Even those who are not very close to the ideas of Hinduism, no, no, yes, they think about “improving” their karma. Only here it is important not just to “gain pluses” into karma, but to get rid of it. Why both good and bad karma are equally harmful, Yogi Sadhguru explains.
Karma literally means «action». Action is of three kinds: it can be done at the level of body, mind or energy. Any of our actions leaves a certain residue. This sediment forms its own characteristic pattern, a pattern that remains with us. Gradually, this pattern turns into a trend, and we ourselves become an automatic toy, a slave to our schemes.
Karma is like an old computer program that we unknowingly wrote for ourselves. Each of our actions enters something into this program. When the program is written and run, our entire system functions accordingly. That is why the same patterns are repeated in our lives. There are, of course, variations, but they are few.
After a while, this repetitiveness can become overwhelming. It is important to note that these schemes control us from within. No one controls us from the outside. Sometimes we feel like it’s a new day. But circumstances change, and internally we experience the same thing over and over again.
We’re hopelessly stuck in a karmic rut
«Freedom» is now an empty phrase. Our thoughts and feelings, our understanding of life, even the way we sit, stand and move, are all conditioned by our past impressions. As soon as we are born, circumstances decide everything for us. Among them: parents, family, education, friends, place of residence and travel routes. Karma is encrypted in all aspects of life. It is imprinted in our mental memory, in the basics of our body, chemistry and energy itself.
These are all backup systems. Even if we lose our body or mind, we still won’t lose our karma! That’s how strong she is. What we think of as our personality, the collection of traits and tendencies that make us up, exists because of the information we have collected unconsciously.
These tendencies are traditionally called vasanas. The word ‘vasana’ literally means ‘smell’. What got into the dumpster today, that’s what it smells like. Our scent will attract certain life situations to us. Let’s say there’s rotten fish in a dumpster today. We find its smell disgusting, but many other creatures find it attractive. Tomorrow, flowers will fall into the trash can, and their scent will attract other creatures.
Nature or program?
If someone asks us why we do things the way we do, we often say, “It’s my nature. Why can’t I do what I want?» This is not our nature. We don’t do what we want. The reason is that these trends have become obsessive. This is a limitation. If our program is complete, we have only one road left.
Looks like fate is predetermined? However, the spiritual process means that we have decided to consciously rewrite our computer program. In India, the word «karma» is used all the time. If a person shows any kind of possession, others will immediately say, «Oh, that’s his karma.» That is, it is his doing.
It is important to remember that the word «karma» does not carry a negative connotation.
Karma provides stability and structure to life. Every moment a stream of impressions flows into us through our sense organs, and they are all recorded. There is nothing wrong with this information. It is very useful for survival. Without it, we would not know how to cope even with the simplest aspects of life.
The spiritual process does not seek to destroy this repository of karmic impressions, but helps to become aware of them and create a small space that will allow us to move away from them. So our software itself is not a problem. It becomes a problem only if it becomes a determining factor in life.
Talking about good and bad karma is like talking about good bondage and bad bondage. This doesn’t happen. Karma is our own creation. She is neither good nor bad. This program can be useful if we are free from it. The spiritual process is aimed at loosening the grip of karma. Whatever the nature of past karma, there is enough awareness in a person to take full responsibility for present karma.
Dissolution of karma
We want some transformation in our lives, some forward movement, but all this can only happen if we break the cyclic patterns of karma. All cyclic processes require constant movement, but it never leads anywhere.
A person who is sensitive to life understands this early. The less sensitive realizes this as they get older. It seems that everything is going the way we wanted: professional activity brings success, capital increases, the family prospers — but we are not really moving anywhere.
Feeling a lack of something, we think that everything will be fine as soon as our dreams come true. But when dreams come true, we suddenly realize: although everything happens as we wanted, life still feels like a failure — dissatisfaction does not disappear anywhere.
Until we break this cycle, there will be no real choice in our lives.
Sometimes it feels like we’ve made a breakthrough. For three days it seems to us that everything has changed, that now everything will always be wonderful — but on the fourth day we return to the same track. Hasn’t this happened to you many times?
The fact is that while we are firmly held by the jaws of karma, we are deprived of freedom of thought, emotions, actions and experience. At the same time, avoiding karma is not the solution either. Avoidance can give us some balance, but over time, life will lose its freshness and joy. The attempt to deny, repress, or flee from life leads to bondage rather than freedom. «I don’t want karma!» — such a desire in itself becomes a big karma!
The process of life is the dissolution of karma
If we consciously live every second of our lives, we dissolve a huge amount of karma. When we fully accept everything that comes to us, and experience every breath of life with the utmost intensity, without being distracted by thoughts, emotions and psychological dramas, we are freed from the very process of birth and death. Then we don’t just live, we become life itself.
Yoga offers a way to distance not only from karma, but from its very source, the discriminating intellect. It gives us the opportunity at every moment to choose who to be: a victim, a spectator or the master of our lives. With a certain amount of diligence and practice, we can all write software for ourselves that brings joy and well-being.
Exercise: «What do I really want?»
It is easy to see that all your material achievements look valuable only against the background of other people’s lesser achievements; hence this joy springs from the deprivation of others. Can you really call it joy? Isn’t it a disease? It’s time to pay attention to it. If you were alone on this planet, what would you like to have? Ask yourself this question and see where it takes you.
Try this method. Sit alone for five minutes and see what your life would be like if you were completely alone in this world. If there was no one to compare yourself to, what would you truly want? What would be really important to you if there were no external evaluation or criticism?
If you do this exercise every day, you will connect to the desires of the life that you have become, and not to the accumulation of karma that you think you are.
Source: Sadhguru’s book Inner Engineering (Eksmo, Bombora, 2018). In it, he collected the most important lessons on how to learn to control your body and spirit.
About the author: Sadhguru is a yogi and philanthropist, founder of the Isha Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization, and author of Inner Engineering (Bombora, 2018).