Nadi Guru T. Ramesh posed a question to me, “Why the spiritual masters in the course of conducting discourses for the public do not talk about Karma?” When one reads the Nadi for the first time, the Siddhas always reveal the past birth and the past Karma.
Ramalinga Adigal in his MANUMURAIKANDA VASAGAM mentions an extensive list of the probabilities for one’s rebirth.
“Did I create fear in others?
Did I hurt my loved ones?
Did I summon and tarnish others,
Did I stop others from making donations?
Did I smear my friends?
Did I sabotage friendships?
Did I speak gossip that leads to families being destroyed,
Did I refused to help one in need,
Did I increase taxes and rob others,
Did I make the poor suffer?
Did I act unjustly?
Did I stop the means of income of others?
Did I entice others and cheat them,
Did I rip work but refused to pay accordingly,
Did I adulterate rice with pebbles?
Did I ignore the hungry?
Did I refrain from feeding the poor?
Did I expose those that had taken refuge with me,
Did I aid those who committed murder?
Did I scout and spy on behalf of thieves,
Did I snatch properties belonging to others and lie to them?
Did I sleep with those who had lost their virginity?
Did I abuse virgins who I had a responsibility to protect?
Did I rape those who already had had a husband?
Did I lock up birds in their cages?
Did I not feed the calves?
Did I build up this body by consuming meat?
Did I poison drinking water?
Did I fell trees that gave us shade?
Did I destroy others out of revenge?
Did I demolish public halls?
Did I not listen to my parents?
Did I not greet my Guru?
Did I not give my Guru his dues, for his sustenance?
Did I envy the learned?
Did I find mistakes in the writings of the wise?
Did I offend devotees of Shiva?
Did I offend the yogis?
Did I prevent the public from conducting their prayers by shutting the doors to the temples?
Did I smear the name of the Lord?
What sin did I do, I do not know”, questions the Saint.
Listen to another rendition at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ0xS8Uwt1Y&list=PLHzSyCuecHydnkZeYI_ZxI9uTVuQ-k81w
In the preface to his MANUMURAI KANDA VASAKAM, the original in Tamil by Rengaraja Desiga Swamigal and translated into English by R.G.Rajaram, Rengaraja Desiga Swamigal Rengaraja Desiga Swamigal writes,
"The Supreme Grace Light the compassionate to all living beings, the Chief of Gnosis, St. Ramalingar’s “Manumurai Kanda Vasakam” has forty three aphorisms. He discusses very clearly the merits and demerits of virtue and evil (punya and papa). The list of evil that men shall abhor are listed. These are the sins which subject men into irredeemable mundane bondage. By calling out “did I ever commit…….” He lists out sins of the society and advises us to get salvation from them. Moreover if one wants deliverance from those sins, he suggests ways and means also. If one gives up killing and meat eating and prays unto him wholeheartedly, the very moment St. Ramalingar, the supreme grace of light joins him and remedies his sufferings and he will make them realize also”.
R.G.Rajaram writes in the preface,
"These 43 utterances summarize the Don’ts of humanity. Saint Vallalar addresses to Lord Almighty, whether He was gullible with any of these inhuman qualities and thus driving home, the benevolence of Lord Almighty descends spontaneously on those who are devoid of any of these qualities."
R.G.Rajaram translates as follows,
"Did I ever,
1. Throttle the mind of the Samaritans?
2. Pull them to court on false allegations and spoil their reputation?
3. Prevent people from giving alms?
4. Divide the Friends united?
5. Was deceit for true friendship?
6. Enhance tax and burgle?
7. Starve the hungry poor?
8. Punish anyone without compassion?
9. Partial in land disputes and spoil their livelihood?
10. Assist Killers?
11. Was a spy for thieves?
12. Enamour the things and lie?
13. Lure and cheat?
14. Close the thoroughfare to prevent trespass?
15. Reduce wages for work?
16. Ignore the hunger-stricken?
17. Refuse alms for beggars?
18. Carry tales and spoil the relationship?
19. Desert in the midway?
20. Expose the refugees under distress?
21. Be in the company of unchaste?
22. Seduce the modest girl under guard?
23. Rape a Housewife?
24. Abort and enjoy?
25. Feel reluctant to worship my preceptor?
26. Forget to pay preceptor’s fee?
27. Exhibit displeasure of countenance to the learned?
28. Find fault in the composition of great men?
29. Enslave a bird trembling in a cage?
30. Prevent the calf to feed on the mother?
31. Grow my body eating flesh?
32. Sell mixing up paddy and sand?
33. Harm loved ones?
34. Close down potable water pond?
35. Fell shady trees used to rest in the scorching sun?
36. Destroy others crop out of enmity?
37. Demolish Public Hall?
38. Keep the doors of the temple closed?
39. Scold violently the disciples of Lord Shiva?
40. Belittle the people on penance?
41. Abuse great Saints?
42. Ignore the advice of parents?
43. Abuse Gods and become Egotist?"
Paramahansa Yogananda [1] says, “Knowledge of the law of Karma encourages the earnest seeker to find the way of final escape from its bonds.”
