Freedom comes from surrender – By: BK. T.D Joseph

March 21, 2013

Article by: BK. T. D. Joseph, Bangalore, India tdjaum(AT)gmail.com – If you have questions or remarks about this article, please contact the author.
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Bhagavad Gita (literally, the Song of God), a 700-verse Hindu scripture, in its chapter 7, verse 2, says: there is a knowledge “knowing which there will remain nothing else in this world to know.” What is that ultimate knowledge which will naturally be most beneficial to us?

Before introducing it, it prepares us with the background information about why and how we are born into this world. In verse 27 of the same chapter, it says our sense of duality (our unfulfilled desires and aversion of our past birth) is the cause for our present birth, and in this birth too if we get caught in the same sense of duality, or between pairs of opposites, such as pleasure & pain, gain & loss, and victory & defeat, we will only repeat the slavery. But if any one chooses to come out of delusion of duality, having “taken refuge in Him,” he is given that ultimate knowledge and ensuing freedom. Interestingly, there is nothing mysterious about it. It is all about knowing three rulers: “Know the supreme Soul, Individual Soul and principle of Karma” as they really are. (Gita 7:29) This knowing is like saying you KNOW swimming (not a theoretical knowledge). We can know them as they REALLY are with the help of other verses in Gita.

Know God as what or who?
Know God as “the Supreme Soul” (Gita 8:8), “Ruler of the world” (Gita 10:15), and our Heavenly Father (Gita 14:4), a fact that calls for our exclusive attachment with ‘Him alone.’ (Gita 18:66) Whatever we think, say, or do, we have to offer as a sacrifice to Him. (Gita 9:27) We have to be constantly in exclusive love with Him with nobody else coming in between. (Gita 13:10) Thus we DELIGHTFULLY accept His right to set standards (Shrimat) for us, which will be at our best interest as He is the Ultimate Benefactor. It means freedom from misery.

Know Soul as what?
Just as God is the ruler of the macro universe, our soul is the ruler of micro universe called this body. (Gita 7:4; 15:9) We have this birth here because our soul was a slave to the mind in our previous birth. (Gita 15:8) Therefore the wise course will be to reverse the status—take back the ruler-ship from ego-intellect-mind combination and restore it to the soul that should rule over them and five senses. When soul rules, you become “MODERATE in everything you do—in eating, recreation, working, sleeping, and waking,” which again mean freedom from misery.—Gita 6:17, 40.

Know Karma as what?
Everything that happens in the inanimate and animate realms is ruled by Law of Causation. When it comes to the realm of humans, it touches everyone on earth alike for the good or the bad: good action produces good results, and bad action produces bad results. This cause-effect mechanism is always meticulously precise as it is being operated by nature under the oversight of God. (Gita 5:14, 15; 9:8, 10) It is like the role of sun. Everything happens on earth because of the the power from sun, yet it is not the doer. So is the case with God and His agency nature. The Cause-effect system is designed to ensure appropriate effect for every action. Knowing there is a cause(s) for every happening, we will not lament, like the ignorant, asking why this is happening to me or to them? As fire burns upwards, and rivers flow downwards, and water finds its level, so does the result ensue from a cause without fail. Once an action is planned/executed, it remains as if REWARDED by God by virtue of the cause-effect mechanism He has put in in place; it is only a matter of time that some “apparent cause” will bring about the effect into fruition.—Gita11:33.

Many would agree that God is the Ruler, and soul is also a ruler over body, but may find it difficult to agree that Law of Karma is the ruler over all happenings. They may say it is not universal, or it does not act same way with everyone and everywhere; in a natural calamity or in a terrorist attack, many innocent people are also killed. Or they may cite examples such as accidents on the road caused by a drunken drivers, as a result of which people who were on the right in all its aspects were killed, or a frustrated student killing innocent school mates and teachers indiscriminately……. etc.

Such doubts arise because of our limited view. Let us widen our view and try to see this in a larger perspective. Cry against the innocents’ plight is understandable. But is our cry all-inclusive? How many people are killed in the road accidents, most of which are caused by ego-prompted impatience or by carelessness, which is actually is the cause. How many millions of innocent children are murdered in the name of abortion? How can calling murder by another name? As Shakespeare rightly puts it: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” hence a murder in any other name would smell as abhorrent, evoking appropriate and proportionate consequence at the right time. Suppose, in a quarrel you hit somebody; but by mistake a pregnant lady received the blow which resulted in abortion. Even this is treated as murder, in the Bible, which called for death punishment for the careless man, who was not acting on purpose. (Exodus 21:22, 23) Death caused by accident too is treated as murder. (Deuteronomy 22:8) Who knows “the innocent” who are now killed have played some role in the murder called abortion, some accidental deaths, or contributed directly or indirectly to death dealing industries such as weapons, tobacco, or meat-industry which kills innocent lambs and cows who have only helped us with their lives?

