The Writings of Annie Besant
Study In Karma
By
Annie Besant
First published 1917
KARMA
From The
Light of
It knows not wrath nor pardon; utter true
Its measures
mete, its faultless balance weighs;
Times are
as nought, tomorrow it will judge,
Or after
many days.
By this the
slayer’s knife did stab himself;
The unjust
judge hath lost his own defender;
The false
tongue dooms its lie; the creeping thief
And spoiler rob, to render.
Such is the
Law which moves to righteousness,
Which none
at last can turn aside or stay;
The heart
of it is Love, the end of it
Is Peace
and Consummation sweet. Obey!
AMONG the many
illuminating gifts to the western world, conveyed to it by the medium of the
Theosophical Society, that of the knowledge of karma comes, perhaps, next in
importance to that of reincarnation. It removes human thought and desire from
the region of arbitrary happenings to the realm of law, and thus
places man’s future under his own control in proportion to the
amount of his knowledge.
The main conception of
karma: "As a man soweth, so shall he also
reap," is easy to grasp. But the application of this to daily life in
detail, the method of its working and its far-reaching consequences – these are
the difficulties which become more bewildering to the student as his knowledge
increases. The
principles on which any
natural science is based are, for the most part, readily intelligible to people
of fair intelligence and ordinary education; but as the student passes from
principles to practice, from outline to details, he discovers that difficulties
press upon him, and if he would wholly master his subject he finds himself
compelled to become a specialist, and to devote long periods to the unraveling
of the tangles which confront him.
So is it also with this
science of karma; the student cannot remain always in the domain of
generalities; he must study the subdivisions of the primary law, must seek to apply
it in all the circumstances of life, must learn how far it binds and how
freedom becomes possible. He must learn to see in karma a universal
law of nature, and learn also, as in face of nature as a whole, that conquest
of and rule over her can only be gained by obedience.(
"Nature is conquered by obedience".)
FUNDAMENTAL
PRINCIPLES
In order to understand
karma, the student must begin with a clear view of certain fundamental
principles, from the lack of which many remain constantly bewildered, asking
endless questions which cannot find full solution without the
solid laying of this basis. Therefore, in this study, I begin
with these, though many of my readers will be already familiar with them,
through previous statements of others and of myself.
The fundamental
conception, on which all later right thinking on karma rests, is that it is law
– law eternal, changeless, invariable, inviolable, law which can never be
broken, existing in the nature of things, informed Theosophists say: "You
must not interfere with his karma." But whenever a natural law is working,
you may interfere with it just so far as you can. You do not
hear a person say solemnly: "You must not interfere with the law of gravitation."
It is understood that
gravitation is one of the conditions with which one has to reckon, and that one
is perfectly at liberty to counteract any inconvenience it may cause by setting
another force against it, by building a buttress to support that which
otherwise would fall to the ground under the action of gravitation,
or in any other way.
When a condition in
nature incommodes us, we use our intelligence to circumvent it, and no one ever
dreams of telling us that we must not "interfere with" or change any
condition which we dislike. We can only interfere when we have knowledge, for
we cannot annihilate any natural force, nor prevent it from
acting. But we can neutralize, we can turn aside, its action if we
have at command another sufficient force, and while I will never abate for us
one jot of its activity, it can be held up, opposed, circumvented, exactly
according to our knowledge of its nature and working, and the forces at our
disposal. Karma is no more "sacred" than any other natural law; all
laws of nature are expressions of the divine nature, and we live and move
within them; but they are not mandatory; they are forces which set up
conditions amid which we live, and which work in us as well as outside of us;
we can manipulate them; we understand them, and as our intelligence unfolds we
become more and more their masters, until the man becomes superman, and
material nature becomes his servant.
LAWS:
NATURAL AND MAN-MADE
Much confusion has
arisen in this matter, because, in the West, "natural" laws have been
regarded as apart from mental and moral laws, whereas mental and moral laws are
as much part of natural law as the laws of electricity, and all laws are part
of the order of nature. Natural law has been, in many minds, confused
with human law, and the arbitrariness of human legislation has
been imported into the realm of natural law. Laws affecting physical phenomena
have been rescued from this arbitrariness by science, but the mental and moral
worlds are still in the chaos of lawlessness. Not a divine command, but the
immanence of
the divine nature,
conditions our existence, and where prophets have laid down moral laws, these
have been declarations of inevitable sequences in the moral world, known to the
prophet, unknown to his ignorant hearers; because of their ignorance, his
hearers have regarded his declarations as arbitrary commands of a divine
lawgiver, sent through him, instead of as mere statements of fact concerning
the succession of moral phenomena in a region as orderly as the physical.
Law, in the secondary
social sense, is an enactment laid down by an authority regarded as legitimate.
It may be the edict of an autocrat, or the act of a legislative assembly; in
either case the force of the law depends on the recognition of the authority
which makes it. Among the Hindus we find the ideas both of man-made and natural
law. The King, in the conception of the Manu, is an autocrat, and the subject
must obey; but above the King is a Law to which he in his turn must be obedient,
a Law which acts automatically and is in the nature of things. In spite of his
autocracy, he is bound by the supreme Law, which will
crush him if he disregards it.