He adds, “Seeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the fires of divine wisdom.”
Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal says if there is Karma then there is birth. Karma is the cause of birth. Birth is a result of past Karma. “The life we are living now is a result of our past Karma and the life we live now will determine our next birth”, he applies puts it, clearly and forcefully.
“What you are what you have been, what you will be is what you do now” goes the saying of the Buddha.
The night Buddha attained enlightenment; he went through several stages of awakening. One of them was where he had the recollection of his previous lives. Sogyal Rinpoche in his book THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, (Rinpoche, 1993) quotes Buddha’s THE MIDDLE LENGTH SAYINGS originally quoted in H.W.Schumann's THE HISTORICAL BUDDHA, London, Arkana, 1989, narrates Buddha’s experience.
“I remembered many, many former existences I had passed through: (he mentions a hundred thousand - Ed) in various world-periods. I knew everything about these various births: where they had taken place, what my name had been, which family I had been born into, and what I had done. I lived through again the good and bad fortune of each life and my death in each life, and came to life repeatedly. In this way, I recalled innumerable previous existences with their exact characteristic features and circumstances. This knowledge I gained in the first watch of the night.”
In the second watch of the night, he gained knowledge of Karma.
“With the heavenly eye, purified and beyond the range of human vision, I saw how beings vanish and come to be again. I saw high and low, brilliant and insignificant, and how each obtained according to his Karma a favorable or painful rebirth.”
“If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions,” says Padmasambhava.[2]
Swami Rajarshi Muni in YOGA - THE ULTIMATE ATTAINMENT, Jaico Publishing House, 2004, (Rajarshi Muni, 2004)explains Karma.
“During each earthly existence, a soul creates innumerable Karmas in the form of thoughts, words, and actions. These Karmas leave behind corresponding subliminal impressions that are carried forward with the subtle body from one life to the next. When these latent impressions become activated at opportune moments in the present life, or in a future life, they awaken into desires, which then amass volitional energy sufficient to lead the soul to perform new Karmas. Thus, the Karmas of the present life lead to the Karmas of future lives. They establish a continuous and unending chain of causes and effects.”
Annie Besant and Bhagawan Das in SANATANA DHARMA by the Theosophical Publishing House, 2000 (Das A. B., 2000) explain,
“Karma literally means action, but as every action is triple in its nature, belonging partly to the past, partly to the present and partly to the future, it has come to mean the sequence of events, the law of causes and effects, the succession in which each effect follows its own cause.”
“What is called the consequence of an action is really not a separate thing but is a part of the action, and cannot be divided from it. Nothing occurs which is not linked to the past and to the future.”
Paramahansa Yogananda in his AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI, Self-Realization Fellowship, 1990, (Yogananda, Autobiography Of A Yogi, 1990) writes,
“The effort is part of the Karma, as much as the goodness or badness: Karma is not a finished thing awaiting us, but a constant becoming, in which the future is not only shaped by the past but is modified by the present.”
Ram Das in PATH TO GOD - LIVING THE BHAGAVADGITA, Harmony Books, 2004, (Das R. , 2004) says,
“Every act we do creates Vasanas, life waves, based on the desires connected with the act. Even when we die, they continue; the physical body dies, and what remains are those subtle life waves, those mental tendencies that function like a kind of psychic DNA code to determine your next round.”
Eknath Easwaran in DIALOGUE WITH DEATH - A JOURNEY THROUGH CONSCIOUSNESS, Jaico Publishing House, 2002, (Easwaran, 2002) says,
“Hindu and Buddhist mystics would go so far as to say that we have come into this life expressly to fulfill our unfulfilled desires, which as unconscious drives or Samskaras shape everything we do. The slightest thought has consequences, as does the slightest act. Over the years it is the sum of all these consequences, large and small, that shapes our lives. Nothing that he says, thinks or does is without consequences.”
“Thoughts are the very source of our Karma, for from our thoughts flows everything: words, actions, desires, decisions, and destiny. Karma is not imposed by some cosmic lawgiver outside us.”
[1] Paramahansa Yogananda (January 5, 1893 – March 7, 1952), born Mukunda Lal Ghosh, was an Indian yogi and guru who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi. (Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
[2] Padmasambhava, meaning "the Lotus-Born," was a Siddha Guru from Oddiyana who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan, Tibet and neighboring countries in the 8th century AD. In those lands he is better known as Guru Rinpoche ("Precious Guru") or Lopon Rinpoche, or as Padum in Tibet, where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha.He is further considered an emanation of Buddha Amitabha. (Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)