energy of mine. This time of mine is still mine. I offer to this person who is there, or I offer to God in my heart, it doesn’t really matter. The main thing is you are selfless, you are working on your selflessness. When you are working on your selflessness then you have no sense of “I own this, I own this effort, I own this work, I own this result.” This teaching is quite deep. It’s in the Bhagavad Gita, the main scripture of yoga. And Swami Sivananda wrote a book on “the practice of karma yoga”.
It is a spiritual question if you want to find your mission, your meaning, your highest purpose in life. It’s a very deep question. How do you know what your soul wants? Your mind always wants this and wants that and wonders and changes every time. Therefore, how do you know your highest purpose? How do you know your mission in life? Or how do you know why you’re born? It’s very difficult to know.
Starts with using your actual skills to serve selflessly
You have to sort it out from what you can do now in terms of selflessness, whatever that you can do selflessly. The more you can do this, the more your purpose will be revealed to you. You get that? The more you are able to be selfless in whatever you do, in your mind, independent from your circumstances, the more your purpose will be revealed to you. Whatever your circumstances, you still can find a way to be selfless, yes or no?
Put your heart into it and give up the results
Let’s say you are a mother. And you can be a selfless mother. Let’s say you are an employee, you can also be a selfless employee. Let’s say that you are a teacher, you can be a selfless teacher. What I mean is you put your heart into it, and you do the best you can, and you offer the result. Now, what does that mean? It means that you are detached from the results of your actions. If you are doing well, fine and good, if you are not doing well, fine and good. If the company becomes successful, fine and good or the company becomes bankrupt, and they think that it is your fault and they fire you, it’s fine and good also. But from your point of view, you practice selflessness. It’s not easy to do.
Egoism and selflessness
I believe in the talk yesterday, we brought up the definition of Patanjali about egoism. It is very nice. I’m still really enjoying the meaning of egoism: the association of the Atman with the instrument of seeing – the Antakarana. It is a technical term, Antakarana is the inner instrument. When the Atman is associating with the instrument, the mind, with what you like or do not like, with your personality and so on, then it becomes egoism. Self-realization means then the detachment or non-identification with your instrument of seeing, non-identification with your personality, non-identification with your ego, non-identification with your separate sense of self. That is selflessness.
Detach from the sense of I am the doer
Therefore, try to practice selflessness in whatever you do. Try not to think: “I like it, I don’t like it, and this is about me” or think: “Is people going to praise me? what do I get from this?” or feel:” it is a waste of my time!”. If you think like this, you’re still functioning out of your ego, you’ll still function out of that tight association of your Atman and your instrument of seeing.
What is Karma Yoga?
That’s why Karma Yoga is turning it around. It says just do whatever you need to do in front of you, do your duty, but turn it into selflessness and turn it into becoming an instrument. Because this is about action and it is not necessarily about emotion. Therefore, you use the word instrument, “I am only the instrument for this to happen”.
Then when you do that, you cancel out your Karma. You cancel out the strong attachment to your action, the strong attachment of the Atman – yourself, towards the action and the result of action. You detach from what you do, and from the result of what you do. So, in that way it works.
Also, karma yoga works to liberate yourself from this separate self, this body, this mind, or this separated life which you are very much identifying with if you are able to detach from what you’re doing and detach from the result of action.
This is why Karma Yoga- selfless action is being prescribed by all the teachers as a starting point on the journey of Self Realization. Why? Because we are very much identifying with this ego, or this separate individual self. Therefore, you have to keep turning it into something selfless, it’s very practical. You can actually see it when you work out of your own ego, and you can see it when you become selfless. It’s very practical.
How it works
Mark is a carpenter, he came here at the ashram. I don’t know how he came here. And then his skill was being used every day. I remember, all the time we said to him “this is a project for you, this is a project for you”. And then he did it. He didn’t complain. “Yeah. Okay. Let me see.” Yeah. He’s a very good karma yogi. People were praising him. “Oh, you did a good job. Thank you very much for fixing the screens of all the doors of the kitchen. No flies can come in and everything looks good. Thank you very much.” I see he did it and he did a good job. This is a karma yogi attitude, the attitude of selflessness.
Without him knowing, he gained some points, you can say some “punya”, some merit. Normally, what he’s going do with the same skill, he can go and do some work somewhere else and get paid for it because as a carpenter, or skilled carpenter, you get paid for your job. Here at the ashram what he has? He has some food, a bed for sleep, but he gets something that he cannot find elsewhere, he gets what we called the “punya” or the merit. The merit is the points that go in your bank account of your progress in life. In Indian theory, it is said when you die, the chief accountant from heaven is waiting for you when you go there.
In the Western theory, there may be some other name, but the chief accountant is waiting for you with the big register when you die. He’s there because he has taken accounts of all your actions, plus, minus, plus, minus, plus, minus… And he says: “well, that’s your balance, you can go here, and you can go there”. That means your consciousness would be elevated to this level or that level according to your balance. At that time, you don’t have the body, you don’t have to do anything.
Then you enjoy life after life, you enjoy it according to your merit, and then you stay there until you finish your credit. It is like you go to live in a five-star hotel over a credit card. You have a credit limit. You can stay in the five-star hotel as long as your credit lasts. But when your credit finishes, then, sorry, bye bye. You have to go back and work again to put more money in the credit. That’s how it works. And then you have to be reborn on earth. And when you’ll be reborn on Earth, you will have the chance to have more credit, or to have more debit.
Therefore, to find your purpose in life, you need to practice selflessness and then it will be revealed to you. Mark for example does carpentry for the ashram because he has a skill. A skill is called your karma. He has a skill, but he offered that in karma yoga attitude. And then he might find his Dharma. He might find himself so happy to be just a karma yogi. Or maybe he will open a carpentry school for young men or young women to teach them skills to make a living. Yeah, he teaches them skills to make a living, but he does it in a selfless manner to uplift young people. And this is how he finds his dharma. Bingo! This is how you can find your dharma.
