Saturday, January 12, 2008

What is Karma? The Path to Liberation!


What is Karma?

By John of AllFaith © 7.5.07 (updated 1.12.08)

It is my conviction that we are all eternal beings of Pure Light, children of the Ek Devata or One God. I further believe that Reality utterly transcends the material manifestation. In that Reality concepts such as karma, marga and even dharma are transcended. When we speak of karma therefore, we are referencing the material manifestations known in the East as Saguna Brahman.

Within the eternity of our limitless existence there is neither time nor space, and yet to conceive of this Reality we use such words qualitatively. And so with this caveat we can understand that, "at some point in endless time" we entered into this material manifestation, into this physical reality. I often refer to this material existence as the Dark Cloud... it works as well as anything else I've heard

First then, we need to understand that are two "planes of being," Nirguna and Saguna Brahman. These terms come to us from the Vedic and Upanishadic texts of India:

    Nir [or "no"] Guna {or "material qualities"] and Sa [or "with"] Guna [or "material qualities."

The "spiritual existence" of Nirguna Brahman is completely transcendent to all material qualities. It is our eternal Home and natural state of being.

The "material existence" of Saguna Brahman exists in "layers" or "dimensions" of materially manifested form and quality.

Within Saguna Brahman duality is a primal factor (as emphasized in Gnosticism and Paganism). Maleness and femaleness, yin and yang, good and bad, positive and negative, righteousness and evil, black and white, sameness and difference, such forces fundamentally drive the material manifestation. This material duality of Saguna Brahman is governed by three basic material laws (known as the trinitarian essence in certain traditions).

First Karma and Dharma:

  • Karma or Action: All actions cause reactions. These reactions bind the soul (or embodied living entity) to the material planes of being. All karma must be settled/resolved before the soul can transcend material reality and reawaken spiritual consciousness. Hence the material world is sometimes referred to by the sages as a prison. I prefer to think of it as a school that must be graduated from. This is governed by the Law of Reciprocity.
  • Dharma or Divine Law: There exists the Supreme Person, the Holy One. I often refer to this Holy Being as Ek Devata, the "One God." The Nature of this Holy Individual transcends all material consciousness and conception. Through this Supreme Person all existence, both within Saguna and Nirguna Brahman come to be and exists. All of existence exists within God, and yet God transcends existence:

This conception is supported by the Srimad Bhagavad Gita as follows:

7:8-11: I am the taste in water, O son of Kunti, the light of the moon and sun, I am the sacred syllable Om contained in the Vedas, I am the sound in ether and the virility in men.
I am the sacred fragrance in the earth, I am the brilliance in fire, I am the life in all living entities, I am the austerity in penitents.
Know Me to be the seed [from which] all living entities [arise], O child of Partha. Of the intelligent I am the eternal intellect, of the brilliant I am the brilliance. I am the strength of the strong, devoid of passion and attachment. I am desire in all beings, which is not opposed to dharma, O best of the Bharatas.

7:12: Whether in the nature of goodness, passion or ignorance, everything thus comes from Me, but know that although I am not in them, they are all in Me.

7:13, 14: This entire universe is deluded by the three qualities of material nature [goodness, passion and ignorance] and hence does not know Me who is supreme and immutable.
This extraordinary power of Mine, consisting of the qualities of material nature, is difficult to transcend, but those who take refuge in Me pass beyond it. God has made certain determinations. These determinations are included within Dharma. The soul (jiva) who is trapped by the effects of karma (action and reaction) must restore harmony and balance in accordance with Dharma. -- translation mine (click here).

  • Marga or the Course or Way: Literally, marga is the course taken by the planets through the sky, however the word has a deeper meaning. Marga is the path taken by the souls on their way Homeward. Marga is similar to "destiny" but with subtle differences not relevant here. It also references what Master Y'shua referenced as "the Way" because it signifies the Path taken by the jiva or soul. Due to karma (actions and reactions) the soul is "destined" to walk certain paths as dictated by dharma. The soul has erred in action and is hence required by divine reciprocity to experience the reactions of that sin. The same works for good as well. Every action will produces a reaction. And so acts of charity and kindness also have their reactions. Marga is therefore the course one walks while meeting these karmic requirements. Marga can lead upwards or downwards according to the development of the soul.

    Throughout the material multiverses these three powers are in effect, from the lowest regions of Patala to the heights of Brahmaloka, from hellish existence to heavenly bliss. Such terms merely seek to convey understanding. Call them whatever you will.

    Here's the difficulty:

      Karma must be satisfied.

    We can think of this in terms of paying for sins, of learning requisite lessons, of fulfilling destiny, of providing restitution or simple reciprocity, but all slats must be cleaned before the Soul leaves the Dark Cloud and returns to the Light. The goal of AllFaith Spirituality is to facilitate this.

    Whether one performs "good" actions or "bad," there are always consequences, always more karma. This is the result of dharma, the indisputable Law of material nature. The Higher Law (Dharma) demands that these actions and reactions must be fulfilled ("for evil shall not enter into His Presence").

    These karmic necessities exist only in saguna and so it is here they must be satisfied. Why only in Saguna Brahman?

    Because "good" and "bad" are "qualities" and qualities only exist within Saguna Brahman (as explained above). All qualities must be cast off if one wishes to return to Nirguna Brahman (spiritual reality "without qualities").

    Our natural state of existence (as eternal souls) is transcendental, being devoid of all material qualities. This is confirmed in the Torah:

    Genesis 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did HaShem make coats of skins, and clothed them.

