Speech by Shree Swami Prakashanand Saraswati, disciple of Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj, on the law of karma in Hinduism.

The topic is consequence of karmas. In the previous section we learned that the aim of human life is to receive God's Love. All the entertainments of this world, they only please you for a while. They never give you full contentment. Full contentment, full happiness, full love, you can only receive when you find God. To find God, you have to do something, and you are already doing something. Whatever you are doing, they are all your karmas, actions. The word 'karma', according to scripture concept, signifies your actions, your motivation, and your thoughts. Not only physical actions are karmas. Karmas means your motivation, your actions, and your thought.

Suppose you are thinking evil for someone. You are doing bad karmas. Suppose you are thinking good for someone, you are doing good karmas. Physical actions in the spiritual government, they have no value. Your motivation has the value. Take for instance, a person is rebuking someone. That can be good action, that can be bad action. But on the face value, it seems bad because he is getting angry, annoyed, rebuking. So face value looks bad; it may be good. He might be a good father who is giving a lesson to his son. Then he is doing good action. He is trying to explain to his child not to go into bad companies. However, if some person is doing such thing out of jealousy, it's a bad action.

You see a traitor comes, and a policeman shoots him down. He saved the community. He was bad person, he was evil. Policeman did the right thing, although he killed that man. So, question is the face value of any action does not determine the class of that action. That has to be understood. The class of that action is determined according to your motivation, and motivation is always hidden within your mind, no one can observe it. But the one Who is noting, making a note of your actions, He knows. So, what will you do? You think, and whatever you think is all noted down.

So, you have done all, in those lots of lots of days back, means past millions and millions of lifetimes, uncountable karmas. They are all in the record. And where is that record? With you. You carry the record with you. Where? In your mind. So, who inscribes that record? By your own nature it's being inscribed. But who remembers? Godhead Personality.

Godhead Personality has many kinds of work to do. In His one form where He is called Paramhatma, He remembers all the actions of every soul. He remembers everything. It's why He is called Ishwar, HINDI, the One Who rules this universe, according to karmas, Ishwar. So, Ishwar remembers all of your actions, but those actions are in your mind. Your mind is very wide, big. A fraction of your mind, which you call conscious mind, is known to people. There are other parts of mind, which are subconscious, unconscious, fully unconscious, with many, many layers, they are unknown to common mind, to a conscious mind. They are unknown. And because they are unknown, they remain unknown.

However, all of your actions are inscribed as an imprint in your mind. So, the farther actions, for instance, the actions of your present life are very close to your conscious mind. The actions of past life, they are little further, another layer of subconscious mind. Actions of suppose 100 million life past, may be in your unconscious mind somewhere.

You see it's like microdot. A big plate of everything, and you make a small microdot. And if you set those microdots on a big sheet and make a microdot of microdot, and again if you set those millions of microdot of microdots and again make again a microdot of microdot of microdot.The question, how subtle can you go? The signs, how subtle can it go? There's a limit. But your mind has no limit. It can go to unlimited subtleness, unlimited subtleness.

So, according to the unlimited subtleness capacity of your mind that contains the imprint of actions of your uncountable lifetimes. But the very close actions - close means of your past ten, fifteen lifetime's actions - they are very close to your conscious mind, I mean your, in your subconscious mind. The rest are in unconscious and fully unconscious mind. In fully unconscious mind the sanskars they are billions and billions of lifetimes back.

So, you always carry all of your sanskars, every time in every lifetime, you keep on adding, adding, adding, adding, adding. The mind has big capacity to retain all of that. Even after this whole universe comes to an end, there's a big gap, then again universe comes into being, you are still carrying all the sanskars of previous universe, when that was in existence. And previous to that, and prior to that, it's all very complicated. However, you carry all of your sanskars with you. Sanskars means the imprint of your actions, it's called sanskars.

So, those sanskars they are just the imprints. So, how many kinds of imprints? Many kinds, but they can be classified, according to your motivation. So, you can classify the motivations. You can have many kinds of actions, but classify the motivation. So, motivation can be normally three kinds. When you think of something bad and do bad. When you think of something good and do good. When you think of God and begin to feel the need of God in your life, and do some kind of devotion, with such an interest that you need God in your life and this whole world is full of misery, is not full of happiness, with such an understanding. So, the first kind is called bad actions, second kind is called good actions, and this third action is called devotional actions. So, bad motivation, good motivation, and devotional motivation. Only three kinds of motivations: bad, good, devotional. So, according to motivation, you classify your actions.

