Breaking Free from Karma: The Power of Kriya Yoga
Watch this inspiring Sunday Service talk by Brahmachari Sagar, recorded at Ananda Village on November 26th 2023.
Is karma a blessing or not? Should we embrace it as grace or try to overcome it? Brahmachari Sagar puts these two approaches next to each other and concludes there is a difference between the law of karma and karma itself. Karma is so complex it can lead us astray without us realizing it. Sagar shares how we can find release from karma through meditation and Kriya Yoga and finish our karma after reaching the state of Jivan Mukta.
The reading for this week from Swami Kriyananda's book "Rays of the One Light" is
"The Law of Karma – Bondage, or Soul-Release".
Truth is one and eternal. Realize oneness with it in your deathless Self, within. The following commentary is based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda.
The Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians contains this oft-quoted statement: Be not deceived: God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
In Autobiography of a Yogi Paramhansa tells a story from the life of the Benares saint Trailanga Swami: A skeptic once determined to expose Trailanga as a charlatan. A large bucket of calcium-lime mixture, used in whitewashing walls, was placed before the swami. “Master,” the materialist said, in mock reverence, “I have brought you some clabbered milk. Please drink it.” Trailanga unhesitatingly drained, to the last drop, the containerful of burning lime. In a few minutes the evildoer fell to the ground in agony. “Help, swami, help!” he cried. “I am on fire! Forgive my wicked test!”
The great yogi broke his habitual silence. “Scoffer,” he said, “you did not realize when you offered me poison that my life is one with your own. Except for my knowledge that God is present in my stomach, as in every atom of creation, the lime would have killed me. Now that you know the divine meaning of boomerang, never again play tricks on anyone.” The well-purged sinner, healed by Trailanga’s words, slunk feebly away.
Yogananda goes on to say: The reversal of pain was not due to any volition of the master, but came about through unerring application of the law of justice which upholds creation’s farthest swinging orb. Men of God-realization like Trailanga allow the divine law to operate instantaneously; they have banished forever all thwarting crosscurrents of ego.
Not by reason alone, but by Self-realization, are the ins and outs of destiny fully understood. Their web, though tied forever to the post of ego-motivation, is too intricate to be perceived as a single thread. Only great masters can see it with clarity. It is visible to them in all its workings – not from within the tangle, but from above, in superconsciousness.
As Sri Krishna said in the fourth Chapter of the Bhagavad Gita: “He who beholds inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among men; he is one with the Spirit; he has attained the true goal of action (perfect freedom).”
Thus, through holy Scripture, God has spoken to mankind.
