Swami Tyagananda’s lecture at the Vedanta Center in Boston this Sunday focused on the theory of Karma. The idea of karma has become a part of popular Western culture and, as part of popular culture, has been misinterpreted and distorted by many. Thus, it is important, especially among those of us living in the Western world to revisit (or to learn for the first time) the true idea of karma.
Swami Tyagananda outlined four main ideas about the theory of karma which explain what it is and what it is not: 1) karma is based on the law of cause and effect; 2) karma determines only our experience and not our actions; 3) karma is always individual and never collective; 4) karma is empowering, we should not think that we are the victims of karma.
Karma is based on the law of cause and effect. We experience cause and effect throughout our daily lives; however, there are times when our experiences are difficult to connect to a specific cause. These are the times when we may ask, “Why?” The theory of karma says that all of our actions—in this life or in previous lives—will be met with experiences of happiness or sorrow (sukha or dukkha). In this way, the theory of karma offers a way of understanding the experiences in our lives that otherwise may seem random or unjust.
Karma determines only our experience and not our actions. What we do in this life is not the result of actions in a previous life. Therefore, karma cannot be blamed for our bad actions. Our actions in this life, however, may be affected but not determined by our past lives through samskara. Samskara are mental impressions that give us tendencies toward certain actions. The workings of samskara can be seen through an example that Swami Tyagananda offers. When someone tastes chocolate ice cream for the first time, they may enjoy it and have it again and again and develop deeper and deeper mental impressions about chocolate ice cream. Now, with these mental impressions, that person may have a strong desire to eat chocolate ice cream, however, he still has the choice of whether or not to eat the ice cream. In this way, samskara may influence the way we act, but they do not dictate what action we ultimately choose.
Karma is always individual and never collective. There are times when people talk about the collective karma of a group or a country. This is especially prevalent when there are natural disasters or wars. This idea of collective karma is simply not a part of the theory of karma. When thousands of people are victims of a natural disaster, the theory of karma says that each of those people’s individual karma dictated that they have that experience. It just so happened that they experienced it at the same time and in the same place. In the same way, there are people in different places that experience happiness and sorrow at the same time or people that enjoy experiences of happiness and sorrow in the same place but at different times. Thus, in terms of the theory of karma, we should not interpret a collective experience of happiness or sorrow as an indication that those people have a collective karma.
Karma is empowering, we should not think that we are the victims of karma. This point is connected with the second point made above. Karma should not be confused with fate or destiny. Karma does not dictate our actions. The theory of karma says that we are responsible for our actions and ultimately for our experiences. Thus, instead of being the victims of a capricious world, karma is a theory that says that we are in control of our future experiences. With these ideas in mind, we should cast off our childish habit of blaming the outside world for our bad experiences and feel empowered to determine our future experiences through our current actions. Furthermore, as karma helps us understand the suffering in our lives, it will also help us to cope with this suffering. While suffering is inevitable, misery is optional. This means that our experiences of joy and sorrow will come, but we need not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by these experiences. Chapter 2, Sloka 38 (among other slokas) of the Gita speaks to this idea:
Make grief and happiness, loss and gain, victory and defeat equal to thy soul and then turn to battle; so thou shalt not incur sin.
After explaining these four ideas, Swami Tyagananda emphasized that karma is simply a way of thinking about the world. It is one possible explanation of why we see such variation in the world, why some people are born into abject poverty and some are born into fortunes. I, myself, have difficulty thinking about how to reconcile the idea of karma with an idea of God’s role in the affairs of the world. If the theory of karma holds, is God subject to our actions? Although Swami could not give a definitive answer to this question, one of his comments did help ease the feeling that an answer to this question is unavoidably necessary. He said that karma is a way of thinking about the world, it is a concept. Concepts only exist in the mind. The mind itself is in the world. If you believe that God is ultimately the only reality and that our experience of the world (including the mind) only exists in Maya, then the reconciliation of these ideas—in a way our finite minds can understand—seems less important.
In fact, the theory of karma includes the idea that it does not have to go on forever. Although karma cannot be separated from its effects, we can separate the self from karma and its effects. The idea that we have agency and are the doers of actions (karta) and also experience the pleasure or pain that result from this action (bhokta) connect us with work and its results. When a person can detach himself from the sense of doership and experiencership, he can free himself from karma. We all experience this state of detachment in our sleep. Vedanta says that you can cultivate this state of mind even when awake.
This last idea appears in Chapter 4, Slokas 20-23 (as well as in other places) of the Gita:
20. Having abandoned all attachment to the fruits of his works, ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, he does nothing though (through his nature) he engages in action.
21. He has no personal hopes, does not seize on things as his personal possessions; his heart and self are under perfect control; performing action by the body alone, he does not commit sin.
22. He who is satisfied with whatever gain comes to him, who has passed beyond the dualities, is jealous of none, is equal in failure and success, he is not bound even when he acts.
23. When a man liberated, free from attachment, with his mind, heart and spirit firmly founded in self-knowledge, does works as sacrifice, all his work is dissolved.
Note: The translations of the Gita come from Sri Aurobindo’s Bhagavad Gita and its Message
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