Karma/Material Nature
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before Aug 03, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
Email Inquiry:
Regarding karma and material nature, these two are like twins as both chase and reinforce each other. Hence what is the guarantee of getting only good and no bad reactions in these lifetimes?
MiBeloved’s Response:
Material nature is unpredictable and reserves the right to mess up anybody at anytime, anywhere. Now we humans are masters of the earth environment but scientists warn us that if a meteor hits the planet or if there is a very large volcanic eruption, then we are toast.
We are 100% dependent on the auspices of material nature and if the tides turn against us then it is all over and our technology will prove to be useless.
Karma as we use the term in the West is really phalam in Sanskrit and not karma. Karma in Sanskrit means the action performed while phalam means the reactions which will come because of the action performed but in the West we are using the word to karma to mean the reaction to the action.
Material nature has the upper hand, because if I plan and then execute an action, material nature may delay the reaction so that I get the consequence in some other life, even in another life where I completely forgot everything about doing that action in this life.
Something may happen today which I may interpret as being a reaction to something I did yesterday, but I may be dead wrong. It may be instead that what I saw as an immediate reaction was a reaction to something I did one thousand years ago, and nature has actually reserved my new action as an impetus to present me with another set of circumstances in some future life.
Material nature reserves the right to control the time release of the consequences to my actions. This means that nature can mess up my plans. Anybody with a brain thinks of benefits. There is hardly a person who is hoping for a bad reaction for an act. Even if I do something criminal my usual attitude is to derive something beneficial from it.
Some criminal may inflict a cruelty to someone and not even take the person’s money or property but only to derive the pleasure of being in an advantageous position. In most cases there is some benefit which is imagined either a physical or psychological one.
Good people endeavor to remain at a distance from criminal acts. They only want to do what is good. Some say that they do this selflessly without motive, as if such a condition is possible in material nature.
In the Bhagavad Gita we get some information that it is not possible to just derive all good from material nature, because material nature itself is flawed all the way through. There could be a greater percentage of positive returns but it will never be 100% because material nature is always composite of her lower aspects which are passionate drives and plain ignorance. Here are some verses where Lord Krishna explains that even the highest mode, sattva guna, is flawed and cause the soul to go downward eventually. This means that those of us who are good guys will be in a rude awakening after we have given ourselves over to the sattva guna completely
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सत्त्वं रजस्तम इति
गुणाः प्रकृतिसंभवाः ।
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो
देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥१४.५॥
sattvaṁ rajastama iti
guṇāḥ prakṛtisaṁbhavāḥ
nibadhnanti mahābāho
dehe dehinamavyayam (14.5)
sattvaṁ — clarity; rajaḥ — impulsion; tama — retardation; iti — thus; guṇāḥ — influences; prakṛtisaṁbhavāḥ = prakṛti— material nature + saṁbhavāḥ — produced of; nibadhnanti — they captivate; mahābāho — O great-armed hero; dehe — in the body; dehinaṁ — embodied soul; avyayam — imperishable
Clarity, impulsion and retardation are the influences produced of material nature. They captivate the imperishable embodied soul in the body, O strong-armed hero. (14.5)
तत्र सत्त्वं निर्मलत्वात्
प्रकाशकमनामयम् ।
सुखसङ्गेन बध्नाति
ज्ञानसङ्गेन चानघ ॥१४.६॥
tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt
prakāśakamanāmayam
sukhasaṅgena badhnāti
jñānasaṅgena cānagha (14.6)
tatra — regarding these; sattvaṁ — clarifying influence; nirmalatvāt — relatively free from perceptive impurities; prakāśakam — illuminating; anāmayam — free from disease; sukhasaṅgena = sukha — happiness + saṅgena — by attachment; badhnāti — it binds; jñānasaṅgena = jñāna— knowledge of expertise + saṅgena — by attachment; cānagha = ca — and + anagha — sinless one
Regarding these influences, the clarifying one is relatively free from perceptive impurities. It is illuminating and free from disease, but by granting an attachment to happiness and to expertise, it captivates a person, O sinless one. (14.6)
रजो रागात्मकंविद्धि
तृष्णासङ्गसमुद्भवम् ।
तन्निबध्नाति कौन्तेय
कर्मसङ्गेन देहिनम् ॥१४.७॥
rajo rāgātmakaṁviddhi
tṛṣṇāsaṅgasamudbhavam
tannibadhnāti kaunteya
karmasaṅgena dehinam (14.7)
rajo - rajaḥ — impulsive influence; rāgātmakaṁ — characterized by passion; viddhi — know; tṛṣṇāsaṅgasamudbhavam= tṛṣṇā— desire + saṅga — earnest + samudbhavam — produced from; tat — this; nibadhnāti — it captivates; kaunteya — O son of Kuntī ; karmasaṅgena — by attachment to activity; dehināṁ — the embodied soul
Know that the impulsive influence is characterized by passion. It is produced from earnest desire and attachment. O son of Kuntī , this mode captivates the embodied soul by an attachment to activity. (14.7)
तमस्त्वज्ञानजं विद्धि
मोहनं सर्वदेहिनाम् ।
प्रमादालस्यनिद्राभिस्
तन्निबध्नाति भारत ॥१४.८॥
tamastvajñānajaṁ viddhi
mohanaṁ sarvadehinām
pramādālasyanidrābhis
tannibadhnāti bhārata (14.8)
tamaḥ — depressing mode; tu — but; ajñānajaṁ — produced of insensibility; viddhi — know; mohanam — confusion; sarvadehināṁ — of all embodied beings; pramādālasyanidrābhiḥ = pramāda — inattentiveness + ālasya — laziness + nidrābhiḥ - sleep; tat — this; nibadhnāti — captivates; bhārata — O man of the Bharata family
But know that the depressing mode is produced of insensibility which is the confusion of all embodied beings. This captivates by inattentiveness, laziness and sleep, O man of the Bharata family. (14.8)
