Tag: Karma

There are two important terms in the path of yoga: dharma and karma. Many times I’m asked: “What’s the relationship between these two terms?” Here I’ll explain in simple terms the meaning of each, how they are connected and why this knowledge will help you live better.

Karma in Sanskrit means “action.” The law of karma is thus the law of action. Beyond the Newtonian law of action and reaction governing the physical world, the law of action and reaction also affects the experience of embodied souls. Karma should be understood as one of the laws of nature, acting on the metaphysical plane.

Dharma is a rich concept, and the word has many meanings, but my focus will be on dharma as that which needs to be done – essence and duty. Duty can be imposed; essence cannot. Dharma is thus that duty born of who you truly are, of your nature. It’s not an external or social imposition. It’s what you need to do at any given moment to be the best person you can be. It’s doing the right thing at the right time. Being dharmic is more than just doing good or avoiding hurtful or violent behavior, though that is certainly included in the concept, and it can’t be boiled down to a list of don’ts or things to be avoided. Dharma is fluid and alive and sensitive to different aspects of your life. Major changes to your dharma can occur from one second to the next. One way to understand dharma is to rephrase the classic line: “Don’t ask what the world can do for you, but ask what you can do for the world.”

The law of karma is an educational system built into nature, designed to help the embodied soul improve its moral, or dharmic, behavior. Every action you perform has a moral quality to it. Was it the right action? Was it within your dharma to be doing it? If so, did you do it with attention, with care? Did you do your best? If so, then you generated an appropriately positive result. If not, then you get an appropriately negative result. The law of karma puts a mirror in front of you. You get what you give. Or as the Bible says, you reap what you sow.

The reactions produced from our actions come in the form of objects, facts, and situations in life. Everything in your life now – your DNA to your social status, bank account, job situation, neighborhood, planet, health, and everything you own – is the result of your past activities. At every moment, the entire configuration of external reality in your life is a karmic reaction. The only exception is divine intervention. The more you develop your spirituality, and especially your devotion to God, the more your karma may be adjusted by God to suit your spiritual elevation. It’s like getting a presidential or royal pardon. You were tried and found guilty, but the ruling power of the country pardons your crime. Or to give an even better example, if you become a star pupil, then the school may take special interest in your education and adjust your syllabus to help you develop your full capabilities.

Thus, dharma shows you what should be done. Karma, in the sense of the Law of Karma, is the reaction you get according to how “dharmic” your action was. The closer to your dharma, the better the material reaction, the better will be the karma you accumulate. The further from your dharma, the worse the reaction, the worse will be the karma you accumulate.

A yogi, however, doesn’t want any kind of karma. Karma keeps us bound to birth and death, stuck in the material world. Yoga, in its primary application, is a technique for overcoming and eliminating your karma, once and for all, and with that attaining liberation.

So, the yogi will follow his or her dharma, but now as offering to God, with no desire for future reward. This technique is the basis of Krishna’s teachings to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita and is called karma-yoga. There are three key aspects to transform a mundane action into a transcendental action in karma-yoga: 1) be in harmony with your dharma, 2) do the action as offering to God, for His ultimate satisfaction and 3) be in the here and now, without desiring future results from your action. With this you won’t accumulate any karma in the act and gradually you’ll become liberated from material existence.

In the book The 3T Path – Self-improvement and Self-realization in Yoga, available here: https://3tpath.com/books/, you’ll get a much more in depth understanding of dharma, karma, God and how to put it all together in the practice of karma-yoga.

Watch my video on this topic here.

Yours,

Giridhari Das

Look what they’re saying about The 3T Path book: “Excellent roadmap for the Bhakti path. This book has a neat and clear step-by-step process for one to engage in authentic Bhakti Yoga. The practical, organized, and simplified format was a welcome contrast to some books which are too complex for beginners.” – Billy Kubina Jr.

Despite having become a huge multimillion-dollar business, the truth is that the Law of Attraction doesn’t work. Not only does it not work, it actually makes your life worse. If you’ve tried it and it didn’t work, find out here why. And if you haven’t tried it yet, before you do, read this.

On a very basic level, of course, you generally move towards getting what you want, so you have to want it first. Dreaming and wanting certainly are first steps in achieving anything. But the ridiculous notion that your intense dreaming and wanting are the main factors in success is ludicrous, far from anyone’s practical experience and not backed by a shred of scientific evidence.

But wait, hardcore Law of Attraction types will say. “You got it wrong. It’s not just wanting.” Oh yes, sorry. There are other steps. According to the hack selling the idea, these may differ, but they include such pearls of wisdom as 1) feeling the goal and 2) a personal favorite of mine: overcoming your own resistance to your dreams. These are great because since it’s impossible to quantify and demonstrate whether you have “felt” the goal and even worse “overcome your hidden resistance” to it, there is no question of getting your money back when the course, book or seminar on the subject leaves you frustrated and worse off than before. Then finally they agree you have to actually do something about achieving your goals, which everybody already knew and hardly constitutes a secret.

