Avoid Unfulfilled Desires To Avoid Karma🔗

Authored by

THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

The present day narrative about the evil caste system of ancient India is a myth and a concocted lie. The truth is that the system of classification is based on the predominant guṇa (sattva, rajas, tamas) in a person and not dependent on his birth.

4.14

The desires we carry from a previous birth, have the innate energy and intelligence capable of fulfilling itself without acquiring karma.

Have no unfulfilled desires, no incompletion, and no attachments, you will have no karma.

What is action and what is inaction, even the wise are confused. Let me explain to you what action is, knowing which you shall be liberated from all ills

Work from your needs, not from your wants.

4.17

Proper action can be understood by understanding what comprises inaction and wrong action.

He who sees inaction in action and action in inaction is wise and a yogi, Even if engaged in all activities

Your joy is no longer dependent on what society says or thinks about you, because you are complete in yourself.

4.19

He who is determined and devoid of all desires for sense gratification he is of perfect knowledge. The sages declare such a person wise whose actions are burnt by the fire of knowledge

In the process of Unclutching, you transcend both action and inaction, karmaṇi and akarmaṇi.

tyaktvā karmaphalāsaṅgaṁ nityatṛpto nirāśrayaḥ I karmaṇyabhipravṛtto'pi naiva kiñcitkaroti saḥ

Having given up all attachment to the results of his action, always satisfied and independent, the wise man does not act, though he is engaged in all kinds of action.

Be involved completely in the action yet be detached, independent and satisfied within.

Now we come to the controversial topic of the caste system. Kṛṣṇa says, 'I have created the four castes depending upon the distribution of the three guṇas or attributes.' Guṇa means 'attribute' or 'quality' that we are born with.

It is a reflection of the prārabdha karma, the vāsana, and the mindset with which we are born. There are three basic guṇas: satva or purity, rajas or activity and tamas or inactivity.

The varṇa system was four-fold. Brāhmaṇas were the scholars and priests, intellectually inclined. Kṣatriyas were the soldiers and kings, ambitious and physically strong. Vaiṣyas were the business community with strong commercial acumen. Śudras were the workers, physically able and skillful.

Based on their guṇas, their skill sets and not birth, the children in ancient Gurukul were trained into their vocations, their varṇa or caste. Over time, this system was manipulated. Those who believed that they had a better varṇa, caste, decided to make it a hereditary right. Earlier, the son of a brāhmaṇa could not to be a priest, if he was unsuitable or the son of a kṣatriya to be a warrior if he was inadequate. Kṛṣṇa states very clearly that only the one who transcends these three guṇas can reach His state, can reach the higher levels of consciousness. To reach Kṛṣṇa one has to be a triguṇa rahita, beyond the three guṇas. Then, one becomes a non-doer, a no-caste, no-attribute person.

When a desire is fulfilled, it no longer creates ripples in the mind. Desires that get fulfilled are the basic needs one is born with, which are the result of the carry- over vāsanā, the prārabdha karma. We acquire all other desires by comparing ourselves with others. These are wants, not needs. Existence has no way of fulfilling such wants.

LIBERATED

When one works out of basic need, he acquires no karma. These possessions born out of our wants can never be fulfilled or enjoyed. Once acquired, we seek the next acquisition. The cycle goes on.

Being ‘Unclutched’ is the state where you are free and liberated. Let me expand on the word ‘Unclutching.’ If you observe your mind keenly, you will see that you are constantly connecting all your thoughts and creating links in your mind.

You connect all painful memories, create a pain shaft and conclude, ‘My life is suffering, my life is pain.’ Now when you start believing your whole life is suffering, you have created a pain shaft and you are waiting only for painful incidents in your life so that you can elongate that shaft.

If you believe your whole life is a shaft of joyful experiences, which we do very rarely, constantly you are in fear about whether the joy will continue. If you believe life is a shaft of painful incidents, you do two things:

1. Unconsciously you gather more and more incidents and strengthen your faith about how your life is painful, and consciously you try to break the pain shaft!

2. If you believe life is a chain of joyful incidents, unconsciously you will be in fear that it will end, and consciously you will try to prolong it.

These are two big dramas we are continuously enacting with ourselves. You forget that you can neither break the shaft nor elongate it because the shaft itself does not exist! The shaft itself is your own imagination.

SiN

Kṛṣṇa says to understand what action is, you need to understand what inaction is. When you unclutch, you are seemingly in inaction or akarma. However, the removal of the various shafts of pain, pleasure, fantasies etc., releases so much energy within you that you are now actively passive. You are at the height of potential energy, ready to release that energy for whatever purpose you decide in that moment. If instead, you are actively daydreaming, caught in pain and pleasures shafts, then you are seemingly active and busy, but totally useless. In fact, you are counterproductively busy, pushing yourself deeper into more suffering.

When we are blissful and complete within ourselves, we would never see anything disturbing outside. That is what Kṛṣṇa says here: Be involved completely in the action yet be detached, independent and satisfied within. Then you can function spontaneously, flowing in tune with Existence. Life then becomes a celebration. Every single thing you do is an act of joy and an expression of the loving energy in you. Your joy is no longer dependent on what society says or thinks about you, because you are complete in yourself.

VARNASHRAMA DHARMA

MATERIALS NEEDED:

PROCEDURE

INFERENCE

VARNASHRAMA DHARMA

MATERIALS NEEDED:

PROCEDURE:

Ask each child to write down their own qualities on a paper. Ask the children to imagine that they have formed a country on a remote island. Now the children need to take on the responsibility of running the country. The country will need soldiers to be protected from enemies, it will need artisans and traders to sell consumer goods in the domestic market and to export to other countries, it will need farmers to grow food for feeding the nation, it will also need teachers and priests to run schools and temples to serve the people.

Ask the children to showcase how the caste system worked in ancient India by dividing themselves into groups based on their best qualities so that all responsibilities can be performed with the highest quality. Each varna/group shall give a presentation introducing their members and describing how their work is essential to the national well being.

VAAKYARTHA SADHAS