ACTIONS, IMPRESSIONS, KARMA & SPIRITUAL FREEDOM “Now, so long as all the impressions (received ever since the soul entered into the spheres of minds and bodies) have not been removed, the soul is not free, and till then shall remain subject to karma. It performs actions only when it activates the mind, and this happens only when it leaves the Sound Current and associates itself with the mind. It is free from the mind as long as it is catching the Current. So practically the whole of humanity – leaving aside other creation – is disconnected from the Current and performs actions, leaving their impressions behind and becoming the cause of rebirths. At birth, a definite number of actions or impressions are allotted the soul. They form, in a way, the mould in which the new life has been cast. They determine the temperament, span of life, and the trend of activities during life. During the lifetime, therefore, these impressions have been worked out, and new impressions have been received. These new impression, together with the unallotted old impressions, are sorted again, and a definite number assigned to run another span of life. The process is therefore unending, and evidently there does not seem to be any way out of this cycle. But saints show us a way out. They say that the impressions that you brought with you in this life, form your fate, and you have to undergo this. There is no escape from this, and if it were to terminate somehow immediately, death would ensue. Therefore, there should be no interference with them. They cannot be altered or modified. But the new actions that you do, you may do, not as an independent, but as an agent of the Master. As agent, you are not held responsible. A faithful agent does not misuse the powers and property entrusted to him. Suppose that we take the body, the mind, and the worldly properties we possess as a trust from the Master, and work with them as his agents – then there is little possibility of our using them in ill ways. The new actions, therefore, will not be binding. The agent is responsible to the primary, and if has done his work honestly and to the best of his ability, then for all his actions as agent, the primary is responsible. In addition, the saints put us onto the Current. By these means they free us from the new impressions, and the assigned impressions are worked out during the lifetime. The unassigned impressions, saints take upon themselves, and themselves render account. Saints have the capacity to render account for the unassigned actions, for they come from a zone beyond the limits of mind. Without the help of saints and the travel on the Sound Current, there is no escape from the impressions.” (Sawan Singh. “Spiritual Gems”. RSSB 1958/1996. Pp. 228-229) This is a great passage in explaining a bit about karma and learning to be karma-less. I’d like to take a moment to go over this a bit. The phrase Sawan uses here is being an “agent of the Master”, and it’s a great analogy in that the one for whom you are an agent assumes any karmic responsibilities for your actions. Of course, this is not to even remotely suggest that by simply saying, “I’m doing this in service of – or in the name of – the Master”, that you have no responsibility for your actions. For – like 12-Step programs – Sant Mat is a path of personal responsibility. It might help if we get behind the meaning of what Sawan is saying here. We are not really talking about doing things in the name of a human being. We are talking about the Spiritual Body – the Eternal Essence – of the Master. And what is that Spiritual Body? IT is Shabda – the Sound Current. The Master is an expression of the Current on every level – physical, astral (emotional), causal, mental and Soul. So we are making our actions an expression of this Divine Essence. But let’s take this one step furthur. What is meant by acting in the Name of the Master, or the Name of God? Are we simply saying, “I am brushing my teeth in the Name of the Master. I am eating cereal, driving my car, attending a little league game in the Name of God.” Not really. While this is a good exercise in refocusing our attention on God, and helping us be progressively more conscious of our spiritual nature, it goes deeper than this. For what is the Name? What is Shabda – The Holy Spirit? It is a River of Divine Love that can be seen as Light and heard as Sound. To me, thinking of Shabda and the Master as a Current of a Spiritual River brings us closer to the essence of what Sawan is teaching. For if you think about Name or Spirit as a river, then if you are doing things in the Name of the Master and the Name of God, you are being in the Name – you are immersing yourself in this Spiritual River. You are letting IT soak into you, saturate you more and more – until you and the River are one and the same. Now, this river – because it comes from the heart of the Eternal – precedes and is beyond all mind and memories and emotions and karma – which makes it karma-less. And since Pure Divine Shabda is karma-less, if you are acting as a conscious instrument of this Current, you are also engaging in karma-less action. This is a very important point. The only way to not create karma is to be immersed in and in harmony with the Current. And the only way to be permanently rid of karma you have accumulated is to work it out here in this life – while not creating any new karma. How do you immerse yourself in the Current? Through Surat Shabda Meditation – communing with the Word (as Guru Nanak put it). Every day using Simran (repeating spiritually-charged Names), Dhyan (seeing Inner Light) and Bhajan (hearing Inner Sound), you allow the Current to enfold you, lift up and wash away the day’s karma like a spiritual shower, and gradually fill you with ITs Love. Then you continue using Simran throughout your day while living your life. This gradually brings you into progressively greater harmony with IT until – as I noted above – you and the Current are One. At this point, everything you do is an expression of IT. You are an agent of IT – a human instrument for ITs expression – filled with Divine Light, Sound and Eternal Love. And this is a very beautiful thing. I hope you have a wonderful weekend In the LightSong of Eternal Love, Michael spiritualfreedomsatsang.org - Michaels blog
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 05:12:19 +0000
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