Hinduism 28

Transcript (Not Corrected)

Opening Prayer

ॐ सह नाववतु ।

सह नौ भुनक्तु ।

सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु ।

मा विद्विषावहै ।

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ।

हरिः ॐ ।

Transliteration (IAST):

Om Saha Nāvavatu

Saha Nau Bhunaktu

Saha Vīryaṃ Karavāvahai

Tejasvi Nāvadhītamastu

Mā Vidviṣāvahai

Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ

Hariḥ Om

Translation:

Om, may Brahman protect us both.

May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of knowledge.

May we both obtain the energy to acquire knowledge.

May what we both study reveal the truth.

May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other.

Om, peace, peace, peace be unto all.

The Law of Karma: Understanding Suffering and Divine Purpose

Opening Invocation

Oṁ saha nāv avatu saha nau bhunaktu saha vīryaṁ karavāvahai

Tejasvi nāv adhītam astu mā vidviṣāvahai

Oṁ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ

Hari Oṁ

May Brahman protect us both. May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of knowledge. May we both obtain the energy to acquire knowledge. May what we both study reveal the truth. May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other. Oṁ Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.

Introduction: The Question of Suffering

We are discussing one of the fundamental doctrines of Hinduism: the Law of Karma. Perhaps at no other time would this topic have been more relevant than now. As we all know, there was a disaster in Haiti. More than 200,000 people suddenly died. And naturally it raises questions—especially for those who have suffered so much and those who are there.

Why did this happen? Is it God's will? Is it just a freak accident, something unavoidable? Or is there something—really somebody who is controlling and directing? Did somebody purposefully, willfully, consciously plan this event to take place?

Even those who take the first view—that it is natural, it happens, has happened many times, and will happen in future—find that this doesn't bring any consolation. Especially if we happen to be in some way victims of this event. Of course, those who are dead do not have to question or find out. But for those who are alive, that is a question.

Religious Responses to Suffering

Different religions have sought to give some answers to these questions. Our question would be: Is there any satisfactory answer, any definitive satisfactory answer to this question? At least from Hinduism's point of view, we can at best have a guess for our consolation. But there is, really speaking, no definitive answer to this question.

Then what about faith in God? And what is our concept of God? And if what we think about God is right, then why does He allow these things? This is one way of questioning. Another way would be: Is there really some meaning behind these acts? Is there any meaning behind these acts?

The Problem of Scale

Another interesting viewpoint would be—I am just telling in a normal course of talk—why are we so much bothered about this incident? Supposing all these people had died individually in the normal course of life. Somebody died in bed. Somebody met a small accident. Somebody died because somebody killed him.

If this event—what is called death—had taken place individually so that it doesn't attract people's notice, then we would perhaps not bother to think about it so much. It is part of life. It happens. But because so many people died at the same time, this question naturally comes.

Two Categories of People

Those people who question or try to think about these sorts of events fall into two categories. One category is worldly people—those who do not believe in God. They have no way of bothering about this at all. Well, it happens somewhere. Somehow or other one has to die. It doesn't really bother worldly people.

By worldly people, I mean different sorts. One sort is those who do not believe in God—those who believe only in "let us live as long as we are allowed to live. Let us do our best. Don't try to answer these questions. It is not possible to find answers."

The Concept of God

The other type of people whom it really affects more than anybody else is, unfortunately, the believers in the existence of God. If there is a God, then He must be all-knowing. And if He is all-knowing, He must—not only all-knowing—He is also all-powerful. He is also all-compassionate. That is the definition of God, whether we think logically or not.

Four Conditions of God

Deep in our unconscious mind, each one of us has a concept of God. And God must qualify to become God by fulfilling four conditions—four conditions which we impose upon Him.

First condition: He should be everywhere. Because if He is in India—and that is what Indians think—there was a man in America who wanted to have a direct talk with God by telephone. He went to the highest prelate. "Do you have an arrangement to talk with God?" He said, "Yes, we have arrangement. We have a special telephone, red line is there. And it will cost 1 million dollars." He said, "I am a poor man, where can I get?"