    This references the souls entrance into material nature. The Pure Light Atman (the immortal Spirit Entity) is temporarily coated or covered with material flesh and becomes subject to karma, dharma and marga.

    In our eternal condition we transcend all material qualities. This is not to say there are no spiritual qualities in Nirguna Brahman, only that spiritual qualities transcend material qualities even as spirit transcends matter.

    This has been explained nicely by His Holiness Srila Caitanya Mahaprabhu as achintya bheda bheda, or "inconceivable oneness in diversity."

    In Saguna Brahman everything exists within diversity: duality, hot and cold, wet and dry, yours and mine, black and white, positive and negative and so on. But in Nirguna Brahman everything is inconceivable diversity within the Oneness of Ek Devata. Note that I say inconceivable diversity in Oneness rather than Oneness in diversity!

    It is not that Ultimate Oneness is temporarily manifest in diversity, but rather that eternal diversity exists within a state of Eternal Oneness, within Ek Devata. In the same we seek to realize the Brotherhood of Man and the Parenthood of Ek Devata. We are many and yet as One in God.

    Those who embrace Vedanta, Buddhism and similar teachings (which I deeply respect!) typically believe that within Nirguna Brahman there is absolute undifferentiated oneness, that there is no individual existence, no "you" and "me," no "God." They insist that "All is One." Despite the common misconception, according to this view, one does not "become God" because God, like everything else, is but part of the Wholeness of the All. The teaching is therefore that one ceases to exist as an individual and merges with the Totality, thus transcending individual existence. That totality may be deemed "God" by Monists but from the traditional usage of the term as God exists as an independent self-aware Being what is being perceived is not God by the "brahmajoyti" or spiritual effulgence of Ek Devata.

    I believe however, as taught by Sri Caitanya and others and as confirmed in the Katha Upanisad that:

    1. 'There is that ancient tree, whose roots grow upward and whose branches grow downward;--that indeed is called the Bright, that is called Brahman, that alone is called the Immortal. All worlds are contained in it, and no one goes beyond. This is that.'
    2. 'Whatever there is, the whole world, when gone forth (from the Brahman), trembles in its breath. That Brahman is a great terror, like a drawn sword. Those who know it become immortal.' (Second Adhyaya, sixth valli)

    This analogy tells us that Saguna Brahman (the material manifestation) is an imperfect and temporary reflection of Nirguna Brahman (the spiritual manifestation), or as many western mystics have told us, "As above so below." We who dwell within the Dark Cloud therefore remain connected to our spiritual roots at all times.

    We in Saguna Brahman know love, Nirguna Brahman IS Love. We know isolated individuals, in Nirguna Brahman there are individuals beings in Oneness. The nature of Nirguna Reality utterly transcends human reason and conception and Saguna Brahman is it reflection. As the Apostle Paul assures us:

    I Cor. 13:12: For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

    The question remains, how can one break the chains of karma and leave the temporary realm of Saguna Brahman if every action causes a reaction that further binds us?

    Again we are not these material bodies. We are pure spirit entities or souls. In eternal consciousness we are untainted by all material constraints. It is illusion or maya that keeps us from understanding this truth. For a time we have entered into this Dark Cloud of material existence and accepted these materially conditioned forms. While we are here everything seems so important, but once we return Home to our natural state as pure jiva-atman all of this, our entire existence within the Dark Cloud throughout our myriad forms, reincarnations and experiences, will be but a twinkling of eye, a shiver up the spine."

    Karma is therefore a temporary construct or learning devise the jiva (soul) employs while in Saguna Brahman. Karma guides and inspires the soul but all too soon the mirage-like qualities of material life and the reciprocal requirements of karma and dharma imprisons or brainwashes the eternal soul. The entity forgets spiritual reality and embraces the temporary realms of matter. Speak to those still asleep about such things and they scoff, call you a dreamer, a religious fanatic, and yet to the awakening soul the Path is life!

    Deep within the soul the memory of eternity lives on. The soul knows there is something more, something far better, and so begins a process of remembering, of waking up and the jiva begins to desire to leave the material realms, to escape the suffering and return Home. But how? This is difficult to accomplish due to the lifetimes of accumulated karma and illusion.

    The ultimate goal of religion and spirituality is to help the soul achieve "neutral karma," wherein as ones karmic debt is gradually erased through life's experiences one draws closer to freedom and mukti (release). And yet, no actions are truly neutral in the duality-based material expansion!

    To achieve mukti people accept spiritual masters, chant japa mala, recite prayers, perform pujas, study the scriptures, and do so many good works and deeds. But its never enough!

    Despite the accumulation of good and neutral-leaning karma by such actions, the soul remains bound to the material conception of life and death. The entity may achieve progressively better births and may even advanced to the higher material planets and realms such as Brahmaloka or Heaven, but they remain within Saguna Brahman, the manifest reality of the Dark Cloud.

    And yet there is eventual release, there is moksa or salvation. But not works:

    Ephesians: 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
    9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

    And again:

    Srimad Bhagavad Gita: 18:56: Always performing all activities and taking refuge in Me one achieves, by My Grace, the eternal and immutable abode.

    And yet again:

    Micah 6:6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
    7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
    8 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

    In the final analysis the soul comes to learn the Great Truth. 'The soul that sinneth shall die' but 'whosoever the Anointed has set free is free indeed.'

    It is solely through the Mercy and Grace of Ek Devata that one is freed from karma and sins and returns Home, back to Godhead. Om Santi (Praise peace and pursue it), ~John of AllFaith

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