By : Seetha Priya
Why is a person born with everything in life, while other struggles to fulfill even his basic needs? A silver spoon for some, and not even a small piece of bread for another? This is hard to digest and understand. Who decides it anyway? Do we just follow a course as over algorithms set by a fate maker?
Ramana Bhagwan pondered ‘Who am I?’ and Buddha was intrigued seeing a child, an old man and a corpse; the answers eventually led him to salvation.
Who is Sai Baba? “You may ask where I am now and how I can meet you now. But I am within your heart and we can meet without any effort.” (Sai Satcharitra Chapter 44, Ovi 162)
Karma is a mystical word in Indian texts; it has also been adapted in the English language, and refers to our actions and their outcomes, which are akin to the cause and effect principles.
As he recited the sixth shloka of Vishnu Sahasranama, Bhishma lying on a bed of arrows that pierced every inch of his body, wondered in agony as to what actions of past had led him to this excruciating pain and humiliation. He asked Lord Krishna, “I have scanned my 72 previous lives, but could not find a single action which could have resulted in my lying here on this bed of arrows.
Then Krishna explained to him that in his 73rd life Bhishma as a child, had playfully pierced a sharp thorn into an insect. That action resulted in his current suffering.
When Appa Kulkarni died soon after meeting Nana Chandorkar to persuade him to visit Shirdi, Sai Baba pacified the young widow that ‘Appa has fulfilled his assignment and he is not entangled in the cycle of births and deaths’. Appa Kulkarni did not rest until he conveyed Baba’s message to Nana Saheb. ‘Before you act, you have freedom, but after you act, the effect of that action will follow you whether you want it to or not. That is the law of karma. You are a free agent, but when you perform a certain act, you will reap the results of that action.
As an arrow which has been shot cannot be recalled, so too your action which automatically results in karma; good or bad, however it may be.
The sixth shloka of Sahasranama is –
‘Aprameyah Hrishikesha Padmanabha Amaraprabhu
Vishwakarma Manu Swashta Sthavishta Sthaviro Dhruvah’
Lord Vishnu is indefinable as ‘Aprameya’ and is ‘Hrishikesha’ to be the Lord of the senses in performing karmas. As ‘Padmanabha’, the Lord of the whole universe. In regulating individual karma, Lord Vishnu is ‘Amaraprabhu’ the Lord of the immortals and ‘Vishwakarma’ the creator the universe. He is ‘Manu’ the thinker, ‘Swashta’ the reducer, ‘Sthavishta’ the biggest and ultimately ‘Sthaviro Dhruvah’ the old and firm.
In this way, there are many ways and means that Lord Vishnu mitigates, lessens or eradicates our karmas from fruition. Sai Baba is Lord Vishnu. Start thinking positively which will help the effects of past actions, rather than accepting failure with an excuse that, ‘It must be my karma. I can’t seem to succeed in anything,’ and so on, and make a greater effort.
Sai Baba gives us the wisdom to help us to make the right choices in life so that we are not influenced by our samskaras. As ‘Aprameya’ and ‘Hrishikesha’, Sai Baba inspires us to resist our bad habits. Wisdom and discrimination help us to understand the nature of people with whom we associate and this, in turn, helps us choose whom we associate with. Wisdom enables us to know which desires we should try to fulfill and which we should drop.
Sri Narasimha Swamiji analyzes this doctrine of Karma as most people do not analyze themselves, and so never realize how bound they are by influences of past actions. Begin to analyze yourselves more, to understand why you are as you are. You may have noticed that some children are born with certain moods and habits. They brought these tendencies from the past; for in this life they have not yet had time to form such patterns of behavior.
Our lives are getting increasingly complex day by day. Vishnu Sahasranama enables us to exercise good judgement in our everyday lives so that we are not likely to get into trouble. Vishnu Sahasranama gives the wisdom to what benefits us and the will power to follow what wisdom says.
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