So he went to Italy, met the Pope, asked the same question. And the Pope said, "Yes, and it will cost 10 million dollars"—which is even more horrible. Then he came to UK and met the Archbishop of Canterbury. And here he said it will cost 25,000 because maintenance cost is too high here. Labor charges are very high.

Then he went to India, met the President of the Ramakrishna Order. And he was told that there is a direct telephone line. "How much does it cost?" This man was already very afraid what would be the fare. The President of the Ramakrishna Order said, "It costs just 1 rupee." "What? To talk with God? Somebody said 1 million, somebody said 10 million, somebody said 20 million. Here only 1 rupee?" "My boy, don't you know? Here it is a local call."

If God is in India and I am here and I am in trouble and I call on God only when I am in trouble, what is the good of it? He will not know.

Second condition: He must be all-knowing. He must know what is my trouble. He must know what is the remedy for my trouble. He must know both the cause and the cure also.

Third condition: He must have the power to do it. Yes, there are many people who know but they are helpless because they don't have the power to do it. As you know, we know some people are poor. What is the remedy? Give them a good house, some money, bank balance, and they should be as normal as any one of us. So unless we have power, it is no good. So God must have unlimited power—omnipotence—so that He can answer each one of our problems.

Fourth condition: He must feel like doing it. He is everywhere, He knows everything, He has power, but He says, "I don't feel like helping you." How does it help me? So He must be all-compassionate. These are the four conditions which each one of us unconsciously cherishes in our belief about God.

The Problem of Haiti

So if this is true, then God is everywhere. He is in Haiti and He knew that this earthquake was going to happen. Why did He not warn people? Or even if He allowed it, why did He not allow the rescue party to come almost immediately? So many people died at the same time. What is the good of such a God?

As I mentioned many times, most people, if they are asked "Do you believe in God?" don't deny their belief in the existence of God. What they deny is the usefulness of God. "What is the use of it? Yes, God exists, I know God exists, but if He doesn't do anything, what good is that?" That is the attitude most of us cherish.

The Law of Karma as Answer

So this is a question we have to ask: Is there any satisfactory answer? There is no religion, nobody so wise that could give 100% convincing answer. But yet we have to deal with this question, come to some kind of consolation. We want consolation, we want some satisfaction to deal with these things.

So how does the law of karma—what does Hinduism say about it? It gives the answer: the Law of Karma.

Swami Vivekananda's Teaching

Once Swami Vivekananda was asked in USA about this question, and he said—as I mentioned in my last class also—when we look around us, we see so much variation, not only between human beings, even between animals. As I put it funnily, you know: dogs. Dogs also must have done—some dogs must have done good karma, some dogs must have done bad karma. If they have done bad karma, they will be adopted by you. And if they have done good karma, they will be adopted by the Queen of England, running after the dog with a plastic bucket and all those things.

So Swami Vivekananda said the Law of Karma is the most satisfactory, reasonable answer we can have. But if you are asked, "Is there any proof? Does anyone know?" Really, there are people—definitely, very few people—who know what they were in the past life. Most of us, we do not know. But this is the most satisfactory answer that we have: the Law of Karma.

The Relationship Between Cause and Effect

One fact is very provable. Even though we cannot prove about our past birth and we cannot say anything about our future birth, the association between cause and effect is absolute. The whole of science is dependent upon this immutable law of truth—the relationship between cause and effect. There is no doubt, none of us would deny that. That is the Law of Karma. If this is the cause, this would be the effect.

Where do we have a problem? The problem is when we cannot find out the cause, or when we cannot definitely say when the effect is going to come.

For example, if a baby is born absolutely mentally retarded or physically disabled, and in the same family there have been other children who are absolutely so-called normal, but one baby is mentally retarded or physically disabled, we cannot explain it—even though people use big words like "genes," etc.

Nor, if someone is living a good life—especially this is a big problem—why do so many of us turn or do not mind or nod approval to certain actions which are unethical, immoral? It is not because we would like the world to continue that way, but because we see something in front of our eyes and it makes us skeptics. What is that? Good people suffer often, and wicked people seem to be thriving, enjoying, being protected everywhere, anywhere. This is the thing. Then we seem to lose faith. "What is the use of doing good?" you see, because good people invariably suffer.