Weakness oppressed is
said to be the most fatal enemy of Kings; the tears of the weak sap the
foundation of thrones, and the suffering of the nation destroys the ruler. The
physical and the super-physical worlds interpenetrate each other, and causes
set going in the one bring about results in the other. The King and his Council
in ancient
It seems a pity that one
word should be used for two things so different as
natural and artificial laws, yet they are clearly distinguishable by their
characteristics. Artificial laws are changeable; those who make them can alter
them or repeal them. Natural laws are unchanging; they cannot be altered nor
repealed, but lie in the nature of things. Artificial laws are local, while
natural are universal. The law in any country against robbery may be enforced
by any penalty chosen by the legislator; sometimes the hand is cut off,
sometimes the thief is sent to goal, sometimes he is hanged. Moreover, the
infliction of the penalty is dependent on the discovery of the crime.
A penalty which is
variable and artificial, and which may be escaped, is obviously not causally
related to the crime it punishes. A natural law has no penalty, but one
condition follows invariably on another; if a man steals, his nature becomes
more thievish, the tendency to dishonesty is increased, and the difficulty of
being honest becomes greater; this consequence works in every case, in all
countries; and the knowledge or ignorance of others as to theft makes no
difference in the consequence. A penalty which is local, variable and escapable
is a sign that the law is artificial, and not natural.
A natural law is a
sequence of conditions; such a condition being present, such another condition
will invariably fellow. If you want to bring about condition No.2, you must
find or make condition No.1, and then condition No.2 will follow as an
invariable consequence. These sequences never vary when left to themselves, but
if a new condition is introduced the succeeding condition will be altered. Thus
water runs down a slanting channel in accordance with the force of gravitation,
and if you pour water in at the top, it will invariably run down the slope; but
you can obstruct the flow by putting an obstacle in the way, and then the
resistance which the obstacle opposes to the force of gravitation balances it,
but the force of gravitation remains active and is found in the pressure on the
obstacle. The first condition is called the cause, the resulting condition the
effect, and the same cause always brings about the same effect,
provided no other cause is introduced; in the latter case, the effect is the
resultant of both.
THE LAW OF
LAWS
Karma is natural law in
the full sense of the term; it is Universal Causation, the Law of Cause and
Effect. It may be said to underlie all special laws, all causes and effects. It
is natural law in all its aspects and in all its subdivisions; it is not a special
law, but a universal condition, the one law whereon all other laws depend, of
which all other laws are partial expressions.
The Bhagavad-Gita says
that none who are embodied can escape it – Shining Ones, human beings, animals,
vegetables, minerals, are all evolving within this universal law; even the
LOGOS Himself, embodied in a universe, comes within a larger sweep of this law
of all manifestation. So long as any one is related to
matter, embodied in matter, so long is he within karmic law. A being
may escape from or transcend one or other of its aspects, but he cannot, while
remaining in manifestation, go outside this law.
THE ETERNAL
NOW
This universal Law of
Causation binds together into one all that happens within a manifestation, for
it is universal interrelation. Interrelation between all that exists – that is
karma. It is therefore coexistent, simultaneous, with the coming into existence
of any special universe. Therefore karma is eternal as the
Universal Self. The interrelation of everything always is. It never begins;
it never ceases to be. "The unreal has no being; the real never ceases to
be."
Nothing exists isolated,
alone, out of relation, and karma is the interrelation of all that exists. It
is manifest during the manifestation of a universe, as regards that universe;
it becomes latent in its dissolution.
In the All everything IS
always; all that has been, all that now is manifest, all that will be, all that
can be, all possibilities as well as all actualities, are ever in being in the
All. That which is outwards, the forth-going, existence, theunfolded,
is the manifested universe. That which IS as really, although
inwards, the infolded, is the unmanifested universe.
But the Within, the Unmanifested,
is as real as the Without, the Manifested. The interrelation between beings, in
or out of manifestation, is the eternal karma. As Being
never ceases, so karma never ceases, but always is.
When part of that which
is simultaneous in the All becomes manifested as a universe, the eternal
interrelation becomes successive, and is seen as cause and effect. In the one
Being, the All, everything is linked to everything else, everything is related
to everything else, and in the phenomenal, the manifested universe, these links
and relations are drawn out into successive happenings, causally connected in
the order of their succession in time, i.e., in appearance.
Some students shrink
from a metaphysical view such as this, but unless this idea of eternal Being,
within which all beings ever are, is grasped, the centre cannot be reached. So
long as we think from the circumference, there is always a question behind
every answer, endless beginnings and endings with a "Why?" behind
each beginning. If the student would escape this, he must patiently seek the
centre, and let the concept of All sink into his mind,
until it becomes an ever-present part of his mental equipment, and then the
universes on the circumference become intelligible, and the universal
interrelation between all
things, seen from the simultaneity of the centre, naturally
becomes cause and effect in the successions on the circumference. It has been
said that the Eternal (The Hindu name is Brahman, or more strictly, Nirguna Brahman, the Brahman without attributes) is an
ocean, which throws up universes as waves.
The ocean symbolises being without form, ever the same. The wave, by
virtue of being a part, has form and attributes. The waves rise and fall; they
break into foam, and the spray of the waves is as worlds in a universe.
Or we may think of a
huge waterfall, like Niagara, where the mass of its torrent is one ere it
falls, and then it divides into innumerable drops, which separately reflect the
light; and the drops are as worlds, and the rainbow they make is the many-coloured life. But the water is one while the drops are
many, and life is onethough beings are many. God
manifest or unmanifest is one and the same, though
different, though showing attributes in manifestation, and attributes in
un-manifestation; the LOGOS and His universe are one, though He is the unity
and the universe the diversity, He is the life and the universe the forms.
