Gotta Eat Your Karma!
Essay: Consuming Your Karma
By Acharya Satyam Ehinger
Did you know that Karma means “action” in Sanskrit? Most of the time when we think of Karma we think of a static, fixed concept, like ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’, but in reality the concept of Karma is meant to help us understand how our actions have created the reality we currently live within, and that this reality is maleable, and not fixed, depending on our wish to grow. Karma, and action, are usually defined as cause and effect— because every action we make during our day is an attempt to ‘cause’ a desired ‘effect’. From simple actions, like brushing your teeth to have the effect of a healthy mouth and fresh breath, to more subtle actions, such as focusing on your breath in order to calm your mind. Most of our actions are like the first example, purely horizontal in nature. If you look closely at these types of actions, you see that they are usually guiding us towards One of Two possible effects: (1)obtaining pleasure or (2)avoiding pain, the “Dualities of physical existence,” as Patanjali writes. This type of pursuit is our unconscious Modus Operandi “From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep everyday”, Swami Muktananda tells us. The problem is that the pleasurable “effect” that these types of actions promise, whether directly in the form of a brownie or indirectly in the form of not answering a call from a challenging neighbor, is temporary in nature and always requires more and more actions to sustain or regain it. For this reason it is said that these types of unconscious actions make Karma, because these actions always, and only, lead to more actions. This is the endless cycle of Karma, and for many it appears to be a fixed reality, a ‘fate’, or ‘destiny’. But to the yogi, Karma is simply the arena, and fuel, for our spiritual growth.
To understand how we can make this shift from the shackles of Karma to the liberation of Karma we have to take a moment to unpack the inner workings of Karma itself. A fun analogy to help describe the cyclical nature of Karma is that of ‘emptying out the pantry’, a spring-cleaning type of activity that motivates all of us from time to time. Think about it, your food pantry isn’t just any food pantry, it’s your food pantry— it contains literally hundreds of ‘past actions’ you performed towards the desired ‘effect’ of your happiness at some point in time. Everything in this pantry represents what is called Sanchita Karma, a warehouse of past actions stored in your causal body, an energetic aspect of us that travels from life to life. “Life to life,” means that this pantry goes pretty deep, a storage unit for actions not only from last week, but also last month, last year, or last century. There’s food in there you wouldn’t even recognize, which is actually a common experience for meditation practitioners, to have a craving or a tension that they can’t even relate to in their current life’s context. Wild, right? That’s why we try not to analyze the content’s of our mind too much, because some of the things we are trying to let go of may never have a logical end, and would only lead to more and more thoughts, more Karma.
Or as Sri Shambhavananda writes, “You know how people sometimes do fasts and cleanses to get rid of physical toxins? We also have psychic toxins. They are the old patterns, from God knows when, that we carry around with us…We’ll find ourselves thinking, “Oh, it is time for a cigarette,” even though we don’t smoke. Our job is not to analyze that occurrence, nor to wonder where it came from…If you can breathe into it and release it, it is a kind of a purge” (Spiritual Practice, p.140).
The vast and deep pantry of Sanchita Karma is source of our current reality, just like your actual pantry is the source of your current dinner. At any given moment in your life, you can look around yourself and see the plate of reality that has been made from this inner pantry for you to consume. Not everything from the pantry can fit on your plate, of course, which is why Linda Johnson tells us in the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hinduism that “Only a portion of our total Karma manifests in any one lifetime.” And within that lifetime sized plate, we have so many other plates of Karma served to us, day after day. As ShambhavAnanda tells us, “Our lives—including whatever job, whatever career, whatever relationship we are in—are all manifestations of our Karma” (Spiritual Practice, p. 163). This Karma that is on your plate of reality is unavoidable, called Prarabdha Karma, and is described as “That portion of our Karma destined to play out in our present lifetime” (Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hinduism, 237). Notice the use of the word “destiny” in this definition— this is where Karma appears to be fixed, and in a way it is, but in a much bigger way it isn’t.
