Four-Fold Karma As Explained By Buddha [Part 1]

In this talk, Ektaji explains the four-fold Karma propounded by Buddha by breaking down the Pali words (the language of the Buddha's original texts). This was recorded in a live session and you can not only listen to the teachings but also the back and forth discussion that was involved in the understanding.

For more information and videos, please visit her website.

Transcript

Just a revision.

What is vinyana chitta?

It is a collection.

Yeah,

Which perceives the information from the environment.

Second?

Sanya chitta.

Sanya chitta.

What is sanya chitta?

Analyzes,

Judges and labels it.

And judges and labels it.

Yeah.

Which of the two is karmic?

Sanya chitta.

And what about vinyana?

Is it karmic?

No.

Why?

Sanya chitta.

It just takes in the data.

Yeah,

It is just taking in the data from the environment.

Even an animal takes in the data from the environment.

Even a plant does.

So it doesn't have ice.

Yeah,

But a plant takes in sunlight.

Yes,

You know that right?

And it manufactures chlorophyll.

Do you remember?

Little bit biology class.

Every organism takes in data.

Taking in data does not create karma.

How I process this data that creates karma.

Very clear?

Now I have analyzed and judged and put a label.

Yes?

And I put a label of wrong.

What will be the function of the vedana chitta?

Sensation.

And what will be the sensation?

Pleasure.

So wrong.

My label is wrong.

So unpleasant sensation,

Not duisha.

There is a difference between sensation and duisha creation.

Duisha is different.

We have not reached there.

Unpleasant sensation is because of the label of wrong from sanya.

If the label from sanya is right,

Good,

Happy.

What is the sensation by vedana chitta?

Pleasant.

Got it?

Vedana means the word vedana means sensation.

Pleasant is also sensation.

Unpleasant is also sensation.

They are just sensations in the body.

Sometimes they are so subtle,

We are unaware.

Are you aware of any sensation right now?

Because the awareness level is not high.

Sensations are happening 24-7.

If there is no emotion,

There will be simple sensations of just vibrations.

Because you are a mass of vibrations.

But we are not aware.

There is no other sensation.

You will feel just crawling sensations.

If you are really really aware,

You will feel goosebumps type of sensation.

You don't really get goosebumps.

But sensations are happening 24-7 because the mind is working 24-7.

Observe your sensations.

Vedana chitta is working 24-7.

And if you are not experiencing any sensations right now,

You have become gross.

You are not aware and you really need to start working on yourself.

Because the mind is constantly jibber jabber jabber jabber jabber jabber.

Blah blah blah.

What's going on?

So that creates sensations in the body.

Because you are nothing but a mass of vibrations.

What about if you hear a noise that nobody else hears?

Is that a sensation or what is that?

Sensations do not create sound.

It's just the feeling.

Yes,

It's just sensation on the body.

Got it?

So vedana chitta says either it is pleasant or unpleasant.

If it is pleasant,

What does sankhara chitta say?

I want.

I want.

Yeah,

And if it is unpleasant,

What does sankhara chitta say?

I don't want.

Got it?

That is likes and dislikes.

That is raga and duhesha.

Which raga and duhesha?

I want means raga.

I don't want means duhesha.

But sanya and vedana both create karma or just use like both?

Both.

Because they are a couple.

I told you yesterday,

They walk hand in hand.

Vedana cannot exist without sanya's judgement.

So both together are karmic chittas.

So now under vedana chitta also,

You will say karmic chitta.

But you also said the only thing you can see is the vedana.

Yes,

Yes.

To begin with,

For beginners,

Vedana is easy.

For some yogi level experts,

You can even work on your sanya and drop the whole process.

Cut it off.

Just perception of data and stop.

No analysis,

No sensations,

No raga and duhesha.

But that is yogic level.

That is very high level.

Let me start at least with identifying sensations.

Because that's what gurudev has given us.

Hari Om meditation is that observing sensations,

Observe,

Observe,

Observe and dissolve.

Is this very clear now?

Was this revision sufficient?

Increasing the awareness.

Meditation is one way to increase awareness to identify the sensations.

Meditation is the only way.

There is no other way now.

You must have recognised this by now.

Knowledge also leads to meditation.

But they also leads you to meditation.

Everything leads you to that void.

Reaching that void,

That nothingness,

That silence,

That I am.

That is the only solution.

So,

So far it's all clear.

Vinyana chitta is a functional chitta.

Sanya and vedana are karmic chittas.

And sankhara is a resultant chitta.

I told you all this.

So this is on your slide.

So where will we start working?

Vedana.

Observing my sensations is the way to go for me.

The day I become an expert yogi,

Then I can work on cutting off the sanya also.

The whole process will be cut off.

But because we are beginners on the path,

So let's begin with the simple step.

Just identify vedana.