Out of manifestation
karma is latent, for the beings of the manifested are but concepts in the unmanifested; in manifestation karma is active, for all the
parts of a world, of a system, of a universe, are inter-related. Science
declares that no movement of a part can take place without affecting the whole,
and scientifically all are agreed. The inter-relations are universal, and none
can be broken, for the breaking of one would break the unity of the whole. The
inviolability of natural law rests on its universality, and a breach of law in
any part would mean universal chaos.
SUCCESSION
We have seen that as the
manifestation of a universe implies succession of phenomena, so the universal
inter-relation becomes the sequence of cause and effect. But each effect
becomes in turn a cause, and so on endlessly, the difference between cause and
effect not being one of nature but of relation. The inter-relations which exist
in the thought of the Eternal become the inter-relations between phenomena in
the manifested universe – the portion of the thought put forth as a universe.
Before the manifestation
of any special universe, there will be, in the Eternal, the thought of the
universe which is to be, and its inter-relations. That which exists
simultaneously out of time and space in the Eternal Now,
gradually appears in time and space as successive phenomena.
The moment you conceive
a universe as made up of phenomena, you are obliged to think of these phenomena
successively, one after another; but in the thought of the Eternal they always
are, and the limitation of succession has there no existence.
Even in the lower worlds,
where the measures of time are so different from each other, we catch a glimpse
of the increasing limitations of denser matter. Mozart tells us of a state of
consciousness in which he received a musical composition
as a single impression, although in his waking consciousness
he could only reproduce that single impression in a succession of notes. Or
again, we may look at a picture, and receive a single mental impression – a
landscape, a battle; but an ant, crawling over that picture, would see no whole,
only successive
impressions from the parts travelled over.
By simile, by analogy,
we may gain some idea of the difference of a universe as it appears to the
LOGOS and as it appears to us. To Him, a single impression, a perfect whole; to
us an immense sequence, slowly unfolding. So what is to Him inter-relation
becomes to us succession. Instead of seeing childhood, youth, old
age as a whole, we see them successively, day by day, year by
year. That which is simultaneous and universal becomes successive and
particular to our small minds, crawling over the world as the ant over the
picture.
Go up a mountain and
look down on a town, and you can see how the houses are related to each other
in blocks, streets, and so on. You realise them as a
whole. But when you go down into the town you must pass from street to street,
seeing each separately, successively. So in karma, we see the relations only
one by one, and one after another, not even realising
the successive relations, so limited is our view.
Such similes may often
help us to grasp the invisible things, and may act as crutches to our halting
imagination. And out of all this we lay our foundation stone for our study of
karma. Karma is universal inter-relation, and is seen in any universe as the
Law of Causation, in consequence of the successive appearance of phenomena in
the becoming, or coming forth, of the universe.
CAUSATION
The idea of causation
has been challenged in modern times, Huxley, for instance, contending, in the
Contemporary Review, that we only knew sequence, not causation; he said that if
a ball moved after it was hit by a bat, you should not say that the blow of the
bat caused the movement, but only that it was followed by the movement. This
extreme scepticism came out strongly in some of the
great men of the nineteenth century, a reaction from the ready credulity and
many unproved assumptions of the Middle Ages. The
reaction had its use, but is now gradually passing away, as extremes ever do.
The idea of causation
arises naturally in the human mind, though unprovable
by the senses; when a phenomenon has been invariably followed by another
phenomenon for long periods of time, the two become linked together in our
minds, and when one appears, the mind, by association of ideas, expects the
second; thus the fact that night has been followed by day from time immemorial
gives us a firm conviction that the sun will rise tomorrow as on countless
yesterdays.
Succession alone,
however, does not necessarily imply causation; we do not regard day as the
cause of night, nor night as the cause of day, because they invariably succeed
each other. To assert causation, we need more than invariable succession; we
need that the reason shall see that which the senses are unable to discern – a
relation between the two things which brings about the appearance of the second
when the first appears. The succession of day and night is not caused by
either; both are caused by the relation of the earth to the sun; that relation
is a true cause, recognised as such by the reason,
and as long as the
relation exists unchanged, day and night will be its effect. In
order to see one thing as the cause of another, the reason must establish a
relation between them which is sufficient for the production of one by the
other; then, and then only,
can we rightly assert causation. The links between phenomena
that are never broken, and that are recognised by the
reason as an active relation, bringing into manifestation the second phenomenon
whenever the first is manifested, we call causation.
They are the shadows of
inter-relations existing in the Eternal,
outside space and time, and they extend over the life of a
universe, wherever the conditions exist for their manifestation. Causation is an
expression of the nature of the LOGOS, an Emanation of the eternal Reality;
wherever there is
interrelation in the Eternal which demands succession for its
manifestation in time, there is causation.
THE LAWS OF
NATURE
Our next step in our
study is a consideration of the "Laws of Nature". The whole universe
is included within the ideas of succession and causation, but when we come to
what we call the laws of nature, we are unable to say over what area they
extend.
Scientists find
themselves compelled to speak with greater and greater caution as they travel
beyond the limit of actual observation. Causes and effects which are continuous
within the area of our observation may not exist in other regions, or workings
which are here observed as invariable may be interrupted by the irruption of
some cause outside the "known" of our time, though probably not
outside the knowable.
