Karma carries the seed of its own destruction || Acharya Prashant, on Raman Maharshi (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant?  Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...    Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books?  Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~   Video Information:  Shastra Kaumudi Live, 5.1.2020, Pune, Maharashtra, India   Context:  "Karma’s carries the seed of their own destruction in themselves."  ~Raman Maharshi   “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.”  ~ Jim carry,   ~ What is the relationship between Karma and results?  ~ How Karma carries seed of their own destruction?  ~ how one can change the actions in real sense?  ¬ What is Karma?  ¬ Can karma ever come to an end?  ¬ How could karma carry the seeds of one's own downfall?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .

Transcript

00:00Acharyaji Pranam, one being asked, can karma ever come to an end?

00:21Ramana Maharshi says, karmas carry the seed of their own destruction in themselves.

00:33Dear Acharyaji, please help me understand how karmas carry the seed of their own destruction.

00:49Karma is action, we do not just act, we act with the intention of obtaining fruit of the

01:11action.

01:19So the actor is there, the actor acts as per his own personal intellect, desires,

01:36calculations, projections.

01:43And he speculates, calculates, that his action will get him a particular result.

01:57The result is in his estimation, in his imagination, pretty lucrative.

02:06In fact, it is for the sake of that result that he acts.

02:19So far so good, but then comes the disappointing part.

02:33And the disappointing part is, the results are never as anticipated and never means never.

02:54Here you would probably object, you would say, but sometimes we do succeed in getting

03:00results of our choice.

03:03No, I would still insist.

03:09What is it that the actor is actually seeking in the result?

03:17The actor is seeking contentment, completion, a finality, a solution in the result.

03:33The actor doesn't merely act, the actor is a very frustrated entity.

03:45The actor acts for the sake of bringing an end to his frustration.

04:01So you must realize that whatsoever is the targeted result, the actual target is contentment.

04:13The action is for the sake of the result and the result is for the sake of contentment.

04:24Now the whole equation can go wrong at two places.

04:31First is, you acted anticipating a particular result and the result itself didn't arrive.

04:42Since the result didn't arrive, so you were not contented, bad.

04:53The second probability is, you acted for the sake of a certain result and the result was

04:59as per your wish, yet this fulfillment of the wish couldn't fulfill you.

05:10The wish was fulfilled, you were not, there was no contentment, the actor is left high

05:20and dry.

05:22High because he has obtained the desired result, dry because the desired result does not suffice.

05:33So if the first scenario in which the action failed to fetch the desired result was bad,

05:40then the second scenario where the action succeeds in fetching the desired result is worse.

05:50Now that is not a very attractive position to be in, a position in which you have to

06:01choose between bad and worse.

06:06Would you want to be in a position where these are the only two choices available?

06:11One choice is bad, the other choice is worse, but then that's the situation of the actor.

06:16He has to pick one of these two.

06:23Very badly placed is he.

06:31Now what does Ramana Maharshi mean when he says, karma carries within itself the seed

06:38of its own destruction, the actor has invested a lot in the action, the actor is the action.

06:52As long as the actor believes in himself, he will have no choice but to act the way he does.

06:59The actor and the action are not separable, which means that the actor cannot really change

07:06his action without changing himself, please understand.

07:11The actor really has no choice with respect to the action as long as the actor remains

07:17who he is, the actor is the action.

07:22Now if the action and the subsequent flow of events are quite painful, then the actor

07:30thinks of quitting the action, correct?

07:34The actor brings about the action, the action brings about the result and the result fails

07:40in bringing about contentment and all this has involved a lot of investment of time and

07:46energy and hope and commitment, right?

07:52The actor sees this much, the actor says this entire train of events is no good, sometimes

08:00things are bad, at other times they are just worse, this is no good.

08:09So what is it that he can change?

08:12The action, but he cannot change the action if he remains who he is, the actor is the action.

08:20So the actor is now badly stuck.

08:26If he remains who he is, then the only two choices are bad and worse and if he wants

08:36to avoid the bad, then he cannot remain who he is, he has to go away, dissolve, give himself up.

08:45It's almost like death, quite scary, imagination part of it.

08:57So the actor in spite of all the big bats and all the frustrations and defeats he has

09:03received, still tries again, see he is the actor, what else can he do?

09:13He is choiceless in a sense, as long as he remains who he is, he will be compelled to

09:21keep doing stupid things.

09:24So he embarks on another such stupid pursuit, which is to try again, modify the action a

09:32little superficially and hope that the results will be different this time, the results are not.

09:43He puts in more hard work, hoping that the results will be different.

09:49You see there was this lane, the lane ended in some kind of a huge hole that looked into the sewer.

10:17So the actor used to walk down the lane and reach the end where there was nothing but

10:25rubbish and stink and this used to disappoint him.

10:32He decides that things must change, he decides that things must change with him remaining

10:42who he is, with no change in himself, he decides to work hard, he meets some motivational

10:51gurus and they tell him work harder, you will succeed.

10:55So now instead of walking down that lane, he starts running, he hopes that by running

11:02he will reach some other place, to his utter frustration he discovers that he is only reaching

11:08the same stench faster and more frequently.

11:20This method didn't succeed, so he tries another clever method, he says I used to walk facing

11:29the dead end, now I will walk backwards.

11:36You see I have changed my approach 180 degrees, so the results should also change 180 degrees.

11:45Earlier I used to walk with my face towards the end of the lane, now I will walk backwards.

11:55I will not look towards the huge store of rubbish, I will look in the opposite direction,

12:10I'll walk backwards.

