11-11-11 — an obviously auspicious day for writing a blog. May all sentient and non-sentient creatures be blessed with inner and outer peace today and always. 

I was/am amazed at the number of favorable responses to my last blog, wherein I told the story of my husband’s broken leg and how we are working our way through that challenge together. 

Sudarshan is much better now, though still not well enough to be able to get back to work. It’s a slow process, but there is, with God and Gurus’ grace, forward progress and healing happening, with every passing day. Thanks to all for your concern and your prayers. 

Today, I want to write about BLAME. Whom should I (or you) blame when things go wrong in our lives? I picked this subject because, aside from the great challenge of a badly injured husband, I have also been experiencing numerous other incidents of what I would have to call “difficult karma,” during the past month or two. 

I am noticing how much I seem to want to blame some person or persons, some situation, or SOMETHING outside myself for the “bad things” that are happening to me. 

I know better! But the impulse is so strong — have you ever noticed it in yourself? “Why did this have to happen to me? Why is this happening to me? Whose fault is this? I’m sure I’ve done nothing at all to deserve this difficult test!” 

Swami Kriyananda gave us the answer in his wonderful “Vow of Superconscious Living,” which he wrote as a part of the original Superconscious Living Seminars, back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. 

It goes like this:

I vow from this day forth,
To be true to my higher, Superconscious Self.
To be a channel of light,
Of blessing and love to all
To live in joy, not sorrow;
In truth, not error;
In victory, not failure
To blame no one in adversity but myself,
And then, instead of blame,
To accept responsibility,
With God’s help,
For changing myself.

See that important line? “… To blame no one in adversity but myself…”  Yikes, do I have to? 

Well, yes, we know, or should know, that the law of karma is exact. Whatever is happening to us is a direct result of our own past actions. If someone is “persecuting me” then this is the natural effect of something I did to him or her, probably in a recent lifetime — maybe even in this one! Things are simply trying to balance themselves out. Perfect peace and harmony are trying to be re-established. 

And we must NEVER forget the rest of the words in this Vow: “… and then instead of blame, to accept responsibility, with God’s help, for changing myself.” 

That’s the ticket! Karma is going to come, until we are free of it (“O Happy Day!”). But in the meantime, difficult karma is a super tool for getting us to look at ourselves and change ourselves! In this way we speed up our spiritual progress. 

Granted, difficult karma can feel pretty icky! Probably the ickier it feels, the more we need to look at it carefully and learn from it. Still, sometimes it feels impossible to deal with effectively! What to do then? 

Go on to these words in the Vow: “… with God’s help…” You don’t have to do it alone! You probably can’t anyway, if the karma is bad enough. But help is available at all times. Ask for it! 

This is what I am doing right now and it’s working pretty well. It isn’t over yet, and I’m still learning many valuable lessons from this time in my life, for which I am grateful! After all, life is a school. Yogananda tells us that the purpose of everything in our lives is “to instruct and to entertain.” 

So Savitri, “Who ‘ya gonna blame???” You know, I think I’ll just let go of this blame-thing altogether for the next few hours, give it all back to God, and live in the LIGHT of my own inevitable perfection. Wow, it feels really great just typing those words. Jai Guru! 

20 Comments

  1. Aum, aum, aum – very timely words. I seem to have gone a little overboard in the other direction. I’m quite good at blaming myself. It’s all my fault, I leave God totally out of the equation.

    Balance in all things. You say it perfectly, “live in the light of my own inevitable perfection.” Yeah, it does feel great typing those words.

  2. I am most grateful to God and Guru for your and Sudharshan’s presence(s) in my life. Thank you dear souls for being who you are. Jai Guru. steve

  3. Very well – exactly the inspirational words one would need in those moments :D

  4. It is a great blessing to have these teachings & know that we need to let go of the “blame-thing”. I work with people who have been injured & continue to have chronic pain & disability. Some of them become trapped in the feeling of being a victim. The resulting emotional distress, anger, & frustration perpetuates their suffering. I try to help them focus on the present & moving forward but am not able to talk with them about karma.

  5. Savitri, thank you for this. I too have been pondering & wandering in the “Blame Game” to no avail!
    The Vows of Superconscious Living were extremely helpful to me. Blessings.

  6. Thank you so much for those words. We need a reminder who is responsible for everything, God, our very own.

  7. I enjoyed reading the post very much. Recently I am undergoing a little difficult phase in my life. My mind asks often why me to be answered by itself , perhaps the bad karma. Yet I wonder how to keep my peace and cheer and to entertain the thought that these are just the tests. But what swamiji has written in the vow is so appropriate and timely solution that with God’s help we have to change ourselves , think this is the key to the ways in which I need to react to the challenges I am never ending meeting with. Thank you and Jai Guru.

  8. METAL INTO GOLD

    I found direct council from Swamiji on this topic also in the Raja Yoga series. And it is astounding. So profoundly useful is the opportunity to correctly deal with blame, that it is indeed the key to getting out of the labyrinth in it’s ability to generate the transforming; indeed “alchemizing “ of energy into pure freedom. He says;

    ..To see ourselves as the cause of whatever happens, yes. But deeper still, being centered in ourselves: Center everywhere circumference nowhere, is when we realize that this is where it begins ..that we don’t have to react –that a life of reaction to our environment is a life of subconciousness, its living the way the animals live. We’ve got to grow from that into a creative response; which is not a reaction so much as something coming from within ourselves –using anything that comes to us as an incentive to come up with an even greater kind of response. Again, this requires not only being centered in ourselves, but also AWAKENING ENERGY within ourselves. It’s only by an energetic response that we can overcome these outward influences that come upon us. Energy; …CENTEREDNESS AND ENERGY. There’s a tendency in this question of assuming personal responsibility, to blame the world for all sorts of things that go wrong in our lives. We must learn to stop blaming others. WHEN WE BLAME THE WORLD THEN WE ARE ACCEPTING THAT THE WORLD IS OUR REALITY. What we want to do is to say This is my reality. I choose to act from This center, and then I can change whatever is outside. But if we blame others then we are saying that That is my reality; we are becoming centered outside ourselves. At the center is the effulgence. The more we move outward from the center of that consciousness, the more we move toward a freezing of that consciousness, and ultimately into inertia. We’re putting our center out there. We have less energy, less power. Your center is the source of your strength. Therefore assume responsibility for your own life.

  9. One more blog needs to go into Spanish!!. Thank you, Savitry.

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