Tavayogi echoes the words of Buddha “What you are is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now.” Padmasambhava too says the same, “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.” No one can give a simpler description than those of karma.
Eknath Easwaran in ‘DIALOGUE WITH DEATH - A Journey through Consciousness’, Jaico Publishing House, 2002, writes,
"Whatever we are today is the result of what we have thought, spoken, and done in all the present moments before now - just as what we shall be tomorrow is the result of what we think, say, and do today." He drives the point that the responsibility for both present and future is squarely in our own hands.
Since he says that "Past and future are both contained in every present moment", I guess then that the only moment that is real is the present.
Sogyal Rinpoche in his book ‘THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING’, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993,
"Karma, then, is not fatalistic or predetermined. Karma means our ability to create and to change. It is creative because we can determine how and why we act. We can change. The future is in our hands, and in the hands of our hearts. As everything is impermanent, fluid, and interdependent, how we act and think inevitably changes the future."
When we come to the Siddhas the very first thing they address is our karma. Coming to their Nadi, we are told of our past karma.
Now I understand that deep-gazing look I got from a stranger sadhu in ochre robes whom I met at an ashram in Lunas, Kedah many years back. He blessed both my nephew and me. Later my nephew who had met him earlier in Penang tells me that he materializes his body in many places and returns to his place of origin in India. He saw him again in Maran, Pahang. There was something peculiar about his gaze. It was penetrating going beyond my body. His gaze was out of this world. It was deep and penetrating. I have yet to see another look at me that way. When I mentioned this to my nephew he replied that he was scanning me and stopped at that. If there is karma then there is birth. Karma is the cause of birth. I guess as each of us carries out baggage of karma, that shaped this body and shapes our thoughts and actions, he saw through me and my karma. I guess they identify who they can lend a hand to come out of their karma and progress spiritually by just gazing at them. Only when karma is reduced can man approach God. It is an important aspect of the spiritual path. Supramania Swami too sat with me for 5 solid hours and saw through my life just sitting with his eyes closed. It was an amazing 5 hours. I sat in awe and disbelief. All he told me has come true.
Ramalinga Swami, a recent Siddha, shivers at the thought of a long list of "crimes" that could possibly bring on birth. He documented this in his ‘MANUMURAI KANDA VASAGAM.’
“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 lead to families being destroyed?
Did I refuse 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 lied 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 Siva?
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.
Going by the list, I have done several of those sins, hence a reason to be reborn. Agathiyar exposed them in my Kaanda Nadi. But the most compassionate Siddhas did not turn me away. He gave me remedies to carry out. He asked me to worship the Gods and Goddesses, the deities, and the Siddhas too. Tavayogi points to all those who sought a solution to life's problems, to start reciting the names of the Siddhas and praising them. The late Astrologer and Siddha physician Dr. Krishnan advocates the effectiveness of prayers too having asked me to start. Agathiyar in the Nadi says prayers definitely help overcome karma. Supramania Swami asks that I light an oil lamp and pray and he and the divine shall come through the flame. The sacrificial fire that is lit as a part of rituals invites Gods and deities to revisit us and bless us. Agathiyar tells us that the Siddhas arrived and took their places during one such Homam and the ground beneath us shook. Only Mataji was aware of it.
Paramahansa Yogananda in ‘AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI’, Self Realization Fellowship, 1990, quotes his master Sri Yukteswar.
"By a number of means - by prayer, by will power, by yoga meditation, by consultation with saints, by use of astrological bangles - the adverse effects of past wrongs can be minimized or nullified."
Seeing me follow his directives, and coming to the worship of the Siddhas, after three years, Agathiyar comes again in the Aasi Nadi and takes me into his arms. Henceforth he came often in the Nadi guiding me as to what to do.
God does not interfere in our lives unless we ask him to. Annie Besant and Bhagawan Das in ‘SANATANA DHARMA’ published by the Theosophical Publishing House, 2000, write that,
"The laws of nature state conditions under which certain results follow. According to the results, desired conditions may be arranged, and, given the conditions, the results will invariably follow. Hence the law of nature does not compel any special action, but only renders all actions possible."