Turn it around
There is a story of an Indian woman I forgot her name, she’s kind of famous. Not famous like Mother Teresa but this Indian woman, she told her story. It’s a really heart wrenching story. She was abused when she was young, physically. And she was thrown out in the street, she went through quite a hard time. She had to do very bad jobs. She was also not only abused by the family, but also abused by the husband. The whole story is very long. Then she decided to open an institution. She gathered abandoned girls in the street and she started to open a home for girls that are abandoned, like her condition.
Slowly she adopted all these women that have been abandoned in the street and been abused. Her institution became so big. She became a really powerful force, to help these women. She told her story on the Internet. So, it’s like that. Her karma was being thrown on the street, and then being abused. But she turned that karma into her dharma. That’s what I’m talking about. Therefore, whatever happens to you, you can turn it around and you serve. At that time, you find your mission, your unique mission. Because God has given you the situation. Now, it might be difficult, because you still do not know. But that particular situation is your strength. Therefore, you turn it around, and you serve. And then that will be your stepping stone for liberation.
The moment that you become selfless, you detach yourself from whatever this life is about, whatever this personality is about, whatever this feeling is about, and then you’re free. So that’s it. That’s why everyone is yearning toward finding their dharma because they kept thinking: “I live my life, I go to work, I get the money, I can do what I want, but I don’t feel fulfilled, I feel that I have something to contribute to society, I feel that I want to be somebody, I want to have a purpose in my life.”
Now you have the formula, whatever you have, start with that. If you have a skill, how to sew for example. Let’s say in a COVID time, you are not a nurse, you’re not a doctor, to help people. But you know how to sew. You can sew face masks. And then you can donate to other people, that’s also your contribution. You start with this act, and eventually, you might find your mission. Gandhiji, he was a lawyer. What does a lawyer mean? He knows how to argue. He used that skill that he has to serve selflessly. He’s offering his skill. And he found his mission somehow to eventually help India free itself from colonialism. Now people still talk about his name. Whatever skill that you have, or whatever situation you struggle with, or whatever strength you have, offer it as selfless service.
MahaLakshmi, she’s doing a program called Good Karma Diet. She is a good cook. She turned it around and she teaches people how to cook. She got the proceeds from that and she wanted to help the animals. Then she asked if I could cook here and then get the proceeds and offer to the Animal Sanctuary that gathered these animals that have been mistreated, abandoned, and then to give the proceeds to the animal sanctuary. Swamiji said to MahaLakshmi: “I think I’m the one that tells you to cook.” In the beginning, she didn’t know how to cook, and then she learned how to cook.
She tried it on me in the beginning, then after she tried and tried, and she became good. She might find her mission in life, which is how to teach people how to cook vegetarian food and not to harm the animal and help the ecology and then this can open up to something else. It sounds like something very innocent. Somehow it comes to you with this skill and this intelligence because the moment that you start to find that connection with yourself and your contribution to society, and you serve selflessly, and the door opens, you feel better and better when you do that.
Bondage or liberation?
Dharma is to achieve Self Realization, Self-Realization cannot be achieved if you function out of your ego. Your Atman, which is your own True Self that you want to realize, is always associated with this body and mind, this likes and dislikes, this personality. So, when you offer up this personality and this skill, and this energy, this identification with your separate self, at that time, you slowly detach from that identification with the idea of who you are in a practical manner.
Then you realize the Self because the Self is always there, but it is obstructed by our mind, by our ego, or our false self. That’s why you need to work on that separation between the Atman and the ego, by detachment, and by offering it up. Because if you work, and then you want people to praise you, or you want some result, then it keeps you linked again to the mind. You understand? The mind likes something and wants the result out of that. The ego wants people to recognize you for that. And that will bind you instead of freeing you. You are going more toward being in bondage, being tied to this personality. Then you get so worried and anxious, you cannot sleep. Because you think that you don’t gain what you want. You are very much concerned about what you’re doing.
You can get yourself sick. So many people get sick out of worrying about how they perform. But if you do everything in the spirit of karma yoga then it’s okay. You do your duty, you do the best you can, you offer the result, so it doesn’t really matter. Therefore, you sleep well, you work hard. The energy comes from heaven because it comes from your soul, it comes from your Atman that is the source of everything, because you do it selflessly. So therefore, your Atman will make sure that you have the energy to do whatever is needed. And then you are free, and there is a light feeling to it, there is a happy feeling. If you experience it, you just want more of this light feeling. Consequently, you don’t want this feeling of worrying or feeling of heaviness, the feeling of winning and losing the feeling of being better than another person, or worse than another person, and the feeling that you are never good enough.
Karma Yoga spirit
The concerns about the ego really make you suffer. Because you are never enough, you can work hard, you can do everything, but you are never enough, you’re never perfect. You know this, if you do something it is never perfect. And if somebody comes and they destroy your work, you’re also angry, upset. You find yourself competing all the time with other people, and it takes all the joy out of life, but life is meant to be living joyfully. When you act selflessly you are joyful.
But if you do Karma Yoga and you are unhappy then something is wrong. I heard some people say I do karma yoga and I’m unhappy. It is because your ego is doing Karma Yoga, but your spirit is not embracing the selfless attitude of a karma yogi yet. You come to an ashram, and you are not being paid, does this mean you are doing Karma Yoga? Not necessary. Because it’s in the spirit. That spirit of Karma Yoga has to be built up for a long time because who wants to be selfless? Nobody. We like to be selfless, but it’s not necessary that we can cope with the practice of selflessness.
