[Advaita-l] akartaaham abhoktaaham -1

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

PraNAms to all. I found the following post by Swami Nikhilanandaji, Acharya of Chinmaya Mission, Delhi. I met the Swamiji in Trinidad when he came for the mahasamadhi aaradhana camp during the last week of July. I am posting here with his blanket consent to post his writings. If there are any particular questions to be directed to Swamiji I can do so or one can go to his facebook and present them.

I am posting this in three parts since the post is too long.  

Hari Om!
Sadanada
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If Atman doesn't act who or what acts?

Bhagavad Gita – Ch. V – verse 14 to 17
4th December, 2014.
Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati.
Chinmaya Mission Delhi.
 
Hari Om!
 
First one has to follow the path of karmayoga and through that we have to purify our antahkaran. When gain enough vairagya we can take karmasannyas, formal sannyas. Or one can continue to be karmayogi and pursue to acquire that knowledge too. After acquiring knowledge one can take sannyas. Karmasannyas is difficult without karmayoga.
 
Once a person is endowed with karmayoga then it becomes easy to take karmasannyas. Karmasannyas is dropping the sense of doership.

We become free of sense of mamatwa through karmayoga. Attachment to the result of action, attachment to karma itself and attachment to the people around gets dropped.Then one has to drop the wrong notion that I am the doer and meditate on the Self which is free from all modifications and changes.

Karmasannyasi practices the sadhana that I am not doing anything. Actions are happening in body, mind, senses etc but I am not doing anything. I am neither making the senses do nor making the mind do anything. I the self, am totally free from all the changes. One should practice karmayoga till one is ready for karmasannyas.
 
Bhagavan briefly explains karmayoga that all the actions should be dedicated to Ishvara. A karmayogi performs all the actions for the sake of chittashuddhi.

Whatever is required comes in our life anyway. Focus should be not on those things. Focus should be on chittashuddhi. Ishvara will provide us with whatever is required. He is the karmaphaladata.
 
We should dedicate all actions to Ishvara and purifying our own antahkaran. We should focus on making the antahkaran free of all desires, likes and dislikes and negativities.
 
Bhagavan says one who follows the karmayoga will attain supreme peace. One who does not karmayoga path will get more and more bound in samsara.

A realized person remains happy within this body which is made up of nine gates. He is neither doing anything nor making the body nor senses or mind do anything. He remains as pure Self. The Sun does not do anything. In his presence all activities happen on earth. Similarly, all activities happen in the presence of the Self but Self is not doing anything.
 
A question comes in mind? If the Self does not do anything then how does the body, mind function? How do the activities happen? That is a big question.
Bhagavan takes up that question now. We have heard about great Masters. They also interact with the world so who is making their body, mind etc function?
 
 
न कर्तृत्वं न कर्माणि लोकस्य सृजति प्रभु: |
न कर्मफलसंयोगं स्वभावस्तु प्रवर्तते || १४ ||
na kartṛtvaṃ na karmāṇi lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ
na karmaphalasaṃyogaṃ svabhāvas tu pravartate 5.14
 
Prabhu is the Atman, our own Supreme Self, which is not the ahamkar. Ahamkar is a wrong notion about ourselves. We consider our body, mind as ourselves and that is ahamkar. That ahamkar is not Lord. The pure Self which is free from all misunderstandings is the Lord. That Self is sakshad Brahman. That Self is prabhu who remains in the body. Just as the space that occupies the pot and the same space exists in the entire world. Space is very vast where all the galaxies exist. There is only one space but because of the pot it appears as though it is confined, limited. It appears as though it is inside the pot. Similarly, the Atman is existing in this body also.

He is the Lord of this body. He is also the lord of entire creation. That Prabhu does not create the sense of doership in anyone. Atman does not create any wrong notions or misunderstandings. It does not create any relation with the objects through action. Those objects are also not created by the Atman. Atman is not the doer either at the individual level or cosmic level.

Bhagavan talks in 4th Chapter that though I am the creator of this world, understand that I am not the creator. From one stand point it appears that Ishvara is the creator but from His nature and His own standpoint we come to know that He is not the creator. These are some subtle points.

Atman does not create the sense of doership nor does it create any sanyoga with the object or the results of the karma.

We perform karma and we get connected to the result. Sometimes immediately. Put your finger in fire and you get the result immediately.

There are some karmas for which we do not get the result immediately. Suppose you go to a party and overfeed yourself. You may not get the result immediately. You may get the result the next day! Sometimes the results come after many, many years. There are certain karmas which does not give result in this lifetime. They give result in future life time.

How do we get connected to the results of these karma? The result should come to the same person who has performed the karma. Just like, we order some food and it should get delivered to the person who ordered it. Whatever we are getting now in this life time is the result of our karmas of past life. Who knows my past life and what karmas I performed? Who is connecting me to the results?

The service provider keeps track of the movement of our mobile phone and we remain connected. Similarly, the karma gets connected to karmaphala. Because of ignorance the kartrutva  bhavana gets created. I consider myself a doer. Then I perform various types of karma and then I get connected to the results of karma. It is said that karmas do not get destroyed, the result will follow me, chase me even after many, many life times. I cannot escape.

There is a beautiful system in the cosmos. It is absolutely full-proof. There is nothing called accident or co-incident. If we accept coincidence or accident then there will be no logic. Nothing will fall in system. Everything is perfect in the cosmos. You might face problems in getting your mobile bill properly but the bill of karma will come to us wherever we are without fail.
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continued in part II.