Karma

The Supreme Creator and the individual spirit in the creation are connected together through the Sound Current¹. But Kal², also the creation of the Supreme Being, separates the individual from the Current by coming in between as mind³ and forms.

Hence the individual feels disconnected; but not so the Creator. There are three minds, and corresponding to these three minds are three kinds of forms. 

In Trikuti, the Nijman – innermost mind – or Brahm – universal mind – covers the spirit. The forms here are made up of very pure Maya, mind, so much so that a majority of the seekers have failed to see here the spirit apart from the Maya or mind and therefore considered Brahm as all-pervading. Lower down in Sahasdal Kanwal the forms of Trikuti get another covering of mind and form, both coarser than the above; the astral form here being governed by the Andi Man – astral mind.

In this zone there are the hells and heavens and numerous other Lokas, regions. The tendencies of the mind are directed inward and are elevating. This mind behaves like a wise enemy, seeking to keep us here. Further down in Pind, the astral form gets another covering of coarse material with which we are all familiar.

The mind that governs this form is called the Pindi Man – physical mind. Its tendencies are outward and diffusive, and it is most difficult to control. 

Now, a body actuated by mind and spirit cannot help performing karma, and the karmic law – As you sow, so shall you also reap – continues to work, and the account is complicated with time. The more one works the greater is the entanglement, like a bird struggling in the meshes of a net.

So cunningly has Kal arranged the snare of forms and minds that it is well-nigh impossible to escape from their working in these minds and bodies. No matter how good and godly we may be, it will not take us out from these regions. 

Says Lord Krishna, 

Good actions are as binding as bad actions; good actions may be likened to fetters of gold and bad actions to those of iron, and both equally keep us tied.

The escape is through the Sound Current which is the substratum at the bottom of these minds.

Only when the attention catches and follows the Current does the mind become dormant and gets out of action. At all other times, when the attention is off the Current, the mind gets the upper hand. Through the long and indefinite time since the spirit separated from its ocean and associated itself with the minds and bodies, not only has the upward passage been blocked, but the spirit has been so bewildered, entangled, and enfeebled that it has lost all memory of its Home, and is contented to live a wretched life in this wretched material world.

Now, there are two ways of looking at this creation: from the Creator’s point of view and from our point of view – or in other words, from the top end and from the bottom end. From the top it looks as though the Creator is all in all. He is the only doer and the individual seems like a puppet tossed right and left by the wire puller. There seems no free will in the individual, and therefore no responsibility on his head.

It is His play. There is no why or wherefore. All the Saints, when They look from the top, describe the creation as His manifestation. They see Him working everywhere. Now, looking at the thing from below, or the individual viewpoint, we come across variety as opposed to oneness.

Everybody appears working with a will, and is influenced by and is influencing others with whom he comes in contact. The individual is the doer, and is therefore responsible for his actions and their consequences. All the actions are recorded in his mind and memory, and cause likes and dislikes which keep him pinned down to the material, astral or mental spheres, according to his actions in an earlier move in the cycle of transmigration.

The individual in these regions cannot help doing actions and having done them cannot escape their influence. Individual is the doer, and therefore bears the consequences of his actions.

As stated above, the observations differ on account of the difference in the angle of vision. Both are right. The individual clothed in coarse material form sees only the external material forms. His sight does not go deeper than that. If he were to rise up, the same individual from Sahasdal Kanwal will see the mind actuating all forms. The form will be secondary only; mind will be the mover in all. The same individual from Daswan Dwar will see the Spirit Current working everywhere and will see how the mind gets power from the spirit.

From Sach Khand the whole creation looks like bubbles forming and disappearing in a Spiritual Ocean. An individual is endowed with intelligence and does every action knowingly. It is therefore incumbent upon him to find a way of escape from this entanglement. To raise his spirit he must struggle against the mind; for he lives by struggle. And where there is a will, there is a way.

He cannot say that this is no part of his duty.

Now, the karmas are divided into three groups: 

1. Kriyaman or new actions;
2. Pralabhd or fate;
3. and Sanchit or reserve. 

Take the case of a farmer:

He prepares his land for seed; he has the option to sow whatever he likes. Suppose he decides on wheat and sows it. The crop matures and he gathers it. Some of it he keeps for his consumption during the coming year, and the surplus he puts in store. For the next year he will have to live on wheat, for he has nothing else by him.

You will see that he is living and hopes to live on what he himself sows and gathers. Similarly, whatever we do in this life becomes fate for our next life; and some of this is kept in reserve by Kal to be given to us if by any chance – of course, the chance is practically nil – we run short of karma. Without karma Kal cannot keep down a spirit in a body, and without a body, no karma can be performed.

It is open to Kal to add from reserve to fate, or deduct from fate for reserve. Like the farmer who is preparing his land for the coming season, and is living on the gatherings from the last season, with a confidence based on his reserve, we are doing our fate, in which we have no choice. But we have the choice to work anew as we please, for our future good. And we have a surplus, which is our reserve from past lives, of which we have now no knowledge.

We are therefore at present doing a dual function:

a) in regard to fate, we are helpless; but

b) in new actions we have a free hand to sow for the future. 