Well, sometimes we are selfless. And sometimes we are not selfless. Then we complain. So, in the process, sometimes you gain a lot out of this, like what I said, and sometimes you will feel you don’t like it. “When I came here, I thought I learned something and then I wash dishes all day long. I could do dishes at home why I came here and do dishes.” And then comes the complaining and blaming, “this cook doesn’t do their own dishes”, you look around at this person, “they’re not doing dishes, they’re just only sweeping, cutting flowers, they have such a nice karma yoga and they make me do dishes”. So, you complain. That’s normal in the practice of karma yoga. You don’t feel that unbounded joy. I’m telling you that it’s joyful.
But you have to practice long enough to find that joy. Don’t think that I’m sitting here, and I talk to you just like that. I have been a karma yogi for more than 40 years. Before yoga life, I was a social worker. I also did this selfless work, that’s part of my profession because people pay me to do social work, I had a big pay. But then I did selfless work at home in my free time without pay. I was full time selfless at work and my salary I gave to my family. And then the time that I dedicated to help other people was not paid. Eventually I quit, I quit that portion being paid, I retained a portion of not being paid. Then I became full time helping others without being paid. All the skills that I have learned I used for selfless service.
Karma Yoga spirit does not come easily, even though it’s the first yoga path. But I can guarantee you that after some time, if you do it one or two years you will start to like it. You’ll be surprised, we offer people to come and do seva-study here, that means study half and then work half. In the application form, we ask people to describe what is Karma Yoga, because we want people to know what they enter into, so they don’t come here and then feel that they’re being exploited or something. So, we ask people in the application form to write down what they are feeling about karma yoga. And the answers are amazing. We need to make a book out of that collection of answers. People come up with some extraordinary sentences in their application before they come to yoga. Before coming here, they already have an idea. To say that people are selfish it’s not exactly correct. Actually, I was surprised to see that people know what selflessness is, they have like a craving for selflessness. Many people wrote “I want to come to practice selflessness”. It is quite amazing. So please start and finish the book. Because the ashram is made out of Karma Yoga.
Gratitude
I have a lot of gratitude. I sit here, I always remember, wherever I look, a face of somebody just pop up, because I remember what they do. They came here, and they offer their skills. I have in my mind now the memory of all these people who did the flooring of the Yoga Hall, they were crawling on the floor to do the flooring. And this wood wall behind the altar was all done by Karma Yoga. You see that wall here, every bit of it is so beautiful. That’s why the ashram is beautiful, not because of the building. The building is just normal. There are many better buildings than the ones at the ashram. But the beauty of it is the energy that karma yogis put in when they do the work, because everything is built out of karma yoga.
When I came here, there’s only an old farm house and there was no money. How did the ashram build up? From the sweat, and effort and the love of the Karma Yogis. I still remember that case. There’s one girl, she came from Europe. At that time, many people came from Europe here. This girl, a young girl, maybe 25 years old, came in just for a short period of time, like a week, not even as a karma yogi. When she came here, and at that exact moment we dug the floor of the farm house. Because the old farmhouse was sitting on no foundation, so we had to dig in the ground through the wooden floor, and then put a post, and pour the cement to support the floor.
This girl, very innocent, she’s traveling and came for about a week, exact at that moment. I remember, she spent the whole time that she was here in the basement. We had to work with the wheelbarrow, fill it up with concrete, roll it in, and transfer it to buckets to bring it down to a person underneath. They had to pour cement concrete posts down in the basement. It took longer than we thought. This girl spent her time in the basement doing cement. And she was happy. We don’t force people to do things. They’re happy to do it and they like to continue to do it. She was happy, and she was grateful when she left. And I’m grateful for my life for her doing this. Because it was a tough job and she was willing to do it. It was not an easy thing.
One day I will write a book about all the karma Yogis who have come to me. Because they have done incredible work. There were all kinds of people. There were also people that are angry. I still remember this man, a carpenter. For whatever reason, he came here. He was really disliking another karma yogi girl who was very devotional. She used to walk around with the basket of flowers singing like this. And this made the man irritated. One day he threw a chair on the girl. [it did not reach her, thanks God].
So, Karma Yoga is not all rosy, but it’s still one of the most important paths towards knowing oneself and being free from your karma. If you don’t practice this guideline of selflessness, you live your life and your karma will torture you. Because karma is never nice. It always comes as a contradiction, as a disillusion, as an unfulfilled feeling. You’ll be tortured by your karma. If you want to get out of your karma, then you can try baby steps to become selfless.
The law of karma applies to everyone and everything
The Bhagavad Gita is the scripture of yoga that teaches about the 4 paths of yoga, and the most important teaching is about karma yoga. What Karma does mean? A lot of people understand Karma wrongly. It simply means action and consequence of action. So, karma is the action that is done by body, by speech and by thought. These actions have consequences. Nothing happens by accident. We usually do not understand the reason that may come from a previous life. We do not remember. We are born in a family, in a country, in circumstances that come from a reason from before.
It is not by accident that we are born in a particular country, that we are a boy or a girl, that we are children of particular parents. Everything has its own reason. What is the reason? The real reason is that you have been born in order for you to learn your karmic lessons, for you to grow. To grow means that you understand the meaning of your life, and you understand that everything that you must experience has a reason. Then you will learn from this experience that is your karma. The word Karma does not mean anything negative, just simply means the law of action and reaction, action, and consequence of action. What you sow is what you reap. This is a universal law.
The other thing we need to understand is that with the law of karma is the law of retribution which means if you do something wrong, you will receive a punishment. Also, there is the law of compensation that means that everything is inter-related and in the big picture, everything is perfect the way it is even though we might not think so.
Karma comes from desire
Where does Karma come from? It comes from desire, where does desire come from? Desire comes from ignorance. In ignorance, we fail to see that we have everything, that we are pure consciousness and that we are the source of everything. We think that this limited life in this body is our self and we think satisfying our desires in this life is the goal. But we do not realize that we cannot satisfy any desire because desire never stops, you satisfy one desire, another one comes, then another one will come.