Between 1850 and 1890
there were many positive statements as to the conservation of energy and the
indestructibility of matter. It was said that there existed in the universe a
certain amount of energy, incapable of diminution or of increase; that all
forces were forms of that energy, that the amount of any given force, as heat,
might vary, but not the total amount of energy. As 20 may be made up of 20
units, or of 10 twos, or of 5 fours, or of 12+8, ) and
so on, but the total remains as 20, so with the varying forms and the total
amount. With regard to matter, again, similar statements were made; it was
indestructible, and hence remained ever the same in amount; some, like Ludwig Buchner, declared that the chemical elements were
indestructible, that "an atom of carbon was ever an atom of carbon,"
and so on.
On these two ideas
science was built up, and they formed the basis of materialism. But now it is realised that chemical elements are dissoluble, and that
the atom itself may be a swirl in the ether, or perhaps a mere hole where ether is not. There may be atoms through which
force pours in, others through
which it pours out – whence? – whither ?
May not physical matter become intangible, resolve itself into ether? May not
ether give birth to new matter? All is doubtful where once certainty reigned. Yet has a universe its "Ring-Pass-Not". Within a
given area only can we speak with certainty of a "law
of nature".
What is a law of nature?
Mr. J.N. Farquhar, in the Contemporary Review for
July, 1910, in an article on Hinduism, declares that if Hindus want to carry
out reforms, they must abandon the idea of karma. As well might he say that if
a man wants to fly he must abandon the idea of an atmosphere.
To understand the law of karma is not to renounce activity, but to know the
conditions under which activity is best carried on. Mr. Farquhar,
who has evidently studied modern Hinduism
carefully, has not grasped the idea of karma as taught in ancient
scripture and in modern science.
A law of nature is not a
command, but a statement of conditions. This cannot be repeated too often, nor
insisted on too strongly. Nature does not order this thing or the other; she
says: "Here are certain conditions; where these exist, such and such a
result will invariably follow." A law of nature is an invariable
sequence. If you do not like the result, change the preceding
conditions.
Ignorant, you are
helpless, at the mercy of nature’s hurtling forces; wise, you are master, and
her forces serve you obediently. Every law of nature is an enabling, not a
compelling, force, but knowledge is necessary for utilising
her powers.
Water boils at 100
degrees C. under normal pressure. This is the condition. You go up a mountain;
pressure diminishes; water boils at 95 degrees. Now water at 95 degrees will
not make good tea. Does Nature then forbid you to have good tea on a
mountain-top? Not at all: under normal pressure water boils at the necessary
temperature for tea-making; you have lost pressure; supply the deficit;
imprison your escaping steam till it adds the necessary pressure, and you can
make your tea with water at 100 degrees. If you want to produce water by the
union of hydrogen and oxygen, you require a certain temperature, and can obtain
it from the electric spark. If you insist on keeping the temperature at zero,
or in substituting nitrogen for hydrogen, you cannot have water.
Nature lays down the conditions
which result in the production of water, and you cannot change them; she
neither supplies nor withholds water; you are free to have it or to go without
it; if you want it, you must bring together the necessary things and thus make
the conditions. Without these, no water. With these,
inevitably water. Are you bound or free? Free as to making the
conditions; bound as to the result, when once you have made them.
Knowing this, the scientific
man, face to face with a difficulty, does not sit down helplessly; he finds out
the conditions under which he can bring about a result, learns how to make the
conditions, sure that he can rely on the result.
A LESSON OF
THE LAW
This is the great lesson
taught by science to the present generation. Religion has taught it for ages,
but dogmatically rather than rationally. Science proves that knowledge is the
condition of freedom, and that only as man knows can he
compel. The scientific man observes sequences; over and over again
he performs his testing experiments; he eliminates all that is casual,
collateral, irrelevant, and slowly, surely, discovers what constitutes an
invariable causative sequence. Once sure of his facts, he acts with indubitable
assurance, and nature, without shadow of turning, rewards his rational
certainty with success.
Out of this assurance
grows "the sublime patience of the investigator". Luther Burbank, in
California, will sow millions of seeds, select some thousands of plants, pair a
few hundreds, and patiently march to his end; he can trust the laws of nature,
and, if he fails, he knows that the error lies with him, not
with them.
There is a law of nature
that masses of matter tend to move towards the earth. Shall I then say: "I
cannot walk up the stairs; I cannot fly in the air"? Nay, there are other
laws. I pit against the force that holds me on the ground, another force stored
in my muscles, and I raise my body by means of it. A person with
muscles weak from fever may have to stay on the ground-floor,
helpless; but I break no law when I put forth muscular force, and walk
upstairs.
The inviolability of Law
does not bind – it frees. It makes Science possible, and rationalises
human effort. In a lawless universe, effort would be futile, reasons would be
useless. We should be savages, trembling in the grip of forces, strange,
incalculable, terrible. Imagine a chemist in a
laboratory where
nitrogen was now inert, now explosive, where oxygen vivified today
and stifled tomorrow! In a lawless universe we should not dare to move, not
knowing what any action might bring about. We move sagely, surely, because of
the inviolability of Law.
KARMA DOES
NOT CRUSH
Now Karma is the great
law of nature, with all that that implies. As we are able to move in the
physical universe with security, knowing its laws, so may we move in the mental
and moral universes with security also, as we learn their laws.
The majority of people,
with regard to their mental and moral defects, are much in the position of a
man who should decline to walk upstairs because of the law of gravitation. They
sit down helplessly, and say: "That is my nature. I cannot help it."
True, it is the man’s nature, as he has made it in the past, and it is
"his
karma". But by a knowledge of karma he can change
his nature, making it other tomorrow than it is today. He is not in the grip of
an inevitable destiny, imposed upon him from outside; he is in a world of law,
full of natural forces
which he can utilise to bring about the
state of things which he desires. Knowledge and will – that is what he needs.
