The Laws That Govern Life

God created this universe and all the forces that govern its existence. These forces are all evolved from God’s five powers of Creation, Preservation, Dissolution, Revealing Grace and Obscuring Grace. Many of the laws that govern the physical universe have been discovered by science. Gravity, momentum, thermodynamics are some of them. The natural physical laws of the universe allow us to live our lives as we do. Gravity keeps us from floating out to space, light allows us to see and heat gives us energy. However scientist will still admit that there is yet much mystery in the universe.

Knowing and understanding these laws of physics are of great significance to humanity since they make a big difference in our lives. This knowledge brought us out of the agricultural era into the modern era, giving us the ability to manipulate the physical elements and forces to make life on earth more convenient and comfortable. These days we take for granted the car that we drive in, our gas cookers in the kitchen, the cellular phone, computers, air travel, modern medicine, the list goes on and on. It is important to remind ourselves that these inventions have all been possible because of the inquisitive minds of scientists that flourished especially in the last 200 years.

While these discoveries may have made our lives more convenient and comfortable in our day to day chores of life, even creating new avenues of human experience, much of the challenges that we face in our personal lives are not very different now than they were a thousand years ago. The quest for contentment in life, of creating our family and community, of amassing enough resources for ourselves and our loved ones, remaining healthy and happy. Are not these concerns universal and ones that are not limited by boundries of time and technological advancement?

Enter spiritual technology. Way before we humans pushed physical technological advancement to the level it is today we scrutinized and developed spiritual technologies. This is not to say that our ancients were not concerned with physical technology, after all we moved from using primitive stone tools to working with metals, creating the wheel, domesticating animals and so on. Instead, just as there was an explosion in physical technological advancement in the last 200 years, there was such an explosion of spiritual technological development. This occured more than 5,000 years ago and was heralded by the discovery of spiritual laws that govern the world we live in.

Just as our physical universe has an order because of the natural laws that govern it, there is order in our personal lives because of the spiritual laws that govern us. These laws were discovered by our God Realized sages or rishis in their quest to understand life. Understanding these laws of life is as important as understanding the physical laws of nature. If the understanding of the physical laws enables us to manipulate its elements to bring much comfort and convenience in our lives, understanding the spiritual laws of life allows us to manipulate our life experiences to improve its quality.

In Hindu philiosophy the elements and laws that animate the spiritual and physical universes are listed in a cosmological order know as the 36 Tattvas. Tattva means essential nature. Of the 36 Tattvas, some are God's essential nature (such as His power to Create), some are elements (such as fire), some are senses (such as sight) and some are laws of nature (such as karma). The tattvas that govern spiritual and physical nature are as follows:

Of these seven tatttvas, we will study three of them that we can manipulate directly to effect the quality of our life. These are the maya tattva, niyati tattva and purusha tattva. These three together are known in Sanskrit as the maalas, in Tamil they are also referred to as pasam. Maala means impurites, whereas pasam means attachments though in this context it carries the meaning of bondage (to the world). Both impurity and bondage carry the connotation that these three tattvas keep us, or rather more specifically our soul, from our ultimate goal of life which is the realization of our Oneness with God. These tattvas are the forces that keep us attached to all our likes and dislikes and situations in life. We will be exploring Hindu belief five in this chapter.

Maya is a well known word these days however its interpretation is often misunderstood to mean illusion. Maya is actually the force that gives the world the appearance of permanence and not to mean that the world is not real. In English maya is best translated by the word mirific energy.

The world and our experience of it is real though the world is a reality that is constantly changing. It is never permanent. The world by nature goes through the cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution constantly. Due to maya, we have a sense a of permanence in our perception of the world. We indulge ourselves in the ignorance that whatever we have will last forever, even our physical bodies.

Maya is a facet of God’s power of Obscuring Grace. It allows us to form attachments to people and things and have ambitions and desires for the future. Maya is also the veil that shrouds the existence of God and our Oneness with God as well as the existence of other worlds, heaven and hell, and our soul from ordinary consciousness. This shrouding power of maya can also cause a person’s denial of God’s existence.

Maya exists in all the worlds as it is the spiritual matter of the inner and outer universe. However, there is a difference between the maya of our world and the heavens. There is more permanence in heaven compared to the physical world. Life in heaven is governed by more stable forces compared to Earth. Also the shroud that hides God’s existence in the heavens is almost non- existent, except in the hellish realms.