And it's not really simple.

Are you seeing this?

You are not even recognising what sensations you are experiencing right now.

So it's not very simple but let's start there.

Because there is nothing simpler than that.

Chittas are absolutely clear.

Revision done.

No questions about this.

Can I move ahead with the slides?

So now that I know these chittas and I understand the theory of karma and how karma determines my birth and my death and me coming back into body again and again.

Now I have to understand karma a little deeper so that I can stop this whole drama.

So we'll understand the effect of everything now.

Effect is in understanding 16 divisions of karma.

So first take a minute and write it down because otherwise you're not going to pay attention to what I say.

So write it down.

Come see what self- Fourfold karma.

16 divisions of karma.

Now look at your life.

This is only a personal session.

Yes?

So we are not going to ask general questions.

We are going to look at our lives and analyse our own lives throughout.

These divisions of karma.

Done?

Yeah?

Number one.

We go with by way of function.

This is the easiest to understand and begin with.

First is productive karma.

Now each of this productive,

Supportive,

Destructive,

Obstructive karma have two divisions again.

The two divisions are either they are wholesome or unwholesome.

You probably leave it as good and bad.

So in your head translate when I say unwholesome to bad and when I say wholesome you translate to good.

It's just that.

It's just a very Americanised version of it.

So now first is productive karma.

Productive karma in my life right now I have to do.

Probably you are married so your spouse,

If you have children.

This is my productive karma going on right now.

If I have a job,

If I am working or I have a business this is my productive karma.

Are you understanding what I am saying?

My current karma today as of present moment is productive karma.

Productive karma starts the day I am born.

Then it goes on till I become older and kick the bucket.

Again in next lifetime a new productive karma begins and it goes on till I kick the bucket.

You got it?

That karma which propels me to live from day to day to day.

Now how does this work?

All the seeds remember in your Sanchita Karma bag.

I told you,

You determine first year birth seed and you determine your death seed by your strongest Rama Dhrisha.

These two you,

You did it.

Niyati picked up those seeds which were sprouting together or in the next 60-70 years.

Now Niyati does not calculate are they all going to sprout on the same day?

How strong they are going to be?

Niyati just knows ok next 60-70-80 years pick it up and put it in this basket.

Anywhere between birth to death everything that Niyati has just pushed in is my productive karma.

Ok?

Now from this productive karma permutations and combinations can occur.

Means productive karma can change to a supportive karma.

For example in your garden by mistake you landed up planting two seeds next to each other.

Have you noticed sometimes one only plant comes up and hampers the other plant?

Got it?

So sometimes that happens in our life so like that there are many seeds which don't get to produce their own results.

But such seeds can help the plant which is growing.

So the seeds that are helping that plant which is growing is supportive karma.

Ok now let's look into our lives.

Right now if something is going on in your job.

Yes and everything is good hunky dory good job everything is great.

And then a new person joins and this colleague of yours really helps you.

And you progress even better and get a promotion because of him.

Supportive karma.

Understood?

This was wholesome supportive because you have labelled good and bad in life right?

Meerati doesn't think like that.

Yeah so wholesome supportive this example was.

It helped you.

There can be an unwholesome supportive karma for an unwholesome productive karma.

Means if I have say a disease starting in my body.

It's an unwholesome productive karma.

Yeah it is started now there is another supportive karma.

Which is also unwholesome.

Which makes the medicines not work and increases my disease.

Makes it more painful.

Understood?

Unwholesome supportive karma.

Now you will take a moment to write down whatever supportive karmas you identify.

It could be a person in your life.

Yeah supportive in a wholesome way.

There could be a person who is supportive in an unwholesome way.

You sit.

I am not wholesome.

Suppose you have.

Suppose it is the seed of the past that you have to meet with an accident.

You meet with that accident you have a fracture and you get to the hospital.

And at the same time it is time for another unwholesome supportive karma to sprout.

There will be no doctor on duty the entire weekend and you will get bad treatment.

Which will make that fracture worse.

Which was going to heal in 6 weeks.

You will take 6 months to get unwholesome bad karma basically.

So I had a bad productive karma because of which I met with an accident.

And at the same time I am so unlucky that I had another bad karma sprout which made it even worse.

Is the word confusing you wholesome and wholesome?

Yes.

I shall use bad and good.

But then I can't change the slides now.

I think bad and good is maybe bad for me and good for me.

Because let's say a snake is eating a frog.

For the snake it is good for the frog.

It is bad.

That is why they went to these words wholesome and unwholesome.

It is very relative.

I think in art of living sometimes we use life supporting and not life supporting.

No even.

.

.

Bad can be life supporting.

Yes it can be no?

Yeah.

Yeah?

In the bigger picture it is closer to liberation.

It is just like you have a bad day and you say sometimes it is lasting in this place.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

You wanted to get out of the house.