That is how you go around, around, around, in that circle of Karma. Karma is depicted as a circle, a wheel, so this life is to experience the result of the desire from past but when you live this life, you react and then you create new desire, and then you must be reborn again to experience or to enjoy or to pay your debt. You constantly create new desire, new karma, that is how it works.
The way of liberation: Paying karmic debts and not creating new
So, the Yogi attempts to not have any desire because he/she knows that it is endless, so they only focus on paying up the karmic debt and at the same time they focus on not creating new karmic debts. In the same manner, with money, you must pay up your debts, but if you keep borrowing more money, then you will have new debts. The smart way is slowly clear up the old debts without creating new debt so that you can be free.
See life differently from the point of view of karma
When you experience the karma it is always difficult. The reason why it is difficult is because you have to go deep inside to understand yourself. Usually, we do not want to do that, we want to blame, we want to run away, and we react. By doing so, we cannot learn the lessons that we are supposed to learn.
There are people that have difficulty to face their karmic challenges and are afraid to live up to their potential due to fears. Yoga described avoidance as coming from the fear of pains and attraction as the dwelling on pleasures. Some people want to avoid life and avoid facing themselves. Some people want life to be only pleasurable. However, is it possible to avoid life? Is it possible to have only pleasure without pain? Swami Sivananda said that pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin. If you are going to experience life then you know life will bring suffering.
Courage is the most important quality, courage to face your own karma. You know that by suffering, you will understand the root causes of the suffering and then you will realize your character, your personality, your habit and this realization and awareness will set you free from repeating the same mistake . Humility will help you to accept things as they are and not the way you would like them to be. Patience and perseverance are also other valuable qualities to allow you to slowly change your character, see everything as an opportunity, and stop blaming.
Awakening from our spiritual ignorance , breaking through the chain of karma
Spiritual ignorance is like this. Spiritual ignorance comes from that false ego identity that is not perfect but fails to see that it is not perfect and always thinks that it is perfect. That is why there are many kinds of yoga that go to the root cause of this phenomenon, the false ego identity. In particular, Karma Yoga, practiced seriously in daily life, helps us to escape the wheel of birth and death. Karma Yoga explains to us what karma is and shows us the way to finish the karma and to find happiness and peace and not always go around and around in this life completely immersed in the struggle of life.
Remember what we really want is absolute happiness
Everyone needs to be conscious of what one really wants. What we really want is happiness absolute, what we really want is freedom from birth and death. Everyone wants not to be limited, to be everywhere, to be fulfilled. Everyone wants to know that happiness that is not contradicted, that does not require you to think too much. Isn’t it true? people who think too much, are they happy? No. In fact, thinking correctly is the way to liberation, but negative thinking leads you to make mistakes and endlessly trying to correct the mistakes you have made. The wise person is the one who understands that “I don’t want anything. I just want true happiness”.
Our attachments are our obstacles to happiness
THE REASON WHY we cannot get out of this because we are attached. We are attached to our own thinking, our own feeling, our relationships, and our work. The key word here is attachment. Think about this, if you are attached, you cannot be free and you cannot be liberated. Why? Because of the word attachment itself. When you are attached, you cannot be free. Who forces you to be attached if you do not want to be attached?
Your right thinking, your right opinion slowly slowly helps you to get out of yourself. Right thinking means that you are detached, or you are free from any attachment. Your happiness at that time does not come from your emotion. You understand that your happiness does not come from your thinking. You understand that your happiness does not come from any relationships. You understand that your happiness does not come from any work you do. You understand that happiness does not come from any kind of special karmic situation.
Remember the True Self
Before you were attached to this or that karma but now you understand that happiness doesn’t come from this, and you really want to be free. You then become attached to your own Self. It means that you no longer make a mistake between the means and the goal. The goal is to find happiness and peace, the means is to be mindful, to be aware of your experience of this and that so that you realize your mistake while experiencing your character and your reactive habits. The way to be free is the detachment from what you experience so that you can always remember the true Self.
The goal of life is not to experience life. Life is just the means, not the goal. To avoid entanglement, you need to really understand very well what freedom is. Freedom from what? Freedom from the causes of suffering. You would then take yourself very seriously to try to disentangle yourself step-by-step. You don’t expect anybody to free you. You know you would experience the attraction and the pangs of separation, but you are not attached to either. The wise person always lives in the present, he/she does not live in the past or the future. Why? Because the past and the future brings a lot of thinking. The past will bring thoughts of regrets; the future will bring thoughts of worry. In the present, you have peace.
Think less and immerse yourself in the present
It is said the peace you have in the present is like the space in between two thoughts, for example when you repeat your mantra using the mala bead. At the same time, you channel your thinking by pronouncing the divine sacred name one bead at the time, and at the same time, you imagine you don’t have any other thought in between. Eventually, the beads disappear, the mantras disappear, and there is only the subject. In the same manner, you see the movie screen at the same time you witness all kinds of images of the movies projected on the screen.
If you do not find peace in this film, in this movie, you can always create what you think to be better, may be a more romantic story, may be a more beautiful movie, may be with nice landscapes, may be with a perfect beautiful person etc… you would think that maybe I will be very happy in the next movie but then the next movie will change and then the beautiful film will become some kind of nightmare, full of evil things. The negative is alternating with the positive, there is no movie that will bring you to lasting happiness. No story whatsoever will bring you peace because you always create a new story imagining all kinds of best scenario.
Maybe I can be at the beach with my best friend then I will be really very happy, maybe I can be a princess or a queen with her prince, maybe I can be famous with hundreds of thousands subscribers to my social media account … may be I can be that skillful person perfecting my art in this or that. You can go through many many lifetimes, many different scenarios, but you will be always revolving in the same imagination of your mind. That is why it is said that you satisfy one karma, and you create new debts. You create new circumstances you believe that this would be better but that’s how your ignorance goes always, finding fault always. What you need to understand is no circumstance, no story would be better.