The Shiva Sutras are quite clear that our actions have the capacity to elevate us towards spiritual growth, or lead us down into the endless cycles of Karma— and the only thing dividing those two options is the internal focus that precedes and permeates our actions: “For those who are fully aware of God consciousness, all the organs of cognition, organs of action and organs of the intellect lead them to that supreme state of God consciousness. For those who are not aware, these same organs deprive them completely of that God consciousness. (Spanda Kārikā 1.20)” This means that we can use the circumstances of our life, the plate of food that is our present reality, to create more Karma or create Freedom, it’s up to us. This is why Karma is not synonymous with Western notions of ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’, because our real fate is determined not by our outer circumstances, but by the consciousness we bring to the actions we perform within those circumstances. It’s sort of like reality TV show where a high level chef makes dinner using only the ingredients of a random ‘normal person’s’ pantry— the Chef is the individual who can bring out the ‘highest potential’ of everything in your pantry— they “see what’s possible” as ShambhavAnanda often puts it. And through their high level of work, they make life delicious.
But to make life delicious we can’t just eat the easy ingredients, we’ve got to eat everything in that pantry. There’s a reason that what’s in there is in there after all this time! We keep pushing away the peas and asking for more potatoes. This is because there are three different categories of Prarubdha Karma based on their difficulty “to digest” so to speak. The easiest types of Prarubdha Karma to digest are called Adridha Karma, meaning “flexible Karma”, these are the potatoes on the plate, or maybe the salad. Then there is the Dridha-Adridha Karma, meaning “flexible/inflexible”, which represents Prarubdha Karma that is a bit harder to digest, harder to surrender, like the peas (if you’re not a pea person). And then there’s Dridha Karma, meaning “inflexible” in that it’s almost impossible to digest— Only God, or the Guru, can give you the digestive Shakti required to break down this level of Karma. We never know what kind of Karma we are encountering so we approach each bite the same, with conscious awareness.
The repetitive challenges we face in our lives is a sign that much of the food on our plate is not being consumed— Because when you reject those peas and push them to the side they don’t just disappear— they are simply loaded back into the pantry to be used in a future meal. You can quit your job, or dump your partner, but chances are you are going to encounter the same challenges in a new form until you truly work through them consciously. This because the ‘leftovers’, or composted material, that we don’t eat from our present becomes “The fresh Karma we’re producing in this incarnation”, known as Kriyamana Karma (Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hinduism). Notice that Linda Johnsen used the word “producing”. This is helpful to understanding the subtlety of creating Karma, because when you push the peas aside, it may not feel like you are ‘producing’ anything, but Karmically you are. Spiritual practice requires that we consume the “whole fruit” of our reality, as Swami Rudrananda puts it, “Roughage and all.” Because that which you don’t consume cycles back, over and over again, until you eat it, or as we say in yoga, until you surrender it and transcend it. Which is why Swami Rudrananda tells us that “Ultimately all experience can be considered as food that can be encompassed and digested… When we can either digest or surrender everything that we attract, then we are free” (Sacred Journey, p.55).
So the Freedom that we seek through our actions is not about what’s in your pantry (your past), what’s on your plate (your current job/life/setting), or what’s in your compost (your future)— it’s about the consciousness you bring to consuming your reality right now. This consciousness is exactly what we cultivate with our daily seated meditation practice, so that we can bring that awareness with us to the lunch table of life, and utilize it to eat our whole plate, roughage and all. Because if you just keep pushing away the peas forever, and re-storing them in the pantry, you’ll eventually have an entire fridge full of peas, and guess what lunch will look like then?!
So meditation not only liberates us from the cycles of Karma, it also keeps our plate balanced and enjoyable along the way. That’s why Babaji says that the real indicator of a productive spiritual life is that you are ‘getting happier everyday, for no reason’. When you consume your Karma steadily, your plate just keeps getting better and better— not because you are getting to pick your favorite foods for every meal, but because you are getting the nourishment from eating the whole serving of your reality. There’s still peas on your plate, but because you’re eating them everyday they never fill it up. And eventually we even develop a taste for them, just like in your yoga practice— you have probably developed a taste for stretching a tight muscle, something that a beginner would altogether avoid. You even begin to find nourishment in the conscious performance of mundane tasks, you taste your freedom in the very act of living, and feel your life force throughout the day.
So “How do you avoid creating more Karma?” ShambhavAnanda tells us, “You do not accept or reject things. You live in a state of balance and a state of conscious awareness, and you move gracefully and consciously through life. Generally, you remain happy and do what you do, but consciously” (Spiritual Practice, P. 95)