In the previous episode, we had witnessed Sage Kapilaachaarya’s beautiful illustration to drive home the point, how Atman and our physical body (Deham) are independent of each other and at the same time, interdependent of each other. Although, both Atman and Deham have their own separate functions, only if both of them complement each other, will we be able to progress in the right direction, so as to attain “Moksha”. Saying thus, we also witnessed in the sidelines, the importance of “teamwork” and how do we complement each other and perform any task in the present day. This is not only applicable to the “Atman-Deham” combine, but also for many other aspects in our day-to-day routine professional and personal life too.
Adding further to this point, Sage Kapilaachaarya explains that the Atman should understand in due course that it is not responsible in any way for whatever bad activities that the physical body performs. But why does the physical body of ours go into wrongful activities and undergoes suffering? It is purely because of our “Karma” (Both good and bad) and our “Vaasanas” (Tendencies). As I had explained in the earlier episodes, our “Vaasanas” are after-effects of our “Karma” and here too, there is an excellent teamwork and complementing between our Karma and Vaasanas! J Both of them work at tandem to either uplift us towards Bhagawan, or downgrade us further into worldly pleasures, thus make us move away from Bhagawan’s scheme of things. Thus, the important message from this extened discussion is that, it is only because of the presence of our physical body, all the so-called wrongful activities are being executed. If this physical body is not there, how can these bad activities be performed? This is what Sage Kapilaachaarya says thus:
“Ahankriyaa vimoodaatmaa karthaami tyahtaasmi ithyabhimanyate!”
Thus to give a more detailed explanation to this point, we perform all the tangible actions in this world, only with the presence of our physical body. If this body is not there, will we be able to do any of these actions? For instance, I had slapped someone very hard on his face! Now, why did I do that? It is only because I have something called “hand” as part of my physical body! If this hand wasn’t there, would I be able to slap someone like that? Similarly, I had kicked someone for something, out of anger! Why did I do that? It is only because I have something called “leg” as part of my physical body, which I use to kick another person! Had this leg not been there, would I be able to kick anyone? The answer is no! Similarly, in a good sense, I’m going to help someone by giving something, only because I’m having my hands as part of my physical body. If my hands aren’t there, how am I going to do it? Thus, the Atman instructs us what to do, and the physical body executes the instruction. However, if the body is not present, the Atman is useless! The Atman will only be thinking and discriminating, but who would execute the actions that are discriminated? Only if we execute the actions, will those be categorized into what is right and what is wrong. Thus, it is imperative again that the Atman works in tandem with our physical body, and our Atman should take the determination that the physical body (which should be in its control) should only do the right things as prescribed by Bhagawan himself in our Sanaathana Dharma texts and literature. With the help of our Atman, we should come to the conclusion and take a resolve here that we should only focus our mind, body and actions that derive out of them, only in the right direction that would ultimately take us to Bhagawan.
All said and done, this might sound very simple and beautiful! Will this practically be possible? There are of course “n” number of obstacles that might arise in due course of our journey. This is what Sage Kapilaachaarya is going to explain next. He now explains right from the stage how a child takes birth in a mother’s woumb. Of course we know that only because we owe some specific “Karma”, we take birth in this particular place, to this particular mother, in this particular family, etc. All these decisions are done at a gross level by Bhagawan that, this Atman would take birth with this specific lifespan, in this family of people, in this particular place, etc. However, the day-to-day activities that we keep performing, are not decided at this gross level, and is not based out of our previous “Karma” too. For example, if we fall on the floor accidently and hurt our leg, we cannot say that this accident happened because of our past “Karma”. It is just because we were careless at that moment and hence we got into this accident. Moreover, we have the common practice of attributing everything to something called “fate”! For instance, if I fail in an examination at school or college, can we attribute it to our fate? It is only because I did not prepare well for the examination that I had failed. Thus, it is a wrong perception today that whatever happens in our everyday life, is to be attributed to our “Karma” and our “Fate”. Of course, on a broader perspective, our nature, our character, health, lifespan, luxuries, family, etc. on a gross level would be controlled by our “Karma” and our “Fate”.
Now we might ask the next question thus: Okay! I’ve born in this family, with this lifespan, health conditions, etc. Can we not change all of these at all throughout our life? Do we need to undergo the entire suffering, just because we were born in this particular state of affairs? An interesting answer awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 