He must realize that
karma is not a power which crushes, but a statement of conditions out of which
invariable results accrue. So long as he lives carelessly, in a happy-go-lucky
way, so long will he be like a man floating on a stream, stuck by any passing
log, blown aside by any casual breeze, caught in any chance eddy. This spells
failure, misfortune, unhappiness. The law enables him
to compass his ends successfully, and places within his reach forces which he
can utilise. He can modify, change, remake on other
lines the nature which is the inevitable outcome of his previous desires,
thoughts, and actions; that future nature is as inevitable as the present, the
result of the conditions which he now deliberately makes. "Habit is second
nature," says the proverb, and thought creates habits. Where there is Law,
no achievement is impossible, and karma is the guarantee of man’s evolution
into mental and moral perfection.
APPLY THIS
LAW
We have now to apply
this law to ordinary human life, to apply principle to practice. It has been
the loss of the intelligible relations between eternal principles and
transitory events that has rendered modern religion so inoperative in common
life. A man will clean up his backyard when he understands the relation between
dirt and disease; but he leaves his mental and moral backyards uncleansed, because he sees no relation between his mental
and moral defects and the various ghastly after-death experiences with which he
is threatened by religions.
Hence he either
disbelieves the threats and goes carelessly on his way, or hopes to escape
consequences by some artificial compact with the authorities. In either case, he
does not cleanse his ways. When he realizes that law is as inviolable in the
mental and moral worlds as in the physical, it may well be hoped that he will
become as reasonable in the former as he already is in the latter.
MAN IN THE
THREE WORLDS
Man, as we know, is
living normally in three worlds, the physical, emotional and mental, is put
into contact with each by a body formed of its type of matter, and acts in each
through the appropriate body. He therefore creates results in each according to
their respective laws and powers, and all these come within
the all-embracing law of karma. During his daily life in waking
consciousness he is creating "karma," i.e. results, in these three
worlds, by action, desire and thought. While his physical body is asleep, he is
creating karma in two worlds – the emotional and the mental, the amount of
karma then created by him depending on the stage he has reached in evolution.
We may confine ourselves
to these three worlds, for those above them are not inhabited consciously by
the average man; but we should, none the less, remember that we are like trees,
the roots of which are fixed in the higher worlds, and their branches spread in
the three lower worlds in which dwell our mortal
bodies, and in which our consciousnesses are working.
Laws work within their
own worlds, and must be studied as though their workings were independent; just
as every science studies the laws working within its own department, but does
not forget the wider working of further-reaching conditions, so must man, while
working in the three departments, physical, emotional and mental, remember the
sweep of law which includes them all within its area of activity. In all
departments laws are inviolable and unchangeable, and each brings about its own
full effect, although the final result of their interaction is the effective
force that remains when all balancing of opposing forces has been made. All
that is true of laws in general is true of karma, the great law. Causes being
present, events must follow. But by taking away, or adding causes, events must
be modified.
A person gets drunk; may
he say: "My karma is to get drunk"? He gets drunk because of certain
tendencies existing in himself, the presence of loose
companions, and an environment where drink is sold. Let us suppose that he
wishes to conquer his evil habit; he knows the three conditions that lead him
into drunkenness. He may say: "I am not strong enough to resist my own
tendencies in the presence of drink and the company of loose-livers. I will not
go where there is drink, nor will I associate with men who tempt me to
drink."
He changes the
conditions, eliminating two of them, though unable immediately to change the
third, and the new result is that he does not get drunk. He is not "interfering
with karma," but is relying on it; nor is a friend "interfering with
karma," if he persuades him to keep away from boon companions. There is no
karmic command to a man to get drunk, but only the existence of certain
conditions in the midst of which he certainly will get drunk; there is, it is
true, another way of changing the conditions, the putting forth a strong effort
of will; this also introduces a new condition, which will change the result –
by addition instead of elimination.
In the only sense in
which a man can "interfere" with the laws of nature he is perfectly
at liberty to do so, as much as he likes and can. He can inhibit the acting of
one force by bringing another against it; he can overcome gravitation by
muscular effort. In this sense, he may interfere with karma as much as he
likes, and should interfere with it when the results are objectionable. But the
expression is not a happy one, and it is liable to be misunderstood.
The law is: such and
such causes bring about such and such results. The law is unchangeable, but the
play of phenomena is ever-changing. The mightiest cause of all causes is human
will and human reason, and yet this is the cause which is, for the most part,
omitted when people talk of karma. We are causes, because we are the divine
will, one with God in our essential being, although hamperedby
ignorance and working through gross matter, which impedes us until we conquer,
by spiritualising, it. The changelessness of karma is
not the changelessness of effects but of law, and it is this which makes us
free. Truly slaves should we be in a world in which everything went by chance.
But according to our knowledge are our freedom and our safety in a world of
law.
In the Middle Ages, chemists were by no means free to bring about
the results they desired, but they had to accept results as they came,
unforeseen and for the most part undesired, even to their own serious injury.
The result of an experiment might be a useful product, or it might be the
reduction of the experimenter into fragments.
Roger Bacon set going
causes which cost him an eye and a finger, and occasionally stretched him
senseless on the floor of his cell; outside our knowledge we are in peril, and
any cause we set going may wreck us, for we are mostly Roger Bacons in the
mental and moral worlds; inside our knowledge we may move with freedom and
safety, as the well-trained chemist moves today. It is true in all the three
worlds in which we live, that the more we know, the
more can we foresee and control. Because law is inviolable and changeless,
therefore knowledge is the condition of freedom. Let us then study karma, and
apply our knowledge to the guidance of our lives. So many people say: "Oh!
how I wish I were good," and do not use the law
to create the causes which result in goodness; as though a chemist should say:
"Oh! how I wish I had water," without making
the conditions
which would produce it.
