Understanding KARMA through GRAVITY !

October 30, 2014 by rajesh108 3 Comments

Astronauts experiencing no gravity are like realized souls experiencing no karma

Karma is a key Hindu concept not always easily explained. Comparing it with the gravity, however, helps to illustrate how it works. Obviously, the law of gravitation existed
before Newton discovered it. Similarly, the law of karma was actively at work long before some ancient sage first consciously came to understand it. Both these laws apply
equally to everybody, regardless of race, religion, nationality, sex and sexual orientation. And they did so before either was understood.

The fact that our actions on Earth are governed by the law of gravity does not mean that we are frozen in place and cannot move about. It simply means we have free will within
limitations. We can run, for instance, but we cannot fly. Similarly, the fact that our experiences in life are governed by the law of karma does not mean that we are helpless and
live at the mercy of fate. Again, it means we have free will within limitations. We can purposefully improve our lives, but not without facing and accounting for past misdeeds.

All of the physical experiences that I have on the Earth pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad are under the influence of gravity. In a broader sense, all of the experiences that I
have in life pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad are under the influence of karma.

When an astronaut travels in space outside the range of Earths gravitational pull, he exists in a state of zero gravity and has experiences that no one on the Earths surface has
ever had. When he returns from his space travels, he can only try to explain it. Yet nothing he can say can duplicate that experience he has had for others.

Hinduism claims that it is possible to travel beyond karma to a state of no karma just like the astronaut can travel beyond gravity to no gravity. If this is true and it has been done,
those who did it experienced something none of the rest of us have. These jivanmuktis (enlightened beings) can try to describe their experience to others, but nothing they say
can produce that liberated state in the lives of those who listen.

The astronauts who have experienced the gravity-free zone know that it is possible. They dont have to be told. The jivanmuktis who have experienced the karma-free zone
know that it is possible. They also do not have to be told. Both the astronaut and the jivanmukti know what they know from their personal experience. No one can take that
experience away from them. However, this experience that cannot be taken away can also not be given away, which leaves us with a question: How can those who have not
had the experience be expected to understand or believe those who have? They must take their word for it. This is faith. Faith must suffice until experience takes hold.

How might we experience the karma-free state? Just as we achieve a state of zero gravity by performing a certain series of appropriate actions while under the influence of
gravity, so can we achieve a state of zero karma by following a specific pattern of activity while under the influence of karma.

The space shuttle itself is designed to deal with gravity. When we walk toward it and climb into it, we do so under the influence of gravity. As we launch, we are contending with
gravity. We are not concerned whether the gravity is good or bad. We are focused only on the effects of gravity with an aim of transcending gravity into its absence. In so
choosing to perform these actions, we have necessarily given up options to act in other ways for other purposes. By giving up all actions not relevant to the process of going
beyond gravity, it becomes possible for us to eventually achieve our goal of experiencing zero gravity.

Similarly, in order to reach a karma-free state, we must give up not only bad karma, but good karma as well. We must perform only that karma which is appropriate for the
attainment of zero karma. Just as the concept of good gravity and bad gravity is supplanted by considerations of gravity and no gravity, so also can the axis of good and bad
karma be exchanged for one of karma and no karma, when one seeks moksha, or liberation from birth and death.

Dr Arvind Sharma
Courtesy of Hinduism Today

Arvind Sharma is Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University,

Montreal, Canada
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Comments

1.

cabrogal says:

October 31, 2014 at 12:29 am

Indeed.

The whole notion of good and bad karma is akin to saying that the gravity that brings you crashing to the ground when you fall is bad while the gravity that stops you from
being hurled into space by the earths rotation is good.

But the problem with both of these approaches is that for many people laws imply lawgivers. So followers of scientific realism imagine there are intrinsic laws governing the
universe that science discovers as opposed to man-made models that are used to try to describe observations and predict outcomes. Likewise many who believe in karma
imagine some kind of cosmic accountant toting up the good and bad in each persons ledger and ensuring that it all balances in the end.

To me karma is just the inevitable effect of seeing yourself as something separate to the universe which acts upon it. You push the universe, the universe pushes back. Karma
and vipaka. Cause and effect. Its that simple.

Reply

2.

Govindan, K.P.Mr. says:

October 31, 2014 at 8:45 am

How to know when we are at zero karma? How can we exchange god for bad and equalise karma?Will we be able to realise when we attain zero karma?If not how to attain
that capacity?

Reply

cabrogal says:

October 31, 2014 at 9:48 am

Im pretty sure thats the wrong way of looking at it. Good and bad karma dont cancel each other out. They dont even exist except for your perspective of what is good and
what is bad.

If the Buddhists are to be believed the way to get rid of karma is to realise enlightenment. That will stop new karma good or bad from accruing. Then the karma you have
already accumulated will eventually be expended.

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