By Rupa Manjari Devi Dasi
Karma means activities. Living in the world, everyone has to do something, to learn, to work, to play, to raise a family, and so on. And all the action has a reaction to follow it. For example, suppose I am doing business, I work hard with knowledge and earn money; then I enjoy the action (Karma). But, if I have lost all my money, then I suffer in the Karma. Similarly, in every part of our life we either enjoy or suffer from results of our work. This is called Karma. The effect is due to the cause we have done. This effect sometimes we can see at once, sometimes takes a longer time to show. It is like when we work, some employer will pay us at once; some will pay us in two weeks or one month. But, no matter how long, we know when we work, we get pay. Some of our Karma will take years to see the reaction, and we already forget the cause. Also, we take our own responsibility for our own Karma.
A lot of people don’t like the concept of Karma, because to accept Karma means taking the responsibility of our own activities. When we are sick, most of us will just go to see a doctor and get some pills, but never think about the relationship between disease and what we have eaten, what we have done; never think it could be just because we are sleeping too late, or we eat too much meat. When the disease symptoms continue, we will complain the pills don’t work or the doctor is not good enough; never thinking about our own actions. When things happen, like children passing away when they are still young, then we will complain to God; why has God allowed these miserable things to happen. If we understand the Law of Karma, we know that everything that happens has its reasons. The cause is what we have done before, either in this life or in a previous life. We are suffering because what we have done. We cannot blame anyone. We have to take the responsibility of our own activities.
But Karma can change. The lifestyle we choose frames the Karma we produce. What lifestyle we choose leads to a different quality of life. To have the ability to choose needs intelligence. We tend to live by force of habit. We need to know what sort of activity we should adopt to gain relief from the actions and reactions. The Yoga lifestyle is a disciplined life; we act with discipline and control, not through force of habit, but through wisdom. When we are acting in this way, then we are doing Karma Yoga.
The basic guides of Karma Yoga are Yamas and Niyamas. Yamas are rules of conduct, which help to subdue the senses. Niyamas are fixed observances. They give us fundamental understanding of values, attitudes, principles and regulations. They are the basic guides on how to live.
Karma means activities. Living in the world, everyone has to do something, to learn, to work, to play, to raise a family, and so on. And all the action has a reaction to follow it. For example, suppose I am doing business, I work hard with knowledge and earn money; then I enjoy the action (Karma). But, if I have lost all my money, then I suffer in the Karma. Similarly, in every part of our life we either enjoy or suffer from results of our work. This is called Karma. The effect is due to the cause we have done. This effect sometimes we can see at once, sometimes takes a longer time to show. It is like when we work, some employer will pay us at once; some will pay us in two weeks or one month. But, no matter how long, we know when we work, we get pay. Some of our Karma will take years to see the reaction, and we already forget the cause. Also, we take our own responsibility for our own Karma.
A lot of people don’t like the concept of Karma, because to accept Karma means taking the responsibility of our own activities. When we are sick, most of us will just go to see a doctor and get some pills, but never think about the relationship between disease and what we have eaten, what we have done; never think it could be just because we are sleeping too late, or we eat too much meat. When the disease symptoms continue, we will complain the pills don’t work or the doctor is not good enough; never thinking about our own actions. When things happen, like children passing away when they are still young, then we will complain to God; why has God allowed these miserable things to happen. If we understand the Law of Karma, we know that everything that happens has its reasons. The cause is what we have done before, either in this life or in a previous life. We are suffering because what we have done. We cannot blame anyone. We have to take the responsibility of our own activities.
But Karma can change. The lifestyle we choose frames the Karma we produce. What lifestyle we choose leads to a different quality of life. To have the ability to choose needs intelligence. We tend to live by force of habit. We need to know what sort of activity we should adopt to gain relief from the actions and reactions. The Yoga lifestyle is a disciplined life; we act with discipline and control, not through force of habit, but through wisdom. When we are acting in this way, then we are doing Karma Yoga.
The basic guides of Karma Yoga are Yamas and Niyamas. Yamas are rules of conduct, which help to subdue the senses. Niyamas are fixed observances. They give us fundamental understanding of values, attitudes, principles and regulations. They are the basic guides on how to live.