Goodness vs. Weakness

What people do not understand is that goodness and weakness are often confused together. Somebody asked me, "If Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa were to start a business, will he thrive? Will his business thrive or not?" What would be your answer? If Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was a saint—a saint like Saint Francis of Assisi, or Jesus Christ, or Rāmakṛṣṇa, Vivekānanda (I want to mention the name of Vivekānanda; I will come to that point shortly)—if Rāmakṛṣṇa were to start a business, will the business thrive or not?

Definitely it will thrive. You know why? Because he is sahasrākṣa—thousand eyes. He studies what went on in the past and he thinks what is going to happen in the future. If you follow his teachings, you will never suffer.

Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's Practical Wisdom

Just to give you an example: When you go to shop, when you want to buy a thing, go to the comparison site. He used to say, you know, finally go to different shops and compare the price. Then only—and then when you go—examine the object thoroughly about the weight and quality and everything. "God has not given you the eyes to be a fool. Mokta hole, bhoka hobi khena"—that was his favorite Bengali expression.

Second, he says, sometimes "buy two, get one extra"—phao, it is called in Bengali. Don't leave it. Even though it may be a small thing, be sure to get it.

And another: He instructed Holy Mother, "Whenever you enter into the boat"—or here, train or whatever, or in America, as I said, you know, Southwest, if you travel by Southwest because they don't assign you seats—"be the first person to enter, because you will get the best seat. But when you leave, you will be the last person." He didn't understand at that time the immigration problems and all those things. Probably he would have changed his view.

Anyway, what he used to say: "Be the last, because you will have time to gather all your things, and if somebody else has left behind something also, you will have an opportunity to gather that too." He is a very practical person.

Swami Vivekananda's Approach

But Vivekānanda is a completely different issue. The moment anybody goes, "Oh, you know, I haven't eaten for four days..." One tramp came up to a man and said, "Sir, I haven't eaten for three days. I am starving. Will you give me five dollars?" So the man took out five dollars from his pocket and said, "Good man, but don't gamble with my money." The man patted his other pocket and said, "No, no, sir, for gambling I have separate money."

Vivekānanda would be the first person: "Oh, you are starving! My God, I can't bear it. Here, take the money." He would believe anybody and everybody. That's why he had to suffer a lot in his life. But Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa would never suffer.

The idea is that good people, they don't suffer. Goodness is not the cause of suffering. It is weakness, it is stupidity, it is foolishness—that is the cause of suffering. If you are doing business, then business is business. You keep your goodness as a separate issue. Don't mix goodness and business. Then you will have problems.

The True Nature of Happiness

Wicked people—they seem to be thriving. No, they have objects, but the happiness which a good man gets from his goodness is incomparable. No wicked man would ever be able to get it.

To give a small example: If you are not trained in music, you can only enjoy street music, cinema music, film music. But if you are trained in classical music, don't you agree with me? The happiness of classical music and the happiness of film music—is it to be equated? Is it the same? It can never be the same.

Similarly, intellectually, you just read some newspapers or magazines—one type of pleasure you get. But you read classics or philosophy, literature or history, then you get a totally different kind of happiness. But it needs tremendous amount of training.

Unfortunately, we only see the superficialities and come to the conclusion that goodness is not advantageous. So even if we do not become wicked, for whatever reason, at least we tend to support, wink at, and say, "Okay, if you are intelligent and daring enough to do something good, then you do it." That's not a good idea at all.

The Importance of Śraddhā (Faith)

Whereas those who believe in God have firm faith in dharma, and they say, "Even though at this moment I do not see, but in the long run, yes, I am going to have that faith." Śraddhā is very important. And how do we know that this śraddhā is going to be justified?

We know because we see some people who do not have much in the way of material things but are brimming with joy. Example: say Rāmakṛṣṇa, Holy Mother. You compare yourself with any woman, any housewife, compare yourself with Holy Mother. We have a thousand times more things than what Holy Mother had. And yet we do not have one-millionth of that bliss, which is peace, which Holy Mother had.

The Gift of Holy Mother

Lots of devotees used to run to Holy Mother. Why do you think they are great? And in those days, they had to take a lot of trouble to reach especially Jayrambati. Why do you think people are rushing towards Jayrambati in the hope that they will be fed with platefuls of rasagullās and other things? No. They get something far superior.

