gramo

The universal law of karma, may seem simple when applied to physical happenings; but it becomes exceedingly complex when we try to follow the intricate meshing of karmic strands of even one person, let alone that of the billions of our fellow humans, each with ages of past experience. "Judge not that ye be not judged" – The question, what good does it do to punish a person in this life when he doesn't know what he has done wrong in a former one, is a puzzler. It might seem simpler if we did, for if we knew where we had gone astray we wouldn't object so strenuously to meeting the consequences. Also, we could see where to make amends. The belief that justice is at the root of life is a very old one, but by degrees it has been lost sight of by those who did not find it convenient. When we see criminals are prospering, we doubt our belief in karma. In old age, everybody suffers due various physical malfunctioning. Is it also the result of karma ? Every Government gives different punishment to the criminals as they found suitable for their people, religion, country, time etc.. For instance, in India you will find different laws for different state, religion, etc. The judges are giving verdict (based on past verdicts) where they can not measure the sins accurately. Is karma considers the punishment which is already given by the governments ? Under various circumstances, you can not consider the Judge’s verdict as final because he is also human and can make mistakes in judging the crime. From the emotional and physical angle, the same punishment for different persons may not be same due to their different mental and physical abilities. Secondly, if a person do several wrong actions, he will not be able to identify the reaction of his every wrong action. So how he will improvise himself unless he gets immediate reaction for his wrong action. He may not realize whether it is a wrong action. There are many confusions. For instance, if a crowd throws a stone at a single person, he will die but the sin of every individuals from the crowd is just throwing a stone for which they will get the similar reaction of throwing a stone in return. Sometimes, the virtuous samskars accumulated on account of our past karmas also produce unhappy events. Virtuous karmas also act as shields to ward off sinful temptations. The former do not permit the sinful tendencies to dominate and offer stiff resistance. Many a times commitment of sin is foiled by some unforeseen obstacle. If a thief break his leg while going for theft, it should be taken as a consequence of his past virtuous karmas. There are fleeting moments of wisdom in life when man thinks that life is extremely valuable and must be used for achieving some lofty objective, but soon thereafter attractions of the world drag him back to the erstwhile lowly routine of animal-like existence. Through sufferings, God exerts a strong pull to extricate the devotee from the self-created quagmire of ignorance. Mishaps wake us up from our slumber in ignorance and darkness. Those who work hard for moral or social upliftment of the society and meticulously follow their course of duty, face stupendous problems, hardships and lack of resources. They also have to face antagonism of people who find such activities detrimental to their vested interests. Besides, they are tormented by unscrupulous in many ways. Persons treading the royal highway of righteousness have to face hardships at each step. Innocent persons may be found suffering because of unfair ideologies or oppression by others. Any one may become a victim of exploitation, suppression and injustice. The exploiter has to face the consequences for his karmas in due course of time, but the sufferer should not take such trials as outcome of his prarabdha.