Maya differentiates all creation from God. While maya is the very embodiment of impermanence, God is the only permanent and unchanging principle in the universe. God never undergoes the cycles of creation, preservation and dissolution that Creation undergoes. My Gurudeva used to define God’s existence as Absolute Reality and maya as Relative Reality.

Therefore if you look from God's point of view being the Unchanging Reality, the world's ever changing nature governed by maya would look like an illusion. It would be like watching a movie in theater. You are in one place watching the ever changing scenes on the movie screen. Your experiences are all real, but at the end of the movie, only you remain and the movie is gone. This would be very much like God’s point of view of the world He created.

Understanding maya helps us cope with the processes of life better. Especially when we are faced with tragedies in life. While we may still be assailed by sadness of a situation, we may find solace in understanding that these events are all part of living in the impermanence of maya. Truthfully, we actually do not lose anybody even through death because they still exist in the inner worlds. It also helps us deal with fears of our own mortality, or when we confront death, knowing that there is actually no death for us, as we continue to exist in the heaven worlds.

Maya's hold on our perception of the world releases after we achieve enlightenment. After experiencing the the unchanging reality or God's Absolute Reality will we finally see maya in the right light and be able to wrest ourselves from its effects.

While maya governs our perception of the world, karma is the law that governs situations in our lives Karma determines the appropriate reaction to counter an initial action. It keeps the universe in a constant state of balance. Karma issues forth from God’s Power of Preservation. The law of karma is evident in the physical universe as well as the spiritual realms. In the physical universe the laws of gravity and momentum are examples of law of karma in action. In the spiritual realm karma is the force that keeps check of all our actions or deeds and manages the appropriate reaction for the action and its timing.

We reap what we sow is a common metaphor used to explain the workings of karma. The workings of karma is as simple as if we plant a mango tree we get mangos from the tree in the future and not some other fruit. Likewise if we do a good deed towards another, we will in return receive goodness at some point in the future. Like wise an hurtful deed will create an hurtful event of a similar nature to be experienced. The timing of when these karmic reactions return to us is set by God’s Universal Intelligence, Satchitananda through the kaala tattva.

The rule that is followed by this law of timing is this: One faces the effects of his or her karma only when he or she has the strength to handle the reaction and during a time when they are in a similar situation as the receiver of the original action. Karma is the reason why all people are not born equal in their abilities and status. The reason why one person is born to a king and another to a pauper. All the myriad of variety that we see in life can be traced to the force of karma in action.

Karma is not fate. Fate is the belief in a divinely fixed and basically unalterable destiny of each individual. That is, when a child is born, God has already decided its life and all the trials and tribulations to be faced and most of the decisions that will be made in life. The individual has no role in its fated destiny. This belief is found in religions (such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam) that believe in a singular lifetime on earth and not in a process of reincarnation.

There is however, an element of karma that is similar to fate. This is that when we are born certain events are fixed at the moment of our birth to occur at a specific time in our future of the life, this is part of the process of reincarnation. These events are not created by God but by our karma. These future events can be deciphered through astrology by a qualified astrologer. This is how the planets play a part in our life. At birth the karmic reactions that we will face in life are imbedded in us and they are activated into our lives by the intermingling of gravity forces of the planets in relation to our time of birth.

Returning to the dissimilarities between karma and fate, in addition to the fact that we create our own karma independent of predetermination by God, the other element of karma that is differs from fate is that our karmas are not set in stone, nor unchangeable. Whatever the future event in our lives may be they can be changed by effort on our part and the grace of God. Karmas that are set to arise in the future may be modified or obliterated altogether based on decisions we make in the current life or the deeds that we perform.

Lets look at an analogy of a person who has problems with controlling his anger. He is quick to get angry and has had this characteristic since he was child, therefore it is a karmic characteristic he inherited from a previous life. There will probably be a whole string of negative events that are set by his karma that are yet to come in the future based on this anger problem. Lets say at some point in his life he decided that he doesn't want become angry anymore. Eventually with much spiritual effort he gets the better of his temper. In this case all the karmas that were connected with his temper problems disappears completely and a new more positive karmic future will emerge in place of the bad karmas. His future has changed drastically. Of course this process can happen the other way round too, where the bad karmas become worse.