You made all plans.

Okay I am going to get out today.

I have been just sitting on the couch.

It is a weekend.

I have to get out and do something today.

And you just couldn't get out.

You just couldn't get out.

You wanted to go out and play tennis with your friend there.

And you just couldn't get out.

You have to do this work.

You have to do that work.

You got caught up in stuff.

And you found out that there was some gun shooting that happened on the tennis grounds today.

Then what do you look at it?

Wholesome.

Yeah.

That was a wholesome supportive karma.

Though it was an unwholesome productive karma to begin with.

I was crying.

I want to leave.

I want to go.

I have to take care of the kids.

I have to take care of the family.

I have to clean the house.

I have to do this and I am flipping,

Flipping,

Flipping,

Flipping,

Flipping.

Oh what bad karma.

This is bad productive karma.

But when I find out,

Oh there was shooting that happened there.

And really some people got injured.

Then you say,

Thank God that I could not go.

Got it?

That's how this year everything happens for the best.

So you understand wholesome,

Unwholesome now?

Yes.

So you understand wholesome supportive and unwholesome supportive.

Now take a moment to identify a wholesome supportive in your life and an unwholesome supportive in your current life.

Productive karma is wholesome karma and unwholesome and then that wholesome productive karma will have supportive wholesome and supportive unwholesome.

Perfect.

So it is wholesome and unwholesome is by the end of the end results.

I think even anything like which was really like something came out good out of it.

So everything is wholesome in that sense.

Yeah.

In the end everything is taking you to liberation.

That is why Niyati does not reveal it as good and bad.

Productive is what is happening in my current present moment.

Anything that is happening then something that comes and supports it.

You saw the your productive is going as it is going and there's some karma which supports it.

Productive can be bad also,

No?

Yeah.

And there can be a bad supportive karma.

For example if something difficult came up because of the divorce also going on life was already bad and something else.

Suppose she had an injury.

Just a hypothetical example that would be an unwholesome supportive karma.

The way I look at it too is like peaceful in my life you know severe moments like with your certain knowledge that I need to really care and so I would use instances with him and the relationship to help me grow past those boundaries.

So I am seeing it as being supportive not unsupported.

So even though things are not good.

Yeah.

You know I am using them as a method to prove further and further.

Beautiful.

That's how you have changed your unwholesome productive just by changing your perspective.

You have changed that unwholesome productive to wholesome productive now.

So,

Bhasanya Chitta is dating differently.

Yes.

Just by changing my judging,

My analysis.

So Swati came up to me and she said you know Vedana Chitta I didn't work on that.

I worked on my Sanya and I realised oh everything of my analysis was wrong.

Yeah.

I was looking at it in a wrong way.

So is it okay to work on Sanya?

I said fantastic.

Yogi start right at Sanya.

If you can work at Sanya and change your perspective fantastic.

But if it's not happening and that emotion kicks back kicks back kicks back then start working on the emotion.

First dissolve the Vedana.

Then you work on Sanya.

Understood?

I think Guruji I don't know which after he starts by saying if you look at the world differently he starts.

Yeah.

That's what is Sanya like looking at.

Things different you know.

Swami Pragya Parv used to say on the blessing's voice you have two options to look at life.

Good if something works out or very very good if something doesn't work out.

Yes.

Beautiful.

I don't think I am that.

Perfect.

Yes.

So if we can change our perspective it's not every negative situation which you are positive in life is good.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It's in your hands that's right in you.

It is in your hands.

All you need is a little bit of self effort.

Just a little bit.

Yeah but for now just identify the productive karmas in your life.

Yeah let's identify one bad productive and one good productive that is happening in my current life.

Can you start with yourself?

Yeah.

Right good productive and whatever it is and then bad productive.

Suppose you're not doing well at your work or office or your relationship is a mess with your children.

Yeah.

Which is a bad productive or unwholesome productive.

Reductive or bad productive and wholesome productive or good productive.

Now pick anyone.

Pick the bad one or the good one whichever and find is there a supportive karma that is supporting this.

You're anyway having a tough time in office figuring out what everything is and then you have a colleague who doesn't like you and he goes and tells the boss.

He doesn't know anything.

So he is unwholesome supportive karma.

Anyway my karma is bad with this job.

I'm not doing a good job.

I know you know I'm going to get kicked out any day and then comes this great colleague of mine.

Fantastic!

So when am I so holographic?

Bresses up the whole situation for me.

I'm going to get fired now.

Some of you could be there right.

So find is there a supportive karma to either of the two that you wrote.

A productive business.

I know she is supportive in your life but no cheating.

Am I good supporting or bad supporting?

He is checking whether I am writing his name or not.

And if she could find you.

Husband and wife should not sit together.

Fair?

Did you identify?