The notion that all actions have consequences has been so well accepted in the West that teachings about karma are often readily embraced. The fact that all results are related to prior causes seems obvious and self-evident — that is, until we realize that many consequences don't come to fruition immediately and that major life-events may be rooted in actions either in past lives or so long ago in this life that we no longer remember them. "How can we learn this way?" we might ask. "It seems so unfair." Wouldn't it be more efficient if all effects were immediate? After all, in training a dog, if you wait days to reward or punish it for its behavior, it will never connect those effects to its earlier actions. Wouldn't we learn faster if we met the natural consequences of our behavior immediately? The observation is sound that when effects are too long in coming, we lose the thread of their connections as well as their relationships to what produced them. But as we look deeper at what it means to really "learn" something, we see that coming to understand something fully demands levels of attention we rarely give to our situations. In considering whether or not karmic operations are fair or efficient, it can be helpful to look at the question from different perspectives. Certainly, when we train animals or small children who can't yet reason, we need to make clear the relationship between an action and its result. Until they get it, we keep them on a very short leash; the more they understand the correlation between causes and effects, the longer a leash we give them. With our children, we're not only helping develop good impulse control, but sowing seeds for later decision making. In the beginning we are doing the thinking for them, but as growing human beings we are supposed to be developing our mental and intuitive functions. That is, we don't want to act like trained seals who respond the same way all the time; we're learning how to discriminate, think for ourselves, make choices and judgments — and a very good way to learn is to make mistakes and adjust our behavior. It's true that sometimes we are ignorant of wrongdoing, but much of the time we are warned or reprimanded immediately (think of teachers and parents disciplining and punishing their kids) and we still don't always change our behavior. One has to be ready to change. Consider all the ills of cigarette smoking — breathes there a smoker who can't list the dangers? Again, sometimes we make mental changes quickly but it takes time to adjust emotionally, as when we suddenly discover a few facts which contradict a lie we had long believed. Meanwhile, our body has the habit of reacting against something which we now know to be untrue. Stomach tightening, blood pressure rising, adrenaline dispersing, all for an ancient position we no longer even hold. We're not always very efficient at adapting to the paradoxes and confusions life brings our way; perhaps this is a key to why it seems to us that karma doesn't itself act very efficiently. We might also consider that forgetting our past behavior is sometimes a blessing. By not remembering all the details of our past lives, we are protected from being overwhelmed by old regrets, grudges, and prejudices as well as from memories of past successes and failures. We need not hide from old enemies or past creditors, nor get confused by the tremendous changes and increase of information as the culture evolves. Memories of a more primitive past life might be quite shocking to our present sensibilities. Imagine how much therapy we'd all need! If we maintained memories of everything from this life as well as all our past lives, we'd have a huge and chaotic amount of information to manage, with loyalties being pulled between multiple families. We are able to focus on today and what is important now without being flooded by unhappy memories (not to mention untold tragedies) or paralyzed by feelings of guilt or dread of karma-to-come from old mistakes. Besides, it gives us a better chance to make friends of former foes. Another point: as in secular law, ignorance of universal principles is not a valid excuse for breaking universal laws. We may as well accept that, on various levels, delayed consequences are an integral part of how our life works. For example, if children aren't taught dental hygiene, rotten teeth will result — but not immediately. Sure we would more quickly learn to brush our teeth after every meal if our mouths hurt until we brushed, but this doesn't happen; tooth or gum pain doesn't occur till months or years later. Is this delayed effect a symptom of an inefficient universe? Consider too that while thoughts have force and the impact of our hurtful or helpful thoughts is certain, mental power doesn't instantly play out in the physical realm. Its results unfold variously and indirectly. In the same way, most crimes aren't discovered in the act of commission, so time is needed for the perpetrator to be brought to justice. A final thought has to do with how illusory our concept of time is: maybe the effects are actually immediate but we only perceive them happening later . . . is this too bizarre? It sees all things as in the present? Maybe our spiritual soul does know immediately, or gets the reverberation of all the effects immediately, and perhaps our task is to learn to listen better. Leaving aside the mentally ill, most adults know when they are doing something wrong. Down deep inside we know. And when we act against our own knowing, it takes some complicated dancing to harmonize all the hurtful rhythms we've put in motion. These may seem to us to take lifetimes to play out, but maybe that's just part of our personal illusion. Perhaps when we become more efficient at living our lives as awakened, integrated, and kindly beings, karma will seem less unfair and inefficient to us. And more immediate.

This shows that Abhimanyu was killed ruthlessly by Kauravas including Karna without honouring war rules. So any such killing from Pandava’s side was justifiable under these circumstances. It was friendship with Duryodhan that costed Karna to loose the last shakti weapon without which it was impossible to win the battle. On the other hand, it could have been war strategy by Pandavas to sacrifice Ghatotkach and win the war. Karna was a great warrior but his past karmas played important role in determining his fate. Archery was linked with shakti powers and weapons. Warriors with these destructiive astras/weapons were invicible unless they make mistake. One can not be master of everything, either most generous man or the best warrior. On the one hand, Karna sacrificed his weapons for the sake of his generousity and still supported adharma. It was a mistake. On the other hand, Arjuna did not use his most powerful weapons to destroy Karna. With so many powerful weapons in hand, the only winner was the best warrior, otherwise both the archer should have been trapped in similar situations. Why only Karna ?