No happiness in this world would be perfect because it comes from your mind and imagination. You live in the mountain and you want to live by the ocean, you live in the East and you want to go to the West, you are a male and you would like to become a female, and the person who is female would like to become a male person, the old person wants to become young, the young person wants to become old… You will never find perfection because it’s all creations of your mind. There is always some greed and ignorance. The idea is not to find any fault with the present, not to worry, not to regret, but really try to detach always, detach from what you experience.
This is called karma yoga. Karma yoga means detachment from what you have to experience, detachment from all relationships, detachment from your mind, detachment from your emotions, from your circumstances. Be the witness, not jumping in the movie and becoming the actor. Slowly the mind will be able to be detached and you will be able to be free from its illusion when you live this life.
Selflessness is the key
The secret, the trick in Karma Yoga is the spirit of selflessness. Selflessness means that you don’t want anything because if you want something you will be stuck in the wheel.
You will be stuck with it from one thing to 2, 3, 4 things. Always you will be desiring perfection, you will be suffering from dissatisfaction, you would think that God is not seeing my need, God is not fair, my loved ones do not understand me and so on.
However, the most important thing is not to have the ego, to be selfless. Not having ego means not having any attachment to the idea of yourself, what you like and what you not like, the idea that you like something and you dislike somebody else. That is called selflessness, the life that is not depending on the ego.
Liberation comes with doing your duty with detachment
When you liberate yourself, you are not entangling, you have a bigger picture of life, of yourself and you walk on the path of liberation that is called karma yoga. Karma yoga here is the path of selflessness. It means you still live this life, but you live this life in a nonattached manner. What does that mean? it means that you don’t want anything, you just want to do your duty. In any situation you just want to do your duty and you do the best you can with the attitude of detachment. This is the secret of Karma yoga to liberate yourself. However, pay attention, do not do somebody else’s duty.
For example, I see this person, she’s not working very well so I jump in and I do her work. It’s not good, why? because I am doing the duty of somebody else. My attachment creates this desire to do things. Why? Because I think that I am better, I do things better; I become attached to this person, I want to do her job thinking that I will be helping her, but I am doing her job and I don’t allow her to have the chance to release herself from the karma. On the contrary, my karma will become heavier because of my attachment. I need to understand differently and compassionately that this lady is suffering in some way and it’s good for her because she’s learning the lesson of detachment.
If you have the duty to remind the person or to teach the person then this is fine. You will see that most of the time, people will not listen because when people are deep in their karma, they will not be able to listen to helpful advice, coming from you or from someone else. Then you have the temptation to jump in and do all kinds of things, so you are the one that create problems for yourself. So always remember that you need to liberate yourself, that you are the other person indeed, that you want the other person to liberate themselves.
However, they will liberate themselves in due time, when they truly understand their karma and when they truly realize their mistake. You cannot liberate them; you can give them advice, but you cannot liberate anybody else. Even when you give advice, you have to give advice only when it is your duty to do so, not giving advice to everybody, when not being asked or when it’s not your duty.
Yoga is skill in action
The Bhagavad Gita says Yoga is skill in action. That is the teaching. Skill in doing your duty without likes and dislikes. You do action and at the same time it looks like you are not doing anything. You are involved but it looks like you are not attached. This is not easy, that’s why scripture said that it is a skill. How to live your life, to love and at the same time not be attached? The key is always you have to remember that the goal of life is liberation from suffering so when you understand this very clearly, you understand that nobody can help you. This is very difficult because everyone has the expectation that somebody else will free them, somebody else will help them.
Is it not true that when people are young, growing up, so many people suffer because you think that your father and mother would save you? And the father and the mother also have the expectation that you will save them one day. But then you realize that your father and mother live their own karma, and you have to liberate yourself on your own. You realize that they cannot save you, they have to save themselves. When you understand this, you will very carefully follow your own karma and liberate yourself. Of course, the guideline is you have to do your duty without attachment. So, if you are a student, you would have to do the duty of the student without expectation. In the same manner, you learn your lessons of self love.
If you suffer from rejection for example, your karma is to learn the lesson of self sufficiency, self-love, but if you have expectation that this person or that person should love you as you love them, and then you blame them, you are not getting the lesson which is the lesson of self sufficiency. You then cannot be free from this tendency of dependency and of expectation and will carry this seed of karma to the next life. It is not easy to be relieved from karma.
Most people will live their life, not being able to release themselves from karma, because they always have this expectation that somebody else will do it for them. You think somebody else will love you, you blame your relationships, you blame your father/mother, you live your whole life never asking yourself the right question. You get angry, suffer from resentment, you blame others, compare yourself with others and suffer. You do not really see your own attachment to your ego and your own ignorance.
Meditation in action:
The meaning of Bhagavad Gita about “skill in action” is the teaching about meditation in action. You meditate on your life while you are acting and when you live your life, you meditate. You understand that life is meditation, and you understand that you need to really understand what your life is, so that you can be free, and you always remember that in mind that you want to be free. You remember that happiness absolute is from within, happiness absolute is what you are looking for and this life is the opportunity to pay up your karmic debt. You understand that your life is a result of your past karma, that attachment to the result of your past karma is a mistake and you want to take all opportunities to release yourself from the cycle of births and deaths.
4 important things to remember:
To summarize, the most important thing to remember from this talk is what is detachment. The 2nd important thing to understand is the words “doing your duty without attachment to results”. The number 3rd important idea is the spirit of selflessness and renunciation, you don’t want anything, you don’t want any benefit, you just want to be detached from everything you want to do your duty, you do not expect anything from your work, you just want freedom and happiness. You don’t run away from your duty, but you are not attached to it.