Okay need a minute more.

Those who are doing this can really go down and find a web.

Because life is not linear.

There are so many things happening in life.

There is a person and then there is another person helping that person and there is a situation which is working with this person to help this person.

It can be a web.

So those who are doing this very sincerely will be able to identify the web.

A wholesome productive karma will only have a wholesome supportive karma.

It will not have an unwholesome supportive karma.

An unwholesome productive karma will only have an unwholesome supportive karma.

Yeah I gave you that example.

You are cribbing cribbing cribbing that I cannot go out and play with my friends tenors.

So right now I am thinking it is an unwholesome productive karma that I am doing rubbish duties at home.

And I feel it is an I want to go out and I didn't go out and then I realised that there was shooting happening.

And then that became wholesome supportive karma for me.

Yeah there are so many instances that are happening in life and people like to take that life.

Good that yeah that is.

Sometimes you lose a house sometimes you know you made an offer on and you lose it.

And you don't realise oh the neighbour who moved in is cribbing that there are ten thousand dollars in repairs.

Right.

Yeah things like that.

What do you think support you?

Just involve.

You are not outside so how is it supporting you?

You are just sitting inside.

It is not supporting you.

It is not moving you or pushing you in any direction.

It is just telling yourself oh good I am not there.

So does the narrative change from I can't go I can't go.

Good thing I didn't go.

So it didn't push you to do anything right.

Even in that house you didn't buy.

Oh.

Sure it had repairs but it didn't push you to not go to that house.

The reason I don't support it is it should push you.

My current life is going okay.

That is my productive karma to take care of my family,

My children,

My house.

I cannot go out on Sunday even though I made that plan.

This is my productive karma.

Yeah and then I decide okay now 11 am I am really going to go and play tennis.

I have made a karma that is also a karma my decision to go out.

But it is not working it is getting pushed out of here to go at 12 okay to go at 1.

So this supportive karma suddenly changes and becomes wholesome the moment I found out there is shooting also.

Productive karma chandra hai present life.

So that something that pushes you from 11 to 12 to 1 is not the shooting on set.

That is an unseen force.

Let's call it an unseen force.

That is the support.

What is going on is just a.

.

.

Doesn't matter.

Yeah.

So I thought that was the support.

Not that.

The one that was pushing you out every hour.

Oh no I have to finish this also.

I have to finish this also.

Somebody else come and say you have to do this also.

So now it is cribbing cribbing cribbing.

So my productive karma is really working.

My current life is productive karma.

And every person who came and gave me this job you have to do this phone call or you have to attend to this and I kept cursing.

Those were all supportive actually.

There are multiple supporters that would happen in this scenario.

And I kept cursing why I want to go out and play I want to go out and play I want to go out and play.

And then suddenly everything changed.

The scenario changes the way I was looking at them.

Till evening I said all these people in my life are rubbish.

Don't you do that?

Yeah.

Why did I have children?

How many times have you sent this diary?

I was better when I was not married.

I didn't have all this lawn mowing,

Snow shoveling.

I was a bachelor.

All these thoughts came to you.

All this happens.

You are saying it in two sentences but it is such a long train of thoughts.

And all these little little little events were the supportive karma.

What you were describing that your life would that be an awesome productive karma or a good one?

If it is all fine hunky dory at home it is a wholesome productive karma.

Like the office situation is unwholesome.

I am all jittery.

Oh I don't know my job well.

Everything is horrible.

So that is very clear.

It is an unwholesome karma.

I can give an example.

Yesterday everything was going bad.

And I was coming in telling you.

Kulfish you should have done this on Friday.

So you know as it is you are in a pickle and I am pulling you down.

So it was an unwholesome productive.

Unwholesome supportive.

Good.

So you are coming up with examples.

This helps others.

Yeah aren't you.

Isn't it helping you when they are discussing.

Next is an obstructive karma.

What is the meaning of obstructive?

Obstruction.

Blocks.

Blocks forever.

What is the meaning of an obstacle?

Perfect.

Only for some time it blocks your path and then it goes away.

So now watch this slide.

Your productive karma is moving.

Suddenly an obstacle comes in life.

It stays for a while and then it goes away.

That karma expires and then the productive moves again.

Happen?

Sometime or the other?

Now identify an obstructive karma in your life.

It could be a person,

It could be a situation,

It could be a thing.

Can it be an attitude as well?

Yeah yeah.

This will be understood as obstructive as you would like.

When your life is going on as productive.

Then come here.

Obstructive.

I have my procrastination as mine.

There you already have an example.

So can the obstructive obstruction be like in one,

Some other section of your life,

Phase of your life interfering?

Yeah it's a web.

You think about it as a pool table.

You hit that thing and some ball that goes here will bounce back and come and prevent the work from going away.