You know what it is? There is someone who accepts us as we are—however, whatever we are: wicked, weak, stupid. Doesn't matter. In this society, the weaker, the less intelligent we are, people take terrible advantage. They ridicule us, they slander us, they kick us down and do every possible thing to proclaim their own superiority.

But you know, when a baby goes to the mother, for the mother the baby is all acceptable. No conditions are attached to that. Holy Mother was not an ordinary woman, not an ordinary mother.

The first thing is she used to accept everyone. The second is, not only she accepts, she makes us feel that we are holy, we are valuable, we are very significant by her very love. And incidentally, this is a point which we have to note: If we proclaim that we love somebody, loving is possible only when we respect somebody. Love and reverence are obverse and reverse of the same coin. You cannot devalue something, look down upon something and say "I love you." That is not possible. You can use, but you cannot love. Love is such a wonderful thing. And Holy Mother was an embodiment of love.

Natural and Man-Made Disasters

Anyway, coming back to our subject: These kinds of incidents, we have seen happen in Indonesia, not only that—this is what is called natural disaster. What about man-made disaster that has never disappeared from the face of the earth?

In the last century, as somebody mentioned just now, 100 million people have been slaughtered, butchered in the two world wars and many other wars. Even now, that slaughtering is going on in various forms—intellectually, psychologically. So much evil is going on. So-called evil, man-made evil is going on. Global warming is only one of the expressions of man-made disasters.

Understanding the Law of Karma

Anyway, so the Law of Karma—certain parts we just, as I mentioned, we have to be very clear about. The Law of Karma means every action yields its own reaction. The corollary is that what we are now is the resultant of what we had done in the past. And what we do now paves the way to our future happiness.

Religion is a scientific way of planning for avoiding suffering and attaining happiness.

Is Suffering Really Evil?

In this connection, one more point is to be clarified, and that point is: Is suffering really evil? We have to distinguish between what is called good and what is called evil. Can you call any suffering as good? Does anyone of you agree, saying that suffering is good?

We all know by experience, we all court certain types of suffering for the sake of future happiness. Don't we? A mother giving birth to a child—we think, is it a very joyous event when it happens? It is an event of great suffering. And yet the mother doesn't mind. She welcomes it because the future is really very good. She is going to be called a mother. She is going to get fulfilled.

A student who works so hard—what we call burning midnight oil. This student voluntarily pays. Many saints—how much austerities they voluntarily undertake. They fast, they take bath in the cold freezing waters, they walk for many miles even though they can take other instruments to move from place to place. So many varieties of austerities voluntarily. Do you think they really suffer? In fact, the more they do, the more they seem to be enjoying it.

Suffering and Evolution

This is one side of this understanding: Whether suffering is really evil? No. According to Hindu view, suffering is always good. How is it good? Because if we don't suffer, we won't evolve. Simple.

Even the physical, biological evolution—as somebody has said, the cockroach never suffered. So cockroaches have got their value. Millions of years they have been surviving, but it remained a cockroach. Whereas other creatures who suffered and were destroyed, but mutated into higher and higher species until reached this most beautiful human—biologically human state—which is the peak of biological evolution.

And among the human beings we see that anybody who had become great has never become great sitting in an easy sofa—whether it is an artist, a musician, a writer, a statesman, or anybody great. Greatness is the direct result of a lot of what we call hard work—suffering, in other words.

The Symbol of Lakṣmī

While other people are sleeping, they keep awake, you know. The vehicle for Lakṣmī—what is it? Owl. What does the owl do? Whole night it keeps awake. That is why, you know, the fellow who burns midnight oil keeps awake thinking which stock is going up, which stock is going down while others are sleeping. It is a likelihood that he will attain Lakṣmī, wealth.

So these are some things we can see in front of our eyes. A student working hard, a businessman working very hard, some other people doing austerities, gaining some greatness. But what we cannot see is what happens after death. Because some people, though good, working very hard, go on suffering in this life. But how do we know that suffering is not good? So we have to understand the causes of suffering, which is intimately connected with the Law of Karma, and we have to be convinced about it.

