Karma & Dharma

English Karma + Dharma Now within the Vedas there are two main concepts and that is that of dharma and that of karma. Karma is the expression of dharma in an individual's life. And one of the meanings of karma is action and I want to invite you to consider that in the highest sense karma is a law similar to the law of gravity. So on this physical plane— you know?—gravity is going to affect form and physical matter. So those was living in a physical body on this physical planet, well, we have to obey the laws of the physical world which just happens to be gravity. Now karma is like that. Karma is a law of the mind. Just like the consequences of gravity are immediate— for example, when we drop an apple the consequences of that gravity are immediate when applied to the apple. Similar to that, the consequences of the law of karma are just as immediate. What's interesting, however, is that with our sense of time, with our linear sense of time, we may not actually quite understand that immediacy of the application of the law of karma. Those consequences of karma that we're supposed experience may come later in this incarnation, or in a future incarnation. And when that karma comes it manifests itself as thought. And that thought is translated through, understood by, that level of comprehension in your mind using your conscious intellect. It's your intelligence and those intellectual capabilities that you have that allow that karma to manifest through your action. So that unique observer that you are, that being that looks out from your eyes, that's that divine being that's participating in the law of karma. And that divine being has a certain level of vibration, a certain level of comprehension; it's a certain frequency. It's kind of actually like tuning into a radio station. And so if you listen to radio stations, you'll realize that rock music stations will have a certain group of listeners. Classical music stations—you know you have to tune the band to a different station— they'll have another group of listeners. And then country music another group of listeners and so on. So every individual, yourself included myself included, we each of us have a certain level of frequency that we are tuned into. And so karma works on this cycle of time where that intelligence, that level of comprehension that you and I have, it creates a series of thoughts that lead to action, that produce certain results. So since we know that the law of gravity affects an apple or a feather equally, the law of karma works in the same way; it affects the quality of thought equally. So for example, and is just an example, if you cause harm to another divine being—I'm not saying that you're going to— but if you cause harm to another expression of the divine being, it's because you want to test out this hypothesis through a scientific process. So you actually wanted to experience what it would be like to give harm. Now this law of karma is unfailing in that when you give harm you actually get to experience that harm in return. And the reason is that everything is divine. Everything on this planet is divine. You are divine expression of God. And so if you harm another, because that other is another expression of God, another divine being, you are in fact actually harming yourself. And so this law of karma applies. Now the way we manifest this karma: because of that intelligence that took that particular level of action, that karma may not manifest until several lives from now, or even several different types of comprehensions later. What I mean to say is that: if the result of your action— this action was created at a certain frequency of thought and a certain frequency of comprehension— and this action resulted in somebody else breaking their leg, at some point later this hour, maybe tomorrow, maybe this year, maybe in 10 years, or even 10 lives, you get to actually experience the results of that karma. Now your experience however is limited to that highest expression of your intelligence at that point. So here's just example continuing on with giving harm. So maybe last life, or last ten lives, or maybe when you were a child, you did something that caused somebody to break their leg. And at some point you're going to have to experience those consequences. That is to say you at some point will have one leg broken. OK? That's- those of the consequences that you actually have to experience so that you can balance out these karmas. But during your life you've gone into meditation, you've been very spiritual, you've been very religious, you've focused on becoming a better person and following a dharmic path. So all of this time, since your childhood, or since the last 10 births, or the last birth, or whatever, you've been developing yourself, you've been tuning your mind and intelligence to higher and higher frequencies. So you've actually tuned your inner nerve currents to a certain level of intelligence. And at this level of intelligence, this is when that karma is going to come back to you. But because you've developed yourself so highly to this level, just reading a newspaper article on somebody who broke their leg, that's enough for you to have understood the consequences of karma. Now it's not as simple as just reading a newspaper article on somebody breaking their leg but let's say, for example, you read that newspaper article and there's such a deep, visceral experience. There's some tingling in your gut, you like kind of shake and there's like heat and cold that just run up and down your body. That's a very visceral reaction that I'm talking about. So according to that law of karma, those consequences that you set into motion a long time ago, that action you took to cause a broken leg, was acted with a certain frequency of intelligence. And in this current incarnation that intelligence, your frequency of intelligence was so refined, in fact it was more refined, based on your previous patterns, that instead of actually breaking your leg now you only have to read about somebody else's broken leg and have that visceral reaction in your physical body. And so this causes you and your refined intelligence to understand the consequences of that action. The basic philosophy within the Vedic frameworks is to illuminate the paths of karma. And your karma is essentially that suitcase of experiences that you get to wear while you come as a tourist to incarnate on this planet. Now when I'm talking about all those knickknacks within your suitcase— it could be things like hats and shirts and trousers and MP3 devices and e-readers and books and knickknacks and all those things that you come to the planet on— this is going to be your level of comfort and that's your karma that you get to unfold. So during your incarnation, basically you're going to like— you know?—check into that hotel room which is planet Earth, you're going to open your suitcase, and then you're going to go back and forth as you live your life. And you're going to take certain items out of the suitcase, you're going to wear it, you're going to take that e-book reader, you're going to read it; those kind of things. Those are the experiences and the consequences of your prior actions that you get to live on this incarnation. So you come into birth with this suitcase of karma and it gets activated each time. And all of these activations, it happens to an unfailing process. This is a divine process. It's like clockwork because everything that happens is precisely timed. It also unfolds in the proper time. Now the whole idea of living dharmically is to go within yourself— essentially so that you can minimize the creation of future karmas to be experienced. It doesn't mean that you're going to withdraw totally from the world but that those ideas and the thoughts that you have lead to actions that are dharmic, that follow this path of dharma so that you work within the laws of karma. So basically using that tourist metaphor, the idea is: you have a suitcase, you come with a suitcase, you get to wear all of those things, you get to use all of those things that are in your suitcase. But don't buy the knickknacks. Don't buy the trinkets. Don't make a bigger suitcase on the way back. So the idea is to manage your karmas by wearing your experiences, learning from them, and then discarding them. The evolved soul actually packs a lighter suitcase on the return trip. And so the Vedic frameworks teach us to live in harmony so that our true divine nature is always expressed. And there are rules. Well, they're not actually rules per se, but it's just things you don't want to do if you want to work with the law of karma. And for example let's look at the law of gravity. You know, we don't step off a tall building because we know that if the building is sufficiently tall we get to smash our body and— whoops!—we have to find another new body to live in. So it's just like that with karma. These rules, or these laws, that when you transgress them, what you're doing is you're going to cause yourself to experience the consequences. And so do you see how all of these Vedic frameworks, the karma the dharma, the reincarnation, the inner goals, all of these? Do you see how the integrate together and how they allow you to actually have the fullness of experience in this life? Do you notice that? So every being on this planet is a divine expression. Every being is enjoying and learning and maturing through their karmas. In fact, every being is like that tourist; they're here to have a good time, they're here to enjoy their vacation, they're here to live out their karmas—the consequences of their karmas. And this is the way that each of these divine beings, each of us, this is the way we learn. But what is very crucial is when we understand what the Vedic frameworks are, what we choose to learn and how we choose learn, that's the critical part. If you do have any questions of and comments about this video please do post within the learning community. I'll be there to answer and support any questions that you may have. So take care, have yourself a beautiful day and I will see you in the next video.