12:12So he walks backwards and he's dismayed, he has still reached the same place, not only

12:24reached the same place, this time he has reached the same place with a few bruises.

12:30Walking backwards, he stumbled upon stones, hit against strangers and got abused.

12:42All those things happened additionally to him, are you getting it?

12:52Having tried all kinds of methods and cleverness, then the actor realizes that he has to go,

13:09he is his own suffering, he does not have a suffering, he is the suffering.

13:22That is what Ramana Maharshi means here, when Ramana Maharshi says karma carries the

13:26seeds of its own destruction, what he really means is going one step deeper, karta carries

13:36the seeds of his own destruction, the actor as he is constructed is not sustainable, the

13:45actor as he is conditioned, as he is modelled, as he is designed is not stable, he has no longevity.

14:01At some point he has to give in, at some point he has to accept defeat and surrender.

14:09So karta carries within himself the seeds of his own destruction and therefore karma

14:14carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction, what are the seeds of destruction?

14:19The fact that your actions will never get you what you want from your actions and that

14:28is why your actions will have to meet an end, a destruction.

14:37You act, the more you act, the more you will discover that your actions are really going futile.

14:47Hence the more you act, the closer you will come towards the destruction of the action,

14:56the more active, the more desirous, the more confident the actor is, the faster he is running

15:04towards his own end.

15:07Are you getting it?

15:11That is what Ramana Maharshi means here.

15:15I have a question Acharyaji, based on the response you just gave on Ramana Maharshi.

15:21So you were saying there are two things into this.

15:23The first thing is wherein when you reach your particular goal, so then you feel bad

15:29and you said that it is quite more worse, if for example you are able to reach your

15:33goal because in both the things we are not reaching the completion.

15:38So nowadays I see specifically youth, they keep on keeping these particular quote within

15:44their DPs or other things.

15:46So this quote comes from a very famous American Canadian actor Jim Carrey.

15:52So I would like to quote it firstly.

15:54He says that I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they were

15:59dreamt.

16:00So they can see that it's not the answer.

16:04So but so in this context he is probably making the second option which you have just quoted

16:08as the a very good thing to happen.

16:12So like what do you think in the same context like because you just mentioned that it is

16:16something which is more worse than the first one.

16:20So if you can shed some light on the same.

16:22In itself the statement is not incorrect, it let there be wealth and fame and you will

16:36discover that wealth and fame are not the answer.

16:40In itself that is not an incorrect statement, the only thing is that it is a very inefficient

16:46approach.

16:47It is a very inefficient approach especially the thing about fame.

16:56You see what is fame?

17:00Fame by definition is exclusive.

17:04If everybody is famous then nobody is famous.

17:09Fame must exclude which means that if a thousand people try for fame only two can be famous.

17:24It's a clear mathematical limitation.

17:28It does not depend upon social conditions or anything.

17:34It is like a law of nature, you cannot alter it.

17:39If a thousand people try for fame really only two can be famous because fame is not a material

17:45commodity.

17:46Fame is the space that you occupy in somebody's mind, correct?

17:52And the mind space is limited.

17:55You cannot store 40,000 people in your mind which means that you cannot make 40,000 people famous.

18:04How many people can you remember as important?

18:062, 4, 10, 20, 50 so only these many can be famous.

18:1140,000 people cannot occupy mind space of others so 40,000 cannot be famous.

18:2140,000 can be wealthy but cannot be famous.

18:26I'll come to wealth as well but first fame.

18:30So thousand people tried for fame, two succeeded, for the remaining 998 it was a sheer waste

18:39of effort, correct?

18:40That's what I'm saying.

18:42Secondly even these two might obtain fame after 40 years of work.

18:48So after 40 years of work they become famous just to discover that fame doesn't help.

18:54Couldn't the process have been shorter?

18:59So while what is being said in the statement is not incorrect, it is just inefficient.

19:07It is a very bad way of realizing.

19:16Now come to wealth.

19:19Wealth is both objective and subjective.

19:22Unfortunately for us it is 99% subjective.

19:28What is the objective component of wealth?

19:30Whether you have enough to sustain your body, have proper nutrition, some shade.

19:40If you want to go from one place to other for a right purpose, do you have enough purchasing

19:46power to buy locomotion?

19:50If you want care, medical care for your body, do you have enough with you to purchase medical

19:57services?

19:59That's the objective component of wealth, whether you can have the essentials of life

20:05like education.

20:08In this sense wealth is objective.

20:11But as wealth increases it becomes more and more subjective.

20:17Subjective means relational, relative.

20:22Now if you have a car then you are very poor if you live in a locality where everybody

20:34has on an average four cars each or if you have a small car then you consider yourself

20:42not wealthy because all around you are people driving their huge SUVs, are you getting it?

20:53Which means that in its subjective component wealth is very much like fame.

21:03Not everybody can be famous and not everybody can be subjectively wealthy either.

21:13So again that makes this approach very inefficient.

21:16Everybody tries to be wealthy only to succeed.

21:20998 do not get to be wealthy so they can never verify the statement that you made.

21:26998 are not even in a position to verify the statement that you made.

21:31To succeed in just reaching the place where verification is possible and they verify and

21:38they find that fame and wealth are not the answer as is contained in the statement.

21:43But then that has been a very very expensive journey, expensive and therefore inefficient.

21:56It is far better to reach your destination without consuming too many resources, is it not?

22:15If you burn too much oil in covering the distance then first of all you are wasting

22:28your own time and money, secondly you are a climate criminal, are you not?

22:47So why release so much carbon undertaking a futile journey when the same realization

22:56can happen inexpensively and rather swiftly through other means.

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