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- Three-Step Plan to Build Good Karma | EXCERPT
What is to be done with desire? It stands in the way of obtaining the object of desire. As long as you are obsessed with a desire, the object of desire eludes your grasp. It takes the form of craving, hankering, pining for the object. You then have a limited view of life, the mind is agitated, you cannot think clearly and action is flawed.
You do not need objects of desire. All you need is knowledge of your fullness. Then desire will automatically vanish. You will attain the ultimate purpose of your life – total and complete happiness. So, continue fulfilling desires. But spend a little time gaining knowledge of your fullness.
The Bhagavad Gita prescribes a scientific method to deal with desire. We call it VOS, the Vedanta Operating Systems, a highly efficient way of purifying your personality of desires. It enables you to reduce the number of desires with the Path of Action, upgrade the quality of desires with the Path of Devotion and change the direction of desires with the Path of Knowledge.
Path of Action
Identify your svadharma, your talent, nature, the special gift you were born with. Recognize your passion and invest your energies in that field. Most people choose vocations in which they think they will make money. How can you succeed in a field alien to your nature, in which you have no interest or ability? Don Bradman may have been a failure if he had pursued music and not cricket. If Nadal had become a businessman, the world would have lost an outstanding tennis player and he would, perhaps, not have been successful at business. If A.R. Rahman had joined an engineering college, he may have wallowed in mediocrity. He is world famous because he chose the area of his passion. Albert Einstein wrote, ‘Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.’ In the field of your svadharma, fix a higher goal. It is the thought of self that comes in the way of success. How not to think of yourself? Think of something beyond you. The law is, ‘As you think so you become’. So far, you have thought only of yourself, your own body, mind and intellect and you have become a limited, restricted, small being. Fix a higher goal, a nobler cause. Espouse an ideal that is inclusive, not exclusive. One that is collective, not personal. Backed by an expanded vision, not a myopic view of things.
Path of Devotion
The entire world is strongly entrenched in feelings of separateness. It promotes competition, one upmanship and discord. This leads to intolerance and inability to get along with people, because you take the stand, ‘It’s my way or the highway.’ Ironically, it is these very people who are most dependent on others. Yet, they lack the ability to nurture lasting relationships and end up lonely and miserable. The Bhagavad Gita speaks of oneness as the way to go. It helps cultivate cooperation, equality and accord. The adrenaline that comes with competition is replaced with the quiet strength of love. Where there is love, you see the best in others. You connect with them at their best. They, in turn, give their best. Everyone puts their best foot forward and you accomplish wondrous results.
Path of Knowledge
Knowledge does not mean mastery over the scriptures and their contents. It is, as Adi Shankaracharya puts it, nitya anitya viveka vichara–reflection on the distinction between the permanent and the impermanent. It is the wisdom to understand that everything in the world passes and that it is unintelligent to depend on transient, trivial things of the world. Then, the search for the permanent begins.
Biochemistry tells us that the cells in our body have a limited life span, from days to weeks, or a few years. They are replaced regularly and we have a constantly changing body. However, our consciousness of who we are remains the same. Similarly, the mind changes. Emotions, likes and dislikes, loves and hates change as we go along. A person you loved some time back becomes your worst enemy and vice versa. The intellect and its concepts, ideas and ideologies also transform. A communist turns capitalist, your world view changes. The subtle intellect or conscience undergoes transformation. What you thought was right five years ago appears totally wrong. Meat eaters turn vegan when their conscience awakens to the cruelty meted out to animals. However, the ‘I’ factor remains constant and uniform through these variations.
The ‘I’ is your real personality, unchanging and immortal. Adi Shankaracharya, in Atmabodha, says, ‘Atma tu satatam praptah’ – Atman, your real Self, the ‘I’, is an ever-present reality. It never deserts you. It never abandons you. It is your real identity. The physical, emotional, intellectual identity you have assumed is a false imposition. Shed it. Shake it off. And you regain your true identity.
What is Atman? How do you connect with it? Pause, think, reflect. When was the last time you gazed at the sunrise or sunset and wondered who made the sun? Who made the marvel of a heart that nurtures life? You can go on and on. You may not know the answers to these questions, but just the questions put you in a state of wonderment, amazement and admiration.
Excerpted from GOOD KARMA: Make the Right Choices for Tomorrow by Jaya Row. Click here to read more.
About the Book - GOOD KARMA
People who find themselves dogged by misfortune often blame it on 'bad luck'. But the scriptures say that your destiny is the sum total of all your past choices. Once you act, you must be prepared to deal with the…
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