Prarabdh

July 8, 2008

Soul - A soul has to take on a body made up of five tatwas to come to

this earth. It is said that soul has to take birth to learn and to

experience each and every aspect of human emotion without forgetting

its original state i.e, purity, love and bliss. It is through this

human life that a soul can finally merge with the holy divine

Paramatma from which it was separated millions of years ago. In

every birth, the soul strives to reach perfection so that it can get

enlightened and become aware of the truth about oneness of the

universe i.e., ALL IS ONE. All souls are a tiny part of that Supreme

Divine Power thereby implying that all souls have that tiny spark of

Supreme Spirit within. However, after taking human birth, in

ignorance, the soul cannot recall its original state, gets entangled

in earthly enjoyments and forgets its mission of self realization and

subsequently the God realization.

Karma - In its human form the soul cannot sit idle. It creates

various karmas in the process of living, becomes attached to

materialism over and above spiritualism. Whether the karma is 'good'

or 'bad', it is immaterial. The universal law takes note of all the

actions a soul performs to carry out its earthly existence. It is

said that all such karmas accumulate and become Sanchit Karma. It is

said that all our karmas are recorded and stored in our Akashic

records. A soul cannot merge with the spirit unless it has worked

out the cause and effect of its Karma because universal law functions

flawlessly and impartially. When the soul is reborn again, it brings

with it some portion out of this Sanchit karma to work out in the

present birth. This portion of karma is called Prarabdh. It is said

that seventy five percent life of a soul is preordained and a soul

has no say in it. Soul has to bear it whether it brings worldly

happiness or worldly sadness. For the balance twenty five percent of

life the soul can use its God given freewill which creates Kriyaman

Karma. These kriyaman karma also result in accumulating more Sanchit

karma.

Prarabdh - Outcome of Prarabdh are those happenings in the souls

earthly life, which happen without any or little effort. Soul feels

happy when it gains materialistic comforts, pleasures and position in

life but it gets totally baffled when it loses the very same

possessions unexpectedly, without any explainable reason. Soul does

not realize that this is the fruit or effect of the cause of its

Prarabdh in this lifetime. For example, we find a good human being

doing all the best for the world but yet suffering from a deadly

disease, a selfish person getting success in almost any activity it

undertakes. All this is happening due to Prarabdh of these souls

Imagine how it could be when different souls come together in a

lifetime and form a family. Each soul has its own Prarabdh and its

own individual journey. But universal law is perfect. It arranges

the soul groups so effectively that one soul's Prarabdh matches with

the Prarabdh of other souls. Thus souls living in a family life not

only perform their respective earthly duties but also work out their

Prarabdh together. This way they keep coming back on earth again

and again, learn their lessons and help each other to work out their

balance karmas till their last earthly desires has been fulfilled.

The soul discards its human body once its Prarabdh of current

lifetime is worked out completely. However, Maya plays such a strong

role that it takes ages for an ignorant soul to work out all its

karma and realize that the Supreme Divine Power is nowhere else but

within.

How to work out Karma - The biggest question is how can the effect of

Karmas be effaced? Man's actions or karmas are the manifestations of

his thoughts. Karma is any action, thought, feeling, emotion

generated by mind of a Man. The mind, by projecting thoughts to

sense-organs, enjoys pleasures. It, more or less, identifies itself

with these thoughts and pleasures. At that time, it does not think of

anything else. Actually, the earthly thoughts and impulses should

be converted into the zeal for securing internal bliss and happiness

after attaining a perfect balance between materialism and

spiritualism. In simple terms, soul must perform duties as required

to be performed in its earthly lifetime with a sense of detachment

i.e, without feeling sad about losses and without feeling elated

about gains. But then it is easier said than done.

Meditation - Meditation is one way for the soul to connect to the

higher self. In Sai Satcharita, readers have been advised to look

inwards. The soul should find a quiet place, close eyes and

meditate. The purpose is to withdraw all the five senses inwards,

make them inactive because these senses have been given to the soul

to see, hear, taste, touch and enjoy the external world only. The

practice of meditation in solitude consists in reverting and raising

the internal spark of the soul, to try to reach the higher self. It

is said that the seat of that spark is at midpoint behind the eyes

called Third Eye or Krishna Consciousness. When such a condition

begins to supervene to some extent, as a result of performing the

meditation practices, the working of Karmas, both internally and

externally, is automatically enfeebled. On getting some bliss and joy

internally, and on witnessing the love, grace and mercy of the

Supreme Being, the meditator's mind, is of itself, detached from the

world and its pleasures. The pleasures of the world become insipid.

The situation is the same. However its effect on the meditator's

mind changes. The soul finds peace in all the situations it finds

itself in - whether good or bad - it does not matter any more.

After this, the longing for progress in meditation, and higher and

higher bliss, goes on increasing. Worldly desires are curtailed. The

soul always gives priority to the will, grace and mercy of the

Supreme Being in whatever he does. It subordinates its desires to the

will of the Supreme Being. Thus the soul is entangled in Kriyaman

Karmas very little or not at all. This cuts short the chain of its

Karmas.

Prarabdh Karmas, which are unfolding in this very life will be very

much mitigated by the grace and mercy of the Divine Spirit. This way

the soul is able to withdraw from the eyes, it goes on getting

detached from the body and the world. In the wakeful state, the seat

of the spirit is behind the eyes. It is here that pains and pleasures

are felt and Karmas are performed. Therefore, as the spark of soul is

withdrawn from here with the help of spiritual exercises, pains and

pleasures cease to be felt. In this way, the effect of Prarabdh

Karmas is lightened.

As to the Sanchit Karmas, that are stored in Akashic records (mind-

sky) in the form of seed-impressions. They will fructify in a future

life. As the soul penetrates these records in its ascent to higher

regions, the Sanchit Karmas appear in the form of thoughts and

impulses. They come into play for a short while only and are

obliterated and finally the Sanchit karma are also cleared.

If one has the grace of Sadguru, it will not take long for a soul to

achieve the desired results. In Sai Satcharita, where Sai Baba has

translated the Sanskrit shloka for Nanasaheb, this thing has been

brought out very beautifully. At another place it has been

beautifully explained how with Guru's grace, the soul realizes that

the meditator and the object of meditation all are ONE.

Bhakti - As per Sai Satcharita, progressing on Bhakti marg is the

easiest way to get free from the Karmas. The mind cannot sit idle

but if we give it some wise thought, say, chanting 'Sai Sai' always,

get rid of feeling of doership and surrender all our actions,

thoughts and ourselves to our Sadguru Sainath, we have taken our

first step towards working out our karma fast. Sai Baba will work

internally and remind the soul of its purpose of taking human birth.

This does not mean that the soul will not have to work out the

Prarabdh. Sai Baba will not come in the functioning of the universal

law but Baba will make the soul strong enough that it will not feel

the effect of Prarabdh, i.e, soul will not be ecstatic when it gains

and will not feel depressed when it suffers. Sadguru Sainath will

grace us with strength necessary to work out our Prarabdh easily.

This is what we mean when we say that Sadguru works out the karma of

devotees. But then are we willing to work for ourselves and absolve

ourselves of our Prarabdh the way Baba has advised us.

Vandana Ritik

New Delhi

From Heritage of Shirdi Sai http://www.heritageofshirdisai.org

July 9, 2008

paramatma and atma are two different entities? what is merging, and after

merging what happens? why did we get separated in first place?

C. P. Kumar <cpkumar

Shambhavi

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 517 AM