How Does Karma Work For One Who Is Realized?
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami showers some light on this.
"After the realization of the Self, Parasiva, the forces of dharma and previous karma still exist, but through the force of the realization of God, much of the impending impact of karma has dwindled, and it is faced differently, treated differently. Prior to the experience of realization, karmas were dealt with in individual increments. After realization, the sum total is seen. The spiritual destiny is realized."
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami writes how clear it all is to the Yogis whose karma that once stood in their way of God realization is removed. Fresh karma is then dissolved immediately. Karma waiting to germinate is roasted in the fire of their tapas.
"One does not have the experience of realizing the Self until all of his karma is in a state of resolve. When this begins to occur in him, he actually sees that man is not man, man is the Self, God, for his karma and the forces of his dharma have begun to become transparent to him. Through the power of his realization, the karma is created and simultaneously dissolved. This occurs for the one who lives in the timeless state of consciousness. If one were to realize the Self each day, he would live his life like writing his karma on the surface of water. The swamis who renounce the world and do tapas are trying to burn the seeds of the karmas that they did not bring with them in this life. They set fire to the whole house. They renounce the world and put restrictions upon themselves that others don’t."
Paramahansa Yogananda says,
"In Nirbikalpa Samadhi the yogi dissolves the last vestiges of his material or earthly karma. Nevertheless, he may still have certain astral and causal karma to work out and therefore takes astral and then causal embodiment on high vibration spheres."Yogi Ramsuratkumar consoled his disciples when he was about to go into samadhi, saying he could do a better job in the subtle plane.
How Does Karma Work For One Who Is Under The Care Of A Guru?
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami explains that karma is transferable.
"Karma is transferable. One can take on some of the karma of other people, work it out for them and make their burden a little easier for them. The guru guides and also shares a bit of the heavier burdens, if one is fortunate enough to be dedicated enough to have a guru who will lend his powers in this way. But each aspect of the karma, the outgrowth of the dharma, must be passed through by the disciple, creating as little as possible of a similar karma on this tenuous path of the repetition of the cycles of life. The guru may take unto himself, into his nerve system, some of the heavier areas of your karma in the same way your parents performed this function for you perhaps unknowingly."
Paramahansa Yogananda in AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI, Self Realization Fellowship, 1990, adds that only great gurus can take on their disciples karma.
"By putting on the ailments of others, a yogi can satisfy, for them, the karmic law of cause and effect; its workings may be scientifically manipulated by men of divine wisdom. Only great gurus are able to assume the karma of disciples."Agathiyar has taken on the karma of his devotees. Paramahansa Yogananda struck the shoulder of a chela with a burning brand only to free him from painful death; thus satisfying the karmic law through slight suffering by fire. Help a hungry man by feeding him and you have brought relief to him. The donor gains merit and is relieved of his karma. Similarly the karma of the one fed is exhausted that very moment too.
Annie Besant and Bhagawan Das in SANATANA DHARMA by the Theosophical Publishing House, 2000 states an exception to this.
"Only a full and clear knowledge of the causes in the past resulting in the suffering of the present could justify refusal to help on karmic grounds."
What Happens When All The Karma Of All Past Lives Is Worked Out?
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami reveals the answer.
And there are the Siddhas, Rishis and Munis who are on the look out for potential aspirants on this path to realization, spot them and take them into the folds, guide them, take upon themselves the karma of these aspirants and them achieve realization just as they have attained. Such is the grace of the Siddhas that they chose to see into both the past and the future of humans and have them written down so that humanity could learn to rectify its mistakes and make good whatever harm done to others. In simple terms the Siddhas have showed us an escape route to end this cycle of birth.
"You would truly be an artisan, an absolute expert at working out karma in the mental and spiritual spheres, and could begin to help working out karma for other people."
Annie Besant and Bhagawan Das in SANATANA DHARMA by the Theosophical Publishing House, 2000 write,
"A man may escape from the wheel of births and deaths, and yet remain manifested so long as Eswara chooses to manifest, by ceasing to create karma and by exhausting what already exists. When all desires hidden in the heart are loosed, then the mortal becomes immortal, then he enjoys Brahman. Whose works are all free from the molding of desire, whose karma is burned up in the fire of wisdom, him the wise have called a sage. Then freedom is achieved, and the man may either remain, as the rishis have remained, to aid in the evolution going on in the Brahmananda or may sink to rest."
If they chose to return to help others work out their karma, Paramahansa Yogananda writes,
"Such voluntary returns are called vyutthana or reversion to earthly life after Maya has ceased to blind. When the yogi has reached his infinite goal, all his actions, miraculous or otherwise, are then performed without karmic involvement. The iron filings of karma are attracted only where a magnet of the personal ego still exists. Their incarnations on this planet are not subject to the rigid restrictions of karma. Sri Yukteswar himself was serving on an illumined astral planet called Hiranyaloka as a savior to help men work out their physical karma. He aids advanced beings to rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain liberation from astral births. Even as in his earthly incarnation he had occasionally assumed the weight of disease to lighten his disciple’s karma, so in the astral world his mission as a savior enabled him to take on certain astral karma of dwellers on Hiranyaloka, and thus hasten their evolution into the higher causal world."
The realized one would be required to go back into the society with a mission to educate and bring more souls into the fold of God. His actions would not create good or bad karma for he would then be carrying out activities that would not enslave him but instead be for the betterment of the people who come into contact with him. He could then choose to leave on his own will when the time was right.
And there are the Siddhas, Rishis and Munis who are on the look out for potential aspirants on this path to realization, spot them and take them into the folds, guide them, take upon themselves the karma of these aspirants and them achieve realization just as they have attained. Such is the grace of the Siddhas that they chose to see into both the past and the future of humans and have them written down so that humanity could learn to rectify its mistakes and make good whatever harm done to others. In simple terms the Siddhas have showed us an escape route to end this cycle of birth.