So it's like a whole three dimensional,

Billions of these balls just bouncing around.

That's what's happening.

Yeah just identify one single ball on that pool table right now.

For example you started studying something.

Yeah whatever,

Medical school,

Architecture school,

Engineering school.

And just your attitude changed in the third year,

Fourth year or you got into bad friendship,

Bad company.

You dropped out of school.

Two,

Three years you didn't go back to studying.

Yeah so those two,

Three years was obstructive karma.

And then suddenly after two,

Three years you realize oh no I have to complete my degree,

It's the matter of one year.

And you really work hard and then you complete your degree.

I'm just throwing an example out.

You see like that there could be so many different scenarios.

One of the examples will be like some people,

I know like one or two people I was talking to,

They really wanted to be here with you.

But like some family thing came up or help thing came up and they couldn't be here.

No but then they cannot come back.

In this scenario the productive karma comes back.

So the obstacle is temporary.

So if you had planned to come here,

You booked your tickets but suddenly something happened last week at home.

And you were like oh no I'll have to cancel my tickets.

So you spend the next three,

Four days thinking oh I have to cancel my tickets,

I have to cancel my tickets,

I have to cancel my tickets,

I cannot go.

But suddenly everything got resolved on Thursday night and you could just fly out.

Got it?

So you completing this session is the prerequisite on this side.

So the productive karma gets completed but after an obstruction of some time in the middle because of some other traffic.

I have a good example to tell you classified as obstructive.

Like I wanted to talk to my doctorate and maybe financial planning,

I still didn't do it and now I am able to.

So that's tax and finance that was the obstruction that was causing the team weight and what I wanted to do.

Perfect.

Yeah so the financial part was the obstructive karma.

And the doctorate is the productive karma.

Now there can be a wholesome obstructive and there can be an unwholesome obstructive.

Really?

Yes.

Very nice.

Perfect.

Maybe she travelled the world instead.

She could not go back to her doctorate but maybe she travelled the world.

She met the love of her life and got married and is so happy about that decision which would have not happened if she had gone to whatever financial school,

Whichever school she was going to.

So she thanks her stars.

Great.

I got that chance to do all this.

The situation getting sorted out,

That still holds the obstructive karma.

Yes.

And it made you wholesome productive.

Yeah but at that point of time you looked at it as unwholesome.

So you write point of time also in your analysis.

We look at all our current karmas and get done with them.

We change our perspective.

But if your Vedana still keeps kicking in.

Vedana usually kicks for somebody who said something bad to me and done something bad to me.

That's where I cannot let go just by Sanjaya,

Just by changing my perspective.

Can you work at the Vedana level?

Clear or no?

Did you identify one obstructive wholesome and one obstructive unwholesome in your life?

This is all about personal classwork.

This is the practical.

In school you had theory and practical.

This is the practical classwork.

Just the wholesome and unwholesome always are the only related if there is something unwholesome and if our perspective changes and it becomes wholesome.

But will each unwholesome have a wholesome partner?

Not necessary.

Sometimes the productive karma just works on its own also.

Without a supportive,

Without an obstructive and the third alternative.

So it's working on its own also.

When everything is just calm,

Quiet,

There's no major things happening in life.

Like you are in a routine.

Noring,

When you say,

Oh life is so boring.

That is when you are missing these obstructive karmas and supportive karmas.

So karmas can be related to life in terms of,

This was my situation.

It began as an unwholesome productive financial crunch.

Then it became a supportive wholesome that was a situation called blissful.

And then I was able to pursue it.

So it was wholesome productive karma.

And then because of it,

It was another obstructive,

Unwholesome obstructive because that we led by further travel plans.

So it can all be integrated.

Yes,

That's what we are telling you again and again.

It's a web.

We are just learning to get into the web because when you look at the web,

You are like alarmed.

You are so scared of your karma.

How am I ever going to resolve this?

So we are starting with one,

One,

One picking.

Slowly you will get the courage to go inside the web and look at it all.

So it is a web.

You will get there.

Devi,

There is a question.

I mean we are trying to understand here if it is an obstructive karma or the supportive karma or the productive karma.

So I want to organize the happiness course and I am not finding the venue and if I find the venue and there is no one to register,

Can you please help us identify the scenario?

Okay.

I am organizing the happiness program.

Okay.

First of all,

You want to organize for a reason.

Yeah.

So that is your productive karma.

I am working with a teacher and I want to go for TTC or I am just a regular volunteer for this centre and I do it every three months or whatever.

So my productive karma is going.

I am not finding a venue right now.

I am disappointed about it.

So it is unwholesome,

Supportive karma.

It is unwholesome because I am not finding it and I am disappointed.

Yeah.

But maybe I find out,

Oh nobody registered in future then I will be thankful.

Thank God.

