In the previous episode, we had witnessed the culmination of the discussion on the criteria to attain “Moksha” through the divine “Krishna-Leela” that involved Chintayanti, an ardent devotee. As we had witnessed, there are two intertwined criteria for us to attain “Moksha”. The first condition is that our “Paapa” and “Punya” accounts should get nullified completely, which is totally uncontrollable in our hands. This is because, we do not know how much of “Praarabdha” Karma is left in our account for us to neutralize. There is no opportunity for us to know the account details either. Since this condition is totally not in our hands, we head into the second condition – To seek for Bhagawan’s unending grace. This seems a possible way out for all of us, isn’t it? This is where Chintayanti sets an example – Her unconditional surrender to Bhagawan Bala-Krishna ensured that her “Karma” accounts were neutralized. If we surrender to Bhagawan thus, it becomes His responsibility to take us through isn’t it? This is what we’ve to ultimately understand through this episode.
This is clearly illustrated in the Upanishads too. The Upnishads clearly explain how our “Sanchita Karma” and “Praarabdha Karma” are destroyed by Bhagawan if we surrender to His divine feet unconditionally. The Upanishads explain that our “Sanchita Karma” – The Karma which we have accumulated for over infinite births in the past, which is totally not in our control is completely burnt down by Bhagawan as we surrender to Him. However, the “Praarabdha Karma” doesn’t get burnt away in the way that the “Sanchita Karma” gets burnt down. As we know by now, the “Praarabdha Karma” is something that we start experiencing the fruits of, in this current birth of ours. In other words, when we take each birth, one small segment of the “Sanchita Karma” gets removed and gets converted into the “Praarabdha Karma”, and we start experiencing the fruits of it. This “Praarabdha Karma” doesn’t get burnt like that. If such a thing happens, then all of us would attain “Moksha” today itself, isn’t it? It would become such an easy task and we would start “negotiating” with Bhagawan thus, “Oh! If we surrender to Bhagawan, we would immediately get “Moksha”! This is not going to be such an easy process like how we go to a grocery store to buy things for money. If such a thing happens, all of us would also start saying thus, “Oh! If that’s the case, I shall finish experiencing all my worldly pleasures, family life, etc. and come to surrender at the age of 70!” 🙂
Bhagawan obviously is not a fool to keep giving us such loopholes! He ultimately has the checkpoint in His hands. He tells us thus, “Oh Jeevatman! Now that you’ve surrendered to my feet, I’ll ensure that you will attain “Moksha” at the end of this birth!” By doing so, Bhagawan is trying to “get rid of” our “Praarabdha Karma”, so that we would be able to attain “Moksha” at the end of this birth. There is a difference between “burning” the “Sanchita Karma” and “Getting rid of” the “Praarabdha Karma”, isn’t it? This is the difference that we should understand in today’s episode.
In fact, we had witnessed in our earlier Ramayana project as to how Bhagawan Rama had illustrated this point beautifully. In the “Bala-Kaanda” we had witnessed how Bhagawan Rama takes on two Raakshasas Shubaahu and Maareecha. Bhagawan Rama kills Raakshasa Shubaahu, but “chases away” Maareecha and pushes him into the deep oceans. Why is Bhagawan Rama doing that? He could have killed both the Raakshasas at the same instant isn’t it? He killed one and chased away the other to illustrate to all of us how the “Karma theory” works. The killing of Shubaahu illustrates the burning down of the “Sanchita Karma”. The chasing away of Maareecha illustrates “getting rid of” the “Praarabdha Karma”.
This is where we’ve to understand the intricacies of each and every act of Bhagawan. We might just read Bhagawan Rama’s and Bhagawan Krishna’s “Charitras” at the surface level and understand just the story part of it. But, only if we dig deep into why Bhagawan Rama or Bhagawan Krishna performed such acts, we would be able to understand the various aspects of our “Sanaatana Dharma” being subtly explained by Bhagawan Himself. So for today, let us understand this important point on how we attain “Moksha” and how Bhagawan Rama and Bhagawan Krishna had explained this point through their divine “Leelas”. We shall wait till the next episode to witness the continuation of this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 