CONSCIOUSNESS ENTANGLED IS BONDAGE AND CONSCIOUSNESS FREE IS LIBERATION

As regards to karma one thing which we need to understand is that there is no such thing as good (shubh) or bad (ashubh) karma. Karma or action is just karma. Good and bad are our labelling; our definitions. A sadhak on the spiritual path wants to go beyond karma itself be it good or bad. Why? Because liberation or mukti from physical existence is possible only when you transcend karma altogether. Those who look at karma as good and bad and accordingly pick n choose between the two are really not sadhakas because they are not looking for liberation but they are looking for continued physical existence. They are not interested in mukti but instead are planning to come back to this world, yet again. 

Before I elaborate further on this subject of karma, I want you to understand one important thing about the reality of our existence. Whatever we may think or imagine about ourselves but fundamentally we are nothing but a small amount of energy. You are moving around because this energy is there within you. Next moment if this energy moves out of your body, you will fall flat on the ground and would be pronounced as dead. Without this energy there cannot be any movement in this body though this body would still be lying here. Movement in the body is not because of the body per se but because of the presence of this energy in the body. Body is just a tool. Body is just a medium through which this energy is finding expression. Thus energy is the doer, not this body. Energy is the reality, not this body. It’s the energy which makes or breaks. 

Further, when it comes to karma, your action or what you do, is not important. What is important is your bhava or sense. What I want to say is that any of your actions which you do with a sense of doer, with a sense that I’m a body and is the doer then you accrue karma. With a sense of ‘doer’ you accrue karma and thus you write your destiny because you are living your life in ignorance, because you are mistaking unreal for real. Destiny means, that which follows a certain course. If there is a destiny then that would need to be worked out by following a certain course; and for working out this destiny, you would need a physical form. The physical body which we are in right now is nothing but nature’s arrangement for us to work out the destiny (prarbdha or current installment of our karma) which we created in the past by performing actions with a sense of ‘doer’. 

On the other hand if you just become an expression of that energy which is the real doer; if you stand aside and see the things as happening on the screen of the consciousness then you do not accrue any karma or write any destiny, whatever may be your actions. Since there is no destiny, you will not need any physical body because there is nothing to work out. Body is needed only when there is destiny or prarbdha to work out. Those who die their natural death, they drop the body the moment their prarbdha is finished. Without destiny or prarbdha you cannot be in this body even for a single moment.        

Now this does not mean that because of this fear of karma you retire to the jungle or stop doing your duties. No. This only means that you continue living where you are and also do all that is needed but the only thing you need to do is to drop your sense of being a ‘doer’; you stop identifying your energy with your body-mind. Instead, you become a witness to your actions; become a witness to your destiny and see the things happening on the screen of the consciousness. 

Now I will tell you as how you can stop writing your destiny or how do you know if you are in the state of being a 'doer' or in the state of being a witness? The only criterion which you need to follow is to see if your consciousness is free or entangled. If your consciousness is entangled which is that if your consciousness or energy is identified with your body-mind then you are living with a sense of 'doer' and thus accruing karma and writing destiny. This state is bondage. On the other hand if your consciousness is kept free, I mean, not entangled with body and mind then you do not accrue any karma, what may be your action. This state is the state of freedom. You become liberated while being alive; while being in this body. No-mind or no-thought state means, consciousness is free and mind or thought means consciousness is entangled. 

One final thing about karma which you need to know and understand is that if you can keep your energy free or un-entangled then not only you stop accruing new karma but you begin to drop your old (sanchit) stock of karma too. Because your old stock of karma act as a magnet for the new karma. Thus if you can keep your consciousness free then you start walking the path of liberation or mukti. That’s what practicing meditation is all about. Meditation means leaving your consciousness free or un-entangled and becoming a witness to what happens on the screen of your consciousness.