Three Causes of Suffering

First Cause: Existential Suffering

There are three causes of suffering. The first cause of suffering is existential suffering—by the very fact of existence. Say human body, any body. The moment it is born, it becomes old.

Interesting question, you know: When does old age start? Ask somebody, when does old age start? Your answer would be 60, 65, 70. Some people don't accept it. But the moment we are born, how old is the baby? What do you ask? "How young is the baby?" "How old is the baby?" Old age is not desired. Disease is not desired. Death is much less desired—unless it is, say, at the 100th year, intolerable suffering a person undergoes.

But existence means change. Change means suffering. So these are called existential suffering, and that cannot be avoided.

Second Cause: Past Karma

Second type of cause of suffering which can be avoided: Existential suffering cannot be avoided. No Law of Karma will nullify it. There is no magical karma which will stop old age or disease or death. But as long as we are living within the given existential conditions, we can be the happiest people on earth. That is the Hindu's belief in the Law of Karma. You do meritorious actions, and even when other people are suffering—even amidst those conditions—you can survive.

But perhaps I should not draw parallel to this. But the example is: Today it seems—today I respect the Haiti government—they declared that they are closing down the search and rescue operations. A few hours after that announcement, even 11 days after this disaster taking place, a 22-year-old man had been pulled out. Nothing happened to him.

Anyway, for me, I don't know, just going through, it made me laugh. How did you survive? He said, "I fell in a place where there was beer and other things, and biscuits were there." So he was—you know, how fortunate he was. What good karma he has done. Even under—he fell in a place where plenty of beer was available. I think if some of us would volunteer, we would like to go back to that condition if they could get it.

Even amidst these existing conditions, there are people—nothing happened. Very minor things they have to undergo, these trials. But how do you account for that? You can simply say it is an accident, it just happened, there is no need to seek anything. But the Law of Karma doesn't allow us. If we believe in the Law of Karma, if this is the effect, there must be some good karma must have been done by these people.

And we see it all around us. We see it not only among householders, among animals, we see it among monks also. How do you explain these things? What is the reason? What is the cause? I can only say, I am a believer in the Law of Karma. The people, those who are enjoying, they must have done good karma. There is a definite cause, and that cause is only dharma or puṇya, what we call in Sanskrit language.

Second cause of suffering or enjoyment—what is it? The Law of our own past karma. Law of Karma. That can be changed. Existential karma cannot be changed. But what we do deliberately—we can change it. If we deliberately, focusedly, if we do these good actions, then sooner or later we are going to get the results of it.

The Nature of True Goodness

Not only sooner or later, but there is a psychological fact we must always recognize. Even if a good person—very often when we use the word "good person," we really mean "goody-goody fellow." Means he is not doing any harm. He is not doing any good. He is not doing any harm. That's not the definition of goodness.

A good person means active. He sacrifices his time, his possessions, his energy to do some good to others without expecting much of return immediately. Puṇya karma. So this is the second cause of what we call our fortunes or misfortunes.

Third Cause: God's Grace

The third cause of suffering is very peculiar, strange: God's grace. So in one of our scriptures, Bhāgavatam, it is said: When God is pleased with His devotee, the first thing He does is to destroy all his possessions or attachments—because possessions produce attachment. Therefore, the thing is: you remove these attachments. Otherwise, we have to struggle to get rid of the attachments. It's very difficult. But if God Himself removes it, many times it happens that God creates special circumstances where we are forced to develop detachment sooner or later.

Maybe the whole family is destroyed. Maybe possessions are taken away. Maybe some people are tormenting, persecuting, etc., etc. Why does God create? You will see—you read the biographies of any saint or any sage. You will see invariably: You think, why is God creating so much trouble in this devotee's life? Even though the devotee is very sincerely trying to lead a devotee's life, a good, pure, pious life. We often wonder.

The answer is that the past karma is being whittled away. God is taking him on a fast track. It is like pulling a person up the hill by catching hold of the hair of that person. It is not a pleasant experience. But it is the fastest way to go.