Because I am going to have to pay for the venue and deposit of 300 bucks and I will never get it back into the term.

Yeah.

So the perspective might change of this unwholesome,

Supportive karma to wholesome in future.

Another thing you said,

No registrations.

Same unwholesome,

Supportive karma.

Suppose you have a venue,

You have registrations,

Your date is declared.

Yeah.

You are all N2OK.

Now we are having the course.

Yeah.

It is just one week away and your teacher falls sick.

Now this is obstructive karma.

Now you are like,

Oh my God,

Do I have to cancel the course?

Is the entire productive karma going to go away?

What is going to happen?

Yeah.

You are in that state.

Yeah.

So now you are either looking for another teacher or waiting for this teacher to tell you that,

You know,

She is getting better and she is going to take that flight and come.

So for some time there is an obstacle and maybe she gets better.

She takes that flight and she comes.

So this was just an obstructive karma and it got out of here.

Got it?

Yes,

It did.

I'll go to the next one.

Did you get a personal example for each?

Next is the destructive karma.

Destructive karma is that which destroys the current karma and produces a result of its own.

Your productive karma is going normally in life.

Your destructive karma comes,

Destroys everything and produces a totally different result.

So if the teacher was really so sick that she could not come and another teacher came and took the course,

Yeah,

It produces totally a different result,

A totally a new outcome.

Got it?

So it was destructive,

Not an obstructive in that case.

If she didn't come.

But the outcome is not different because the course was supposed to happen.

It's just that the teacher changed and the course still happened.

Still changes.

Equation changes.

Can you give another example?

Okay.

This can happen in the,

In your situation.

Somebody asked me this question.

If I'm supposed to be born in a higher realm,

Yeah,

And I'm all ready for that.

Okay,

My neck is coming closer.

I'm going to go to a higher realm.

My good karma is so strong that I'm going to move on from this human realm of existence to a higher realm of existence.

A destructive karma could come and destroy my,

That good karma and produce a result where I'm again born as a human.

No,

Born as a human.

So that destructive karma is either a Raga or a Dvisha.

Whose example am I giving you?

Jada.

Jada.

Jada.

Got it?

He was a sage.

He was enlightened.

Let's assume you're done.

Your journey is complete.

You're moving on.

Yeah.

But one karma,

That last moment,

A deer comes and destroys that.

So even like if you're living in one state or one country and something happens and you're moved to different states,

It's a destructive karma?

It changes the whole.

.

.

Yeah,

It changes the whole scenario.

So many destructive karmas come into your life.

One karma comes and ends another karma.

That is the prerequisite.

Not just your job getting over because it's getting over.

There's nothing else that came and stopped the job.

Our example.

When you were in New Hampshire,

Had a project in New Jersey.

Yeah,

Totally.

So,

I had a project in New Jersey.

A New Jersey project?

No,

No.

He's talking about just the job.

We were living in New Hampshire.

I dropped Ikhta to the airport because I was in New Jersey.

I used to go back and forth from New Hampshire.

So she went home to India from New York.

She had gone for like I think six weeks or something.

The next day,

I dropped off on Sunday.

On Monday,

I got in my project.

Done.

Gone.

So I had to look for a new project,

New job.

And I got a new job.

This was in Cincinnati.

So when Ikhta came back,

She never got to see the place in New Hampshire.

Our course completely changed and we ended up in Cincinnati.

A place that we were never going to before.

So I left the house thinking I'm coming back to the same house.

Yeah.

In that six weeks time,

By the time I came back,

I had not gone back home.

He just packed it,

Cleaned it and he rented it out.

And I've not seen my bedroom,

My room,

Nothing after that.

So that was a destructive curtain.

But that led to many,

Many things.

So now I'm coming home.

There is a wholesome,

Destructive and unwholesome destructive.

So it was a wholesome,

Destructive curtain.

That led to the knowledge session in Cincinnati?

Yeah,

I never.

It was cool.

As in I didn't have my job.

Luckily,

Touchwood has always been such that I'm never grounded to a place.

I either get to work remotely or I travel Mondays to Thursdays.

So it doesn't matter where I live.

I have to anyway travel for my job.

So it was very cool for me.

I was like,

Okay,

Cincinnati,

I've never even heard about it.

And that's where all this began.

This journey began.

So you were supposed to identify with this?

Yeah,

Yeah,

Yeah.

Let's not get to the personal life.

This was just an example.

Yeah,

So this was a wholesome,

Destructive curtain.

Got it?

Now you have to identify in your personal life a wholesome,

Destructive and an unwholesome destructive.

Take two minutes.

So in this example,

What would have been an unwholesome?

If I was cribbing,

Oh no,

I want to go back home.

How can you give it to the tenants?

Oh,

My first condo,

My first house.

If I got into that,

I didn't.

