Karma: A Way to Escape Responsibility!
Questioner: Actually, it was not my question, my friend’s question. We keep discussing. She says that actually her children are very good at studies and all, and financially okay, but whenever it comes to entrance exams and all, children who were taught by them get better ranks. She says, “It is all my karma from the past life, that’s what I’m bearing, all this.” And she asked me to ask that question: is there karma? Because the soul changes from one body to another.
Acharya Prashant: Wrong. It doesn’t. And material effects have material causes, right? Material happenings, material phenomena do not have transcendental or intangible causes. One thing, when it comes to an entrance exam or something, your result is dependent so much on many variable factors.
The first variable factor is competition itself. You might be quite accomplished, you might be a very good student, but then there are others, right? And you might still find that you are ranked 5,000 all-India, and you look at 5,000 and feel depressed about yourself, “My God, 5,000!” But then you have to see how many wrote the exam. Probably you are still in the top one percentile or five percentile or something, but there are not so many seats. So, rank 5,000 will probably fetch you nothing. That doesn’t mean you are a bad student.
The second thing is the very randomness of the whole thing. You’re not being continuously assessed. In all institutions, good institutions of higher learning, there is something called continuous assessment, which means your results will not depend on year-end exams. It means you’ll be assessed practically every day of the semester or the year, and then what you get is a more realistic picture of the student’s potential and performance.
Whereas when it comes to the IIT-JEE or you’re talking about these exams, right? IIT-JEE or UPSC or NEET, then it’s about that one off day, one particular day, right? And if you are having a good day or a bad day, that can have a major effect on the results you have. And there is always a probability at play. It is quite possible that you had two bad days, that’s all. And that reduced your rank, your result, to something much poorer than what you deserve or just expect to deserve.
So all that is there, and these are the material causes. It’s not about past-life karma or anything. Nothing.
Questioner: Is that past-life karma?
Acharya Prashant: No, not at all. In fact, if we can be just aware of how we have been doing in the recent past itself, much more importantly, in the present itself, that is sufficient.
Does the common man really know what he’s doing right now? Then instead of attending to what you’re doing right now, you start thinking about past life, which is like 100 years or 10,000 years back. Is that sensible? I don’t even know. I’m asking a question, there’s food on the table here, on the plate, right? And it could be rotten, totally rotten, and I don’t know what’s lying here. I have just no idea because I’m living life very unconsciously. So I don’t know what’s on my plate. But I eat it. And how do I feel? Something is not twisting, twirling in the stomach. Why is that happening? Because I don’t know what is there right now in my life.
But instead, I say this must be due to something that I ate two years back. You see what I’m doing? I’m trying to hide my ignorance of what is there in front of me right now. I want to hide the fact that I don’t know this, so I’m laying the blame on my past. This is past-life karma.
So it’s a kind of cunning thing. No, it’s not just about ignorance, it’s an inner cunningness. It’s self-deception. Your problem is because you do not know what’s going on right now, and you are eating nonsense. And that’s the real reason why you are suffering.
But instead of acknowledging that you are living life blindfolded, you are saying, “Oh, the stomach is feeling funny because I ate something bad in my previous birth or five years back.” You see, we are trying to deceive ourselves, that’s what it is.
If there is something wrong right now, see what you’re doing right now. The power to respond, the power to choose, is always available. But that power does not lie in the past.
Can you go to the past and choose something or unchoose something? And life is happening right now. So your power to respond to life is right now.
But the moment you say it is happening due to the past, then you have surrendered your power to choose, because you cannot do anything with the past. You cannot change the past. You can’t choose the past. You can’t unchoose the past. You can’t modify it. You can do nothing.
So the moment you say the past is responsible, now you are saying, “I have no responsibility. You see, I’m a very clever man, very, very wise man. Not that I’m eating bad food right now, it’s because of something I ate in the past. So I have no responsibility now.”
What will responsibility imply? Responsibility will imply I acknowledge that I’m stupid because I’m eating bad food. I don’t want to accept I’m stupid, and I don’t want to own any responsibility. So I’ll say, “No, no, no, all this is all right because I’m so wise, so clever, so conscious. What I’m doing right now is all right. If I’m suffering, it is because of the unchangeable past.”
No sir, it’s not because of the unchangeable past that anybody suffers. Anybody who suffers, because he’s not making the right choices at the moment. And all right choices can be made only right now.
Past — do you have any choice? No.
Future — do you have any choice? No.
Right now — you have choice, and choice is responsibility. And we don’t want to accept that responsibility. So we come up with clever ways, “No, this, that, past life, baba ji, something, some jantar mantar, this, that, or nonsense.”
Don’t give up your power. Your power lies right now, right? And whatever be the situation, a situation can be very bad sometimes, but always exercise your power to choose.
People can take away a lot from you. Happens. That’s the way the world is. But nobody can take away your power to choose under any conditions. Always retain that. Always exercise that. And don’t play a victim. Never. Don’t play a victim, remain resolute and see what is the best you can do right now.
Questioner: Acharya Ji, what is karma?
Acharya Prashant: Karma is a reflection of who you are, that’s all. You are the doer. Karma means action. You are the actor. Karma means deed. Doer, deed, actor, action, karta, karma — that’s all, there is nothing mystical about it.
What I have become from the inside, I’ll exhibit on the?
Questioner: Outside.
Acharya Prashant: Suppose through some process you convince me that I’m a dog, so the doer has become a dog. Inside the doer, the actor has become a dog. So what will be the karma now? Bhau-bhau. That is karma.
If within you become a dog, then without, externally, you start barking. That is karma, simple. Which means that if somebody is barking, don’t punish them, right? Or don’t rebuke them. Instead, show them the mirror, and they will realize they are not a dog. And if they come to see that they are not a dog, then they will stop barking. This is the principle of karma. The principle of karma is actually that karma is inseparable from karta. That is the principle of karma. Karma is inseparable from karta. And what comes first — *karma or karta?
Questioner: Karta.
Acharya Prashant: Karta. Therefore, do not focus on karma.
The principle of karma is — forget karma, focus on karta, the doer, the actor. That is the principle of karma. It’s a very funny thing, no? The principle of karma is, do not focus on karma, focus on karta, the doer, the actor. That is karma.
Questioner: Actually, Acharya Ji, I’ve read many scriptures like the Bhagavatam, the Puranas, and all. so it’s just a little doubt, it's different from what I’ve learned.
*Acharya Prashant: Stories?
Questioner: Yes.
Acharya Prashant: You love stories or do you love the truth?
Questioner: Truth.
Acharya Prashant: And if you love the truth, then you must first go to the principle books. If you’re reading books of Hinduism, then you must go to the central books. The central books are the Upanishads, right? Go to them, and then in their light you can read the Puranic literature, and you’ll understand it.
Remember what I told you first, religion is not about?
Questioner: Stories.
Acharya Prashant: Stories. But we all think stories constitute religion. So all these religious systems have their own stories. Religion is not fundamentally about stories. Stories can help in explaining a certain concept, right? That’s all the importance that stories have. Otherwise, stories are not history, and stories are not to be taken seriously. But if stories are aids to understanding, then stories are useful.
