Live Consciously, Escape Karma 1
This text was machine-transcribed from the printed book and may contain errors. Select the words and choose “Report a mistake”.
The problem is, most of the decisions that we make every moment, we make unconsciously. We take thousands of decisions unconsciously in a day. Whether it is thinking or talking or doing, it is done unconsciously without awareness.
That is the reason we are not able to connect the cause and the effect of many of the things that happen in our lives. We always think we have been dished out unfair results. We are blissfully unaware that it was we who caused the effects. We made it happen by way of unconscious living and ended up incurring more karma.
Flood more awareness and intelligence into your thinking system. Flood more consciousness into your decision making system. Whether you believe it or not, directly or indirectly you are choosing everything in your life. Noone else chooses for you in your life. It is you who makes the choice. Continuously, it is only your choice, your decision. You may think that somebody else decides your life. No! It is only you who is deciding all the time.
A small example can make you understand this basic truth.
If somebody criticizes you, you choose to get offended. If somebody praises, you choose to get flattered. Because of your habit, you choose this response unconsciously. Does someone else choose this for you? No! It is purely your choice. Because it has become a habit, you have forgotten that you are choosing. Every time someone criticizes you, you choose to get upset. Every time someone praises you, you choose to get flattered. Understand, you can decide to respond differently. For example, when someone criticizes you, you can choose not to get offended. You can choose to remain calm, relaxed and collected. It is your choice to feel offended. When you try to defend yourself, you make a mess of it.
As long as you do not understand that life is your choice, your living is like a kind of paralysis. Free flow never happens. Free flow will happen only if you understand that everything in life is your choice.
People ask me, 'Swamiji, how do we take birth? Who is it who decides about our birth and life?' I tell you, it is you who decides even about your birth and next life. It is you who decides even your body for the next life!
Bearing these concepts in mind, if you think, talk and act with complete awareness, then you will do only what minimum is required to be done in order to exhaust whatever karma already exists for you in this birth. You will not create new karma. When we talk about karma, people think that in order not to accumulate new karma, they should fall into inaction. No! Spirituality is all about karma phala tyaaga – letting go of the results of action, not karma tyaaga – letting go of action itself.
The results of the actions should be surrendered, not the action itself. This has to be clearly understood. You should be able to fall fully into action and yet not incur any further karma. That is what is called spirituality. You should be able to live fully in the material world without being touched by it, with just inner fulfillment every moment.