The Law of Attractions fails on three crucial points: 1) it’s not enough to want something, you have to deserve it, 2) time scales may operate on very different levels than you previously thought and 3) the whole concept of focusing on your future desires is, itself, the very source of all your misery and a surefire way of being anxious and frustrated.

The reason why the Law of Attraction doesn’t work can be explained when we study the Law of Karma. The concept of the Law of Karma is that in fact everything that you experience, every single aspect of your material life is a result of your actions in the past. So, in that sense, your actions and thoughts did “attract” everything in your life. However, it’s not based on mere desire, but the combination of desire with merit – mostly merit. Everything you have in your life is there to help you become a better person. Every challenge, every facility – a chance to grow and improve. Nothing happens by chance.

Another important point we learn from the Law of Karma is that we are immortal beings. Our timescales operate on multi-life scales, not months or even just a few years. Whether you can own fancy cars in this life, be the next YouTube sensation or any other fanciful dream – or  not – was decided way long ago. Wishing for it today won’t change this reality any more than wishing it was Christmas in April. You’ll just have to wait until December. While wishing hard for some material situation may bring effect, it might take a lifetime or more before you get to experience it. This lifetime has already been bought and paid for. You wished all kinds of things in the past and, voilà, here’s the result – your life now. Any further request will be duly noted and brought to you in some unknown time in the future, in a version suitable to your karmic merits.

Lastly, and here’s the real problem – totally verifiable and undeniable –, the whole concept of wishing for things in the future is just plain mistaken. The idea that a fancy car, prestigious job, millions of dollars, fancy houses or a yacht will result in a joyous life is infantile, bordering on insane. This is the root of all our suffering (check out my video where I explain this here). This is not just some spiritual baloney – it’s scientific fact. Research after research has confirmed that above middle-class levels of economic success, there is zero gain in happiness in getting more money and that true satisfaction has little to do with external goals and the accumulation of things. Endlessly seeking out more toys and more adjustments in the future result only in anxiety, fear, frustration and depression. The secret is to change inside, to change how you live your life, not the things surrounding you. Change how you live now to achieve true lasting joy, harmony and peace. This is confirmed by both ancient wisdom and the result of thousands of scientific studies.

If you want to learn more about what this means and how to go about it, check out my new book “The 3T Path – Self-improvement and Self-realization in Yoga”, available at www.3Tpath.com.

Watch here my video on the of the Law of Karma, why the Law of Attraction doesn’t work and why it’s better to live the here and now.

What they’re saying about my book:

“The 3T Path: Self-Improvement and Self-Realization in Yoga is one of the most thorough, honest, and straightforward books I have ever read.” – Jill Baker, giving a five-star review of the book on Amazon.com.

Karma in Sanskrit means “action.” The law of karma is thus the law of action. Beyond the Newtonian law of action and reaction governing the physical world, the law of action and reaction also affects the experience of embodied souls. Karma should be understood as one of the laws of nature, acting on the metaphysical plane.

The law of karma is an educational system built into nature, designed to help the embodied soul improve its moral, or dharmic, behavior. Every action you perform has a moral quality to it. Was it the right action? Was it within your dharma to be doing it? If so, did you do it with attention, with care? Did you do your best? If so, then you generated an appropriately positive result. If not, then you get an appropriately negative result. The law of karma puts a mirror in front of you. You get what you give. Or as the Bible says, you reap what you sow.

The reactions produced from our actions come in the form of objects, facts, and situations in life. Everything in your life now – your DNA to your social status, bank account, job situation, neighborhood, planet, health, and everything you own – is the result of your past activities. At every moment, the entire configuration of external reality in your life is a karmic reaction.

The only exception is divine intervention. The more you develop your spirituality, and especially your devotion to God, the more your karma may be adjusted by God to suit your spiritual elevation. It’s like getting a presidential or royal pardon. You were tried and found guilty, but the ruling power of the country pardons your crime. Or to give an even better example, if you become a star pupil, then the school may take special interest in your education and adjust your syllabus to help you develop your full capabilities.

Note that the law of karma has nothing to do with devotion to God. One fascinating fact found in the Bhagavad-gita is that atheism does not generate any bad karma. There is zero karmic reaction in not loving God. Let’s say I have a pot of gold coins. You come to my place and I say, “Please take as many as you want.” If you take the gold, you become richer. If you don’t, there is no crime. No one can punish you for not taking it, and there is no moral wrong. Devotion to God is like this. If you take to it, you’ll benefit. If you don’t, you won’t get punished. But you will have missed a golden opportunity.

Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita that karma is complex. Attempts to simplify it by saying, for example, that if you hit someone in the head, you’ll be hit in the head, are just simplifications to help you understand the concept. The system is mind-bogglingly complex, since everything that happens is caused by karma. Everyone deserves exactly everything being done to them. There is perfect justice. In this sense, the law of karma is compared to a perfect cosmic justice system. But like any good justice system, the main objective is education, not revenge or punishment.

Sadly, many people have turned away from God due to not understanding the simple concepts of karma and reincarnation. They blame God for the suffering they see around them. Yet these same people have no difficulty understanding that a wrongdoing must be addressed with a combination of just punishment and education to avoid future wrongdoings. And suffering is precisely that – a combination of just punishment and education to teach the soul to avoid future wrongdoings.

Does this mean we should become callous and lack empathy for other’s suffering? Of course not. It’s part of our universal dharma to practice compassion and do our part to help diminish suffering around us.

The best way to help diminish suffering is to teach people not to create it in the first place, by emphasizing the benefits of a dharmic life and by teaching them to practice mindfulness. Practically speaking, these two – dharma and mindfulness – are the main focus of the teachings of Buddha.

All suffering is thus within the scope of education – an instrument for creating change. Suffering exists to help you improve the moral quality of your actions and to prod you to investigate your existence. And it works. An enormous number of people have arrived at a deeper understanding of life and spirituality as a result of suffering. But you shouldn’t wait for suffering. Delve deep into the mysteries of life and God while the going is good.

Something done in one life may bring effects only hundreds of lives later. Every act creates what is called a karmic seed. Once you understand where you went wrong, however, you need no longer suffer the karma generated by that kind of wrong. The seed is burnt. Comparing karma to an education system, if you prove you have learned the subject matter, you no longer need to take the course. We have an unfathomable number of karmic seeds stored away. Sacred texts tell us that we are like trees. In this life we will generate the seeds to many future lives, just as a tree generates seeds for many future trees.

On this planet, only humans accrue karma. Our free will and sophisticated intelligence give us power. With power comes responsibility. With responsibility comes accountability. Human life is so important and rare and comes with so much power, that in one human life you can generate karma seeds for thousands of lives. Animals, plants, and other beings live out karma accumulated in past human or human-like lives.

Human life is also the only opportunity on this planet to extinguish your karma. As long as the soul remains in the material world, going from one body to another, it will experience the effects of the law of karma. But if you take the lead in your own education, if you take to the path of self-improvement and self-realization, you can, in one human life, achieve the final goal of all karmic education. You can graduate and leave school. To quote the Bhagavad-gita, by cultivating knowledge (jnana) you can reduce your karma to ashes.

The law of karma is another example of how this metaphysical knowledge of the yoga tradition helps you to better understand the experience of life and to live better. A rational explanation for all suffering brings relief to any thoughtful person. And seeing every event in your life as justly deserved and an opportunity for growth gives you great power to overcome obstacles and abandon lamentation. The law of karma ultimately confers upon you 100 percent control over your life. You are the sole architect of your destiny. No one other living being in the universe has power over you. No one can do anything to you that you yourself have not brought upon yourself. Others are just external agents of your own deeds. You have the power to choose what kind of life you want to live.

You can watch my video on the topic here.

Is there divine justice? Apparently not, given that over and over again we see bad things happening to good people. But is there more to be seen? Is there a deeper truth to be uncovered? Or are we to resign ourselves to an unjust, meaningless existence?

The ancient yoga tradition claims there is perfect divine justice, in what has come to be known as the Law of Karma. The idea is that bad things only happen because we not only deserve them, but need the experience in order to grow and overcome our character flaws.

People sometimes get angry when the law of karma is explained, thinking that this deep explanation discourages compassion and removes the guilt of those who commit evil deeds. In anger of the evil committed to an apparently innocent victim, people ignore the simple divine perfection of the law of karma: you get what you give. Those who commit evil, will be punished and will be given a chance to overcome their evil tendencies. But will this happen right away? In a month? A year? In this lifetime? Justice will be served, but other factors may delay it. Otherwise, how could we experience free will? If evil deeds were immediately punished, instantaneously, then not only would we not really have a chance to practice our free will, but the very basis of material life – the possibility to ignore God and pretend He doesn’t exist – would be nullified.

So, no, divine justice cannot always come in an instant – but it will come. And more than just justice, there will be a chance to learn and grow even before justice is served. The final goal of the Law of Karma is to help us all perfect the dharmic (moral) quality of our choices and actions.

Today’s “good person”, or “innocent victim” is yesterday’s wrongdoer. We should feel compassion for all those who experience pain and evil and fight to prevent it. But when we are the so-called victims, then we should look inside and see if we are really so innocent, so good, as to not deserve any pain and suffering.  Are we so pure of thought and deed as to claim we deserve or need any suffering to learn and be better?

Check out my video on the subject to learn more!