The Karma- Sutra

So many books have been written, articles published and undoubtedly thousands of influential speakers, inspirational leaders have talked about this. This is not a new topic I am discussing here. You might even wonder what is there that have been left to be discussed about on a topic as vague as "Karma" from an amateur writer. My urge to write on the topic grew strong as I began to see people moving without a sense of direction.

"Karma" in a simple word is an action. Just as we all have read in science textbooks in our school days, each action has an equal and opposite reaction. Thus every being on earth goes through the cause and effect cycle of their deeds as long as they survive. In Hindu mythologies, "Karma" uncovers a being's previous lives and their repercussion on their future lives. "Karma" for this post I am discussing is a karmic sadhana. Yes, I am talking with you all about each individuals day to day lives unlike the ascetic discipline and faith that sadhana evolves around.

From the biggest corporate honchos to the social businesses suffer from the ailment of karma at the present date. There is some news of demeaning actions by admired stakeholders of the societies at every nook and cranny of the globe. "Karma" as an unwavering faith on doing things responsibly and honestly have become an uncommon practice. I would not be surprised if someone says civilization does not exist, what does exists are their skeletons.

Is it so hard to practice honesty? Is it so hard to live together peacefully? Is it so hard to compete fairly? No. Nobody has ever tried to do it as a result of which common things discussed in every religion, in every philosophy has become uncommon today. People live to be presentable to others. " Fake-ism" persists while people resist their true self to come out.

The sutra or the formula to live a blissful life requires living it with honesty, passion and faith. It is all about nurturing the natural characters that we see everyday that animals like Dogs, Birds, elephants etc possess. "Karma- sutra" is all about living with your true self every moment. Life would become peaceful and blissful for everyone if each were to follow the simple characters of integrity, honesty, faith, consistence and devotion.

The most beautiful creation

I have been thinking about the most beautiful creation on earth. I wanted to write something on the topic.The more I ponder over the subject, the more confusing it appears. I have read and heard at innumerable instances that ' People are the most beautiful creation of God'. I repeated this term again and again and yet I could not believe it. This does not mean people are not beautiful or my perception about people have become something else. My focus suddenly changed from people to God. This letter word "GOD", who created this term ?

I do not know if God exists but I believe in God as an unknown entity who is behind all the creations.Since nobody has been able to identify with the cause of creation of this magnificent earth, the universe ; I bestow this term 'God' to that unknown reason behind it.

I have never understood religion.Whenever someone says 'God', they immediately attach it to religion. Suddenly, this beautiful word 'God' used to appear gruesome, unstable.powerless, frightful to me. I once read a friend's status in facebook ,"God is the greatest lie to humanity". Is God a lie?

I can with my head held high, with my undaunting pride cry aloud to the world that "God" is the most beautiful creation on earth. No beings, no substance, no feeling appear as beautiful as "God".

Religion for me is an attempt of the humans with lust for power to rule.When the term God came into existence, stories were built upon it. These stories were different according to the people, the geography, their way of living and so on. So the shape,size, colour, nature and nurturing the beliefs on God became different. Therefore, people in different places had different Gods. I believe that those storytellers and their bastions suddenly found a reason to be superior than those who merely heard them with interest and reverence.So they divided these different Gods into religions. This division was not enough to rule. The caste and traditions came into existence to help them establish their norms. Every country's history therefore has 'priests' as the agent of power. It holds equally true at present time as well.

God is such an irresistible word. Every human is so accustomed to it. It has an aroma that suddenly brings peace of mind, stirs ones thought patterns, instills hope in the hopeless; courage to the fearful and has at many instances discouraged much evil on earth.

Detach "God" from religion and all the walls between people will fall down. The mankind will come into unison. The world will become free of almost all the evils caused by religion in the name of God.

"God" is above all the most beautiful creation. 

Dance of Devotion

It was one evening at October this year. The wall clock in my room stroke 7 pm . I stood up from my chair, opened the curtains of the window. My eyes then followed every women clad in 'sarees' and men in 'Pajamas' or 'dhoti' walking towards Iskcon temple. All those men and women had two things in common. Firstly they all were foreigners; many of them were from eastern Europe. Secondly, they all chanted " Hare Ram ! Hare Krishna !" I could not just resist my boredom and went off to see the temple. What  I saw there, what I felt and learned has transcended in my actions.It was an experience for a lifetime.

As I entered the courtyard of the temple,I could feel the faith, bhakti , chant and the dance of the free spirits. About a hundred people were sitting beside the temple. There were a group of musicians.All they were doing was singing "Hare Ram ! Hare Krishna !". There was an overflow of people. The place was so vibrant. Everyone there were chanting, singing and dancing. Some came to express their faith, some came out of devotions, some came to seek refuge, some came to feel the amazing energy and the positive vibrations, some came to release their monotony of life. I was there out of curiosity.

