34. The vibrant living cosmos

When you realize that the whole universe is energy, you will understand it is a living existence.

The universe of which our solar system is a very small part has constant creation and constant rejuvenation. The big bang creation of new solar systems and the black hole deaths of shrinking stars that grew too big to survive, continue constantly. Scientists now believe that each time there

When you realize that the whole universe is energy, you will understand it is a living existence.

is a big bang in one part of the universe there is a corresponding black hole

elsewhere. One without the other is not possible. All energy is interlinked. This is cosmic karma.

There is a theory called the chaos theory that states that the flutter of a butterfly in China can create a tornado in Mexico. This is called the 'butterfly effect'. The flapping wings of the butterfly can cause a small change in the pressure that can result in a chain of events leading to a large change in pressure causing a tornado in another part of the world. Not even one atom moves without another atom moving elsewhere.

If you look little deeply, we invite not only the physical diseases that we suffer from, but the accidents as well. The problem is that our thinking is so unconscious we are not able to connect the cause and the effect.

Reaction or response

Karma means action. But action can be of two types. It can either be a reaction or it can be a response.

When somebody insults you and you become angry, he has made you behave the way he wanted. Now if he apologizes, your mood suddenly changes. So he is the master. You are behaving like a slave. You are a victim having no control over the situation. When somebody insults you, you are immediately reacting out of your past experiences. This reaction is karma. It is a binding force. It creates chains for you.

But a response is totally different from reaction. When someone insults you, you don't need to give in to the emotion of anger rising inside you. You can listen to what he is saying objectively without judging whether it is good or bad, right or wrong. First you listen to him without immediately reacting. Then you respond with awareness. You don't react from the past. You are now responding from the present.

If the other person is right, you will thank him for pointing out something to you and making you aware of yourself. If he is wrong, you can simply witness the emotion and not react. If the statement is not true, why should you react?

A beautiful story from the life of George Gurdjieff* :

George Gurdjieff was a young boy of nine years when his father died. He was*

George Gurdjieff - Greek Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher famous for his principle of Fourth Way, corresponding to the turiya state in vedictradition.

from a poor family but his father was a very honest and integrated person. When his father was on his deathbed, he called Gurdjieff and gave him his last teaching.*

If somebody insults you, listen silently and in detail to what he is saying. Then tell the person, 'I am grateful that you have taken so much interest in me. After twenty-four hours I will come and reply to you.' Gurdjieff promised his father that he would always follow this advice.

In his own old age, Gurdjieff said to his disciples, 'My father's simple technique helped me immensely. Because, after twenty-four hours who remains angry? After twenty-four hours, either you find that the person was right or he was not.

If he was right, it means you have an opportunity to learn and improve yourself. Your awareness about yourself has increased. If the person is wrong, there is no need to be agitated because the statement has no solid base.

Let your response be like a pure reflection in a mirror with no judgment. Let it not come from the karmic baggage of the past. Instead let it come from the freshness of the present. Anything that comes from your past experiences is going to create a karmic chain. Anything from the present liberates.

You are not a byproduct of your actions. You are far bigger than your actions.

You create your own karma. Karma does not create you. You are not a byproduct of your actions. You are far bigger than your actions.

Masters have no karma

A beautiful story:

There was a beautiful garden with many trees and varieties of flowers and fruits. Three friends were walking near this garden that had a big wall around it. One of them climbed the wall and peeped inside.

He cried out, 'Oh, such a beautiful garden!' He jumped into the garden and started enjoying the fruits. The second man climbed the wall and saw the garden. He too felt it was beautiful, but he had a little bit of courtesy. He turned and said to the third man who was below, 'Dear friend, there is a beautiful garden below. Come, I am going in.' Saying this, he jumped over and started

George Gurdjieff - Greek Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher famous for his principle of Fourth Way, corresponding to the turiya state in vedictradition.

Pure action with no end objective is karma.

enjoying the fruits.

The third man climbed the wall and saw the garden. He saw his two friends and understood the level of joy and bliss that they were enjoying. Then he said to himself, 'Let me go down and tell all the people about this beautiful paradise. I will bring them all to enjoy this garden.'

An incarnation is someone who comes down to tell his fellowmen about the blissful place that he experienced.

The man who descends from the Divine on planet earth to express the bliss of that divinity and to make you realize what he has experienced is an incarnation. Incarnations as such have no karma. They have nothing to achieve, nothing to gain. If they don't have anything to enjoy why should they be in the body?

They come down only for the love of humanity. Incarnations take a human body just to liberate more beings from the cycle of life and death, from the grip of karma.

Only intention matters

A beautiful story from the devotional vedic scripture Bhagavatam* :

Krishna reached the banks of river Yamuna with the gopis* , his milkmaid friends. They wanted to cross the river but there was no way to cross.*

Krishna declared, 'If I am a true brahmachari , then let the Yamuna* part and let us go across.'*

The Yamuna parted.*

Outwardly, it may seem that Krishna was with the girls like other ordinary men. But Krishna was beyond the body-mind. His actions did not carry the intention of an ordinary man. It is the intention of any act that matters, not the act itself.

