In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the discussion on Bhagawan Krishna’s thoughts on performing the “Nitya-Karma-Anushtaana” and how does it aid us in attaining “Moksha”. In a nutshell, we’ve witnessed that by performing our “Nitya-karma-Anushtaana” regularly, our sins (“Paapa Karma”) keeps getting washed away then and there, which would aid us in progressing forward spiritually. Although we might be very interested to pursue the “Gnyaana Yoga” path prescribed by Bhagawan Krishna to attain Moksha, it has lot of challenges that we’ve to face. We might be propagating that we’re high on “Gnyaana” (Knowledge & Wisdom), but to pursue that path, our sins would be stumbling blocks for us to even take one step forward. Hence, we’ve to somehow remove all of those stumbling blocks isn’t it? This is where our “Nitya-Karma” comes in handy.
As we’re amidst the “Samsaara”, it is highly inevitable that we would be accumulating sins, no matter how hard we try not to. For instance, we would be killing so many living beings (including germs like bacteria, viruses, and other small insects like spiders, ants, mosquitoes, etc.) in the pretext of cooking food, cleaning our house, etc., which we can certainly not avoid. According to our “Sanaatana Dharma”, Bhagawan has clearly laid down the rule by saying that we should at any cost, not kill any living being, or even cause a slightest harm to them. However, we’re now violating that rule, isn’t it? If we violate Bhagawan’s rules, automatically all these violations would enter into our “Paapa Karma”. The more and more we’re accumulating our “Paapa Karma” like this, it only implies that our “Satva Guna” is unable to fly high. Our “Rajo Guna” and “Tamo Guna” are trying to overwhelm with the extent of the sins that we’re committing. However, if we’re performing our “Nitya-Karma” regularly, all these sins will keep getting washed away then and there, and our route will get clearer every day. With our route getting clearer, our “Vairaagya” (Will power) for following the “Gnyaana Yoga” or whatever would increase, with the exponential rise in the domination of our “Satva Guna”. Thus, this is a multi-pronged strategy here – Performing our Nitya-Karma increases our Satva Guna, by reducing the impact of our sins, which would in-turn put us on the right track to spiritual progress, which would lead us eventually to attain Moksha.
Moving on further thus, we would have another question in our mind here – “So if we perform our “Nitya-Karma” perfectly as per the rules and regulations, will it take us directly to “Moksha?” Or, do we need something else apart from this?” The answer to this question is very important for all of us to understand – Performing our “Nitya-Karma” doesn’t take us to “Moksha” directly. This is something that we should grasp firmly in mind. Performing our “Nitya-Karma” is our fundamental duty, being born as a human being in this world. It is like how we’ve to caste our vote during elections, as part of being a citizen of our home country. However, we might ask a question here further – “If it doesn’t guarantee us a place in “Moksha”, then why should we do it?” The important answer is that, performing our “Nitya-Karma-Anushtaana” is like a “blockage-remover” for pursuing the path of “Bhakti”. Ultimately it is “Bhakti” that is going to take us all to “Vaikunta” or “Moksha”.
Now it might seem a bit confusing for readers. I shall give a small analogy to explain things. For instance, if we’ve to travel from one place to the other by road – We’re driving our car on the national highway. However, is it a guarantee that our road journey would be very smooth, without any hassles or disturbance in the middle? The answer is obviously a “No”, isn’t it? There might be hurdles like heavy traffic on the road, road blockages due to some work happening, some accident spots on the way, some diversions because of some strikes, protests, etc. Or, for instance, if it is raining heavily, trees would fall on the road, or there might be landslides, etc. We can witness how many hurdles might surface, when we start driving our car on the highway. Similarly, our “Bhakti Maarga” is the car that we’re driving and “Moksha” is our destination. In the middle of our path, there might be so many hurdles in the form of our “sins”. But, can the car called “Bhakti” clear off the hurdles? In the highway for instance, if a tree falls down, can the car take the tree and put it off the road? It’s not possible isn’t it? There should be some officials and workmen from the forest department or highway department who should come to that spot and clear the road for the traffic. Similarly, our “Nitya-Karma-Anushtaana” is like these workmen or highway officials. This “Nitya-Karma” would clear off all the hurdles called “sins” that seemingly block our road that leads to our destination called “Moksha” or “Vaikunta”.
Hence, from this analogy, we can understand and reaffirm that performing our “Nitya_Karma” is of extreme importance. Our “Nitya-Karma” doesn’t directly grant us “Moksha”, but it clears the road of all the blockages, so that our pursuit towards “Moksha” in our car called “Bhakti” becomes seamless. Ultimately, it is “Bhakti” that is going to take us to “Moksha”. But, our sins would keep preventing us from doing the “Bhakti”. This is where we need the help of our “Nitya-Karma” to weed away our sins.
So for today, let us understand this point more clearly and let us once again take a pledge to perform our “Nitya-Karma” systematically without fail. We shall wait till the next episode to witness the next important point that Bhagawan Krishna is going to lay emphasis on. Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 