For instance, somebody is worshipping God Shiv, and he's desiring to get some power, so he can rule the society. Is he doing a devotional action? Not at all, he is doing bad action, evil action, because his motivation is evil. He is trying to get power from Shiv to terrorize and rule the community. Evil. So, don?t go by the face value. Whatever is your motivation behind that action.

So, if you go to an Indian temple and you find somebody doing, "Hare Ram, Hare, Ram, Ram, Ram, Hare, Hare, Hare Krishn, Hare Krishn, Krishn, Krishn, Hare, Hare." What is he doing? He's a perfect hypocrite. He might be showing his vanity, with closed eyes looking is somebody coming or not, so he can close his eyes and try to pose that, oh, showing that he is in trance or that he is in devotion, like that. Why is he doing? He's just showing his vanity to other people.

So, if a person is doing any kind of such devotional activities, according to the face value, but his motivation is to show it to others - sometimes close his eyes, sometimes open his eyes, sometimes closing his eyes - I mean it's for showing to others. What is this called? It's neither good nor bad, neutral. I mean taking God's name cannot be bad, and his motivation is not that evil. He's just showing his vanity. So, all of his actions are in vain. They are neither devotion, they are neither good, they are neither bad. Neutral.

So, there are some more neutral actions also. For instance, you are doing your job in your office. You simply have motivation to earn your pay, that's all. So, all of those actions you do at your work, neutral actions. They have no direct good or bad motivation. Using your facilities, dressing up, driving car, it?s all neutral actions. So, there are lots of neutral actions also. I'm talking of those actions which give you consequence. Neutral actions will not give you any consequence, they are neutral; although they are also recorded. Your every thought is being recorded, every thought of every fraction of moment. And neutral actions have no consequence at all. Bad actions have bad consequence, good actions have good consequence, devotional actions have devotional consequence. And when I say actions, I mean motivation. With good motivation, good actions, with bad motivation, bad actions, with devotional motivation, devotional actions.

So, three are main. We all know what are good or what are bad. Whatever you feel bad in the world, they are bad for you. Whenever you feel pleased in the world, they are good things for you. So, good actions give you worldly happiness in the worldly sense. Bad actions give you worldly misery and pain, physical and mental. Devotional actions, they do not give you worldly pain or pleasure. They give you devotional experiences, they develop your affinity for Krishn because you wanted affinity.

Now one more thing, all those good and bad motivated actions, their consequence is received in the next life. You do such actions in this life and receive in the next life. Just like you have done in past life, and now you are receiving in this life, which you call your luck, or fate, or destiny. So your luck, fate, and destiny it is your past collection of actions with good and bad motivation. But devotional action they fructify simultaneously, instantly, immediately. You think of loving God, and He is omnipresent; He received your message and immediately transferred His Grace into your heart. So, devotional actions they are simultaneously rewarded.

Your these devotional actions I must clarify they are only motivation to receive the vision of Krishn, to receive the love of Krishn, to be one with Krishn in His Divine abode, to love Krishn, this kind of thing. When I say Krishn, I mean if you are worshipping Ram or Vishnu or any God, you can think of that in your own mind. But actually I'm giving here a seminar on Krishn devotion.

So, for a Krishn devotee, he has only one ambition: how to find Radha Krishn. How to be in His abode -- so this kind of motivation has no worldly ambition, no worldly desire from Krishn. He wants Krishn from Krishn, he wants Radha from Krishn, he wants Krishn from Radha, that is all.

So, without any worldly motivation, just you must have Divine motivation. When you have Divine motivation, and you do anything, you are chanting, or you listening a chant, or you remembering Krishn name, or you are chanting Krishn name, you are worshipping the deity or picture of Krishn, you are doing arti, or you are doing all of these things in your mind; whatever you do, it is all devotional and devotional action because they all have one single motivation: how to find Radha Krishn. So motivation is to find Radha Krishn. With that motivation whatever devotional actions you do, it is all devotional action.

So, devotional actions develop devotional qualities. And devotional qualities you already have to some extent in your heart, they are developed and stimulated. That's why I said you receive the consequence of devotional actions instantly. There's no time gap between your action and the consequence, they are simultaneous.