Intention is the baggage, the karma, not the action. If action creates intention, it becomes the baggage. Pure action with no end objective is karma.

Bhagavatam - The foremost epic of Hindu religion describing the incarnations of Vishnu, especially his incarnation as Krishna. It was written by Vyasa, who was also the author of the itihasa or epic Mahabharata.

Yamuna - A holy Indian river associated with enlightened master Krishna.

Gopis- Women who tended cows who were devotees of enlightened master Krishna.

Brahmachari - Literally means 'one who lives with reality'. A vedic student, usually referring to a young celibate monk.

Master's presence affects the intention

See, whatever you are doing in the presence of the master, you are doing for the master. You know it is in no way going to build your name or fame. So, the action happens without intention. There is no intention. The intention is the master's. The action is yours. Intention is in the being of the person who has no intentions!

You see, the total sanchita karma can be yours or mine. Mine is divine play. Yours is suffering. When it started, your total sanchita karma also started as a divine play. But, after gathering more and more gathered agamya karma, it became dirty.

Because I have no karma, when you flow with me you will also act without intention. Action without intention is living enlightenment.

If a person has committed ten murders, the quantity of murders will not be recorded. But the intensity of the murderer will be recorded. It is the quality, the mindset, and the attitude, that carries the Action without intention is living enlightenment.

That is why Krishna says again and again in the Bhagavad Gita that intention is much more important than action. That is the message of the whole Gita. He says, 'When you are without intention, I will take care.'

karmic

burden.

Action does not get recorded. Only intention gets recorded.

The Mahabharata* tells us the beautiful story of a courtesan and a monk.

There was a monk who lived across a courtesan's house. He used to keep a count of the men coming to her house and used to imagine all kinds of things about her lifestyle. The woman spent all her free time praying to Krishna to redeem her from her miserable life.

One day, they both died at the same time. Both reached the court of Yama . Yama* looked at the record of their lives and gave the decision: the monk should go to hell and the woman should go to heaven. The monk was shocked and started protesting, 'I lived such a pious life while she lived such an immoral life! How can I be sent to hell and she to heaven!'*

Yama - Hindu god of death and justice.

Mahabharata - The Hindu ithihasa or epic whose central characters are the five Pandava princes, their hundred Kaurava cousins and enlightened master Krishna.

An enlightened being is one with Existence. His actions can never be without awareness and compassion.

Yama replied, 'In my court of judgment, your actions are of no value, only your intent matters. You*

wore a monk's robes and lived a good life outwardly but your inner space was filled with lust. So in the outer world, your body is now being buried with honor but you have to suffer hell. The woman's heart was forever with Krishna even while her body was sold to men. So her body doesn't have anybody to even do the last rites but she is going to heaven.'

You may ask, can people do what they want? Do they have license to be immoral and to commit murders?

An enlightened being, an incarnation, is one with Existence. An enlightened being can only operate in tune with Existence. He can never be out of tune. The actions of an enlightened master can never be without awareness and compassion.

Since we do not have the consciousness or awareness, we cannot justify our actions by saying they are similar to those of an enlightened being. Be very clear, the action may look similar outwardly but the intention, the inner space, the attitude, is completely different.

A beautiful story from the life of Adi Shankara:

Once while Shankara was wandering with his disciples, he suddenly felt thirsty. They were in the middle of nowhere. They traveled further and finally came across one shop. Shankara went up to the man in the shop and asked for some water to drink. The man said, 'I am sorry but I have nothing to offer you except liquor. That is all I have.'

Shankara replied, 'Alright, please give me some.' He drank a glass of liquor and thanked the man. The disciples were shocked to see their master drink liquor! The thirsty disciples decided to follow the master and they all drank liquor to their heart's content.

When they resumed their journey, Shankara continued to walk normally but the disciples under the effect of liquor were not even able to keep the next step properly. They went up further and after some distance, they came across an iron forge.

Shankara went upto the man who was pouring molten iron into the cast. He

Yama - Hindu god of death and justice.

asked him for a glass of water. The man apologized saying he didn't have any water to offer. Shankara said, 'Alright. Please give me the molten iron then.'

The man and Shankara's disciples were all shocked. The man gave Shankara the hot molten iron which he just poured into his mouth as if it was water!

He then turned around to his disciples and said, 'You may also drink now.' The disciples stood with their heads lowered. Shankara then explained, 'Do not follow what I do. Follow what I say. Otherwise, you just choose to follow what your mind tells you.'

Understand, the very plane on which enlightened beings exist is different from the normal human plane of existence. So they do not need to and cannot do things according to usual logic. Their intention is what is important, which cannot be explained in terms of ordinary logic.

An enlightened being has no personal interest because he has no individual identity. His identity is dissolved in the identity of the whole universe.