Last but not least, you understand that you are the one that can free yourself and nobody can do it for you. Even with the teacher, the teacher can teach you all these things so you can have some clarity in order to apply the teaching in your life, but the teacher cannot do it for you. If you are hungry, you have to eat for yourself, if you are thirsty, you have to drink, nobody else can really help you.
Please read more the Bhagavad Gita and become expert, a Karma Yogi skillful in action!
Om shanti
Swami Sitaramananda is a senior acharya of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and is director of the Sivananda Ashram Vedanta Yoga Farm, California and the Sivananda Yoga Resort and Training Center, Vietnam. She is acharya of China, Taiwan, and Japan as well. Swamiji is the organizer and teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Health Educator Training (SYHET) program, an 800-hour program on yoga therapy, accredited by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT).
Swami Sitaramananda is the author of “Essentials of Yoga Practice and Philosophy” (translated in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Russian), “Positive Thinking Manual”, “Karma Yoga Manual”, “Meditation Manual”, “Swamiji Said, a collection of teachings by Swami Vishnu” in His Own Words. She is responsible for the Vietnamese translation of “Completed Illustrated Book of Yoga” (CIBY) and “Meditation & Mantras” by Swami Vishnu. Many of her video & audio lectures on Yoga life, philosophy, and psychology as well as articles and webinars can be found on this website.
Swami Sita is an ardent supporter of the integration of the Vedic sciences such as Vastu, Jyotish, Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta. She is an international teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’ Training Courses and Advanced Yoga teachers’ Training courses, as well as Meditation and Vedanta & Silence Courses both in Sivananda Ashrams in Vietnam and in Grass Valley, CA.
The topic of today is a complex topic, we will try our best to
talk about how to bring meaning to our lives no matter what circumstances we
found ourselves in. The two words of Karma and Dharma are charged with meaning.
Considering we do not know if everyone in the audience has the same
understanding about this, we will go a little bit in details, about karma and
dharma to describe the cause of our existence – according to ancient Yogic
philosophy- and what we are supposed to do to make the best out of our life. We
need to see “the big picture” to become wise resulting from this expanded
vision.
During the threat of a
pandemic Covid 19 upsetting life all round us, during this crisis situation,
where we have to fall back to survival mode, it seems futile to ask such
question. Yet it is precisely during these times, that we need to focus on
finding new grounds, new ways and to realign ourselves differently and discover
new territories and possibilities about ourselves and our potentials.
What is karma and How
karma works?
Karma
comes from Desires.
Karma means Action and the results of action. Thinking is action.
Any thought will bring about a reaction.
You experience the present life as a result of the past coming into the
present. Karma is law of cause and effect.
Some karmas (or karmic situations) seem to be good and some are appearing to be
negative. The theory on Karma, explains that “We reap the fruits of the seeds
we grow. Good actions bring its own results and bad actions bring its own
consequences. There is no accident or haphazard things in this world.” I know this seems cruel and some of you might
rise objections as to why some people would have to die from Corona virus now,
alone in hospital grasping for air, some people would have to perish while
helping others on the front line, some people have no shelter to shelter under
and some others can afford have all the medical care to fight off the disease.
The Root Causes
of Life’s Struggles
Life doesn’t end with death, according to Yogic philosophy. We
need to look deeper into the cause of our struggles or luck which might come
from beyond this life. The law of cause and effect, when applied can be very
simple: If we enjoy peace and health now, it is because we have contributed to
peace and health of someone sometime.
If we suffer from loneliness, it is we have created isolation in
somebody. If we face a situation that
seems like a choice between being selfish and survive or being compassionate
and humble and risking our lives, it is because in the past when confronted
with these situations we have always chosen the former. We are being given this same choice again in
order to choose differently. Similarly,
if we feel that lying or manipulating a situation will be to our advantage, we
need to choose honesty and straightforwardness and find strength in having good
character, of doing the ethical thing.
Genuinely helping another person to attain more material comforts in
their life will manifest in yours as a boon of good fortune.
Take Responsibility of
your life and choices.
Karma does not work differently at work, in private life. There
is also a group collective karma. You
are born in a certain era, certain society, certain level of technological
development. Everything is interrelated. By improving your character at work
you improve your happiness at home. By
improving your relationships at home you improve your business as your energy will
flow better.
Cultivating contentment with what you have already been given
releases you from the karma of constant restlessness of desiring more. Giving
freely and charitably results in greater wealth coming your way. Stinginess, in the contrary, brings with it a
sense of lack, of never having enough.
Maintaining pure intentions, which come from your heart, brings lasting
peace of mind; whereas, sometimes following the head and other times the heart
brings confusion, fragmentation, and problems in the future. Seeking inspiration from the wise people
while avoiding back-biting and gossiping attracts supportive people that will
be key to your success. In the same manner, negativity, divisiveness, and
bringing your competitors or coworkers down will return to you in the form of
stress and fear. Inflexibility and
desire for control bring you more situations that you can never control. But, letting go of the need for control and
realizing that you may not be aware of subtler forces at work gives insight into
the interconnectivity and self-regulating nature of creation. Everything is, in fact, perfect; we just
often fail to see it. Cultivating belief
in this truth brings great peace and relaxation.
The twelve areas of Karma in this life.
The more you identify with your karma, the more your
karma becomes real.To be free from it you have to know it, so
you don’t identify with it. These are 12 areas of karma, intertwined with
each other.
The
body:
The body is said to be a
battlefield where the karmic lessons are learnt. From the seed of karma, sprout
out the body and mind.
With the body you
inherit certain psychology pertaining to the
gender.
When you are born you
are born in a body belonging to a certain race
and culture. The collective karma will come with it. You are born white, yellow or black. The
karmic condition comes with it, depending on the era you are born in.
