Three Modes of Karma

As karma expresses through behavior, speech and thought, the sattwic mode seeks to actively control behavior and speech by moral guidelines and precepts to be observed, and ultimately to shape thought and identity.

Meditation and prayer play a role in controlling these wellsprings of karma.

There are various ways meditation is used to change one’s perspective, and with it, one’s thinking. For example, meditation can utilize:

1. A mantra to identify with a nucleus of identity
2. A mantra to identify with an ensouling entity
3. A mantra to identify with a spirit
4. Concentration on inner centers, e.g., holding the attention on a nucleus of identity, an ensouling entity or the spirit until identification occurs
5. Singing, chanting or dancing to awaken an inner center, leading to passive absorption in that center
6. Prayer from a nucleus of identity, ensouling entity or the spirit
7. Remembrance of the nature of a nucleus of identity, ensouling entity or the spirit.

Once identity with a higher center is achieved, it activates the inner center and the nexus around it. In the nexus surrounding the inner center of a nucleus of identity or an ensouling entity, there is:

The expression of these qualities and abilities from this inner center cements the believer's identification with it.

The believer then lives from this higher center by making choices condoned by scriptures or authorized by the spiritual teacher. Through this means, the believer interiorizes this new state of identity by:

• Understanding the world from that perspective.
• Observing and introspecting to see if one has lived up to the moral standards or expectations laid out by precept, scripture or ethical code
• Expressing creative inspirations that arise from interaction with the archetypes, forms and inner scenery surrounding the center
• Describing the cosmology and deriving theories, explanations, credos and scriptures from it
• Living a life of worship and prayer emerging from a relationship with and appreciation of the Supreme Being as known in that context
• Developing rituals, worship ceremonies, holidays, etc., where one must reenact union and/or participate from that center

This re-identification brings about a change in the thoughts, words and deeds that the individual expresses.

The individual incarnates as a holy warrior, a saint or a yogi, and changes how he or she formerly lived through this means.

The conscious work of meditation utilizes transformational methods to dissolve karma. This inner alchemical process transmutes the karmic material of the unconscious.

These transformational methods are described in Thoughts on Transformation.

In the rajasic mode of karma, we speak of karma as the Law of Cause and Effect.

Thoughts, words, and deeds yield consequences that eventually return to the individual.

This is the Law of "as ye sow, so shall ye reap."

Some consequences are experienced immediately, while others may be delayed.

Good actions yield eventual rewards; evil actions produce a legacy of misery.

To understand the consequences of karma, we must recognize that each action, each word spoken, even every thought leaves an indelible trace on the Akashic Record. We cannot undo what we have done, said, or thought—it does not go away.

More importantly, what we do, speak, or think affects much more than ourselves. It ripples out to influence the very universe. This ripple effect of cause and effect is shown in the table below.

It is our shortsightedness that gets us into trouble with the Law of Karma. Let us analyze the karmic impact of a crime of robbing against someone unknown to the thief:

Many decisions we make only consider the Egoic Zone of the Self and sometimes the Intimate Zone of family and close friends, but we do not examine the wider impact.

We act, but we do not see the big picture. We seek an immediate reward without considering the wider repercussions of what we do.

We may reap a financial profit, but do we destroy the ecology of the planet, cause cancer in our community or remove the livelihood of these that we lay off in order to show greatest profit?

• Contemplate an action and notice the impact through these nine spheres.
• Contemplate a word spoken and notice its impact through these nine spheres.
• Contemplate a thought and notice its impact through these nine spheres (consider that the thought may be made manifest as written material or an idea discussed among others, or as a belief transmitted from one person to another).

The yogic virtue of non-injury (Ahimsa) is based upon a consideration of the impact of thoughts, words and deeds through these nine spheres.

If you can show kindness and respect to your uncle, can you also show it to a nation, to an insect, to a blade of grass, to a stone, to the earth, to the cosmos or to the spirit of another?

From what does a thought, a word or an action arise? You may contemplate the 13 focal points of the will:

When a thought arises, from which of these octaves does it come? A word? An action?

As the potential of a human being is activated, it becomes possible for that person to access and express these higher octaves of the will.

It brings the possibility to express something other than the selfishness, the defensiveness and the combativeness of the ego.

A deeper, more thoughtful, more compassionate choice becomes manifest in humanity.

Some karmic repercussions are nearly instant. Hit a highly agitated, angry man in the face without provocation, and you will reap a fight in an eye-blink. Karmic consequences that are not encountered immediately become layered in the unconscious, waiting to fructify according to twelve orderly cycles:

As karma is extruded from its reservoir in the unconscious, it arises as:

• Desire and craving for a person, object or experience
• Fantasy and mental fascination with a person, object or experience
• Powerful ideas that evoke strong emotions that come into awareness
• Sense of obsession or compulsion, a sense that you are driven to act in a certain way
• Spontaneous thoughts upwelling into conscious awareness
• Suddenly perceiving a person, object or experience in a new way
• Feeling strong attraction or revulsion for a person, object or experience

Karma may arise from various depths of the unconscious.

• Typically, about 60% to 85% arises from the first 48 nodal points past the liminal edge of conscious awareness.
• Another 10% to 35% arises from the 49th through 96th nodal points.
• Roughly only about 5% arises from unconscious bands deeper than the 96th nodal point.

The template of human life is the repository of the Pralabdha Karma.

