Today’s message is about two things.
We will always get what we deserve whether we like it or not.
How far we run away from the fruits of our actions(vinai) will catch up with us.
The two are connected. You may ask how? Let me explain.
Our life in this world is connected with our aspirations, goals and karma. The journey taken by the atman on this planet is called samsara. The samsara is just a jadam. Samsara can also be seen as the ignorance of the atman and the parabrahman. Through this samsara the atman goes through a cycle of realisation and tries to decide the path it wants to take in the future. Not all atman takes just one path. Ie path of moksha. The atman decides the actions it wants to perform; the fruit of those actions is karma; The Universal dharma or the divine decides when these karmas have to be negated; how it has to be negated. Within the free will of the atman The divine is not a dictator, so the atman has the freedom l to choose the path it wants to take.
There are 3 paths for the atman to take as far as the scriptures goes.
The path of deva yana - This path is lit by the Sun.This is the highest level and the ultimate level which is the path of the devathas, to be one with the brahman. This is attained by proper Meditation and Self realisation leading to moksha. (You can read about it more on chandogya upanishad, Brihadaranyaka and kausitaki upanisad as well). It is also known as the Parandhama. This path is mentioned in Mundaka upanishad and all of us have heard about it but many of us would not have realised the inner meaning behind it. The phrase Satyameva Jayate: "satyam eva jayate nanrtam satyena pantha vitato devayanah." It means, "Truth alone wins (the Self), but not untruth. By truth is laid out the path of the immortal gods."
The second path is the Pitru yana - If the atman would like to rest on its meritorious deeds it takes this path to enjoy its fruits of good deeds on this earth reaches svarga or a loka inhabited by the gods and pitru ganaas. Once the fruits of his good deeds are exhausted partly it takes birth again with the balance of the karmas in the form of Vasanas.
The third path is the Bhrashta yana - This occurs as a result of little good and mostly unwanted human and beastly deeds. The atma reaches the realm of atma loka and it is reborn again and again.
In the Katha Upanisad Lord yama says to Nachiketa
“All Jeevas originate from the Supreme Reality, like sparks from a fire. They are pure to start with. The Jiva changes due to environment and circumstances, just like pure rain-water is contaminated coming down due to gravity. The Atman, though a passive passenger, gets involved, but still in its essence is pure. It is the contaminants which are carried by it, much as desires and actions contaminate the intellect and ego-entity.”
So the two concepts of karma and samsara are intertwined ; while karma is the cause of samsara's effect ; samsara can also be the tool to liberate the atman from karma. So there is no need to run away from either the karma or samsara but we can breeze through it with the understanding of the divine and the divine’s hand in everything we do, the victory is there for the atman to reach its goal called moksha.
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