You read anybody's life: Ṭhākur, Mother, Swāmījī, Jesus Christ. He was crucified. And Rāma, Kṛṣṇa—everyone of them, even incarnations, had to undergo a lot of suffering. Of course, in their case, they themselves have programmed. They were the script writers. In our case also, we are the script writers, because we write our own script through our karmas.

The Purpose of Karma

These are some of the points we discussed in my last class. Now, in this class, the main question would be twofold. First of all: Is there any remedy? Is there any way to counter this Law of Karma? But before we ask that question, we have to ask another important question. The important question is: Why is there karma at all? What is the purpose of karma, action? What is the goal? Is there any goal? Are we just machines—just somebody gives, what do you call, screws wrong and then leaves us to move like toys? Or is there any purpose?

The Hindu Answer

From Hinduism's viewpoint, there is a crystal-clear answer. It is this: Hinduism tells us that each one of us is divine, potentially divine. We are divine, but we have become potentially divine. We are divine, but we do not know we are divine. That not-knowing we are divine is called potential divinity.

So how that came—there is no answer. How this infinity, how this perfect, how this Brahman had become reduced to this state of bondage, forgetting his real nature, thinks he is the soul, thinks it is limited, it is imperfect, it is ignorant, it is unhappy, it is mortal—why does it think? We don't know the answer.

But with regard to this Law of Karma, what it says is: Karma has only one goal. What is that goal? It takes us slowly, step by step, towards our destination, which is to know who we really are. Ātmajñāna, self-knowledge, or God-realization, or as Swami Vivekananda put it, gradually unfolding our potential divinity, manifesting our divinity.

How Karma Leads to Realization

How do we manifest our divinity? Only through karma. How does karma help us to manifest our divinity? Karma—what is the root cause of karma? Desire. Why does desire come? Because of imperfection. We think we do not have certain things. We think we are imperfect. If we get certain things, we become more perfect. We think we are not happy. If we get certain things, we become happier people. We escape suffering, so-called suffering, etc. To become more and more perfect, to manifest more of this potential divinity—that is the purpose of karma.

But as somebody has put it so beautifully: What is the purpose of karma? To get rid of karma. The purpose of karma is to get rid of karma. That is called naiṣkarmya, the state of complete non-action.

And when is that state reached? Only when we become perfect. Only when we realize our true nature. Then we realize we are perfect. We don't need anything. Therefore we have no desires. Because there are no desires, there is absolutely no need to work.

The Chain of Ignorance

Have you noticed it? The relationship between desire and action. Why does desire come? Because of ignorance. What is the ignorance? The ignorance that we are perfect. We do not know that. We think we are not perfect. We think we are humans. We think we have a body. So we think we have to maintain it. So this ignorance leads to desire. Desire leads to action.

And depending upon what type of action we do, it branches into two folds: Good action and bad action. Good action results in what we call puṇya or dharma. Bad action, evil action results in pāpa or adharma. And this produces again results. Again further karma. Again further karma follows. So this endless—like Sisyphus rolling the stone in Greek mythology, if you remember—going on rolling the stone over and over and over again. Brahmacakra, saṁsāracakra.

The Solution: Karma Yoga

So religion comes to our rescue and says there is a way out of this karma. What is that way out of karma? Get rid of desires. So the purpose of karma is gradually to get rid of our desires. When do we get rid of our desires? When we get rid of our ignorance. And when do we—or how do we get rid of ignorance? Through a certain type of action. That is called karma yoga.

The Parable of the Thorn

What is karma yoga? Cut the very bonds of karma through karma. It is like homeopathic medicine. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa had put it, illustrated it in a beautiful way. If one thorn enters into your foot, what do you do? Deliberately bring another thorn and remove the thorn which is already stuck in your foot. And then what do you do? Throw away both of them.

Mind you, these words are very precise—like Brahmasūtras. Sūtra, you know, there is a sūtra literature. Sūtra means thread. Brahmasūtras, Patañjali Yogasūtras, Nārada Bhaktisūtra. Sūtra means aphorism. What is an aphorism? Alpākṣaram—very few words. But so much meaning is compressed in it.

So taking Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's words in this instance, in this context, he said, "You take another thorn." So already one thorn had entered into your foot. You will see a bush there. So what do you do? You put your foot on that bush. Does that solve your problem? Why only one thorn? You get hundred thorns. You are increasing the problem.

