- BHAGAVAD GITA -
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BOOK XVIII, VOLUME IV
Break Out Of The Karmic Cycle
Authored by THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
न द्वेष्ट्यकुशलं कर्म कुशले नानुषज्जते ।
त्यागी सत्त्वसमाविष्टो मेधावी छिन्नसंशयः ॥
॥ १८=१० ॥
na dveṣtyakuśalaṁ karma
kuśale nā'nuṣajjate tyāgī
sattvasamāviṣṭo medhāvī
chinnasaṁśayaḥ
Those who neither hate
disagreeable work nor are
attached to pleasant work are
in a state of intelligence,
goodness and renunciation,
free of all doubts.
POWERFUL COGNITION
More and more responsibility
adds more and more life
energy into you.
न हि देहभृता शक्यं त्यक्तुं कर्माण्यशेषतः ।
यस्तु कर्मफलत्यागी स त्यागीत्यभिधीयते
॥ १८=११ ॥
na hi dehabhṛtā śakyaṁ
tyaktuṁ karmāṇyaśeṣataḥ yastu
karma-phala-tyāgī sa
tyāgītyabhidhīyate
Human beings cannot give up
all activities. Therefore the one
who has renounced the fruits
of such activity is one who has
truly renounced.
POWERFUL COGNITION
Act without expectation and
attachment to the result of our
action.
अनिष्टमिष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मणः फलम् ।फलम्
भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु संन्यासिनां क्वचित्
॥१८-१२॥
aniṣṭamiṣṭaṁ miśraṁ ca
trividhaṁ karmaṇaḥ phalam
| bhavatyatyāgināṁ pretya na
tu sannyāsināṁ kvacit
For one who is not
renounced, the three kinds
of fruits of action—desirable,
undesirable and mixed—
accrue after death, but not
to one who has renounced.
POWERFUL COGNITION
Decide from your being that
you will feel responsible for
the whole world.
KRISHNA
says that a person in the sātvic
space of completion, calmness
and awareness is undisturbed by
external conditions. He is not
bothered whether someone
appreciates or condemns what he
does. He just feels responsibility
in his being. He is clear what he
should do and he carries on with
excitement. Renunciation is in
the true spirit of completion and
is done out of goodness, only
when a person renounces the
expectation of result.
It is natural that a human being
cannot remain still without
doing some work. Man must be
doing something, anything, all
the time. If not physically, at
least mentally he does
something. Even in sleep, he
dreams. If we close our eyes, we
watch our inner television.
Mentally we think the whole
day, but it is not directed in one
direction, we are not useful to
ourselves and to others. Please
understand, when you lack
integrity, when you have
incompletions mentally, even if
you think, it will not be useful
thinking.
Only an Enlightened person truly
keeps his body and mind still. So the
normal man is never without activity.
This being the case, the only way
man can be comfortable and at peace
with himself is by not having any
expectation of the result of his
thoughts or words or actions. This
can be achieved by every one of us.
Kṛṣṇa says that one who is not
concerned about the fruits of his
action has truly renounced.
ATTACHMENT TO ACTION AND TO THE RESULTS OF ACTION CREATES MORE DESIRES.
Even when an action has been completed and the expected result achieved, as long as one is attached to that action and its result, another desire crops up. Even when one desire is fulfilled, another unfulfilled desire rises. This is a constant, consistent sequence of incompletions. This is what I call karma.
Karma is nothing but unfulfilled, incomplete desires. As long as we have attachment to the action as ‘doer’, which in turns creates an expectation of reward or punishment, we are caught in the cycle of karma and saṃsāra. Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death.
No one is 'up there' keeping an account of our deeds and misdeeds. Our own spirit does that job. So we can never escape! No amount of propitiation or contribution to 'noble' causes will erase the knowledge from our inner Self of what we have done. When we die, the body perishes but the spirit moves on to another body. That spirit carries its earlier mental patterns, its vāsanā. There is no exception to this rule. Saṃskāras or root patterns are the carried-over incomplete desires and they cause the cycle of saṃsāra, birth, death and rebirth.
We have no unfulfilled desires, karma, saṃskāra or vāsanā left when we renounce attachment to 'doership' and become a mere witness to both the action and the result. This means we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action. Such a person breaks out of this cycle of saṃsāra.
GOALS:
Helping students
understand what is karma
and how to break out of
the cycle of samsara.
ASSESSMENTS
- How can you tell if you have truly renounced?
- What is karma?
- What happens to us when we have attachment to the action as "doer"?
- What causes the cycle of saṃsāra, birth, death and rebirth.
- How can a person break out of the cycle of saṃsāra?
ART OF THE DAY
ART OF THE DAY:
THE KARMIC CYCLE
MATERIALS NEEDED
Paper, Pen, Pencils, Eraser, Markers
PROCEDURE
Engage in a short discussion about what is the cycle of samsara (you can refer to the explanation given below in the "inference" section) and ask the students to draw a representation of it in any way they want. Once they are done, ask them to share their drawing and to explain in their own words how attachment, desires, action and result are related to one another.
ART OF THE DAY:
THE KARMIC CYCLE
INFERENCE
As long as we have attachment to the action as 'doer', which in turns creates an expectation of reward or punishment, we are caught in the cycle of karma and saṃsāra. Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death. However we have no unfulfilled desires, karma, saṃskāra or vāsanā left when we renounce attachment to 'doership' and become a mere witness to both the action and the result. This means we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action. Such a person breaks out of this cycle of saṃsāra.
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
Materials required:
Have material required to do power manifestation (blindfold, kumkum, bhasma, paper, pen, scale, etc.).
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
GOOD OR BAD
PROCEDURE:
Tell the students to choose any power and to practice manifesting it for the next 11 minutes without being attached to the result. Tell them to simply remain as a witness and to allow Paramashiva to flow through them while chanting Mahavakya. At the end, ask them about their experience. How does being a witness feel? Was part of them hoping for a particular result to occur? Did they feel any emotion (pride, fear, disappointment, frustration, etc)?
End the activity by discussing the importance of completing with our mental patterns of "good", "bad"...
INTERFERENCE
Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental patterns or vāsanā after death. Saṁskāras or root patterns are the carried-over incomplete desires and they cause the cycle of saṁsāra, birth, death and rebirth.
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY:
VAAKYARTHA SADHAS - WITNESS
PROCEDURE
Ask the students to write a list of all the actions they perform on a day-to-day basis. Then ask each student to share what expectations they have attached to these actions. Finally, ask them to discuss how their expectations impact their state and how they can come out of the cycle of samsara.
CONCLUSION
Attachment to action and to the results of action creates more desires. When we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action, we become a mere witness and break out of the cycle of samsara.
- BHAGAVAD GITA -
BOOK XVIII, VOLUME V