However, Saints following the path of Bhakti Yoga and other Traditional Yogic Paths believe that if a person experiences illness, it is a result of their past karma — sins from previous lifetimes that they now have to endure. Or, it is due to their Prarabdha (Destined Karma). Is it true that illnesses are indeed caused by Karma from past lives? And, in Supramental Yoga, how can we understand accumulated Karma (Sanchit Karma) and Destined Karma (Prarabdha Karma)? What is the Science behind it?
Saints and sages, at least the few genuine ones, may have had deep, profound experiences, but not necessarily of the complete truth. Their goal was to find God and, having found Him deep within or beyond the world play. They did so by discarding the world as Maya and hence could not really understand it. Hence, they just continued with whatever beliefs were prevalent in the sect to which they belonged. There was no need for them to explain the world events and their happenings, hence they explained it away by the standard theory of karma. If karma were about sins in previous lives committed by an individual, then how come external interventions by constructing better roads, improving hygiene? Or if the theory is true in its entirety, then how is Medical knowledge able to rectify diseases without directly acting on the karma?
Similarly, if the law of Karma is simply a question of reward and punishment, then it is difficult to explain why many great and beautiful human beings, even Avatars like Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, Sri Ramakrishna, the Pandavas, Draupadi and many others suffered while evil-minded Duryodhaba and his like enjoyed the throne. To say that they will be punished in a later life is like saying too late and too little. In fact, it raises even serious questions, such as why, at all, there is a tendency to evil and sin?
Besides, if it is karma that ties us to the cycle of rebirth, then was the first human birth the result of an animal committing sin? Or was it an evolutionary leap? Many unsolved mysteries remain with the traditional understanding of the law of karma that turns the All-loving All-compassionate Divine into a stern and strict judge and accountant.
This is not to say that there is no such thing as the law of Karma, for then we shall lose the link of continuity through life and in fact lives, but it is not a tribunal of justice or the law of reward and punishment. It is a law of evolutionary progress designed for the evolving soul to grow through learning and consequences.
Supramental yoga completely destroys the law of Karma, as its evolutionary necessity is over. Just as the law of Karma does not apply to the animal, so too the law of Karma does not apply to the Superman and will not apply to the fully conscious Supramental being.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