To distinguish between these two types by intelligence alone is not easy for the individual; but a rough rule may be laid down: that what comes in spite of our efforts and spontaneously is due to fate. But those whose attention is concentrated and who have access within can read their fate easily. It is an open book to them.

Now, in the physical body actions are done from the heart centre. As long as the mind is centred here – in ordinary individuals, heart is the centre of mind action – it will be influenced by mind actions. The sensations of joy and sorrow will be felt as the body is worked by mind from this centre. 

When the mind has been elevated to the eye focus by concentration, or in other words, when the mind has changed its seat or centre from the heart to the eyes, then the feelings caused by outward influences, working on the physical body will be felt imperceptibly.

Joys of the world will not elevate and its sorrows will not depress him. The fate actions are stored in the eight-petalled lotus in Anda above the eyes. Their influence is felt forcibly as long as that centre has not been crossed. When that centre is crossed and the Master’s astral form is seen – for that Form resides there – the influence of the fate actions will be perceived nominally. The mind has then become strong and it has the power to bear them without effort.

But fate cannot be effaced or altered; it will have to be undergone. An arrow after leaving the bow must find its mark. The reserve actions are stored at the top of Trikuti; and only when a spirit has crossed the third mind or Trikuti, is it said to be free from all karma. Below this the spirit suffers from the ills of karma.

All actions are performed with a motive and the motive is binding. It is not easy to conceive of an action which is performed without a motive. The mind is consciously or sub-consciously active, and it is ridiculous to talk of karma without a counter-karma. There is no escape from counter-karma. By doing actions, however good, there is no escape. Charity, offerings, or pilgrimages must bring their reward, and the soul doing these things must receive the reward in one body or another. 

Men are reborn and reincarnate with a span of life pre-fixed on the karmic reactions of our past lives – no more, no less. 

Christ said,

Thy days are numbered.

The length of life depends on the breaths we take. Proper use and misuse thereof can prolong or shorten our lives on this earth. Normally a man breathes fourteen or fifteen times in a minute, but in passionate moments of life one breathes 24 to 26 times in a minute. Thus the allotted breaths are exhausted in a shorter period. If, however, you are of temperate habits and are devoting time to Spiritual Practices – the number of breaths goes down to four to six per minute. In this way life is prolonged. Yogis control the breath in Kumbhak for months and sometimes years, prolonging their lives for hundreds of years.

The escape from karma lies in the protection afforded by Saints. They are Themselves karmaless. Their actions are not binding on Them, for Their Spirits work from Daswan Dwar, a centre above the three spheres of mind and forms, as stated above. They show us the way out.

They say,

Let new actions be performed in the name of the Master, the individual working in the capacity of an agent only.

The new actions, done in this spirit, will not be binding. The fate actions will have been undergone by the time the life comes to an end; the reserve actions Saints partly take upon Themselves, and partly are undergone by the devotee as the Saints think proper. 

They put the individual spirit in touch with the Sound Current, the substratum; and as the spirit catches It and rises up and throws off the influences of mind and matter it gets stronger and stronger. The more the individual works on these lines, the easier the Path for him. Otherwise the course becomes lengthy; but the Saints are pledged to see him through, after They have initiated him. The practice of Sound Current cuts the root of karma.

The Current acts like a magnet on the spirit. It attracts the spirit to itself, and if the spirit were not covered by the rust of mind and matter it would go up like a shot. The rust of attachments and impressions is removed by repetition. The repetition of thoughts of the journey within replaces our common day thoughts; and the mind instead of wandering outside begins to take rest and peace within; and when it comes in, the spirit comes in with it; and when the spirit is in, the Current in its turn pulls it up, and when the Trikuti has been crossed – which will only be when all karmic accounts are settled – the soul never goes back into transmigration. 

It will go up to merge in its ocean.

*****

[…] That Master of Eternal Domain is keeping His doors open all the time and is calling aloud:

Bring into actual experience the Great Principle ‘Withdrawal before death.’ I am impatiently waiting for you to come up to me. I am nearer to you than the nearest. For those of you initiated by me it is a sacrilege and a mark of disgrace on both Love and devotion – if ye look upon anybody else as a Guru or Master-Guide. You may, however, derive benefit from the company of some awakened personality who pays a visit to me everyday. He will not misguide you, but on the contrary, will unite you with me will instil my Love in you and will strengthen the Divine Link that binds and ties you to me. Moreover, in the capacity of Guru Bhai⁴ He shall be helpful to serve you.

_______________

Explanation: 1) Shabd, Naam or Word, which manifests itself as Light and Sound. 2) The power, which is projecting downward. 3) Basically mind consists of the intellect, emotions, the subconscious and ego, thus this, what is generally named as personality – in contrast to the Soul, which is free from all these attributes. 4) A brother initiated by the same Master.

Source of the text 'The Master of Eternal Domain…': 'Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji Maharaj with a short narrative brief Life Sketch – With a short Description of His Teachings, Chapter: Hazur Sawan Singh left us to be with us every Time,' by Kirpal Singh, 1894–1974.

Source: Sat Sandesh, April 1975.