No action can produce a retributive effect unless it is done with the consciousness of personal doership and responsibility. Man shall be punished by retributive justice, for man has the freedom to act and he is responsible for what he does. But animals have not been endowed with such a freedom and power of understanding and reason; so what they do is just the expression of the instinctive natural promptings in them and this is included in the scheme of the universal nature. Still they are subject to the laws of nature. Nature is beyond moral laws. Moral conduct is only for man, meant to restrict his behaviour and lead him on to universal consciousness through gradual ascent along the evolutionary ladder. Cutting vegetables is not Himsa. There is no real consciousness in plants and trees, although there is life in them. There is life in plants, sensation in animals, mentality in human beings and spirituality in sages. There is no Visesha Ahankara (ego) and reflection of Chaitanya ( pure consciousness) in plants and trees. Hence they cannot experience pain. The tree will not say, "I am experiencing pain". The mind in plants and trees is not developed. It is quite rudimentary. It is Jada (inert) and insentient. Life on earth will be impossible if we take cutting vegetables also as Himsa. This is only splitting the hairs.

Karna and Bishma were supportign Adharma on different levels. Bhishma was forced to support adharma eventhough he was not willing and tried to stop kauravas. Both were invincible due to their boons and not only because of their archery skill. How can anybody compare archery skill under the shield of boons ? This is about Karna's and Arjuna's archery. Pls do not mix-up with Sri Rama's victory. If the intention was to reach Heaven, then what is the need of war ? The conclusion of war of dharma should not be just the victory.

Woman is in no way inferior to man. The home is a cooperative organization. It flourishes on the principle of division of labour. If a man earns and the wife stays at home, it does not mean that the woman is a parasite and a slave. She is indeed the builder of the nation. To make noble citizens by training their children and to form the character of the whole human race is undoubtedly a power far greater than that which women could hope to exercise as voters or law-makers, as presidents, ministers or judges. The idea that men and women are equals is purely a Western concept. The Indian or Hindu concept is that man and woman, Purusha and Sakti, are one and indivisible. Sita did not think herself as a separate entity. She was in and of Rama. The Indian woman always identifies herself completely with her husband in all domestic, religious and social life. She is the queen of the house. She illumines the home through the glory of motherhood. It is in the motherhood of woman that all her prerogative, glory, competency and jurisdiction are specially vested. The West has seen women playing the man in every walk of life. But has this contributed more to human happiness and to the real prosperity and peace of the country? Surely it has brought more divorce courts, more unhappiness, more restlessness. This has only thickened the women’s veil of ignorance and augmented their Rajasic element. Even in the West, there are many persons who are not in favour of women claiming equality with men. Even those who were in favour of this movement are now seriously repenting for their wrong advocacy, because they are actually witnessing before their eyes its pernicious effects. Loose life is not perfect freedom. Promiscuous mixing is not freedom. Some women of India have ruined themselves by taking advantage of this false freedom. The ideal of the woman in the West should not be our ideal, for then we shall not only be denaturalized, but also denationalized. One nation cannot adopt the ideal and the social customs of another without undermining one’s own rock-bottom base. Women should become good mothers only. This is the function they will have to perform in the grand plan of God. This is what is meant in the divine plan. This is the will of God. Women have their own psychological traits, temperament, capacities, virtues, instincts and impulses. They have their own disadvantages in society. They cannot, and should not, compete with men.

Cutting vegetables is not Himsa. There is no real consciousness in plants and trees, although there is life in them. There is life in plants, sensation in animals, mentality in human beings and spirituality in sages. There is no Visesha Ahankara and reflection of Chaitanya in plants and trees. Hence they cannot experience pain. The tree will not say, "I am experiencing pain". The mind in plants and trees is not developed. It is quite rudimentary. It is Jada and insentient. Life on earth will be impossible if we take cutting vegetables also as Himsa. This is only splitting the hairs. This is the idle philosophy of those who take interest in vain discussions and arguments.

Work elevates, when done in the right spirit. Feel, as you do your daily duties, that you are only a witness of all that goes on around you, of even your own actions. This is called Sakshi Bhav. You should inwardly realize that you are different from the active principle in you. This is the method of Vedanta. There is the other— easier, but equally potent¾ method of Nimitta Bhav. Feel that the Lord alone is the real doer of all actions and that you are an instrument in His hands. Your actions will be transformed into worship of the Lord, and you will not be bound to them. Work without expectation of any reward and without egoism. Root out the idea of agency; feel, "I am not the doer". You will be freed from the shackles of Karma. You will not accumulate new Karma. Allow your Prarabdha Karma to work out; and you will attain liberation.

