What is karma and how does it work?
Sadhguru delves into the meaning of karma which he defines as a certain amount of information. He then explains the different types of karma and the role karma plays in our lives.
What is karma?
Sadhguru : What you consider ‘my life’ is a certain amount of energy controlled by a certain amount of information. To use a modern analogy, we can say that this information is the software: a certain amount of life energy is charged with a certain amount of information. This information technology as a whole is you. You become a certain type of person because of the information that has been integrated into you.
From your birth until this very moment, the type of family you’ve had, the house, the friends, the things you’ve done and haven’t done: all of these things influence you. Every thought, emotion and action comes solely from past impressions you have had within yourself. They are what determine who you are right now. The very way you think, feel and understand life is nothing but the way you have assimilated this data.
The past impressions of life go back far beyond the moment you were born, but you now perceive the impressions that go at least from your birth until today: the parents, the family and the education that you have received, the religious and social context, the cultural realities, all these impressions have been integrated. Everyone becomes a different person simply because of the information that has been integrated. This is what karma is. This information is traditionally called karma or karmic body or causal body: what causes life.
Types of karma
This information is at different levels. Karma has four dimensions, two of which are not relevant at the moment. For you to understand, we can talk about the other two.
Sanchita Karma
The first dimension is called sanchita karma. It is the storehouse of karma that goes back to a single-celled animal and even to inanimate substances from which life evolved. All the information is there. If you close your eyes, become sufficiently aware and look within yourself, you will know the nature of the universe, not because you are looking at it through your head, but simply because this information is present in the making of the universe. body. There is a reserve of information that goes back to creation, it is your sanchita karma. But you can’t take your stash and do retail business. You must have a store to do retail. This “store”, which is for this life, is called prarabdha.
Prarabdha Karma
The prarabdha karma collects a certain amount of information allocated for this lifetime. Depending on the intensity of your life, life assigns itself how much information it can absorb. Creation is full of compassion. If she gave you all the karma you have, you would be dead. Currently, many people are tortured by mere memories of 30-40 years of their current life. If they were given this memory 100 times, they wouldn’t survive it. Nature bestows prarabdha, an allocated memory that you can bear.
Free yourself from karma!
Whatever your karma is, it’s a limited possibility, and that’s what makes you a limited person. Depending on the type of impressions you have received, whether hate and anger or love and joy, you therefore have a certain type of personality: in general, each human being is a clever cocktail of all these elements. Once you allow this karmic structure to build beyond a certain point, freedom no longer really exists. Everything you do is conditioned by the past. If you wish to progress towards liberation, you must begin by loosening the grip and the shackles of karma, otherwise there will be no movement.
… If you are truly on a spiritual journey, nothing will be clear. Everything will be blurry.
How to do ? Here’s a simple way is to physically break karma: If your karma is to wake up at 8 a.m., set your alarm clock for 5 a.m. Your body’s karma won’t want to get up, but you say, “No, I’m going to get up. Even if he gets up, your body will want a coffee, but you give him a cold shower. You then break the old karmic process by acting consciously. What you love, you can do unconsciously, can’t you? What you don’t like, you have to do consciously. It’s not the only way to do it, there are other more subtle and effective ways, I’m just giving you the roughest way possible.
Spirituality and Karma
As you begin your spiritual journey, you affirm: “I am in a hurry to arrive at my final destination.” You don’t want it to take 100 lives. Because during those 100 lives you can accumulate enough karma to last another 1000 lives. You want to go fast. Once a spiritual process is started, doing the initiations in a certain way opens up dimensions that would not have opened up otherwise. You would have lived a more peaceful life if you were not spiritual, but a duller life too, closer to death than to life. If nothing fundamental had been shaken within you, you might have walked through this life comfortably.
Does that mean that only bad things happen to you once you embark on a spiritual journey? It is not so. It’s just that when life is moving at a breakneck pace, a pace much faster than the people around you, you feel like a tragedy is about to befall you. No tragedy happens to you, it’s just that they go at normal speed, but your life is happening in accelerated mode.
Every seeker always has to decide if he just wants to enjoy the journey or if he wants to get to his destination quickly.
Many people mistakenly believe that once they start a spiritual journey, they will be serene and everything will be clear. If you adopt a convenient belief system and become a one-way mind, then everything seems clear. But if you are really on a spiritual journey, nothing will be clear. Everything will be blurry. The faster you travel, the fuzzier it gets.
A few years ago I was in Germany and once the program was finished I had to go to France, about 440 km away. The trip usually takes five hours. I had no intention of staying on the road for five hours, so I accelerated a bit and we were going about 200 km/h. The countryside was supposed to be beautiful in this area and I thought I’d check it out. I rolled my eyes, but everything was blurry, and I couldn’t take my eyes off the road for a moment. It was snowing and we were driving at crazy speeds.
The faster you go, the blurrier everything becomes and you can’t take your eyes off what you’re doing, even for a moment. If you want to enjoy the countryside, you have to go easy and slow. If you are in a hurry to reach your destination, you step on the gas: you see nothing. You move forward. The spiritual journey is like that. If you are truly on a spiritual journey, all is chaos around you. But you, you are always moving forward, so everything is fine. Would that be okay with you ? If that doesn’t suit you, you can go at the pace of evolution. Maybe it’ll be a million years before you get there.
There is a way for those in a hurry. There’s another one for those who aren’t in a hurry. You must clearly know what you want. If you get into the fast lane and try to go slow, you’ll get knocked down. If you are in the slow lane and try to go fast, you will be fined. Every seeker always has to decide if he just wants to enjoy the journey or if he wants to get to his destination quickly.