The other way future events can be changed is if our good deeds in our current life far outweighs the negative karmas that are supposed to come to us in the future. In this case, usually, the negative karmas will still come, but the good deeds, by God's Grace will reduce the impact of the negative karma. This is kind of like an accounting check and balancing act. One of the ways an impact of negative karmas can be reduced are through nightmares, where the karma plays out in the nightmare instead of our waking lives.

Yes, Hindus believe in freewill. We are the master of our destiny and we and not God determines our life (of course God can help us with our karmas in many ways, so we are not totally alone). The effort that is required of us to make our lives better can be found in the codes of conduct of dharma. The way of life and attitudes that we must uphold in life as part of dharmic living optimises the creation of new good karmas and helps us overcome our weaknesses. Living a dharmic life greatly impacts the nature and composition of our karmas, thus modifying our future. Thus we have the power within us to change our future mainly by using wisdom and intelligence to make good decisions instead of bad ones. Of course we can also appeal to God's Merciful Grace to help us with our lives, though we must also put in the leg work as part of our responsibility. As the saying goes, God helps those who help themself.

There is no action that we perform that will not ultimately return to us. This means that none of our positive efforts goes to waste, even if we are not immediately gratified for our goodness. It will all come back at sometime or another.

Karma is an intelligent law. Karmas that we create are dependent on the sincerity of our intentions. The outward appearance of the action is secondary. For instance, say you see a person crossing the road oblivious of a speeding car coming toward him, you make an attempt to save him and push him out of harms way. He looses his balance and falls on the other side of the pavement, but out of path of the speeding car. The saved person is bruised but is not more seriously hurt by an accident with a car. This would register in karma as a good karma, known in sanskrit as punyam. You will not receive any bad karma or papam, for pushing down and brusing the person.

This is how intention governs the creation of karma. I am refering to sincere intention and not an outward intention of good that is being used to cover up some sinister motive. For instance a person may try to gain your trust by showing you his good intentions but instead in his mind he may have an ulterior negative motive. In this case his actions even if seemingly good to you will generate bad karma for him and the deviousness of the cloaked motive will actually magnify the bad karma.

The law of karma is wrought in our nature. We cannot escape nor cheat karma because we create it for ourself. The quality of karma is also determined by the quality of the recipient of our deeds. For instance, if you gave away $100 to a person or organisation doing charity your karmic returns can double or triple in its return, depending on the worth of the recipient. Giving that same money to a person who is a drunkard, begging for money to possibly further indulge himself may still be punyam for you however the return will be far less. Perhaps one tenth of the kindness rendered. This is because though the giving of alms is a good deed the ends to which the deed is used is adharma. In situations such as these it is irrelevant that one needs to be aware of what will happen to his or her good deeds once rendered. The responsibility of how a good deed that is accepted and is subsequently put to use is one for the receiver and not the giver. Though if a giver gives charity with full knowledge that the resource will be used toward adharmic (contrary to dharma) ends, the giver will also share in the negative karma created.

Dharma is another determining factor in the creation of karma. Take for instance a policeman or soldier. In the line of their duty they may at times have to use violent force on offenders, they may even have to kill. However they have a legitimate license given under the law of the land to use these different methods to protect themselves or the nation in the line of duty. So any violence that they use in the line of duty will not accrue bad karma. At the same time if they abuse their power and use it for their personal gain or for any other impure intentions then they will have to suffer the consequence of a an increased intensity of the karma. It is also the the dharma of each person to use whatever means necessary in self defense if needed for their personal protection and those in their care.

Sage Yogaswami, an enlightened soul who was the guru of my guru would advise thus, “When a tiger is in the forest, it is bad karma to kill it for game, but, if it comes into the village then it becomes duty to use whatever means necessary to get rid of it.”

The Tirukkural the legendary Tamil scripture on ethics is based on how the law of karma works. Here are just two quotes from the 1330 in the Thirukkural that shed light on the intricate workings of karma.

