Shri Arvind Shri, how have accumulated karma and prarabdha karma been reviewed in the integral yog of the Mother? And how do we destroy accumulated karmas? What is the knowledge, what is sadhna? And please tell me a bit.
What yogis and others say is their business. It is a matter of faith in their words and the height and depth of their experience. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo who have had all the experiences of all the different paths before giving to us the yoga of transformation have reiterated the great word and promise of the Gita, of reliance on the Divine Grace that liberates us from everything, ‘ahamtva sarvapapebhayu mokshishyami ma suchah.’ I will free you from all fear and sin. According to the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother all the past karmas can be dissolved by sincerely and entirely surrendering oneself completely to the Divine Mother’s Grace. How does it matter as to how She accomplishes it?
As to prarabdha, as I explained it is not about bhogna etc. That is the way these yogis who sought liberation, almost as a selfish escape from the world saw it. They saw karma as a bondage and not as a means of liberation too. But karma is an evolutionary process. By cutting the entire thread one is simply trying to run away from the School itself rather than graduating into true knowledge. Nobody gets knowledge by running away from the challenges of life. Karma consequences are simply challenges like unfinished learning lessons. We don’t learn the lesson by burning the books and running away from the school. Prarabdha simply means there are things to be learnt, to get rid of attachment etc. If you learn the lesson then no more textbooks are required. God is not a fool who has set up a hard mechanical law that keeps us in a prison. He is All-loving and All-powerful and All-compassionate. Karma stops applying the moment one gets true knowledge. Its necessity is over. In the Integral Yoga the true knowledge and everything else comes not through kriyas and practices but by opening to the Mother through inner Remembrance and offering of one’s actions to Her, by faith and complete sincere surrender to Her Grace. Of course the Grace not only annuls the karma but makes us conscious and learn what we need to learn without going through the consequences.
Here are the Mother’s Words explaining it all.
‘You have said here that we are “tied to the chain of Karma”, but then sometimes when the Divine Grace acts, that contradicts…
Completely, the Divine Grace completely contradicts Karma; you know, It makes it melt away like butter that’s put in the sun.
That is what I was saying just now. What you have just told me is another way of speaking. I was putting myself in your place and asking: There you are, if you have an aspiration that’s sincere enough or a prayer that’s intense enough, you can bring down in you Something that will change everything, everythingโtruly it changes everything. An example may be given that is extremely limited, very small, but which makes you understand things very well: a stone falls quite mechanically; say, a tile falls; if it gets loose, it will fall, won’t it? But if there comes, for example, a vital or mental determinism from someone who passes by and does not want it to fall and puts his hand out, it will fall on his hand, but it will not fall on the ground. So he has changed the destiny of this stone or tile. It is another determinism that has come in, and instead of the stone falling on the head of someone, it falls upon the hand and it will not kill anybody. This is an intervention from another plane, from a conscious will that enters into the more or less unconscious mechanism.
So the consequences of Karma are not rigorous?
No, not at all. In all religions there are people who have said that, who have given such absolute rules, but I believe it was in order to substitute themselves for Nature and pull the strings. There is always this kind of instinct that wants to take the place of Nature and pull the strings of people. So they are told: “There is an absolute consequence of all that you do….” It is a concept necessary at a given moment of evolution to prevent people from being in a completely unconscious egoism, in a total unconsciousness of the consequences of what they do. There is no lack of people who are still like that, I believe it is the majority; they follow their impulses and do not even ask themselves whether what they have done is going to have any consequences for them and for others. So it is good that someone tells you straight, with a severe look: “Take care, that has consequences which will last for a very long time!” And then there are others who come and tell you: “You will pay for it in another life.” That, however, is one of those fantastic stories…. But it does not matter: this also can be for the good of people. There are other religions which tell you: “Oh! If you commit that sin, you will go to hell for eternity.” You can imagine!… So people have such a fright that it stops them a little, it gives them just a moment for reflection before obeying an impulseโand not always; sometimes the reflection comes afterwards, a little late.
It is not absolute. These are still mental constructions, more or less sincere, which cut things into small bits like that, quite neatly cut, and tell you: “Do this or do that. If it is not this, it will be that.” Oh! what a nuisance is this kind of life. And so people go mad, they are frightened! “Is it like that or rather this?” And they want it to be neither this nor that, what should they do?โThey have only to climb to a higher storey. They must be given the key to open the door. There is a door to the staircase, a key is needed. The key, as I told you just now, is the sufficiently sincere aspiration or the sufficiently intense prayer. I said “or”, but I do not think it is “or”. There are people who like one better and others, the other. But in both there is a magical power, you must know how to make use of it.
There is something very beautiful in both, I shall speak to you about it one day, I shall tell you what there is in aspiration and what in prayer and why both of them are beautiful…. Some dislike prayer; if they entered deep into their heart, they would find it was prideโworse than that, vanity. And then there are those who have no aspiration, they try and they cannot aspire; it is because they do not have the flame of the will, it is because they do not have the flame of humility.
Both are needed. There must be a very great humility and a very great will to change one’s Karma.’
Affectionately,
Alok Da