So, there are three kinds of actions. Suppose a person is doing devotion; for any reason, suppose he fails to find Krishn in his lifetime and he expires. Before expiry, before leaving this earth, he thought, "O, Krishn, I didn't reach you." He died. He takes again a finest situation, a birth in a finest situation. Gita says that his next birth would be much better. He would be born in a devotee family, and from his very childhood he will learn Krishn devotion or devotion to God. He will have that kind of atmosphere and he will start again his Krishn devotion. Because he had done devotion in past, on the base of that devotional effect, in this lifetime he will carry on his devotions.

You should not think that if you start devotion and you die, that again you have to start. It's not like that. Say for instance, a child is going into first standard and he studied for four or five years, primary classes. Suppose his parents they had a job and they have been transferred to some other town. The boy had to leave with them. When he goes to another town, he should not start from first standard. Whatever he has passed, the degrees, the classes in previous town, from onward he will start in the other town.

Suppose he has passed tenth standard in one town, and he was transferred to another town. His family was transferred. Then other town in other school, he'll start form eleventh class. Something like this. So, whatever purity of heart you have gained, whatever affinity you have gained, in one lifetime, from there onward you carry out in your next lifetime. So, there is no loss; it's accumulation. And when you reach to maximum purification of heart, with the Grace of Master, you find Krishn.

In this way, we see that good and bad actions and devotional actions they have no similarity. Your actions, good and bad, they give you the result, and they finish. But devotional actions they don't finish because they are not actions in technical terms. They are the purification levels of your heart. So, according to your purification level, you carry on your devotions life after life. I mean if a devotee falls back into the world and his level drops, that's another story. But whatever was his level of consciousness in Divine Love before death, in the next life he will carry on from that point onward. So, whatever he was before death, he'll be better after that - a devotee.

But a good and bad person, he also carries on. Suppose he was a bad person in past life, accordingly he received bad association in the present life, and he became more bad. He goes on falling. The question is, whatever you are before your death. Before your death means, actually it's very difficult to determine the time of death. What happens when a person dies? Doctors when they say pulse stopped, heart stopped, brain function stopped, he declared dead. After brain functions stop. But he's not dead. Still his soul is within his body. It takes from half an hour to about two hours more to be fully dead. So, he is in a perfect stillness state. His mind has stopped functioning, but still he takes sometime to get out of body, that soul. And before mind stops functioning, he enters into a comma state; he cannot think, he cannot imagine.

So, what I mean, at the time of death, it is impossible for any soul to think of Krishn or anything. So, before death, and before death means, you might say, roughly speaking, in the last days of his death. Suppose he's going to die after two months. Within those two months, or six weeks, or a week, whatever was his average consciousness, average, before death, a few weeks before death, that is the average of his consciousness. He was more material or he was more devotional, whatever he was, that affects his future life. There's a saying in HINDI - Whatever he was before death, he becomes same. So before death means a few weeks before death, the average state of your consciousness towards good, or towards bad, or towards devotion.

So those souls who have affinity for Krishn, they maintain affinity for Krishn during that time because they've understood that only Krishn can help him, world cannot help him. So they retain that affinity. But those worshippers of God who have no affinity, they're observing rituals or devotional formalities, and their minds are attached to their family and friends, they cannot think of God at that time because their attachment is in their family and friends, and their physical body. They only think of their physical body and family and friends before death. So next life is no good for them. Even if they were worshippers of God their whole life, that makes no difference because they had no affinity.

But those devotees who are in Divine-love-consciousness, they have affinity. They realize Krishn is "mine", I have a right on Krishn. He has to come to me sometime. No matter whenever He comes, sooner or later, He has to come. So he feels some kind of oneness, some kind of right on Him because you belong to Him, He belongs to you. That is affinity. So, actually a Divine-love-consciousness who has this kind of consciousness in his mind, that kind of devotee, he does not worship God because God is almighty, he would be afraid to go near Him. He worships Krishn only, not God Krishn, that Krishn, his Krishn. So, he worships his Radha Krishn because he belongs to Them. So with such an affinity, he carries on that affinity all the way before death, and his next life is much more beautiful. And if he has completed his devotion in this lifetime, he receives His vision, Radha Krishn vision in this life.

© JKP Barsana Dham 2009. All rights reserved.