Karma is a teacher. As we live we naturally create karma through our decisions and subsequent actions. This in turn sets a spiritual process in action which in turn determines events to come in the future. It is when we reach the rebounding reactions to our actions that we either enjoy what life has to offer or suffer the consequences of unwise action. We of course have no qualms about enjoying our good karmas, but when bad karmas return we either deny our role in its creation or we accept it and learn from our mistakes. Naturally it is when we face the difficult experiences that karmas role as the teacher becomes evident. As for the good karmas, well it is easy to understand how we deserve those!

The process of learning that karma stimulates is the impetus of our spiritual growth. Karma is relentless and exacting in delivering to us the consequence of our actions. It follows us through countless lives, keeping score of our deeds and setting us up for optimum spiritual evolution in every life we lead. Eventually as a person realizes that there is no escape karma (papam - bad karma that is), one begins to toe the line by learning to control ones selfish and inconsiderate impulses. This is when true character building and spiritual growth takes hold. The challenges that karma brings to us will eventually mold us into adept spiritual beings, masters of the body, mind and emotions, and ushers the wonderful states of enlightenment even as we live on earth.

The Tirukkural offers:

Karma however is not limited to our life on earth. It is also the law that governs actions in the heavens (as well as hell). Though in the heavens its forces are more subtle, even subdued to the point where action and reaction occur almost immediately.

When working with negative karmas, the most crucial factor is our reaction. It is important to remember to exercise patience. This is because, often when we meet with adversity, we will have the immediate tendency to react against it using our anger or other strong emotional impulse. All this does is simply regenerate the karma to return again in the future. When we exercise patience, we control our emotional impulse and we are using the willpower that comes from the soul. This way we will be able to slowly deliberate a proper and wise response if a response is necessary. We can also take advantage of the law of karma by making the practice of performing good, helpful and kind deeds a habit. This is in a nutshell how we manage our karmas.

Anava can be defined as the individuating principle. It allows us to have an identity or awareness that is distinct or apart from God. Anava is commonly known to mean ego. However in sanskrit the ego that we commonly refer to–that is the way we carry ourselves, how we think of ourselves, the preferences that we have and how we want others to perceive us–is more accurately referred to as ahamkara (pronounced ahang-kara).

Anava, like maya and karma is a nuetral principle. It is the first bondage or maala that shrouds the soul and the last one to be removed just before we merge into Oneness with God. It is a facet of God’s power of creation. All souls that have distinct identities have anava. That means souls living in heaven–the devas and Mahadevas–also have anava. When the soul is embodied, that means when it gains its astral, mental, pranic and physical bodies the anava takes on a more recognized form of individuality know as the ahamkara.

We build our ahamkara through habits that we pick up, through the role models we identify with in life, the beliefs that we hold and also through tendencies that we bring over from a previous life. Ahamkara mirrors the wisdom and ignorance that we have. A person whose ahamkara or ego is built on principles such as selfishness, or on beliefs of self-aggrandising, or strong racial segregationist beliefs will reflect itself to others as a boastful and arrogant person with very little concern for others. However a person whose ahamkara is built on the love of God and compassion for others, with desire for the welfare of others will reflect a humble yet dignified and compassionate demeanor.

The grossness or refineness of the ahamkara determines the age of the soul. A young soul is a soul who is ignorant of others welfare and is driven by selfishness. They usually just have a passing belief in the existence of God. Yet they can be very determined in achieving material success and usually have no problems with hurting or destroying others or going against laws if they have to for their success.

An old soul is a patient person working with the powers that be to achieve the goals in his or her life according to dharma. They show concern for the welfare of others and are kind and helpful people. They are aware of the consequences of their actions. The older the soul the more experienced it is in the workings of the rules of life, especially karma and exercise more care in dealing with them.

As one gains more wisdom from the experiential learning that karma provides, his or her ahamkara becomes more and more refined, and the burden of ignorance becomes lighter. Ahamkara is finally conquered when the soul attains God Realization. However the anava still remains in its pure form as the awareness within the soul.

There is an analogy that is used to understand anava, karma and maya in our lives. God created this world for us as a playground to experience life and grow. We can liken Earth to be a great school. This school consists of classrooms created maya, karma is the teacher in these classrooms and anava is the ability of the student to listen to the teacher and understand the lesson. If we listen well and understand the lessons that our teacher teaches we will eventually be able to graduate from these classrooms of life on Earth and attain moksha.