Myths around Law of Karma || Acharya Prashant, with O.P. Jindal University (2021)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00Namaste Acharya ji. My name is Vrishabh Chaudhan Nawa. I am in my final year of law course.

00:19And my question is that you think there is any, I mean, what do you think is the biggest

00:27myth that is related to the law of karma, which is very much essential to be, needed

00:33to be busted and it is very much essential to be busted. So is there any such biggest

00:38myth related to law of karma? Yes, I think the way we have co-opted and

00:46deliberately misinterpreted the law of karma, it is quite spectacular. How we have made

00:56a mess of the whole thing. The law of karma just is not at all about doing well in whatever

01:10you do or being immersed in whatever you take up or that you will get good results if you

01:22perform good karma or you will get bad results if you perform bad karma or that there is

01:27a certain thing called karmic account or karmic balance and you need to take care of your

01:34debits and credits and all that. The karma siddhant is not at all about these

01:43things and it's very unfortunate and actually quite saddening how pervasive the misinterpretations

01:52are. The law of karma is actually the law of karta. It is not the law of deeds or action.

02:06It is the law of the doer, the actor. The doer, the actor. I just said that the scriptures

02:18Vedanta, Upanishads, Gita, they concern themselves with addressing the mother problem. The mother

02:26problem is the actor, the doer. So, if you want to put the whole thing in the form of a law,

02:37this is what the law would say. The law says that the actor and the action are inseparable.

02:48That the actor and the action are inseparable. This is the law. Not all that nonsense that

02:57circulates in the name of law of karma or whatever. The actor and the action are inseparable. You

03:03cannot continue to be who you are, what you are, how you are and still hope that you can do

03:12something good in life. So, actually the law of karma says you should forget all about karma.

03:19Forget karma and have the inward sight to look at the karta, the doer. Keep karma aside. It does

03:32not matter. It does not matter because you have no control over it. Because karma and karta are

03:39inseparable. Karta decides karma. The actor decides the action. What's the point in trying to correct

03:49action or worrying about action when the actor himself is deeply flawed and determined to remain

03:59flawed. So, see who you are and if you are right, then whatever you do will be right. And if you are

04:11stubbornly wrong, then whatever you do irrespective of how it looks, irrespective of the sanction

04:19received from others and society, it will be wrong even if the entire world says it's a great thing

04:25you are doing. Now, the question is what is right and what is wrong? When I say if the actor is right,

04:31the action is bound to be right on such thing. What is meant by the right state of the actor?

04:35The right state of the actor is a state with an intention towards self-dissolution. The actor

04:46is his own problem. The actor is his own disease. The actor is the ego itself. Therefore, the actor

04:55must have an intention towards his own disappearance, dissolution. I want to reduce. That's the right

05:05actor and when you have that intention, then you act accordingly and that is the right action. The

05:11right action, therefore, is an action performed with an intention to reduce, reduce yourself. Not

05:21an intention to bloat yourself even further, to aggrandize yourself, to fatten yourself. No,

05:29that's just the wrong action and that's the litmus test. How do you know whether you are

05:34doing something rightly? See where you are coming from. See what is your intention? What do you want

05:40to do to yourself? Do you want to become more of what you already are? Please stop. Don't do that.

05:47That's the wrong thing. Do you want to get rid of what you are? That's the right action and

05:53therefore, Shri Krishna talks of Nishkama Karma. What does Nishkama Karma mean? Do not do anything

05:59for yourself. Do not do stuff as per your desires. That's Nishkama Karma. Do not do things as per

06:06your desires because whatever you do as per your desires will have only one objective to preserve

06:12you, secure you, fatten you, make you even bigger in the inner sense. So, don't do it for yourself

06:18and that's all. That's all. Don't do it for yourself. Nishkama. What to do then? If not for

06:25myself, then for whom? Doesn't matter, doesn't matter. Neti neti is the way of Shruti, Vidant.

06:32Whatever you feel like doing and you always keep feeling like this or that, right? We are always

06:41with desires, are we not? Desires never leave us free. When these desires come to you, just keep

06:49investigating them and that anyway will take up all your time and energy. Keep projecting everything

06:57that comes to you proposing to make you bigger. Reject all the desires in which you have a

07:12personal stake. That's the right position of the Karta and that is a law of Karma. Take care of

07:23where you are coming from and everything else need to be left to Krishna because we want to

07:37be assured that we are leaving it to somebody trustworthy and reliable. Therefore, we need to

07:44say that the results will be taken care of by Krishna. Actually, very very truthfully what the

07:54Gita is saying is you just keep negating your own self, your own desires and beyond that you need

08:05not think of anything. Actually, you won't even be able to think of anything beyond that because

08:11all your energy and all your time will be just taken up in the struggle against that which is

08:21despicable and inferior and unworthy within you. So, that's the way you need to operate.

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