November 24, 2011
Suddenly Karma is everywhere. A search on Youtube alone indicates that there are 343,000 videos, the same on Google indicates that there are 256 million entries that have something to do with karma. Pop culture entries include songs by Alicia Keys, John Lennon and Black Eyes Peas (bad language alert!). There is even a car company in California, Fisker Automotive that makes a luxury car named Karma.
Honestly, what goes for Karma in pop culture feels like moonshine instead of the divine soma that the ancient rishis prescribed for Yagnas. For one, most of the references still are within the context of a one-life world view. For most people who were brought up outside the Eastern traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Tao, Sikhism, etc) do not comprehend this whole story that we are not limited to this one life. The Bhagavad Geeta is a great source to comprehend this theory.
First, Śrī Kṛṣṇa's emphatic declaration in chapter 2-12:
न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः |
न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ||२-१२||
na tvevaaha.n jaatu naasa.n na tva.n neme janaadhipaaH .
na chaiva na bhavishhyaamaH sarve vayamataH param.h .. 2-12..
It is not that at any time (in the past) , indeed, was I not, nor were you, nor these rulers of men. Nor, verily, shall we all ever cease to be hereafter.
Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji in his commentary states that:
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन |
तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप ||४-५||
bahuuni me vyatiitaani janmaani tava chaarjuna .
taanyahaM veda sarvaaNi na tvaM vettha parantapa .. 4-5..
Many births of Mine have passed, as have yours, O Arjuna; I know them all but you know them not, O Parantapa (scorcher of foes).
Once again, Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji:
With this post, I am starting a series of posts to understand this ancient understanding of a fundamental Eastern view of life and death, of course based on the teachings of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad Geeta. In an upcoming post, we will see how and why the Lord himself appears in this world.
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
Suddenly Karma is everywhere. A search on Youtube alone indicates that there are 343,000 videos, the same on Google indicates that there are 256 million entries that have something to do with karma. Pop culture entries include songs by Alicia Keys, John Lennon and Black Eyes Peas (bad language alert!). There is even a car company in California, Fisker Automotive that makes a luxury car named Karma.
Honestly, what goes for Karma in pop culture feels like moonshine instead of the divine soma that the ancient rishis prescribed for Yagnas. For one, most of the references still are within the context of a one-life world view. For most people who were brought up outside the Eastern traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Tao, Sikhism, etc) do not comprehend this whole story that we are not limited to this one life. The Bhagavad Geeta is a great source to comprehend this theory.
First, Śrī Kṛṣṇa's emphatic declaration in chapter 2-12:
न त्वेवाहं जातु नासं न त्वं नेमे जनाधिपाः |
न चैव न भविष्यामः सर्वे वयमतः परम् ||२-१२||
na tvevaaha.n jaatu naasa.n na tva.n neme janaadhipaaH .
na chaiva na bhavishhyaamaH sarve vayamataH param.h .. 2-12..
It is not that at any time (in the past) , indeed, was I not, nor were you, nor these rulers of men. Nor, verily, shall we all ever cease to be hereafter.
Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji in his commentary states that:
He says that neither He Himself nor Arjuna nor the great kings of the age that have assembled in both the armies, are mere accidental happenings. They do not come from nowhere and, at their death, do not become mere non-existent nothingness. Correct philosophical thinking guides man's intellect to the apprehension of a continuity from the past --- through the present --- to the endless future. The Spirit remaining the same, It gets seemingly conditioned by different body-equipments and comes to live through its self-ordained environments.Śrī Kṛṣṇa re-emphasized the message in chapter 4-5:
बहूनि मे व्यतीतानि जन्मानि तव चार्जुन |
तान्यहं वेद सर्वाणि न त्वं वेत्थ परन्तप ||४-५||
bahuuni me vyatiitaani janmaani tava chaarjuna .
taanyahaM veda sarvaaNi na tvaM vettha parantapa .. 4-5..
Many births of Mine have passed, as have yours, O Arjuna; I know them all but you know them not, O Parantapa (scorcher of foes).
Once again, Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji:
Not a single mortal embodiment can be the result of sheer accident. Every man comes to the field of the world only as a result of his evolutionary progress, even according to the Darwinian theory. Each embodied life indicates a long autobiography of that ego, and it is only after a long chain of existence in different forms that it has at last reached its present destination. In each life, as soon as the ego expresses itself in its given field of activity, it, fortunately, forgets the entire past, and carries with it only a distinct flavour (vasana) thereof. But a Master-mind like Lord Krishna, in His Divine Omniscience, understands that both He and Arjuna had been through many vicissitudes of existence, and that "I KNOW THEM ALL WHILE YOU KNOW THEM NOT."
With this post, I am starting a series of posts to understand this ancient understanding of a fundamental Eastern view of life and death, of course based on the teachings of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad Geeta. In an upcoming post, we will see how and why the Lord himself appears in this world.
Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post
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