INTRODUCTION
This text was machine-transcribed from the printed book and may contain errors. Select the words and choose “Report a mistake”.
An ignorant man says to himself, 'I shall do this action and thereby enjoy its result.' A wise man should not unsettle this belief. Instead, he himself should set an example by performing his responsibilities diligently from the space of leadership, but without attachment. If the wise man condemns the actions performed with attachment, the ignorant person may simply decide to neglect his responsibilities.
It is like this. Can you explain to a child that his toys are not precious? No! The child will never be able to understand that. It has to grow and automatically its attachment to toys will drop when maturity happens. Similarly, the ignorant person can first do the action only with attachment. But upon seeing the wise person being unaffected by his own actions and being always blissful, naturally, the ignorant one will get curious to know the secret behind happiness.
The example of the wise man will automatically pull him towards work with detachment.
Take the example of relating to God. Most of us pray to God to get something. All our prayers to God are asking Him to fulfill some desire or to protect us from something.
It is perfectly all right to start a relationship with God like this. When you get what you asked for, your trust towards him grows. This is important.
We are all governed by our basic nature, attributes, or guṇa. The mental set-up, patterns from previous births, called vāsana determines what we are, what we do in this birth, and also what happens to us in our future births.
The desires born out of vāsana carry
their own energy for fulfillment. If
you are conscious, you will be able to
fulfill them.
Once fulfilled, these vāsana and
karma get dissolved. One who
reaches this state of completion with
desires also realizes that he is not the
doer.
The potter’s wheel goes on turning
around even after the potter has ceased
to turn it.
The vāsana or desires with which you took this body and mind will make the body-mind go through whatever activities it was made for. But the wise person goes through all these activities without the inadequate cognition that he is the doer of them. Actually, your desire to lead life in a particular way is what creates the corresponding mental set-up or pattern. Once you choose to live life in a particular way, your body supports this decision and acts accordingly.
You create a vāsana or seed of karma to aid you in living life the way you desire.
KARMA iS NOTHiNG BUT THE
UNFULFiLLED OR iNCOMPLETE
PATTERNS AND DESiRES, WHiCH
ARE iNSiDE YOUR BEiNG, THAT
CONSTANTLY MAKE YOU TRAVEL iN
THE SAME PATH AGAiN AND AGAiN,
TRYiNG TO GiVE THE EXPERiENCE
OF COMPLETiON iN YOUR iNNER
SPACE
You are the one who chooses and acts, but any choice comes with effects and side effects. On seeing the side effects, you feel powerless and blame your fate or destiny. Actually, you are the one who chose it in the first place. You are responsible for the cause and effect, as you are source of everything!
