It is the Divine Command and therefore it is my duty to do so

This advice of the Master is given in the message “ Way to Perfection” and is essentially a procedure to be followed for retaining the remembrance of God at all times that ensures development of a deep attachment to the Divine and to a state in which love for Him develops and overflows. This attitude may also be considered as our walking in the will of God. It produces in us a distinctive life-style. There will be certain characteristics which will be true of all aspirants in the path in all places and in every age. There are abiding qualities about true sadhakas which would make them recognizable by their co travelers in the path.

If every act we do is to be in the spirit that ‘this is the order of my Master ‘the question arises, ‘what is the will of Master in this particular, unique situation in which I find myself?’ We have to face the issue of the nature of the principles which govern our conduct. How do we discover the will of God when we are faced with a possibly bewildering array of choices?

The exposition of the Commandments of the Master addresses mainly addresses this question as we all know. That this is the theme of the several messages of the Master is clear to those who are really seeking ways and means of behaving as true aspirants in the path of spirituality.

Master states that by treating all our actions as dictates of the divine we creation of samskaras ceases. This leads us to the theory of formation of samskaras and the Universal Law of Karma. Karma means not only action, but also the result of an action. Whatever we are going through at the moment is the result of previous actions, not just of this life, but many lives. In short Karma is the sum total of our actions both in this life and in the preceding ones. Nothing happens by accident or chance actions. Everything happens in regular order, the past, present and the future being interconnected and interdependent. Cause is Effect concealed, and Effect is Cause revealed.

All our actions are due to the various relationships we have developed and are motivated by our ahankara (feeling of me) and mamakara (feeling of mine). They have an Ego which tries to control, seeks security and freedom and is motivated by the desire to have a good health or well being. The actions and relationships we have are due to past samskaras and karma in which there is a giving and taking or runanubhanda. In each life, we have mother, father, brothers, sisters, spouse, and children and so on. We are born in a family as a result of undischarged debts of past lives. Constantly we are creating accounts, debiting and crediting. We are creating Karmic debts with all those with whom we interact. The Karmic debts (rna) lead to bondage or attachment (bandana). These Karmic attachments pull us into the wheel of existence again and again.

Karma leads to rna and rna leads to Karma. It works both ways. If you have given something to somebody in some life, the memory is stored in your casual body. That person will be your debtor in this birth. If you have taken in the past, it will be taken from you in some birth. The causal body stores the memory of all of one's runanubandhanas of countless births. Till all the karma stored in the causal body is burnt away or exhausted, there is no liberation from rebirth. Human life is nothing but a memory of runanubandhana, the story of the countless karma that we make, and live through. Every relationship reflects some runanubandhana. The people with whom we have very strong Runanubandhana become our parents, spouse, children and coborns in this life. The memory of Karmic debts may be sweet or bitter. Sweet memories of karmic debts lead to a `happy' relationship and bitter memories to an `unhappy' relationship. In reality most of the karmic debts are mixed, a mixture of sweet and bitter memories. That is why most relationships are of a mixed nature. I will try to explain briefly two kinds of relationships that are very important: parent/child and love/marriage relationships.

Parent and child relationship is very important. This is the easiest way to discharge our karmic debts toward one another. In fact life itself has runanubandhana as its roots. In countless lives, we would have had intimate body relationships with many people. Every longstanding relationship leads to certain deep impressions. Any act when done repeatedly can become a habit. Every habit leaves impression. These impressions are the samskaras, which drive us to act again. That is why we get sexually attracted many times. But if we have no more debt (rna) with the other person, it just remains as a fleeting thought, as an impulse only. But if the runanubandhana is still there, the attraction results in a relationship. Sometimes even if the karmic debt is discharged, still the samskaras (impressions of past acts) drive us to develop intimate relationship with others. We eventually end up creating a fresh account, a further karmic debt that is not advisable. In the majority of the sexual attractions, it is only the samskaras and not the actual karmic debts that operate. But if there is any undischarged karmic debt, it results in a relationship of love. When the karmic accounts are settled and there is no more debt, the relationship breaks suddenly. But if the runanubandhana is very strong, it results in a long-standing relationship like marriage.

The topic of karma and rna and runanubandhana is a separate subject and I do not want to dwell on that. Suffice it to say that unless there is a karmic bondage attachments do not arise and consequently actions out of attachments also are subject to this law of karma. When two souls who are evolving spiritually come as husband and wife, help each other in their evolution and benefit one another. This is the purpose of marriage. Sometimes (rarely) a very highly evolved being or soul, or spirit or even an avatar is born as two people to accomplish a mission. (Ex:- Lord Krishna and Balarama or Lalaji and Chachaji) After the accomplishment of the mission, they merge back into one. Though very rare, such a divine couple also takes birth in all ages.

