Hi Ram

Your comments have raised an interesting set of queries for me in an area I have not researched deeply, but what I have read in various scriptural texts is often contradictory.

I can understand that karma works in an almost mechanistic fashion most of the time for most of the people, and I understand that a Self realized person is not normally subject to karmic process (although different schools differ on this aspect), as he is so to speak, out of time and space or transcendentally situated. Now I have also read that a soul that surrenders to the Self, whether a bhakta, yogi or jnani, in the sometimes drawn-out process of merging with the Self, has his life more or less taken over and controlled by the Self (or one of the energies of the Self – i.e. Shakti Devi or one of her forms).

Assuming this information is correct, I am not clear as to what extent the Divine in fact moves into organizing one's future situations, and to what extent residual mechanistic karma is allowed to keep running itself out.

I would be interested in your understanding of these processes, especially as they apply to the spiritual person.

Mike

Ram: As usual, most spiritual questions can be resolved by first resolving the point of view from which they are formulated. If this is a non-dual reality (as scripture claims and our epiphanies confirm) and there is such a thing as karma it would be an impersonal force, the Self functioning in Maya, the ever-changing epiphenomenal world.

The Self does not see individuals with particular karmic needs and try to manipulate reality to accomplish its ends. In fact, it has no intention, no agenda. It is not personally involved in getting us to realize it. This is why Vedanta says that there is no ‘God’ apart from the Self. When we think of ‘God’ we think of somebody, a person and because people always have intention we assume that God has intention too. If you don’t know the Self and you don’t know that you are the Self and you are interested in the origin of things you will believe that there is somebody ‘out there’ in some transcendental space or ‘back there’ before the beginning of time who is making all this (apparently) happen. But the Self is not a person. This is why non-dual Vedanta says that the Self is ‘higher’ than God, that ‘God’ is just a personification of formless Spirit.

For those who don’t know the Self another idea has evolved: qualified non-dualism. It accepts that you think of yourself as an individual and offers another way to see things, one that in practice is nearly as true as the non-dual vision. This is why surrender to God is often given equal status to Self inquiry. Yoga is all about surrender to God because it is for doers, individuals who are trying to solve the ‘who am I?’ through action and its results. These people…nearly everyone…are trying to get off the karmic wheel through karma, making certain things happen and avoiding certain other happenings. In your case you are trying to avoid incessant change of circumstances. Surrender to God means karma yoga, the way you see action and its results about which I have pontificated mightily.

The Self can’t be partial, responding to the same action differently to suit different individuals. It only sees and impersonally responds to action, ‘mechanistically’ is the word you use. It is the actions themselves in the field of consciousness that produce the responses, the ‘fruits’ of actions. How the individuals interpret karma is dependent on their ignorance or knowledge of the Self. If they are ignorant of who they are the vasanas interpret karma and the person thinks he or she is interpreting it. If they know who they are, they always interpret karma in the same way…as the Self functioning in Maya. They know that the whole question of karma is moot from the Self’s point of view. This is why the texts say that ‘a jnani’ is beyond karma. In fact there are no ‘jnanis.’ There is only the Self personified as a ‘jnani’ to help people understand the Self from their limited point of view.

So the question is: what is surrender to the Self? Is there something you can do to get out from under the wheel of karma? Well, surrender to the Self will always depend on what you think the Self is. If you know the Self you will know that you are the Self and there will be no question of surrender. You know you won’t gain anything by ‘surrendering’ to get the Self to take over your life because your life is already the Self; all karma is the same from the Self’s point of view.

How can you surrender to the Self when everything is the Self? The whole idea is incorrect because it assumes that there is a certain kind of karma that belongs to the Self and another type that doesn’t; one type leads to God and the other leads away from God. So the problem lies with the one who is interpreting karma. The Self doesn’t interpret karma because it is vasana free. It has no history. It has not drawn any conclusions from the world of experience, the karmic world, that can be the basis of an interpretation. Whatever happens is fine.