I did not know then that my desire would turn into a habit. I did not know how time unfolds and passes by. Every evening during my 15 days stay at Delhi, I was there. My heart took me and I could not resist. I could not resist because I saw everyone dance and I danced with them. I danced with all the strangers and danced as if I had been with them for a longtime. The ladies were dancing. The Children were dancing.All the old and young, married and single, sanyasins and worldly were dancing. There was no guide, no teacher, no instructor, nobody to tell you how to dance. But everyone were dancing in a perfect rhythm. All were dancing in union. 

My boredom was gone. I was no more alone. I was no more a stranger. I was a devotee. So, were the rest of them. People often say, dancing is an art. May be it is. What I learned was "Bhakti" , devotion is an art. When One knows how to devote oneself, dance emerges from their soul and take its form. Dance then freely.Let your legs move, free your body and you will get freed from all sorts of impurities. Your muscles become relaxed, your emotional trauma is long gone and you are open to all the possibilities. 

I even talked with many people there.I have been asking myself since that day. "Is it dance or devotion?"

They say it is devotion to the divine "Lord Krishna". I thought it requires lots of courage to come from another corner  of the world and be in union with the spirit of the people there.But it was not. I was wrong. It was devotion that brought them there. "Dance of Devotion" was what united all the souls together.

Emptiness Or Spaciousness....??

Past few years of my life have been a great learning period for me.Life has given unexpected,shocking surprises to me. First I failed in my attempts for fixed career,as a result of which the relationship that i treasured the most came to an end. Then periods of emotional turmoil and struggle started. It has been at one time a horrifying experience for me. Months and months of rumination and reclusion from my social life to get away from the phantoms of my past was merely enough. And the most terrifying of all was the feeling of emptiness within self.

'So, you people got it?' No. Read the above paragraph again.My life was merely fulfilled because of a girl, friends, money, relatives and the social life i had. All my life i have been trying to collect more. More of what this universe has gifted me in abundance. More love, more friendship, more money and more of anything and everything that i could possibly get. A suitable word for this is greed. At one instance i lost one of those things, i got hurt, angry, sad and i even cried. I got angry and sad when a guy dedicated one of his poems to my ex-girlfriend. I got sad when she did not recieve my calls and messages. In fact, I was frustrated about everything that was happening. Emptiness for me was a existential sickness.

We all at one time or other in our life fall into this vicious circle of collection and renunciation. Our life as such keeps moving from one extreme to the other. How many times have we questioned ourselves?Despite the knowledge that universe has everything in abundance for us all, Why do we feel the emptiness? Why is it that we feel we are living with wounds that cannot be healed?Why do we keep running after these loaded subjects?

I was so exhausted of trying to fill this empty space.However I tried, it could never be fulfilled. And i know that none of you can fill it. It is so vast, unlimited and infinite. I therefore decided to stay in silence and feel it at peace.This was a beautiful afternoon and a crazy one for me. I came home after a hectic schedule of work, freshen up and texted a message to my friend. I began to feel restless. I went to my bookshelf only to see books i have read many many times. I was getting quite frisky. I needed to channelise this energy to one activity that i was not quite sure of. Something inside me was becoming aware of an unknown. I went to the store room with the same notion. A notion that both happiness and sadness,bliss and hell, beautiful and ugly are imagination. Only reality is witnessing the conscience. Emptiness is getting lost in these webs of imaginations.Huh! I was eyeing for the cartoon where i had disposed almost 300 books. Books that live with me.I was trying to open the cartoon when something banged beside me. A cloud of dust went up in the air leaving a sick smell in my nostrils. Ah! It is the suitcase. My suitcase. A navy blue coloured possession since my childhood. I opened it. There was nothing other than dust and ruts in the chains.It was utterly empty just like me. It has so much space that i decided to store my most coveted things in it.Suddenly, to my utter surprise, I got an answer. At first, I doubted myself, then it felt weird and smile spread over my face. Yes, it is unbelievable. Only thing you need to do is change the direction of your thoughts. It is not emptiness, it is spaciousness. We have enough space to bring in the world to us. There is so much space that world becomes too small for the love, riches and beautiful moments to share and life too short to live them.

There is so much within us that when we start giving, greed, possessiveness vanishes;there is so much that it never gets exhausted. Those moments came back swirling in my head when i chanted 'panchasil' from tripitak in my school days, When bhikshyu 'Kondanya' spoke out to me with his hands over my head. Yes, those times when we listened to Bikasananda, read Osho, Khalil Gibran and all those philosophers i knew of. They were so right. Rajnis was so right when he said,"experience your emptiness so totally that emptiness itself becomes fullness."