When asked HOW ARE YOU? People say “Very Good” even when they are very much distressed inside. Because they know that people “seeing things externally can not know what is happening internally.” (Murli 13/11/1985) This is true of Karma Principle too. You see only a tip of the ice-berg. Hence the innocent may SEEM to be punished. It may not by true. Because the never-failing principle of Causation is omnipresent. Besides, it does not act in black and white, it is a principle, and acts in principle. “Whoever sows injustice [in any of its forms] reaps calamity [in any of its forms].” (Proverbs 22:8; Compare also John 5:14) The reaping may have been occurred in the past—distant or immediate, or committed crime but not caught, or planned but not executed, or would happen only in the future—it is all about sanskar you carry, not necessarily about action. It repays according to each one’s sanskar.

Suppose a person going to a house [which he was sure nobody was in] in the middle of the night with the intention of stealing; but could not steal as the neighbors were awake! But in principle, he has stolen, and he is a thief in his heart—something which he ONLY knows whereas the rest of the world does not know. (Compare What Jesus said in Mathew 5:28) Now years later he is caught for stealing about which he does not know anything. Knowing his plight, the world would lament saying: the innocent is suffering! Take another case which I know personally: A person was detained in the Air Port on suspicion of being a terrorist, but later was released as he could prove his innocence. But it caused him much distress, of course. You would have blamed the system! But wait! Soon he was caught for betrayal and dismissed from his company. This shows the sanskar of betrayal was already there in his heart. Nature does not distinguish whether one is a betrayer of the country or a company. It is like metal detector which reacts according to the metal you carry. A betrayer is carrying the sanskar of causing distress to others, hence has to attract distress. If you give distress to someone, distress will come to you—not necessarily the exact way in which it was given by you. (Galatians 6:7) Our complaint against the outworking of Karma principle is often like that of a person whose loan application was rejected on want of relevant documents, but who sees many other people getting their loans sanctioned with ease [effect]. He does not see their loan applications are accompanied by copies of the Fixed Deposits or Recurring Deposits they have already with the Banks [cause].

Hence knowing that Karma is the ruler of all happenings gives us freedom, it makes us welcome all happenings in our lives. We can see everything in its right perspective. It is true of the other side of Karma also: the blessings one experiences. For example, two years back, in Bangalore city, high level police officials met together and decided to DIRECTLY appoint a girl as Inspector of Police without any formalities like interview and test—written and practical. At this point you may raise your eye-brows, asking: How come? But if you get a full picture, you would applaud the action. This is the background: While she was on her way home, a thief snatched her gold chain and ran away. She followed him, caught him, recovered the gold-chain from him, and handed him over to the Police. Ironically this thief was not a professional thief, he was actually a police off duty, but practices robbing after his Police duty. This is an interesting situation—a police showing the fruitage of a thief, hence to be dismissed; and a girl showing the fruitage of a police, hence to be elevated into Police Officer. What happened to both of them was perfect justice. This is how cause and effect mechanism works.

This is true in the case of organisations too. Relgious organisations, in general, have been steadily declining in quality, and have now become money-making machines, also ridden with sex-scandals, thus producing opposite fruitage. In contrast, a diamond merchant, a money making machine, becomes extremely religious and spiritual. What would happen—how would God, or Karma respond? NATURALLY, He will be elevated into God’s right hand with specific mission for the world. This is what happened to that diamond merchant, named Dada Lekhraj, who was favored by God who renamed him as Brahma Baba. In 1936, God showed him the vision of how this old unrighteous world would be destroyed and a new righteous world would be established in its place, and gave him the responsibility of heralding this knowledge to the whole world. He trained a small group of spiritual women. From that humble beginning, it has grown to a mighty global organisation named Brahmakumaris World Spiritual University, teaching people how to become real children of God, and also the art of living the new and pure Golden aged life.
What a relief when we know that everything that happens to us (positive or negative) is what we really deserve even though everything is not visible to us or full details are not known to us. Nothing can be hidden from God’s view, hence we have in all religions Principle of Causality as one of the the main teachings, as outlined below:

Written by avyakt7- New Generation Posted in Experiences Tagged with BK, Joseph, karma, religions, scriptures