Again, we must remember
that each force works along its own particular line, and that when a number of
forces impinge on a particular point, the resultant force is the outcome of all
of them. As in our school days we learned how to construct a parallelogram of
forces and thus find the resultant of their
composition; so with karma may we learn to understand the conflict of
forces and their composition to yield a single resultant. We hear people asking
why a good man fails in business while a bad man succeeds.
But there is no causal
connection between goodness and money-getting. We might at well say: "I am
a very good man; why cannot I fly in the air?" Goodness is not a cause of
flying, nor does it bring in money. Tennyson touched on a great law when, in
his poem on "Wages," he declared that the wages of virtue were not
"dust," nor rest, nor pleasure, but the glory of an active
immortality. "Virtue is its own reward" in the
fullest sense of the words.
If we are truthful, our
reward is that our nature becomes more truthful, and so sequentially with every
virtue. Karmic results can only be of the nature of their causes; they are not
arbitrary, like human rewards.
UNDERSTAND
THE TRUTH
This seems to be
obvious: whence then arises the general instinct that success
in life should accompany goodness? We can successfully combat
an error only when we understand the truth which lies at the heart of it, gives
it its vitality,
and leads to its spread and its persistence. The truth in this
case is that, if
a man puts himself into accord with the divine law, happiness
is the result of
such harmony. The error is to identify worldly success with
happiness, and to
disregard the element of time. A man going into business determines
to be
truthful, and to take no unfair advantage over others. He sees those
who are
untruthful and unscrupulous going ahead of him; if he is weak, he
becomes
discouraged, even, perchance, imitates them. If he is strong, he says:
"I will
work in harmony with the
divine law, no matter what may be the immediate worldly results": inner
peace and happiness are then his, but success does not accrue to him;
nevertheless, in the long run even that may fall to him, for what he loses in
money he gains in confidence, whereas the man who once betrays may at any time
betray again, and none will trust him. In a competitive society, lack of scrupulousness
yields immediate success, whereas in a cooperative society conscientiousness
would "pay".
To give starvation wages
to workers forced by competition to accept them may lead to immediate success
as against business rivals, and the man who gives a decent living wage may find
himself outpaced in the race for wealth; but, in the long run, the latter will
have better work done for him, and in the future will reap the harvest of
happiness whereof he sowed the seed.
We must decide on our
course and accept its results, not looking for money as payment for goodness,
nor seeing injustice when unscrupulous shrewdness reaches that at which it
aimed.
An instructive, if not
very pleasant, Indian story is told of a man who wronged another,
and the injured man cried for redress to the King. When the punishment to be
inflicted on his enemy was given into his hands, he prayed the King to enrich
his foe; asked for the reason of his strange behaviour,
he grimly said that wealth and worldly prosperity would give him greater
opportunities for wrongdoing, and would thus entail on him bitter suffering in
the life after death. Often the worst enemy of virtue is in easy material
conditions, and these, which are spoken of as good karma, are often the reverse
in their results. Many who do fairly well in adversity go astray in prosperity,
and become intoxicated with worldly delights.
Let us now consider how
a man affects his surroundings, or, in scientific phrase, how the organism acts
on its environment.
MAN AND HIS
SURROUNDINGS
Man affects his
surroundings in innumerable ways, which may all be classified into three modes
of self-expression: he affects them by Will, by Thought, by Action.
The developed man is
able to draw his energies together and to fuse them into one, ready to go forth
from him, and to cause action. This concentration of his energies into a single
force, held in suspense within him, in leash ready for outrush,
is Will; it is an interior concentration, one mode of the triple
Self-expression. In the subhuman kingdoms, and in the lower divisions of the
human, the pleasure-giving and pain-giving objects around the
living creature draw out its energies, and we call these multifarious energies
brought out by external objects its desires, whether of attraction or
repulsion.
Only when these are all
drawn in, united and pointed towards a single aim, can we term this single
energy, ready to go forth, the Will. This Will is Self-expression, i.e., it is
directed by the Self; the Self determines the line to be taken, basing its
determination on previous experience. In the subhuman and lower human kingdoms,
desires are an important factor in karma, giving rise to most mixed results; in
the higher human, Will is the most potent karmic cause, and as man transmutes
desires into Will, he "rules his stars".
The mode of
Self-expression called Thought belongs to the aspect of the Self by which he
becomes aware of the outer world, the aspect of Cognition. This obtains
knowledge, and the working of the Self on the knowledge obtained is Thought. This, again, is an important factor in karma, since
it is creative, and as we know, builds character.
The mode of
Self-expression which directly affects the environment, the energy giving forth
from the Self, is Activity, the action of the Self on the Not-Self.
The power of
concentrating all energies into one is Will; the power of becoming aware of an
external world is Cognition; the power of affecting that outside world is
Activity. This action is inevitably followed by a reaction from the outside
world – karma. The inner cause of the reaction is Will; the nature of
the reaction is due to Cognition; the immediate provoker of the
reaction is Activity. These spin the three threads of the karmic rope.
