Karma

Hi James,

In Chapter 11 of the 2018 Gita videos I heard you say  Isvara came way before the intellect.   If that’s so, then how could the first Jivas have any  Karma to work out (karma definition I’m using = results of appropriate and timely action)?   

James:  Karma yoga, not karma, is appropriate and timely action unless a person intentionally tries to produce unwanted results, which no one does.  Karma, particularly karma done without considering dharma, produces plenty of misery. 

Anyway, to answer your question Ignorance (Maya) takes care of it, Joe.  When the jiva becomes self-aware at some point long after the material universe has generated the conditions necessary to support human life…billions of conscious beings (jivas) predate the appearance of human jivas…it doesn’t realize that its pursuit and avoidance of objects is generated by ignorance of its wholeness.  So the karmas start automatically.

As soon as it does an action in the binary field, it generates a hidden reaction…a vasana…which appears instantly in the mind as a desire which reflexively generates another gross action.  Thus the wheel of karma (samsara chakra) is born.  There is no karma for jivas with rudimentary intellects and for those whose intellects are not introverted.  Karma is a word for people who realize that there is some connection between what they experience and their previous self-motivated action.  Many actions non-karma yogis do without attachment to results don’t produce binding results.   Karma yoga is the way a jiva unwinds its karma bit by bit.  Worldly people who don’t realize that their own desires produce unwanted results are little better than animals.  When they get an inkling that they are responsible and stop blaming objects, they are candidates for karma yoga.