What did he say? "Take another thorn"—means intelligently you take it into your hand. The first one entered into your foot unconsciously. Consciously you take, not only you take a thorn, you take a better thorn. You take a stronger thorn. And with that, what do you do? Simply you don't stick it into your foot. What do you do? You endeavor to slowly remove the thorn which is already stuck in the foot. That is called karma yoga.

The Definition of Karma Yoga

What is karma yoga? Consciously, deliberately, with full intention, doing karma or action in a particular way so that the thorn called karma can be removed. Karma yoga is nothing but another thorn, another karma. But karma done in such a way—that's why: Yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam. Dexterity in action is called yoga. In a yogic way—that is why it is called karma yoga. You do it in such a way that karma falls away.

How do we know that we are progressing in karma yoga? You see, supposing ten thorns have entered into your foot. Then you remember Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's teachings. Then you get one bigger thorn and you strive. How do you know that you are really striving to get rid of all the thorns? What is the test? What is the measurement? How do you measure? The more thorns you can remove from your foot, the more you are progressing towards your goal. Is it not?

So how do we know we are doing karma yoga? What is the root cause of karma? Desires. The more karma yoga we do, the less would be our desires.

Living Without Attachment

But life cannot go on without action. Life means action. But what type of action? There is a way of action. You can do everything, but you won't be caught. That is called karma yoga. It is the skill. What is the skill? You will not be attached.

If somebody appraises you, you won't become a balloon. And if somebody pricks you, again you won't be a balloon. We are all balloons, you know, constantly inflating, deflating, inflating, deflating. This is going on every day of our life. If somebody smiles at me, I am happy. Somebody doesn't smile at me—some people are peculiar. When they smile at them, they feel offended. And when they don't smile also, they feel offended. What will you do? Human nature is terrible.

We are constantly dancing, this monkey dance of going up and going down, etc. Karma yoga brings that steadiness, that samyatā. That's right. One more definition of karma yoga. Yoga in Bhagavad Gītā is: Samatvaṁ yoga ucyate. Samatva means what? Equilibrium.

Finding Inner Peace

Why? Because we are established in that state where we get tremendous peace, bliss from inside us. Why are we so much dependent upon ourselves? You see, this is an interesting analysis. Suppose somebody smiles at you and you are very happy. Why are you so happy when somebody smiles at you? Definitely you are getting something. That means you don't have something. "Oh, nobody looks at me and nobody smiles at me." And like that you go on thinking. And somebody smiles. "I got what I was expecting." It means you are expecting something.

And if somebody criticizes, you go down. Why should somebody not criticize you? If you are criticized by somebody, you are the luckiest person on earth. Do you know why? One of our great saints tells us: Usually it is very difficult to please people. If you want to please people, you have to expend your time, your energy, your money, etc. Here without doing anything, you are pleasing somebody, because your critics are very happy by criticizing you. You are making other person so happy by just being a target of their criticism. How fortunate you are. You are not spending your time, money, or energy. And they may be doing a lot of good to you. Who knows? They may be pointing out your defects.

The Necessity of Action in the World

In this connection, it is also very important for us to know why karma has to be done. Usually naiṣkarmya or non-action usually means: Sit quiet. Don't do anything. "Why bother about all these things? If I go out, somebody will smile, somebody will criticize. If I sit in my home locked up or go to Himalayas, then nobody is there to praise or criticize." We become very dull because how do we know? How do we react? How we are going to react is tested only when we are in the company of people, we are in the world.

Then how do people react? Because there will be some people who criticize you. Most of the people will be criticizing you. Two ways of criticizing: Outside they will be praising you, inside they will be damning you. Most of the people belong to that category. There are some people who are open-hearted. They simply criticize. At least you know them. These people don't like me and they criticize me. The other fellows are very difficult. These people who praise you outside and criticize you inside—they are called friends.