But if I got,

Then I was looking at it as an unwholesome,

Destructive.

Whereas for him,

It was a wholesome,

Destructive because it gave him a new job.

So it was a new opportunity for him.

So two people in the same situation can have opposite perspective of the same situation.

That is what I am telling you to do,

A personal example,

Your own example to understand this better.

It's more like a game.

Yes,

Finally you get there.

Life is a game from when Guruji is telling us,

Play it like a game,

Play it like a game,

And then you don't get it.

Finally it's coming from Nandila,

Finally we are seeing.

It was Mitesh's turn to have you over there.

Mitesh was not there yet,

When I went JH3 and all this time.

He came after,

I don't know,

Six months,

Eight months.

He came to me,

I don't know,

Five months.

Five months.

He went to India.

He met Akshay,

Then I met Akshay,

And then he stayed.

Then I came to Bloomington.

It's all so interrelated,

No?

That losing of the job caused Cincinnati to happen,

This Gyanasanga to start,

Mitesh to flourish,

And blossom and become this person.

You to get out of Bloomington and come here and then organise this,

It's so amazing.

And then we was.

.

.

And he is going back.

I am going back to Cincinnati.

Yeah,

He is coming to Cincinnati.

I am good for you and not so good for him.

It's destructive,

The path of breaking changes,

But it's obstructive,

You carry on the same path.

Correct,

Perfect.

That's the meaning of obstacle,

No?

Obstacle means only for a short while.

Yeah,

So why am I really helping you distinguish between obstructive and destructive by looking at your past?

It's to help you gain strength when a difficult situation comes up in future.

You know,

When we face a situation,

We feel finished,

This is the end of the world and I don't want this,

I want to run away.

Our complete attitude is always of destructive.

Yeah,

It could be just an obstructive also.

Have patience,

Have patience,

It can pass.

Yeah,

Understood now?

Why I don't give you those extreme advices,

Break a relationship,

Run away from home?

There are things people come and ask me.

Yeah,

Why I don't give you the extreme?

Because possibly it's only an obstacle on the path.

And every obstacle has an expiry date,

It's temporary.

Right,

It's meant to really burn you.

When you burn,

Burn,

Burn and come out on the other side,

You'll come out like gold.

Don't think any problem is always a destructive problem.

Yes,

Will you keep a positive outlook now?

A positive perspective whenever there is a difficult situation coming up in life?

You promise me?

Yes.

Clear?

Did you find a wholesome,

Destructive and an unwholesome,

Destructive personal example?

Yes.

Good?

Okay.

Okay.

Very clear you have examples for all?

Yeah?

Wholesome and unwholesome for each of productive,

Obstructive,

Destructive and supportive,

All four of them.

So change your attitude towards life.

That's the message that we get from this.

It's only about changing the way you look at things.

So if till now I am looking at things,

You know,

She's like this,

He's like this,

Judging,

Judging,

Judging.

For a moment look here and see maybe I have coloured glasses.

Maybe I need to just drop these glasses and look at things as we are.

And drop my judgments.

Yeah?

Let me make an attempt to at least find something positive in even that so apparently negative right now.

At least move towards that direction.

I am not saying it's going to be very easy but if you really have that commitment,

I want to grow on this spiritual path.

Then you have to make that effort to unlearn the bad habits that I have learnt to you.

These are nothing but bad habits,

Bad tendencies.

I cannot blame,

Oh my mom did this,

My dad did this,

My friend did this because of people,

Because of life circumstances.

No,

I could have been stronger.

I was not.

This I understand but now I am.

Now I have the knowledge.

Now let me work on myself and make myself a better human being.

The way I want to really see myself.

That's the message that you're getting from me.

Start working if you've not started yet.

These four are very clear by way of function.

So let me,

After you said like every time moment to moment is wide of your previous image is from.

So that helps a lot but still like,

So the way we say like the mind does it and does it say to grab on the negative.

Is there a particular mechanism?

I also heard someone say because like it's survival mechanism.

If you remember something bad then you won't get like,

If you won't get burned something will be obtained or something.

That's because people lack the understanding about karma.

They lack this.

They don't understand that what is bound to come to me is bound to come.

I cannot change what is bound to come.

This fly is bound to come.

What I can change is my reaction to the fly.

Are you seeing this?

Okay there was a fly if you missed it.

He likes knowledge.

And this only if I was angry or try to kill.

So my reaction determines how I am feeling inside.

The situation is never going to change outside because I've already planted those seeds in the past.

They're just sprouting.

Got it?

So these people who are giving you this kind of advice they are not understanding karma.

Bring them to the next karma session.

No I just added them.

So you identify and really life does not bring the same thing to you unless you've learnt the lesson.

It's very fair and square.

Karma is 100% fair and square.

If something is happening to you again and again and again and again that's because you need to learn that lesson.