Miracles are based on the principle of the concentration of the mind. The mind has immense powers. It derives its power from the Atman or the Supreme Soul. The mind is a collection of thoughts. The mind’s energy is dissipated by worry, evil thoughts, cares, anxieties and lack of Brahmacharya. If you can control the immense amount of power which the mind possesses, through concentration and sublime thoughts, you will acquire Siddhis or the power to do supernatural actions. The eight major Siddhis are greatest miracles performed by the Raja Yogins. There are various minor Siddhis also. Siddhis come during the practice of concentration. They are by-products of concentration. You will have to shun them ruthlessly. If you fall a victim to these Siddhis, you cannot reach the goal. The Siddhis performed by Raja Yogins are true. They cannot change the molecules of an object. They can draw their supply from the cosmic source, ether and create any kind of object through their Yogic power. A Jnani performs miracles through the power of Satsankalpa (pure willing). A Raja Yogi does miracles through Samyama (Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi combined). By doing Samyama on the sun, the Yogi gets the knowledge of the fourteen worlds. By doing Samyama on the moon, he gets the knowledge of the regions of stars. By doing Samyama on the Pole Star, comes the knowledge of the movements of the stars. By doing Samyama on the strength of elephants and others, he gets strength equal to those beings. By doing Samyama on the form of the body and checking the power of comprehension, he is able to make the body disappear or dematerialise. By doing Samyama on the appearance, etc., of others, the Yogi gets a knowledge of their mind. By doing Samyama on the Moment, he gets discrimination. By doing Samyama on the relation of the ear and ether, the Yogi gets the powers of clairaudience. By practising Samyama on the relation between ether and the body, the Yogi attains extreme lightness of the body and the ability to travel through space. By Samyama on the three modifications of the mind, comes the knowledge of the past and future. Samyama on Samskaras gives him knowledge of births. Samyama on the senses gives mastery over them. By practising Samyama on the distinctive relation between Sattva and Purusha, he gets the powers of omnipotence and omniscience. Samyama on the inner light gives him the knowledge of the subtle, the obscured and the remote. Samyama on one’s own Self gives the Yogi clairaudience, higher touch, clairvoyance, higher taste and higher smell through intuition. By intuition he gets all knowledge. Real Yogins perform miracles to convince their disciples of the existence of transcendental things and God. They will not perform miracles on the platform. All miracles are performed through the power of the Yogi’s Satsankalpa. He is one with the Cosmic Will which creates, sustains and dissolves this universe, just as the single Sankalpa of the Supreme Being...“I am One, may I become many”...at once materialised into this vast universe. Some are born Siddhas. Sri Dattatreya was a born Siddha. He created a woman and a bottle of wine by his Yogic power to get away from the disturbing crowd. Some exhibit small miracles with the help of some disembodied spirit. These are nothing. These have nothing to do with spirituality. Drinking nitric acid, swallowing nails, chewing snakes and glass pieces, walking over fire are not the real Siddhis of spiritual Yogins. They have nothing to do with Yoga. They are performed by charlatans to collect money. Even educated people are deceived by looking at these performances. Beware of cheap miracle-mongers. Do not be duped. Miracles have been caused by prayer. God has always granted the fervent prayers of faithful devotees. The greatest miracle is faith. Mantras have great power. Sound can be converted into light and form. Certain mystic formulae have tremendous power. When a man has been stung by a scorpion, the Mantravadi recites a Mantra, and the man is relieved of the pain! Is this not a miracle? This is the power of the Mantra. That power has been further augmented by the spiritual power of the great Yogis who have chanted the Mantra and attained Siddhi in it. The faith of the Sadhaka who takes to that Mantra now acts as a key to release its divine force. To convert water into wine is not difficult. But it is difficult to transform worldly-minded people into divine beings and put them in the path of Yoga. This is the greatest miracle. Miracles there have been for ages and will continue to be till the end of the world. Miracles are astounding only for the layman. For Yogins, these are simple things. They are not extraordinary. For those who know the principles and the laws of Yoga, who have controlled nature, they are common occurrences.

Mr. Simon, There are very few persons who remember their immediate past life and they give evidence which force us to believe that. But knowing many past lives is heard for the first time. Nothing is impossible in this universe, but it is difficult to believe without any evidence. Faith is different from blind belief.

