II / (ii)

Pralabdh

These are just that part of the Sanchit Karmas which constitute a person’s fate, destiny or luck; which determines one’s present existence on earth. A person has no control over them. The effect of these, good or ill, has be tolerated, as best one may – with smiles or with tears. The present life is just an unfoldment or revelation of the predestined Karmas with which one comes fully loaded into the world. It is, however, possible that one may so mould and develop his Inner Self, through the guidance of some Master-Soul, that he may not feel their bitter and poignant sting, just as the kernel in a ripe almond or walnut does not feel the prick of a needle by getting detached from the shell without, which as a consequence gets shrivelled and hardened, and serves henceforth as a protecting armour.

In this way, each one of us, willingly or unwillingly, wittingly or unwittingly, is forging chains for himself, no matter whether the same be of gold or of iron. Still chains are chains and they are equally efficacious in their application; to wit, to keep a person in perpetual bondage. Like a poor silk-worm imprisoned in its own cocoon or like a spider caught in its own web, or a bird in its nest, one remains bound in hoops of steel of his own making, with no way of escape therefrom. Thus the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is ceaselessly set in motion.

It is only when one transcends the body consciousness and becomes neh karma, i.e. actionless in action like the still point at the centre of the ever-revolving wheel of life, that a stop is put to the motion of the giant wheel of karmas; for then one becomes a Conscious Co-Worker of the Divine Plan.

This is why Buddha, the prince among ascetics, emphatically said:

Be ye desireless,

for desires are the root-cause of human sufferings as they motivate actions, right from subtle vibrations in the sub-conscious, to mental thinking in the conscious, leading to the vast and limitless harvest of variegated deeds of different hues and forms, springing from the imbalance of the mind.

The spirit, sitting in the chariot of the body is thus driven blindly and head-long into the fields of sensual pleasures by the five powerful steeds of the senses, uncontrolled by the power-intoxicated charioteer of the mind – helplessly imbalanced as it is – with the reins of intellect dangling loosely about him. Self-discipline then is of prime importance and chastity in thought, word and deed, is the essential requisite that helps a person on the path of self-knowledge and God-Knowledge, for ethical life is a stepping-stone to Spirituality.