Thus we find that bondages (anubandha) are of many types and every one of them has a karmic law operating behind them. I may say that the patterns of karma are myriad, exceedingly intricate and perplexing. We have so far dealt very broadly on the theory of karma and runanubandha. However Karma has been classified as

i. Sanchita Karma or Total Accumulated Karma This is the vast store of accumulated Karmas of all past lives (as a human being only). It may be indirectly seen in a man in his character, his tendencies, aptitudes, inclinations and desires.

ii. Prarabdha or Fructifying Karma .That portion of our Karmas allocated to us in this life is called Prarabdha. It is the fruit of our past actions that are being reaped in this life. All of Sanchita karma will not be experienced at one time. Only that portion which has `become ripe' for experiencing in this life time is Prarabdha.

iii. Kriyaman or Current Karma. This is the fresh karma that we do in this life. This is the area that man has freedom to determine the course of action. This determines our future lives. This is where the concept of free will comes.

iv. Agami Karma or Future Karma. The karma that is coming, in other words, new actions that we contemplate as a result of our thoughts, the way we envision the future, is Agami Karma. Today's plans when executed could become a reality one day. Planning is Agami while execution is Kriyaman. Thus Agami (planning) leads to Kriyaman (freshly executed actions of the present) which becomes Sanchita (accumulated) to later surface as Prarabdha (destiny). Sanchita karma manifests in two ways. Firstly, as Prarabdha and secondly, as the Samskaras or tendencies.

Master on the same lines as Lord Sri Krishna asks us to address the Kriyaman and Agami karmas by i. dedicating everything to the divine ii. Acting as though every act of ours is in accordance with the divine will or command iii. Treating all relationships as a matter of trusteeship iv. By living like a duck unattached and unsoiled by attachments.

This he assures ensures no formation of further samskaras. He addresses the problem of Prarabdha through the method of purification he has given and also the meditational practices. Thus one who follows the system properly with the help of Pranahuti sessions from competent persons is sure to be free from the cycle of births.

Our actions then are the means by which we are to liberate ourselves from the bondages as contrasted to those who renounce action and seek liberation. But this should not be construed to mean that we should be busy always in some activity or the other. Master asserts that “The only method can be one that I have described above. One must go on reducing the activities, shaking off all superfluities that have entered into our being for the purpose of shattering his individual network and assuming the purest state one has finally to arrive.” It is needless to say that such reduced activities would lead to greater spiritual activities.

Our daily life is a great opportunity for spiritual practice. Every moment is a challenge to be more mindful of what we think, say and do. Every response is a lesson in self awareness and letting go. The Ten Commandments of the Master address the problem of liberation in a very clear and candid fashion. By the first three commandments the Kriyaman karma and Agami karma are is directed towards no formation of new attachments except the attachment to the one God. The other commandments deal with the method by which we would be facing our Prarabdha karma. The Commandments therefore are not just ethical injunctions but are means of sadhana.

We have a great problem always as to what would happen to those attached to us and who we feel are under our care. Faith in the Master and faith in ourselves should meet this problem and yet we are afraid of every possible situation in life. Fear or anger or in other words fight or flight is our basic patterns of behaviour. It may be not wrong if I say that fear is basic motivation for most of the actions of the common man. Fear is encountered every step of the way. Small fear, big fear, real fear, imagined fear - every type of fear. In reality, all fear is unreal since fear is not our true nature. Yet we are too ingrained in our culture of living in fear. We try to soothe our fear by doing, achieving and searching externally - basically trying to keep our mind busy and distracted from confronting fear and in the process we find temporary relief. We then wrongly conclude that doing and achieving can eliminate our fear. In reality, they only distract us from our fear. When all is achieved and done, our fear remains and the anticipated reward for all actions namely Peace is anything but a mirage. But doing and achieving have become a habit for us; a pattern of behaviour that we believe can remove our fear and bring us peace.

We are wrong in that belief, of course, but like the drug addict, we find it difficult to let go of our habit. We are hooked! Changing this habit requires effort and that is a great effort. For this we need faith. Some one defined the terms faith and fear with the same words.

v. "Faith is believing what we cannot see to come to pass;

vi. Fear is believing what we cannot see to come to pass."

This is really a revealing and interesting way of looking these two very important feelings. We may notice that the difference between these two definitions is the way in which we choose to focus on the subject. If the focus is on something we desire, then it is faith. If instead we choose to focus on what is undesirable, then it becomes fear. What this means is that:

i. Hope is expecting what is desirable to happen

ii. Despair is expecting what is undesirable to happen.

We therefore have to be very careful what we allow our mind to focus on. This is a very important aspect of our sadhana. We need to be positive in our outlook as also have faith in our capacity to achieve the goal.

We started with the subject stating that we should act in such a way that all acts are done as the commands of the divine. Many times our acts appear to violate the norms of behaviour and conduct that are not acceptable to the society in which we live. How we should conduct ourselves in many situations appears to be confusing. In this context it is necessary that we should examine whether our actions are

vii. Lawful

viii. Does good to all and promotes fraternity

ix. Does this action puts us in bondage

x. Is it in compliance of the commands of the Master and promotes harmony

xi. Does it present us as models of the Natural Path.?

xii. Does it present as followers of the tradition of the system and we are moving in the path tread by the Masters.

It is only when our actions are in accordance with the above criteria and such other similar criteria that may be applicable individually can we think that our actions are in accordance with the will of the Master and that our acts and actions are done as if they are His orders. Behind all this is the feeling of love with which we need to discharge our duties. Love and devotion to God or Master is easy to understand but love and devotion to all human beings is the quality of persons dedicated to divine. There cannot be any order of the divine that does not have love as its main ingredient as He is the one who loves all. A divine command or order therefore has always the flavor of love and this must get exhibited in all our actions. The love here is no attachment to any one individual but is the nature of our life breath itself. Unsoiled we need to love all and act in such a way that promotes universal harmony and then that is in total compliance to the will of God. Then our actions can be considered as acts in compliance to the Divine Command.

Pranams