Developing Strength of Mind

So unless we are in the field of action, we do not know how we are going to react. Swami Yqtheeshwarananda Mahārāj was a great teacher. Sometimes devotees used to go to him and ask him, "Mahārāj, how to control mind?" In Bengali language, you know, mind—the equivalent word for mind is mon. Mon means mind. But it has another meaning. Mon means 40 seers. So he used to make a pun. "Have you got really 40 seers or only one chatak, one gram? First develop what is called 40 seers, then come to me. If you are having bullock cart..." So he used to tell, "Do you have that strength of mind first to develop?"

So in this connection, he used to tell: First, develop a healthy ego. Wherever you turn to spiritual direction, the first thing they say is, "You crush your ego." Yes. Where is your ego to be crushed? The ego must be crushed, no doubt. But do you have any ego? Develop a strong, healthy ego. Of course, even unhealthy ego is also good because at least there is some kind of ego there. Here it is goody-goody fellows—nothing is there.

So how do we know that we have got this ego? Come into the midst of people and start working. Some people will praise you. Some people will criticize you. Some people will come near to you. Some people will hate you. When we go through these experiences, then we understand what life is, what world is. Slowly we develop.

The Path to Equanimity

If we want happiness, peace, the only way is not running away from the world, but to develop that strength of mind where I will remain equanimous. That is why samatva has been so many times mentioned in the Bhagavad Gītā, in the whole Gītā: in honor and dishonor, in defeat and in victory, in success and in failure, in profit and in loss, in victory and in defeat. Keep your mind calm.

If you are not doing anything, you won't get any of these things. If you don't get any of these things, you remain at the bottom of evolution. That's why karma is the only way to get rid of the effects of karma.

When we do action, if we keep the mind a little bit open and intelligently watch ourselves, we see how we are reacting towards each other, how many vagaries this mind undergoes, how much drama this mind creates.

I see our devotees, you know, this is something small—one word even told in an unmeaningful way, they take offense. A 20 years, 30 years devotee—somebody told a simple word, that too not because they wanted to tell, it's a way of saying—immediately they become offended. What type of devotion is that? Devotion means you have to do what you have to do. Even if somebody tells something, why don't you take it in a good way?

You see, most of us are very, very sensitive, touchy. And the only way to become non\un touchy is to develop detachment. Detachment means not indifference. Detachment means you will have full rubbing, and yet you will not be attached. This word "detachment" is one of the best ways.

The Ultimate Goal

So the purpose of karma is to manifest or unfold our potential divinity gradually. That's the first meaning. Ultimately we reach a state where there would be no more karma, there would be no more desire. There would be no desire because we have permanently attained all that we have to attain.

There is also a funny side to this. Supposing you are hungry and you don't have food. What would be your anxiety about? How to obtain food. Suppose you obtain food. Would you be free from worry? No, because temporarily, yes, I have food. Now I have food. What is going to happen at night? What is going to happen tomorrow, day after tomorrow? We all plan. That worry is there.

But when a person attains to that state of perfection, eternally there is no more any desire because he has attained such a state—it is called the immutable state. The whole of evolution is called mutable, mutation. But that state of perfection is called the immutable state.

The purpose of karma is to gradually take us, step by step, from the state of mutability to the state of that ultimate immutable transcendental state. Then there will be no more desires, then there will be no action needed.

The State of the Liberated Soul

So if such a person is alive, will he not do any action? Jīvanmukta, liberated soul—will he not do any action? The scriptures give the answer: No, they don't do any action. Then what do they do? From our point of view, we see Rāmakṛṣṇa talking. From Rāmakṛṣṇa's point of view, who is talking? Was Rāmakṛṣṇa talking? Did he ever say, "I am talking"? What did he say? "The Mother is talking through this. I don't know anything. I only eat and drink. I am happy. I don't know what to talk. I don't know how to talk. I don't know how much to talk. I don't know where to stop. My Mother knows everything."

That is the goal of karma.

Conclusion: Suffering as Evolution

And suffering, as we mentioned in this talk, is not meant to make us—it's not a punishment. It is what we call a necessary stage in the evolution. All of us have to suffer. Without suffering, we will never evolve. Take it from—whether you like it or not, believe it or not, accept it or not—suffering is inevitable.

But is there any way of countering this suffering? Yes, there is a way. We will discuss in our next class.

Closing Prayer

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः

Om Śānti, Śānti, Śāntih.

Om, peace, peace, peace be unto all.