Reflections On Karma

Karma is the primal substance of the unconscious mind. On the one hand, it is the dynamic pressure of desires unfulfilled, of dreams unrealized, the incompletion of the Soul's Aeonic mission. This "unfinished business" layers beneath the surface of consciousness. We feel it as tension and discomfort, ever pressing upward into awareness, seeking to communicate its wordless, primal cravings.

On the other hand, it is our potential for spiritual and personal growth. We transmute the raw material of karma into wisdom, understanding and virtue. We shape the inchoate, amorphous mass of karma by the forces of intelligence, imagination and will to create our lives, our character, and develop our abilities on each Plane of Light.

We characterize four types of karma. These are shown below.

Karma is multidimensional. We identify seven levels of karma.

(1) Physical distress. This can take the form of muscular tension, organ inflammation, a disease condition, a genetic abnormality, and other afflictions of the tissues and their physiological functioning.

(2) Etheric obstruction. In the energy field or aura, karma appears as blockages in the inner channels of the vehicles, plugging up its meridians or nadi.

(3) The magnetic force of craving or desire. Karma uses this magnetic force to attract certain people or resources into a person's life so the desire can be fulfilled. It may create the opportunity for fulfillment, but we don't always take advantage of that opportunity because of other priorities or because of conflicting values. Desire has tunnel vision, it looks only for an opportunity to be fulfilled, through whatever means available.

(4) Fantasy. This is creative visualization and imaginary enactment of the pursuit and possession of the objects of desire and craving.

(5) Cognitive-emotional nexus. These underlying beliefs and feelings are innately bound to obtaining the object of desire. This includes the constellation of thoughts and feelings about the object of the desire. It also includes beliefs about the obstacles to its fulfillment. It has beliefs about other people who may possess the object of desire, about your self and your failure to possess the object of desire, and about the Divine and/or Fate as to why it is unfair not to let you have what you desire.

(6) Samskara, or impression in the causal body. This looks like either iron filings or golden threads, depending on the nature of the desire. A samskara effectively remembers the karma, keeps a lasting impression of it, until it is finally worked out.

(7) The karmic seed. This is the essence of karma. When karma is dormant, it sleeps in this seed form. When it is latent, it exists as samskaras, as imbedded beliefs deep in the unconscious zone of the mind, and as liminal fantasies, encountered in dreams, hypnotic states and in meditation. When it is active, it is present in all seven levels, and we are aware of the force of craving or desire.

You dissolve karma by using a transformational method. All transformational methods work by drawing down the energy of the Divine Spirit to burn away karma at each of these levels by vaporizing the karmic seed.

Whether it is a transformational (bija) mantra, Kriya Yoga, Nada Yoga, or Grace-Bestowing Light Immersion, each of these methods focalize the radiant, fiery energy of the Divine Spirit. These methods are taught to you in the Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation and the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.

By knowing these techniques, you will be able to intentionally and consciously transmute and dissolve the karmic accretion that fills your unawakened inner vehicles. Through methodical and sustained transformational meditation practice, these obstructions will be largely removed, and you will actualize your spiritual potential.

New karma is created with your every thought, word, and deed. Each cause that you set into motion has consequences for your self, your family and other people interrelating with you, your community, your nation, the whole of humanity, the kingdoms of nature upon this planet, and the entire universe.

As you evolve spiritually, you gain the option to function from higher aspects of your being, through higher octaves of your volition. These higher octaves of volition allow you to relate to others with compassion, sensitivity and wisdom. They express the innate virtue and life of service that arise from your spirituality.

We say option, because your ego does not cease to function. You still may find yourself relating to others from this defensive, thoughtless, and selfish mode of being-in-the-world.

But as you evolve, you can express the higher aspects of your nature. These octaves of volition are shown below.

As your higher octaves of volition begin to operate, you refine the quality of the karma that you create. You express in a wiser, gentler, more compassionate manner. You feel less driven by craving and obsession. You can function in your life with greater serenity and detachment. You shift from an urge to control to the wish to serve others. You transition from the need to win and be right to a need to understand and discover the truth about others and your self.

At an advanced stage of discipleship, you remove the final traces of Adi, Kriyaman and Sinchit Karma that are stored in your inner vehicles and the channels of the Nada. When this occurs, you liberate your spirit and your Soul, and your vehicles return to the original source from which they emanated. This profound state of meditation confers freedom from the necessity to reincarnate, and brings union with the Divine.

This stage has been called Jivan Mukta, which means the attainment of liberation and freedom from all stored karmas while you are alive. At this stage only Pralabdha (Destiny) Karma continues to operate.

When this stage has been achieved, your human will becomes attuned to the Divine Will. You function as an instrument of the Divine. This is a state of complete inner surrender. It is called nishkam karma, or desireless action. You simply follow the Divine Guidance each moment of your life.

Ultimately, you may be empowered by the Divine to teach and minister to others as an Initiate. In this state you will help others overcome their karma and reach the Light of Liberation, too.

At the highest stages of Initiation, mastery over the four types of karma becomes comprehensive and complete. In the stage of Multiplane Mastery, the Initiate gains the following transcendent abilities:

(1) The power to forgive sins. These karmic issues are lifted from the individual and assumed by the Initiate. These are later worked out in meditation.

(2) The power to execute karma. Karmic issues from deeper levels of the karmic reservoir are brought to the surface for current processing.

(3) The power to withhold karma. This halts the processing of current karmic issues, and can postpone them to a later time.

(4) The power to redeem karma. This permits the selection of specific karmas with a common theme from different strata of the karmic reservoir to produce a particular result. For example, deeds of kindness from past lives may be combined and currently executed to grant wealth and prosperity. An ongoing pattern of negative behavior may be brought up for retribution in current processing to correct these evil tendencies.

(5) The power to reclassify karma. This transfers karmic impressions from one karmic category to another. For example, impressions of Sinchit Karma may be moved out of the Nadamic channels and transferred to the reservoir for Kriyaman Karma.

(6) The power to read karma. This grants understanding of the choice-event that started the karmic pattern, its patterns of repetition, its triggering factors and the contexts in which it is activated, and discernment of the conditions that will lead to its completion and dissolution.

(7) The power to translate others. The ability to meditate on behalf of others, using a transformational method, which moves the ensouling entity to a subsequent nodal point in its spiritual evolution. Grace-Bestowing Light Immersion, also called Shaktipat or Baraka, can directly burn away karmas to unfold the potentials of the ensouling entity, clear the channels of the Nada, and purify and tune up the inner vehicles at all octaves of being.

As a student of meditation, it is important for you to gain a clearer understanding of your own karma: what triggers it and what will resolve it. At first this insight will reveal only a few threads of this hidden fabric of your karma, but eventually you will discern the entire warp and woof of this garment.

Then you will know exactly what has been completed and what remains to be completed. Day by day, you will offer more of your karma to the inner sacred fire. You will become pure. You will actualize your potential. And you will become free.