This helix-like structure, which Shakespeare referred to as "the mortal coil," has 12 filaments in which karma can be embedded, crossing over at 18 points, which correspond to anatomical locations in the physical and etheric bodies.

These 18 nexus points are:

1. Ankles
2. Knees
3. Hips
4. Base of spine
5. Navel
6. Solar plexus
7. Heart
8. Left palm
9. Right palm
10. Medulla (base of skull where it meets the neck)
11. Point between the eyebrows
12. Fontanel at the top of the physical brain
13. A point three fingers’ breadth below the navel in the etheric body
14. Solar plexus center in the etheric body
15. Heart center in the etheric body
16. Throat center in the etheric body
17. Point between the eyebrows in the etheric body
18. Fontanel of the brain in the etheric body

Each filament in which karma is embedded has seven strands, which correspond to the expression of karma in:

As more than one strand is typically embedded with karmic matter, issues arising from Pralabdha Karma may be seen to simultaneously have physical symptoms, emotional, mental and volitional aspects, fantasy components, deep memory traces, and may bring spontaneous remembrance of a particular incident.

Pralabdha karma typically has one or more of the following markers:

• Constitutional or genetic conditions, long-standing health issues, aches, pains or inflammations for which a medical cure cannot be identified
• A recurrent emotional theme enacted in interpersonal relationships
• Irrational beliefs, delusions, fixed or obsessive ideas, cravings, compulsions or addictions that resist reason, moral injunction and volition
• Recurrent fantasies, hallucinations or repetitive dreams
• Obsessive memories and distracting thoughts that continue to bring up upsetting or troubling memories
• Remembrance over and over and over of a particular incident in the present or a former life

Issues that you seem to live over and over and over again, repetitive patterns or problems that don’t resolve, are markers of Pralabdha Karma.

These issues are not burned up by transformation spiritual practices and typically must be lived through.

They do eventually resolve, however.

Sinchit Karma is stored in the tubules of the Nadamic current, which passes through the 12 domains of spirituality. Sinchit Karma plugs up these inner tubules in which the spirit dwells.

This form of karma takes the form of desires, fantasies, temptations, cravings and passions.

These impressions, once purified, become the holy virtues of serenity and effortless self-restraint seen in a saint.

The spirit traveling back through these Nadamic tubules works out this form of karma.

This practice has been variously referred to as udgit, Surat Shabd Yoga or soul travel.

We call it Nada Yoga (we teach the fundamentals of Nada Yoga in the Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation, the Accelerated Meditation Program, the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation and the Way of the Heart workshop).

Kriyaman Karma has three aspects:

1. New karma that is set into motion by current thoughts, words and deeds (this is the Rajasic aspect of Kriyaman Karma)
2. The sublimation of the will, so that the individual is able to relate to each situation from the higher centers, and make wiser, kinder and gentler choices (this is the Sattwic aspect of Kriyaman Karma)
3. The layering of the patterns of Kriyaman Karma behind each vehicle (this is the Tamasic aspect of Kriyaman Karma). These comprise:
   • Unfinished goals or objectives
   • Unfinished business in relationships, which must be resolved by communication of truth, apology, forgiveness, restitution or amends
   • Latent abilities or gifts that the Soul needs to bring into expression
   • Unawakened intuitive wisdom that has yet to be realized; insights that have yet to be cognized
   • Unawakened potential states of ministry or service, marked by a pattern of expressed Soul purpose (a work that must be accomplished in this current life), an inner Star of expression, an inner spiritual throne, an inner wheel, or a glorified etheric form on the Inner Planes
   • Rehabilitating the cords that pass from the personality into the Superconscious, building the Bridge of Will, the Bridge of Intuition and Understanding (antakarana), the Bridge of Faith and the awakening of dormant awareness and energy (kundalini) to enliven and purify each vehicle
   • Freeing the blocked energy of the Spirit behind each vehicle, awakening the experience of the power of Love and Life as supernal bliss, ecstasy and joy.

[This stored aspect of] Kriyaman Karma is overcome by transformational methods such as Kriya Yoga, Transformational (bija) Mantra, and Light Immersion.

Adi Karma is layered on the Path of the ensouling entity. It is sometimes referred to as Soul Purpose Karma.

It represents the future initiations of the Soul.

As transformation unfolds the potentials of the Soul, it concomitantly unfolds each vehicle.

Thus, as Adi Karma is transmuted, the stored aspects of Kriyaman Karma are concomitantly resolved and actualized.

Since they are directly linked, the same transformational methods that work out Kriyaman Karma are used to work out Adi Karma.

In the Mudrashram® System of Integral Meditation, we disseminate methods to directly work out Sinchit, Kriyaman, and Adi Karma.

As the Soul evolves, there is a spontaneous sublimation of the will: the patterns of karma-creation change, with concurrent changes in perception, character, and behavior following closely behind.

Karma persists until its purpose is fulfilled. We characterize four major purposes inherent in karma, which are represented by the following inner centers:

The conscious intention to complete and work out these four types of karma serves to fulfill the grander purposes of Supreme Nature.

When this intention dawns on the mind, the individual is said to have embarked upon the spiritual path.

When this intention is sustained until all karma has been resolved, the individual achieves Spiritual Mastery.

In this article, we have discussed the three modes of karma.

It is to the degree that an individual can adopt the sattwic mode, to be able to consciously work on and work out karma, that transformations of the potentials of consciousness becomes possible.