THE THREE
FATES
"God created man in
His own image," says a Hebrew Scripture, and the Trinities of the great
religions are the symbols of the three aspects of the divine consciousness,
reflected in the triplicity of the human. The first
Logos of the Theosophist, the Mahadeva of the Hindu,
the Father of the Christians, has Will
as predominant, and shows forth the power of sovereignty, the
Law by which the universe is built. The Second Logos, Vishnu, the Son, is
Wisdom, that all-sustaining and all-pervading power by which the universe is
preserved. The Third Logos, Brahma, the Holy Spirit, is the Agent, the creative
power by which
the universe is brought into manifestation. There is nothing in
divine or human consciousness which does not find itself within one or other of
these modes of Self-expression.
Again, matter has three
fundamental qualities responsive severally to these modes of consciousness,
and without these it could no more be manifested than Consciousness could
express itself without its modes. It has inertia (tamas),
the very foundation of all, the stability necessary to existence, the quality
which answers to Will. It has mobility (rajas), the capacity to
be moved, answering to Activity. It has rhythm (sattva),
the equaliser of movement (without which movement
would be chaotic, destructive), answering to Cognition.
The Yoga system,
considering all from the standpoint of consciousness, names this rhythmic
quality "cognisability," that which makes
that matter should be known by Spirit.
All that is in our consciousness,
affecting the environment, and all the environment
affected by our consciousness, make up our world. The interrelation between our
consciousness and our environment is our karma. By these three modes of
consciousness we spin our individual karma, the universal interrelation between
Self and Not-Self being specialized by us into this individual interrelation As
we rise above separateness, the individual again becomes the universal
interrelation, but this universal interrelation cannot be transcended while
manifestation endures. This specializing of the universal, and the later
universalizing of the special make up of the "world’s eternal ways" –
the Path of Forthgoing to gather experience, the Path of Return, bringing the
sheaves of experience home; this is the Great Wheel of Evolution, so relentless
when seen from the standpoint of Matter, so beauteous when seen from the
standpoint of Spirit. "Life is not a cry, but a song."
THE PAIR OF
TRIPLETS
Thus we have three
factors in spirit for the creation of Karma, and three corresponding qualities
in matter, and we must study these in order to make our Karma that which we
would have it be. We may study them in any order, but for many reasons it is
convenient to take the cognitive factor first, because in that lies the power
of knowledge and of choice. We can change our desires by the use of thought, we
cannot change our thoughts, though we may colour them, by desire; so, in the
final analysis action is set in motion by thought.
In the earliest stages
of savagery as with the newly born infant action is caused by attractions and
repulsions. But almost immediately memory comes in, the memory of an
attraction, with the wish to re-experience it; the memory of a repulsion, with
the wish to avoid it. A thing has given pleasure, it is remembered, i.e.,
thought about, it is desired, action to grasp it follows. The three cannot
really be separated, for there is no action which is not preceded by thought
and desire, and which does not again set them going, after it is performed.
Action is the outer sign of the invisible thought and desire,
and in its very accomplishment gives birth to a fresh thought and desire. The
three form a circle, perpetually retraced.
THOUGHT,
THE BUILDER
Now thought works on
matter; every change in consciousness is answered by a vibration in matter, and
a similar change, however often repeated, brings about a similar vibration.
This vibration is strongest in the matter nearest to you, and the matter
nearest to you is your own mental body. If you repeat a thought, it repeats the
corresponding vibration, and, as when matter has vibrated in a particular way
once it is easier for it to vibrate in that same way again than to vibrate in a
new way, the more often you repeat a thought the more ready the vibrationary response. Presently, after much repetition, a
tendency will be set up in the matter of your mental body, automatically to
repeat the vibration on its own account; when it does this – since the
vibration in matter and the thought in consciousness are inseparably linked –
the thought appears in the mind without any previous activity on the part of
consciousness.
Hence when you have
thought over a thing – a virtue, an emotion, a wish – and have deliberately
come to the conclusion that it is a desirable thing to have that virtue, to
feel that emotion, to be moved by that wish, you quietly set to work to create
a habit of thought.
You think deliberately
of it every morning for a few minutes, and soon you find that it arises
spontaneously in the mind (by the aforesaid automatic activity of matter). You
persist in your thought-creation until you have formed a strong habit of
thought, a habit which can only be changed by an equally prolonged process of
thinking in the opposite direction. Even against the opposition of the will,
the thought recurs to the mind – as many have found when they are unable to
sleep in consequence of the involuntary recurrence of a harassing
thought.
If you have thus
established the habit, say, of honesty, you will act honestly automatically;
and if some strong gust of desire sweeps you into dishonesty on some occasion,
the honest habit will torment you as it would never torment a habitual thief.
You have created the habit of honesty; the thief has no such habit; hence you
suffer mentally when the habit is broken, and the thief suffers not at all.
Persistence in strengthening such a mental habit until it is stronger than any
force which can be brought to bear upon it makes the reliable man; he literally
cannot lie, cannot steal; he has built himself an impregnable
virtue.
By thought, then, you
can build any habit you choose to build. There is no virtue which you cannot
create by thought. The forces of nature work with you, for you understand how
to use them, and they become your servants.
