Friday, 1 April 2016

Fate Karma Versus Destiny

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In recognition of the rigid mandate of the law of karma, it is sometimes postulated that human destiny is implacably confined and restricted by karmic circumscription; and that an irrevocable and unalterable capitulation to its dictates in situ, is the only option that be, as regards one’s fate. Thus, fervent proponents of that conception equate karma to fatalism; some form of a mechanistic, preordained and deterministic arrangement, whereby the individual simply poses as a bystander or a helpless spectator, destined to passively submit to the currents of the karmic storm.
While the fundamental tenet of that advocacy cannot be fulminated and entirely discounted on grounds that fate karma, at least patterns the overall course of the contemporary instalment of one’s life, it can also legitimately and comfortably be emplaced that karma by no means amounts to fatalism or rigid determinism. Unlike a machine whose exertions and functions unfold in a rigidly predetermined manner as conditioned by its intrinsic mechanisms, a human specimen is endowed with inventiveness, imagination, freewill, reason and conscience; and a sagacious amalgamation of these capabilities can enable judicious management and modification of one’s fate karma to a reasonable degree. Therefore it is stated:
Many people think there's nothing they can do to change their karma--it's preordained so why bother trying to change their situation? This is what scares people. These folks think that to accept the reality of karma one must be passive. It simply isn't true. Karma is active. We can--in the blink of an eye--make decisions that will shape our futures and transform the parts of our lives that are causing us unhappiness.
(MARY T. BROWNE, The Power of Karma)
Karma differs from fate or destiny because it encourages us to take an active role in life. The Law of Karma requires the spiritual seeker to follow the highest code of ethics.
(TODD CRAMER, Eckankar: Ancient Wisdom for Today)
Karmic modification implies that while the fundamental pattern of karma remains unalterable, the severity of one’s karma can be modulated and diluted through the sagacious exercise of freewill, wisdom and effort. Freewill implies that humans can exercise a considerable deal of discretion in their choices, preferences and aspirations. These novel choices would then generate their associated consequences, which then coalesce with one’s contemporary scheduled karma to generate a slightly different karmic admixture. If fresh choices are exercised with due prudence, this then has the tendency for lubricating one’s karmic burden. The remodelling of one’s karma can be met with enhanced grasping, against the backdrop of the following analogy:
Suppose a farmer cultivated lettuce on his agricultural terrain in the preceding season, and that for the contemporary season, the farmer craves to grow spinach. Having carried out a thorough preparation of the land, it once more becomes transformed into conducive conditions for cultivation. So, the farmer is now geared towards the exercise of freewill by switching from the culture of lettuce to the culture of spinach. Nonetheless, enshrined in the subterranean stratum of the land are lettuce seeds, whose presence there is perfectly justified, considering that the farmer cultivated lettuce in the preceding season. So, as soon as the farmer starts sowing spinach seeds, the lettuce seeds embedded in the subsoil profusely sprout onto the topsoil. A ferocious battle now emerges between the farmer’s freewill to cultivate spinach, and the pending consequences of his historically exercised freewill, which translated into the cultivation of lettuce; the consequences of which are in persistent interception of his current instalment of freewill.
It fully comes to the farmer’s realisation that he cannot entirely secure escapism from the ramifications of his previous farming activities. The farmer then opts to shoulder the responsibility of deracinating the interjecting lettuce seedlings that are now colonising his spinach seedlings. He embraces this responsibility with consistency and endurance. Doubtless, the endeavour to deracinate all lettuce seedlings is an exceedingly painstaking venture; and yet, the farmer might not quite emerge victorious in deracinating all the intercepting lettuce seedlings; and some might even eventually maturate. Even though the farmer has not emerged victorious in annihilating all these undesired lettuce seedlings, nevertheless, he has managed to diminish their germinative effervescence; and hence, has successful diluted the ferocity of their invasion.
Just like the farmer, a pragmatic and efficacious strategy for modifying one’s karma is the total desertion of unwholesome deeds and the unreserved embracement of wholesome endeavours, such as the acquisition of positive knowledge, a passion for wisdom, selfless love, compassion, meditation, devotion, unconditional service etc. The veracity is that, this package of nobility will then produce fresh fruits; and the aggregate of those delicious fruits can then mitigate the intensity and magnitude of the visible effects of one’s historically sowed unwholesome deeds. Also, the adoption of this package of nobility can also accord one insight as to the exact nature of karmic unfoldment, and an understanding thereof can enhance one’s ability to manage one’s karma more endurably and effectively; while also offering one the tools necessary for disabling the feasibility of one’s currently maturated unwholesome karma, in reproducing even more karma.
Therefore, the sagacious exercise of freedom of choice, rooted in positive knowledge, wisdom and love, constitutes the divine agency for modifying one’s contemporary karma. Thus, in the biblical scriptures, it is stated:
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive…
(2 Peter 1:5-8)
Herein lies the secrets of salvation because amidst this domineering karmic entanglement, mortals can still be granted deliverance from the trammels of mundane illusion via divine grace. Grace is that unmerited favour granted humans by the supreme Lord, so that they may be redeemed from the penance of mundane illusion. Nonetheless, for the bestowal of grace and the consequent deliverance of one from the vortex of turmoil, one must render oneself receptive to that grace; and such receptivity entails permanent and irreversible dissociation from unwholesomeness. But the grace of God manifests amongst mortals via an objective, visible and recognisable channel. These God-nominated channels of divine grace are the high order living spiritual Masters such as Supreme Master Ching Hai, who are the specially dispatched errands of mercy by the Supreme one, to come and assist many a hurricane-battered soul, unfasten themselves from the captivity of self-manufactured penance. No mortal per se, can expect to resolve his or her colossal karmic account to completion and gain liberation of the soul without a living Master: Therefore, Jesus stated:
…But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice
(Mathew 9:13)
Therefore, even the loftiest degree of sacrifice cannot extinguish one’s colossal depository of karma; especially unwholesome karma amassed over millions upon millions of previous lives. Thus, to be in receipt of redemption, one must alienate unwholesome deeds, embrace wholesome deeds and render oneself receptive to divine grace by obtaining initiation from a high calibre Master such as Supreme Master Ching Hai.

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