The most compassionate Siddhas having lived a life like us know pretty well of the trials and tribulations, the misery, pain, and sufferings, of humanity, though they took it on, wished for others to be relieved of their sufferings and to be shown a path. Velayutham Karthikeyan Aiya informs us how the Siddhas came about to write the fate and destiny of individuals who they knew would one day come before them to know their fate. I give the English translation of the Tamil piece below.
"The Siddhas, being compassionate and kind, put forward to God their wishes for humanity. They had a wish, that whosoever sought them for solutions to their problems and after knowing the reasons surrender to them, they shall be pardoned for their past deeds, however bad and evil they may be, and shall not be put through the trial and tribulations and made to face the consequences but instead, be saved. God granted the Siddhas this wish. The next instant the Siddhas wrote down the reasons for each seeker's problems, sins, diseases, illnesses, and sufferings.; listed out solutions and remedies; and showed ways and means to overcome or end them They wrote them in Tamil prose on dried palm leaves. These writings came to be known as the Nadi."
He had posted revelations and happenings linked to people who came in search of the Jeeva Nadi in possession of the late Hanumathdasan of Chennai, in his blog http://siththanarul.blogspot.com.
One's karma is revealed by the Siddhas in the Nadi, or if his Guru chooses to reveal it. One comes to know it in near-death experiences or as he sits in deep meditation.
Having understood karma and its domino effects we are required to tread carefully so as not to incur more negative karma but instead increase the positive karma. Hence we are set on a course of doing puja and charity. Once the scale is balanced, one has to refrain from performing even the positive karma for that would have to be honored requiring to take on another birth. So to end this cycle of birth does that mean we do nothing?
Lao Tzu asks us to go with the flow. From Henry Wei in the ‘GUIDING LIGHT OF LAO TZU’, Synergy Books International,
"So much emphasis does Lao Tzu lay on the most important doctrine in regard to spiritual cultivation known as Wu Wei or non-action which is in the sense of non-interference, that is to say, non-interference with the trend of nature or the flow of Tao."
We can continue to engage though in noble activities that help to uplift the lives of fellow humans as stated in Agathiyar's 5 tenets for humanity, without claiming credit for it. The good karma earned is placed at the feet of the divine.
Ram Das in ‘PATH TO GOD - Living the Bhagavad Gita’, Harmony Books, 2004, explains.
"If we want to get done with it all, it is clear that the first step in the process is to stop creating new waves. We’re never going to be finished if we keep making new waves for ourselves every day. Once we’re acting purely out of dharma and not out of any desire, we’re no longer making waves. When you’ve totally surrendered to your dharma, when you’re no longer trying for anything, that’s your way through."
Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama in ‘KARMA AND REINCARNATION’, Piatkus, 1992 says it beautifully,
"Dissolving karma through learning detachment - nonaction within action i.e. acting out the unfolding of one’s day-to-day life continuously but without attachment to the results of the action"
Sara Cornwall quotes from the "Bhagavadgita" at https://lotuspeople.com.au/,
"In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna said: “Let your concern be with action alone, and never with the fruits of action. Do not let the results of action be your motive, and do not be attached to inaction.”
She shares her understanding, "What this means to me, is letting go of the desire to control outcomes, but rather to focus on the only thing I can control, my own actions."
To the Tibetans, they accept karma as a natural and just process. Karma inspires them to be responsible for whatever they do, says Sogyal Rinpoche.
"We must realize that every moment in our life, every joy, and every sorrow, can be traced to some source within us. There is no one “out there” making it all happen. We make it happen or not happen according to the actions we perform, the attitudes we hold and the thoughts we think. Therefore, by gaining conscious control of our thoughts and attitudes by right action, we can control the flow of karma. Karma, then, is our best spiritual teacher. We spiritually learn and grow as our actions return to us to be resolved and dissolved."
Indeed karma is our best spiritual teacher.