If you love your
husband, your wife, your child, you find that this emotion of love causes
happiness in those who feel it. If you spread the love
outwards to others, an increase of happiness results. You, seeing this
and wishful for the happiness of all, deliberately begin to think love to
others, in an ever wider
and wider circle, until the love-attitude is your normal
attitude towards all you meet. You have created the love-habit, and have
generalized an emotion into a virtue, for a virtue is only a good emotion made
general and permanent (See Bhagavan Das’ The Science of Emotions)
Everything is under law;
you cannot obtain mental ability or moral virtue by sitting still and doing
nothing. You can obtain both by strenuous and persevering thinking. You can
build your mental and moral nature by thinking, for "man is created by
thought; what he thinks upon, that he becomes; therefore
think" on that which you aspire to be, and inevitably it
shall be yours. Thus shall you become a mental and moral athlete, and your
character shall grow rapidly; you made in the past the character with which you
were born; you are making now the character with which you will die, and will
return. This is
karma. Every one is born with a character, and the character is
the most important part of karma. The Musalman says
that "a man is born with his destiny tied round his neck". For a
man’s destiny depends chiefly on his character. A strong character can overcome
the most unfavourable circumstances, and overclimb the most difficult obstacles. A weak character is
buffeted by circumstances, and fails before the most trivial obstacles.
PRACTICAL
MEDITATION
The whole theory of
meditation is built upon these laws of thought; formeditation
is only deliberate and persevering thought, aimed at a specific object, and
hence is a potent karmic cause. By using knowledge and thought to modify
character, you can bring about very quickly a desired result. If you were born
a coward, you can think yourself brave; if you were born dishonest, you can
think yourself honest: if you were born untruthful, you can think yourself
truthful. Have confidence in yourself and in the law.
There is another point
we must not forget. Concrete thought finds its natural realisation
in action, and if you do not act out a thought, then by reaction you weaken the
thought. Strenuous action along the line of the thinking must follow the
thought, otherwise progress will be slow.
Realise, then, that while you cannot now help the character with
which you were born, while it is a fact which must profoundly influence your
present destiny, marking out your line of activity in this life, yet you can,
by thought and by action based thereon, change your inborn character, eliminate
its weaknesses,
eradicate its faults, strengthen its good qualities, enlarge its
capacities. You are born with a given character, but you can change it.
Knowledge is offered to you as to the means of changing, and each must put that
knowledge into practice
for himself.
WILL AND
DESIRE
Desire and Activity
remain to be considered. Will is the energy prompting to action, and while it
is attracted and repelled by outside objects, we call it desire,
the lower aspect of Will, as thought is the lower aspect of Cognition.
If a man, confronted by
a pleasure-giving object, grasps it without thought,
he is moved by desire; if he holds himself back, saying: "I must not enjoy
it now, because I have a duty to perform," he is moved by Will. When the
energy of the
Self is controlled and
guided by right reason, it is Will: when it rushes out unbridled, drawn hither
and thither by attractive objects, it is Desire.
Desire arises in us
spontaneously; we like one thing, we dislike another, and our likes and
dislikes are involuntary; are not under the control of the Will nor of the
reason. We may make up reasons for them when we wish to justify them, but they
are elemental, non-rational, precedent of thought. None the less may they be
brought under control, and changed – though not directly.
Consider physical taste;
an olive, preserved in brine, is offered to a child, and is generally rejected
with disgust. But it is a fashionable thing to like olives, and your people
persevere in eating them, determined to like them, and presently they are fond
of them. They have changed their disliking to liking. How is the change of
taste brought about? By the action of Will, directed by the
mind.
THE MASTERY
OF DESIRE
We can change desires by
thought. The desire nature with which we are born is good, bad, or indifferent,
and it follows its own way in early childhood. Presently we examine it, and
mark some desires as useful, others as useless or even noxious. We then form a
mental image of the desire nature which would be
useful and noble, and we deliberately set to work to create it by
thought-power.
There are some physical
desires which we see will bring about disease if left uncontrolled: eating too
much, because of the gratification of the palate; drinking alcoholic liquors,
because they exhilarate and vivify; yielding to the pleasures of sex. We see in
the persons of others that these cause obesity, shaken nerves, premature
exhaustion.
We determine not to yield
to them; we bridle the horses of the senses with the bits and reins of the
mind, and deliberately hold them in, although they struggle; if they are very
refractory
we call up the image of the glutton, the drunkard, the
worn-out profligate, and so create a repulsion for the causes which made them
what they are. And so with all other desires. Deliberately choose out and
encourage those which lead to refining and elevating pleasures, and reject
those which result in coarseness of body and of mind.
There will be failures
in your resistance, but in spite of failures, persevere. At first, you will
yield to the desire, and only remember too late that you had resolved to
abstain; persevere. Presently the desire and the memory of the good resolution
will arise together, and there will be a period of struggle – your Kurukshetra – and you will sometimes succeed and sometimes
fail; persevere.
Then successes will
multiply, and failures be few; persevere. Then desire dies, and you watch
beside its tomb, lest it should only be entranced, and revive. Finally you have
done with that form of desire for ever. You have worked with the law and have
conquered.
TWO OTHER
POINTS
Students are sometimes
troubled because in their dreams they yield to a vice which down here they have
conquered, or feel the stirring of a desire which they thought long slain.
Knowledge will destroy the trouble. In a dream, a man is in his astral body,
and a stirring of desire, too weak to cause physical matter to vibrate, will
cause a vibration in astral matter; let the dreamer resist, as he soon will if
he determines to do so, and the desire will cease.
Further, he should
remember that there will be left for some time in the astral body effete
matter, which was formerly used when the desire arose, but which is now, from
disuse, in process of disintegration. This may be temporarily vivified by a
passing desire-form and thus caused to vibrate artificially. This may happen to
a man when he is either sleeping or waking.
It is but the artificial
movement of a corpse. Let him repudiate it: " Thou
are not from me. Get thee gone." And the vibration will be stilled.