Karma

III

So for that reason, you see, what is required now? Is there another kind of karma? One is kriyaman, another is pralabdh, the third is what is in store – sanchit. But there is another form of karma. This is called neh karma, karma performed without any attachment or desire for the fruit thereof. You see? This is superior to the other forms of karma, which are more or less a source of bondage. This type helps a little to liberate one from karmic reactions, from bondage. If you do some job without desiring any fruit, that won’t bind you. This is one thing. But so long as the ego is there, how can you not? You won’t feel that you are not the doer. You follow my point? So long as you are the doer, whether you are doing good actions or bad, even at your heart of hearts, you know, ‘I have done good actions,’ you see. That will bear forth fruit.

So neh karma or selfless karma comes up only when you become a Conscious Co-Worker. You find also that in the yoga systems such as Karma Yoga it is taught that you can become neh karma – not to want any fruit. But how can you become neh karma unless you become the Conscious Co-Worker of the Divine Plan? Unless you know that He is the Doer; I am not the Doer? So long as you are the doer, you’ll bear the good fruits also – heaven, and other things in this life, too. So you will find it is only karma born of desire or kam that leads to bondage. 

This is why, you see, that Moses taught, 

Desire not; 

that Buddha taught, 

Be desireless; 

that the tenth Guru of the Sikhs taught

Don’t have any desire for the result.

The highest of all is to be neh karma. That is doing karma in accordance with the Divine Plan, as a Conscious Co-Worker of the Power of God.

Now you find four kinds of karma. Present karma is taken care of by the diary. And whatever is left, if you are devoted to the Master, that is also smoothed down. Pralabdh karma is not touched; you have to bear the bitter fruits of that. But while sitting at the feet of the Master, if you are following His instructions and rising above body consciousness daily – dying daily – then outer pinching effects, bitter effects of the reactions of the past won’t affect you, as in the example that I gave. Now you’ll find how important it is to do your practices daily.

In brief, the Law of Karma is nature’s stubborn and inexorable law from which there is no exception. Even the avatars bear the fruit of it – what to speak of men.

It is said of Lord Rama that he killed the brother of the King of Ceylon by standing behind a tree; in our scriptures it is given. When the man died, he said,

Well, Rama, I did not have anything against you; why are you killing me? You will have to suffer.

So it happened that Rama in his next incarnation came as Lord Krishna, and that man whom he had killed took the form of a bhil – very low caste, almost a savage – in the jungle, you see. And Lord Krishna was lying in the jungle with his left foot over his right knee. And there was a star on his foot, you see, which is always on the feet of avatars or incarnations. The bhil hunter saw it and thought, perhaps it was the eye of a deer; so he shot the arrow and it hit the foot of Lord Krishna, and he died of that. Even avatars are not exceptions to the rule; what to speak of ordinary men.

Be careful! Every thought that crosses you, that reacts.

As you sow, so shall you reap.

That is the general rule for those who are on earth. You see? 

As you think, so you become.

It is from the abundance of the mind that the tongue speaks. Every action has a reaction, for that is nature’s Law of Cause and Effect. One has therefore to bear the fruit of his actions; no exception.

Is there any remedy for this? Masters have got a remedy, as I just submitted to you. I quoted the case of Abdullah, the devotee of Mian Mir. In daily life, if you have to have an injection, you can withdraw your attention here – in the back of the eye). ‘All right – now inject!’ You feel much less pain. If you can withdraw your attention fully, that may be cut off.

So this is a very regular Way which Master puts us on. It is only when one transcends the body consciousness and becomes neh karma or actionless in action, like the still point at the centre of the ever-revolving wheel of life, that the stop is put to the motion of the great wheel of karma. If a machine is running, and they want to stop the wheel, they will insert something into it and the machine does not work. So the Law of Karma does not work in the cases of those who rise above body consciousness accurately.

That is why Buddha said, 

Be desireless.

For desire is the root cause of human suffering – all suffering. Some die; some are born; some are sick; some are poor. Length of life, whether we are high or low, poor or rich – all this is based on the reactions of the past.

So what happens? The spirit sitting in the chariot of the body is steered blindly and headlong into the field of sensual pleasures by the five powerful steeds of the outgoing faculties, which are driven by the intoxicated mind. You see? So mind also has to be controlled. If something is given to the mind that is more blissful, more peaceful, than it is accustomed to through the senses, only then it can be controlled; not otherwise. It is because the reins of the intellect are dangling loose and the steeds are running fast, headlong, that we incur actions that result in reactions. We go on like anything ever since we have come down to earth from the Father. We have been on earth, we have been coming and going, coming and going, coming and going. The human body we have been having as a very great fortune. But we did not use to like the human body, because we did not understand the Law of Karma.