You also inherit from
the moment you are born a certain amount of life
force. Some are born healthy with lots of life force.
Some are born weak, not
so healthy. Some are born with fire element constitution, prone to action. Some
are born with water element, prone to emotions. The karma with the body is
already there, male, female, strong, weak.
The family, relatives and resources.
Then you have the karma
of the family, the relatives, people that you live with in your early life. You
might be supported or not supported. You
have karma of having money or not having money no matter what you do.
your karma relating to your
abilities in communication and your self will or not. Your relationship with
siblings.
Relationship karma with your emotional
heart and happiness, your mother, and your home, house and property.
Then you have the karma with your
children, your physical children or your creativity, which is your children in
an abstract manner.
This is the karma about your health
and diseases and challenges.
You have karma with your partner
either easy or difficult.
You also have difficult invisible
karmas, hidden. This relates to the energy within the psyche, the area of
spiritual insight or death.
You have karma with your Guru, your
spiritual teacher, your father and also your dharma, your faith.
. Ten is your karma with work, career,
your name and fame, place in society, in some cases frustrating, some cases
fulfilling.
You also have karma with your friends,
your community, your gains
And losses.
In these different
karmas, you would have to detach and find yourself.
In relationships and in
work, in gains, or losses, at home or in society, in your creative intelligence
or in your emotions, you would have to
observe the plays of karmas and find your Atman Self through it.
You would have to find
Your Self in Others in these different areas of your life.
Karma, Destiny and
Self effort
In life, we always have free
choice even though these choices are limited. It is said that the present
life and its circumstances is the result of past lives thoughts and actions.
What happens today is already predetermined even though we do not know from
when and and how things will manifest. However, this is not a fatalistic view.
In the contrary, we remember that challenges
in this life are opportunities for growth and for success in the future.
We might have free will but we need to think well about our
choices so that what we do leads us to peace and happiness and not to suffering.
When we are acting out of past habits and are powerless to change our character
and attitudes, we are actually bound and not free. Yoga teaches us Self effort
to control the mind and realize the True Self and be conscious and wise about
our choices, thus eventually free us from the tendency to produce the same
mistakes.
Managing karma implies that:
1. We care about our present duty,
2. We keep our eyes on our total and ultimate self-development,
3. We accept all tests and challenges in life as only temporary.
There is no Good karma and bad karma. Try to be free from all karma
Life is not only
challenges but there will be some good things happening and some bad. Life is a combination of both good and bad
karma. That means certain conditions
that we are born in are easy, things that we didn’t have to do anything and yet
they came to you.
There will be favorable
conditions according to what we wish and desire and there will be the
unfavorable conditions that we have to struggle with.
Keep even mind in all
conditions, in fact, good or bad karma is just karma. In reality there is no good or bad. There is no good life, no bad life, no
superior life, no lucky life, no unlucky life.
It is just specifically your
life and then you have to learn from it in order for you to be free from all karmas.
Life
is a series of pluses and minuses. You have to see the condition from the
inside, to understand the plus and minus in the karmic bank balance of your
life, not from the outside. From the inside means from your level of
consciousness. Your journey is the journey of Self Realization, towards
absolute consciousness of Oneness.
In this journey, you can record your debts as
the things that you yet have to learn, and credits as the things you have
learned.
Credit giving (+) Selfless actions, study, introspection, meditation. Anything
that helps us bring awareness will give us credit; Follow dharmic rules of
conduct is accumulating credits. Any action that will make us wake up is
credit.
Debits adding (-) : anything the makes us become more ignorant will give us debt. Any
action that will make us become thicker in our ego separation and illusion is
debt.
The balance of plusses
and minuses shows your progress and the accumulation of plusses can bring about
a total payment of all debts i.e. liberation from karma.
What means working out karma and paying karmic debts?
It means experiencing
the difficulties and slowly learning who the Self is and who it is not. For example,
regarding relationship karma, you have to go through the different flavors or
aspects of these relationships in order for you to learn the real lesson of
Pure Unconditional Love that is your Self. You would be selfless. You would learn Self Love that also includes
the other.
Suffering means learning.
Is suffering a must when
you are learning from karmas? Suffering
is subjective and is related to your reaction towards your karmas, therefore it
will be there as an incentive for you to learn.
Sometimes you want to
escape from suffering and not learn, for example you would escape in addiction,
in disease, in self pity and in blaming. Then you are not learning your karmic
lessons and you are diving deeper in the same way of seeing yourself and
others. However, life is a school and there is some kind of progress even
though different situations seem to be very different, but there is progress.
Paying debt, alleviation of karma is gradual:
Karmas are being understood slowly. You change
roles so you will learn. You suffer, so you will learn.
Alleviation of karma
means that you will refine your ideas about how you think about things. You
will become selfless and detached, and you would turn karma to dharma. You would take a distance and will not to
take yourself too seriously, be detached and remember that the True Self is the
Self and nothing can touch it, hurt it or taking anything away from it. You
will keep your peace of mind. You will
forgive and offer everything up in karma Yoga.
Your life is a result of karmas from past but you have choice
in the present.
In the present time, when you are aware, you
can do something about alleviating your karma.
You would have the choice, either reproduce the same situation as the
one you inherit from past karma,
or become wise about
karma and not reproduce again another karmic situation in the future. Sometimes
the lessons are intense and lots of issues come up at the same time. The
intense purification the world is going through during the corona virus
pandemic is an example when the karma is accelerating and we have no choice but
to face it. Try to see all these challenging situations under the view of karma
and try to be more aware of the consequences of our actions and rise to the
task.
You learn something but you create new debts.
In the process of paying
up your karmic debts goes very deep. It takes long term training to control the
mind and to stop reacting to the karmas, and create new karmas. For example, you
are locked up and you do not understand why you can not move about and do what
you desire. You fail to understand the universe’s lesson to you and others to
turn inwards and to change consciousness. You got depressed or upset and do
wrong actions.