Full enlightenment, complete and all-illumining enlightenment, is God Realization. But sometimes, when a seeker is in his highest meditation, he gets a kind of inner illumination or enlightenment, and for half an hour or an hour his whole being, his whole existence, is illumined. But then, after an hour or two, he becomes his same old self; he again becomes a victim to desire and undivine qualities. Enlightenment has taken place, but it is not the Transcendental Enlightenment which occurred in the case of the Buddha and other spiritual masters. That kind of all-fulfilling, all-illumining enlightenment is equivalent to God-realisation. God-realisation means constant and eternal enlightenment, Transcendental Enlightenment. When we get God-realisation, automatically infinite illumination takes place in our outer as well as our inner existence. The enlightenment that is spoken of here in the West and also in Japan is only a temporary burst of light in the aspiring consciousness. After a short while it pales into insignificance, because there is no abiding reality in it. Abiding reality we will get only with constant, eternal and Transcendental Illumination, which is God-realization. Sometimes when we speak of enlightenment, we mean that we have been in darkness about a particular subject for many years and now we have inner wisdom, or now that particular place in our consciousness is enlightened. But this is just a spark of the boundless illumination, and that little spark we cannot call God-realisation.

Hello, I am a victim of black magic and the ghosts casted upon me are 'Karna Pishachinis'. They are constantly telling my mind in my ears and the persons nearby. The life is very difficult to live since these ghosts are forcing to think what they want. I have tried many tantriks in India, but nobody could break the spell. Usually, these ghosts are employed for evil pursposes. If anybody knows about the genuine tantrik/guru who has the knowledge to break the spell, please inform. It will also helpful to everybody who is suffering from such black magic.

Dear Guest, The life of man in this sense-universe is a life of temptation. Man is born for Self-realisation. He is born for leading a religious life. But he is led astray by the temptations of his environments. He is spoiled by society. He has not got the strength of will to resist the temptations. The desire to attain knowledge of the Self will dawn in these proud, egoistic people only when they meet some adversities, calamities, troubles and disappointments. The desire to attain the knowledge of the Self dawns in a person who is free from desires for sense-objects. Such a man, with a pure mind alone, is competent to tread the spiritual path. Your heart is filled with joy to see those persons who are filled with spiritual Samskaras and who are attempting for Self-realisation. Even in this iron age (Kali Yuga), when the vast majority of persons run after women and money, there are earnest and sincere young men who want God and God alone. The greatest victory is the victory over the turbulent mind. The greatest battle is the inner Adhyatmic battle. The greatest hero is one who has conquered the mind.It is the mind that has given shape, colour and taste to an orange.It is only the mind that creates a world. If you slay this mind which creates the illusion, there will be no world for you. Through the trick of the mind one furlong appears to be a great distance and three miles appear as a very short distance. You ought to have noted this in your daily life. In Samadhi or superconscious state wherein there is annihilation of the mind, there is no world. Just as the snake in the rope vanishes when a lamp is brought, so also this world which is mere appearance or superimposition does not exist when one attains illumination, when the sun of knowledge dawns. But without the control of mind this is impossible. Now coming back to the topic of the black magic, when your mind is captured by evil ghosts, how you can even expect to think in righteous manner. These ghosts can force you to think what they want. Even you may not think about god when you are possesed. Without experience, it is difficult to know what ghosts do in their own world besides possessing. Now you will take shelter of Karma and find the reasoning that because of past karma, we are suffering in the hands of ghosts. To some extent it can be true but it is not always. Your suffering can be an eye opening or push towards god realization. But at the same time, you can not grow spiritually on the death bed where you have constant threat to your life. A sick man will always think of his sickness and pray god to get rid of his sickness. The mind, being very subtle, is in close apposition or contact with other minds, though the human skull intervenes between them. If A is a friend of B, A's mind is connected with B's mind. The minds of friends, relatives, brothers of A are attached to A's mind. Several minds are similarly linked to B's mind also. The minds of those who are attached to A's mind are, therefore, connected, in turn, with the minds of those who are hanging on B's mind. In this manner, one mind is in touch with all minds in the whole world. This is the Vibhu theory of mind of Raja Yoga. With regards to black magic that created by handful of ill minded tantriks on this planet, we do not need the help from universe if the help can be obtained on this planet itself. In other words, are we trying to say that in this materialistic world, those who create the problems do not know the solutions.

I am a victim of black magic and would like to request to those who have similar problem to come together and get rid of this problem once for all. There are many tantriks in India who are doing florishing business of black magic even by giving advertisements in News papers. Some are genuine who help the victims to get rid of ghost trouble but some are cheating the innocent people with their siddhis of contacting ghosts. It should be stopped somewhere, otherwise everybody will take undue advantage of these tantriks for their materialistic goals.