How much ever you try not to step into that hole,

That hole is only going to come under you.

You're going to fall into it.

You're not happy?

Your job is to complete the lesson.

This is what I am trying to convey to you.

Your job is not to try to escape or dodge karma.

It will come back.

Stop playing kapaddi with karma.

Accept prarabdha is coming right now and I accept it as it is.

As Gurudev has said in the basic course.

Accept people and situations as they are.

Not how I want it to be or how I don't want it to be.

As they are.

Got it?

Then you wash your hands off.

Much more easily.

And you know what that will do?

One very important secret.

Suppose your lifetime is hundred years.

Let's say hundred years.

It's picked up this handful of seeds assuming this will be covered in hundred years.

A new intelligent one came on the spiritual path and started meditating.

So some seeds stopped sprouting only there.

I was going to be a very hateful person and react.

I didn't react.

I didn't create any more exchange with that person.

That person left me and left me.

It happens with you?

It could have blown up and become such a big fight and you could have fought for months and years and it could have become a court case.

But I decided not to react in the first row.

And that karma got wiped off.

So what happens with meditation,

Knowledge,

Things like this?

What was supposed to be done in hundred years probably gets done in seventy-eight years.

The last ten,

Twenty years you are so lucky to have a peaceful life.

If you have not created new agami seeds,

You have that chance to really get enlightened.

Work on yourself.

That is why we came up with the four ashrams.

What are the four ashrams?

Brahmacharya ashram.

Brahmacharya ashram.

Okay,

Well,

I don't know.

Brahmacharya ashram is from one to zero to twenty-five years of age.

Where you are a little kid.

Second is grasthashram.

You get married,

Have children from twenty-five to fifty.

Then vana-brasthashram.

Fifty to seventy-five.

You drop all your raga's vishas.

Work on it.

Let go of everything.

Vana-brasthashram.

The word itself means though you are in this world,

You don't run away from the world yet.

You are in the world but your face is in the direction of the one.

One means the forest.

You don't really have to go to the forest but now you are not focusing on this world and samsara.

The focus is on being with oneself.

Got it?

There was a reason why these ashrams were created.

And the last ashram is sannyas ashram.

Means where I am now totally in meditation with myself and ready to kick the bucket.

Ready to embrace that.

Preparing for a possible liberation.

Got it?

That is why these ashrams were there.

Now we are not lucky to get to hundred.

We don't know if it will happen or not.

Yeah?

But that's the goal.

You complete your karma faster than the lifespan that you have.

Got it?

Clear?

These four ashrams.

I just want to share a personal example for this.

You know to accept what I was.

You know my mother-in-law was when she visited us and said why don't you get some astrology then.

So we did it with an astrology and he has predicted that it's going to be a shani.

Like it's going to be 15 years of shani for me and 15 years of rāma for my husband.

So basically there is no need to dodge it.

It's coming and from what you said it sounds like it's better right now than it was in that 50 to 75.

We done with it by the time.

Perfect.

See that's a positive way to look at life.

However difficult it is.

Now you don't have to run to an astrologer because she ran.

No competition here.

Yeah?

But recognize a tough period comes into my life.

It's because somehow when Niyate picked up those seeds and put them somehow all the bad ones came together for 10-15 years.

And then you start feeling oh it's all destructive.

It's the end of my life.

Everything is bad and you start cursing like no no no go through that difficult phase.

You come out on the other side like gold.

Shining like gold.

I think somebody said about astrology.

It's like a GPS.

It shows like what kind of bumps will you have?

What excite will you have?

If you are rushing too much in your life you need that direction but if you are driving nicely slowly you don't need to go on your walk.

You don't need the direction.

And Viraji says no?

Yes.

Viraji says no?

You are on the path.

Nothing will affect you.

So even if that astrologer has predicted it's not going to affect you.

Continue your meditation.

Continue Kriya.

Get someone where to also start doing it regularly.

Everything will be cool.

Okay.

Clear?

Done?

Four astrums clear?

These four types.

Clear?

Can I move my hand?

Oops.

So basically karma is like these balls on the pool table.

You will play pool.

At least you played carom.

Yeah.

You hit one striker what happens?

Just one moves?

No so many moves.

So you can have a productive karma,

Supportive karma,

Destructive karma,

Obstructive karma all together,

Working all together in multiple places in life.

Yeah.

Office,

At home,

With family,

With friends,

With art of living also now you have some new karma.

Yeah and art of living community also karma.

Yeah.

So observe all these happening and they keep clashing into each other like that.

Suddenly something that was supportive becomes destructive.

Suddenly something that was destructive becomes all good which was unwholesome becomes wholesome,

Wholesome becomes unwholesome.

It's a myriad of karmas.

Are you seeing this in your own personal life happening?

Yes.