Life is like a circle,
the wheel of karma, you learn something but you create new debts. It just goes on and on and on. You learn something. You don’t learn
something. You learn something. You don’t learn something. You just go on and on and on, classroom to classroom,
from lifetime to lifetime learning.
What is Karma Yoga?
Karma Yoga is the way to
work through karma by changing your sense of your self and the identification
with your actions.
In Karma Yoga your
motivation needs to be pure. Motivation stems from the heart, the true inner
feeling.
Develop
the attitude of being an instrument only, be detached.
Offer
the results: In praises or censures, in success or failures, keep the mind
even. It’s not about me, it’s not about them.
It’s not about whether I like them or they like me, it has nothing to do
with this. You offer the results of your
action, that means you offer this karma up in order for you to continue to progress.
Do
the best you can: Make effort but learn to let go.
Do
your duty and persevere, this too shall pass. Your karma dictates to you your specific
duty. There is no accident, no duty is an accident. If you follow your duty you
learn even though it is difficult. At every station in life, you have specific
duty. Follow the discipline of your duty and you will be learning greatly. Many
doctors and nurses actually now are going through intense karma doing their
duty, even risking their lives to save others. They are on the front line, like
in a war.
This reminds us of the
sublime teaching long ago of Arjuna, the warrior-disciple in conflict who
receives on the battle field the revelation about the immortality of the soul, the
teaching on karma yoga and duty and the self knowledge in action.
Every karma is unique
You can only understand
your own karma; you cannot understand another person’s karma. You can look at someone else’ s life so that
you can learn from them. The scriptures
say it is much better that you focus on your own karma and not someone else’ s,
even though it is easier for you. Let’s
say you have a situation that is really difficult for you to deal with, but a
friend will look at you and say,” I don’t know why you have such big
problem about this. If I am you, I’ll do
this, I’ll do that.” In karmic
difficulty, it is as if you are blind while another person can see your problem
easily. It is said that you can take
people’s advice, you can hear other people, but you yourself have to deal with
it. So don’t compare, it is not necessary to compare.
Turning karma to Karma yoga and find your life mission:
Dharma
is right living, right action.
Karma
Yoga attitude helps you to turn your karma to Dharma.
You can turn your karma
to karma yoga by being selfless and dedicating your service without
expectation. Your selfless service is unique to you. For you, it turns your
whole attitude around and touches your soul.
It opens your life up to new horizons.
Then,
you turn your selfless service into your life mission when you understand that
this sublime attitude has to be kept throughout life.
You cannot solve the
problem on the same level of consciousness that created the problem at the
first place, so your life mission is to go back to this place of selflessness
that will set you free.
Examples:
A
homeless abandoned woman opens shelter for homeless women and teach the women
self esteem and self confidence.
A
grieving wife due to lost of beloved husband to disease, speaks out about the
virtue of love beyond death, and becomes selfless worker to help people with
disease.
A
person becoming jobless and bankrupt due to economy crisis turns into a founder
of a company helping people to express creativity and improve earning through
wise capital ventures.
A
scientist who lost family due to virus now dedicates life work to study viruses
and to find cures and vaccines
A
political critical activist wanting always things to change now dedicating
oneself to nourish and care for ecology, relying on the grace of the Mother
Nature.
Take care of your duty in the present and the future will be
taken care of:
Dharma is duty. It is transforming your karma into an unselfish duty. It means putting the ego at the service of
others and the greater good. Not
thinking of ourselves first and only, but sharing in everyone’s happiness,
being an honorable contributor to the betterment of society, and opening
oneself to the whole of creation will turn karma into dharma. It will improve life in all aspects. The result is not necessarily immediate,
however; patience and knowledge of how karma works will see you through to the
benefits.
Yoga teaching says try
to be good and to do good all of the time no matter what the situation is.
Karma can be understood and released. Growing spiritually
requires that we turn our karma into dharma.
Dharmic Life Brings
Happiness
Happiness comes from Peace of mind and unhappiness comes from a
restless mind.
Yoga teaches the practice of restraint of thought waves to find
contentment and break through the karmic accumulation.
In the pursuit of happiness, we made many mistakes, and created endless
karmas. In our feverish world of competition, where everybody is looking for
answers outside, we believe that our happiness is in material possessions and
sensual comforts. We think that our happiness has to be at the expense of
someone else happiness so we compete and make sure we get the best place, the
best part of the cake. We fear that
someone else happiness is at our expense, and become jealous and envious. We do
not see the intangible, the spiritual, the sublime and divine. We believe in
external success and not in internal peace as success, thus we are being pulled
in all directions by our ambitions and desires and the disappointments, angers
that follow desires.
Yogis affirm that in order to find happiness, we need to achieve
peace of mind first. This means that we need to eventually recognize that there
is no end to desires, that the objects desired in fact are our own projections
of our own illusions externally. We eventually learn to turn within, avoid the
love and hate, the ups and downs, the
dual tendency of attraction and repulsion, always running towards
something and running away from something.
This is when Yoga and meditation come in our life, as we catch
the taste of peace and understand finally that it comes from within, and decide
to consciously make an effort to be calm and focused within.
How Yoga helps?
Classical yoga attributes equal value to self-effort and
relaxation. In Sivananda Yoga class,
students learn to come into a posture with control, hold it while breathing
into any discomfort or tension, and slowly come out of a posture with
control. There is relaxation and
breathing in between the postures and accent on self-awareness throughout.
Postures lead to Meditation. So,
practicing these teachings regularly will help to slow down and realize that
seeking happiness outside of ourselves leads us nowhere. Yoga shows us a way
out. By practicing regularly, your life
mission will be revealed to you.
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