In fact there are no bhaktas, yogis, or jnanis or ‘souls.’ There is only the Self with or without action. So the idea that there is a ‘long process of merging’ with the Self is not correct, although it may seem that way from the point of view of an individual caught in time. I’ve been harping on the question of spiritual language for a long time. The idea of ‘merger’ means what? Who is ‘merging’ with what? Merger is a dualistic concept. It means that there is someone to merge and something to be merged into and that there is someone (God) or something (the Self) that is making that merger happen. But non-dual Vedanta says that any merger that is going to happen has already happened. Enlightenment is not a question of karma, merger, but a question of assuming the ‘platform’ of the Self so you can clearly understand what karma is and what it isn’t, what it can do and what it can’t. You can’t reach the Self after a long hard slog through the evolutionary process. This karmic chrono-centric way of viewing things…which admittedly is basically the only way most people see things…is the problem. If there is going to be a ‘surrender’ it would be the surrender of ‘letting go’ of the notion that I am a soul, a person, caught in time, that I will someday be released from karma and time and ‘rise up’ to my ‘transcendental platform.’

The more one thinks like this, the more one condemns his or herself to a life of action and the more one longs for the big action…enlightenment!...that will spell the end of all one’s (self-imposed) karmic suffering. You want this incessant change to stop but as long as you are a ‘you’ you are going to suffer change; there is no way out. So the question always reverts to ‘who am I?’

Another problem idea is ‘control.’ It assumes that there is one ‘state’ in which the Self is in control…the state of surrender…and other in which it isn’t. But if there is such a thing as control and the Self is non-dual then the Self would have to be in control all the time. Every event, every circumstance would have to be Grace, the Lord’s will.

So the struggle between the ego and God is just the struggle in oneself to understand and accept reality. This can only be accomplished by seeing things from the Self’s point of view. All apparently karmic struggles are just the war in oneself between knowledge and ignorance. This is why the teaching tradition of Vedanta has evolved. It solves the karmic problem, the problem of God and surrender, by teaching the Self. Not teaching ‘about’ the Self but, by the skillful use of ideas, revealing the nature of the Self by removing ignorance of the Self. One needn’t worry about any knowledge except Self knowledge because there is only the Self and knowing it ‘everything else’ is known for what it is.

So before we even begin to try and understand karma we need to analyze the language we are using to understand it, since the way we use language indicates our state of knowledge/ignorance. Your whole first paragraph could read like a primer on the language of experience. The last idea that I’d suggest we consider is the idea of some being ‘transcendentally situated.’ This idea is pure yoga. I think you must have picked it up from Prabupad, the Krishna Consciousness guy. In light of the non-dual view it is easy to destroy by asking ‘who is situated where?’ I won’t run through the whole thing as I’m sure you can work it out on your own.

Mike: Does, for example, the Divine get involved in the minutae of life, arranging the people you will meet, the opportunities which will be presented to one, a car accident and so on? or is this mechanistic karma at work, or even the normal collision of materialistic, haphazard events in Time.

Ram: It is the Self impersonally operating as the vasanas, time and space, that causes everything to happen. But there is no question of It ‘getting involved’ since that would imply that It is sometimes uninvolved. From Its point of view It is everything so there is no involvement. And from the individual’s point of view the Self is always involved…if the individual knows the truth…and never involved if the truth is not known.

But this does not mean that if you can’t see that you are the Self that you can’t get out of karmic predicaments. Duality works as good as non-duality. To get out of karmic predicaments one invokes the Self through prayer, meditation, etc. with a pure heart and ‘establishes’ a connection with It and trusts that everything that is happening is happening for a good reason (is God’s will) and remains peaceful in the midst of chaos.

The Self understands that some part of it has forgotten and sets in motion the events that lead to Self knowledge. This is why, from the dualistic point of view, there are two kinds of karma, the karma that leads to freedom and the karma that leads to further bondage. Mind you, karma is karma, but if the intention is pure…if one only wants to know who one is…this intention will lead one to enlightenment. As long as there are conflicting intentions one’s journey will be a roller coaster. So, if you want out of the chaos of your life because you don’t like chaos, you will probably be treated to more chaos, the ‘chaos’ being nothing more than your dislike of what is happening.

But if you want out because you want a clear mind, one that is capable of Self realization…and this is your only desire…then your karmic situation will resolve. It may not resolve by plunking you down in a cabin in the woods with a big bank balance and no worldly duties…which I believe is your fantasy…but it will resolve. This kind of resolution, which is a lot easier, usually involves ‘surrender’ to chaos, seeing chaos as the Self, embracing and enjoying it. It is the embracing that makes it disappear.

Ram: Well, I hope that this is helpful. As for me, I’m over the jet-lag…God, it was awful…and have my life pointed in the direction I would like it to go. I’ve got to put up with you know who and his rajasic madness for another three days this week but it should be fine. Anyway, spring is springing and things are just fine.

Much love,

Ram