The Law of Karma—2

Sri Swami Sivananda

CIVILISATION

What is civilisation? Are we really civilised today? When you suffer from asthma, heart disease or diabetes, doctors give you all kinds of injections. Do you really call this civilisation?

Listen to the songs sung in Constantinople, in Paris or at the beach at Triplicane, Chennai. Is this what you call civilisation?

The germs of phthisis and pyorrhoea are spread by motor-cars, railways and mineral-water shops. Millions of people live in insanitary conditions in lanes and gullies. Life has become so entirely dependent that freedom is unknown.

When the power fails, there is no light in the house. There is no water in the tap when you want it urgently. Blood pressure was not much heard of some decades ago. Now many thousands suffer from this terrible malady.

THE PANORAMA OF CITY LIFE

The dust raised by running motor-cars and lorries on the roads and streets enters the eyes, nose, lungs, and trachea and gives rise to various diseases of the eyes, lungs and stomach. This is due to modern civilisation. Man wants money and money alone. He dies for wealth. He does not want religion. He says: "I want not only bread but bread with butter and jam." To eat this buttered bread he has to swallow the dust of the roads and inhale the smoke of the factories. He finally spends all his earnings in the treatment of pyorrhoea, blood pressure and phthisis.

People take their food at 7am and immediately run to catch the first train to attend office. There is no respite. The stomach and intestines are violently shaken. Dyspepsia and a host of stomach troubles result. There is tension all the time. This is due to modern civilisation.

Hotels have become centres of illusory play. You can have all kinds of comforts here— television, air-conditioning, telephone, etc. There is dancing and band music during meals. There are all kinds of materials to excite your senses to their climax, to make you forget God and Truth completely. There are beauty competitions among the males and females. A rich man presides while the males vote for the most beautiful woman, and the females vote for the most handsome man. They are awarded prizes also. The woman who gets the first prize is invited to dinners by rich men. She ultimately gets ruined. This is modern civilisation.

A retired engineer says: "In my lifetime I have had thirty cars. "A rich doctor says:"I have a dozen servants in my house. I live a luxurious life." A barrister says: "I have several bungalows in different places. I cannot take my meals without sweet milk pudding and other delicious dishes. I get my fruit from Kashmir." A fashionable judge says: "I have fifty suits and a hundred shirts."

But nobody says: "I have studied the Bible, Koran or Gita several times. I do regular repetition of the Lord's Name. I fast every Sunday and spend five hours in meditation; I practise breath control for two hours and Yoga postures for one hour daily." This is modern civilisation.

To use spectacles at the age of ten, to wear a ring or watch, to buy a motor-car by borrowing money, to wear a fashionable dinner-suit, to have a French crop or bobbed hair, to smoke cigarettes and cigars, to constrict the neck with stiff collars, to take food at tables with spoons, forks and knives, to walk along the beach with one's wife, to have the newspaper in the pocket, to have a trimmed moustache, to take meat and brandy, to play bridge, to gamble, to dance in ballrooms, to borrow money, view TV, to visit cinemas—in short, to lead a life of dissipation—this is what we call modern civilisation.

FASHION & PASSION

People are crazy after fashion and have become its slave. If there is a slight error in the cutting of a gown or uniform, lawsuits for damages are filed in courts of law in London and Paris against tailors. You see these multifarious fashions daily in the evening, consisting of semi-nudity. They call it scientific, hygienic ventilation of the exposed parts. Half the chest, half the arms, half the legs must be exposed. This is fashion. They have full control of their hair-styles. They can cut and dress it in any way they like in a hair-dressing salon. Fashion increases and excites passion.

The whole world can be clothed out of the cuttings of vain and fashionable men and women. An enormous amount of money is wasted on fashion. If this money could be utilised in virtuous actions, in charity, and in the service of society, man will be soon transmuted into Divinity. He will enjoy eternal bliss and peace.

On the contrary, what do you see now in fashionable people? Restlessness, depression, fear, worry, anxiety and pallor of the face. They may be dressed in silken gowns or dinner-suits in up-to-date fashion, with stiff collars, ties and bows, but you see only misery and ugliness on their faces. The canker of worry, greed, passion and hatred has eaten to the core of their hearts.

Why do ladies and gents wear fashionable garments? Because they wish to appear important in the eyes of others. They think that they will earn respect and honour by putting on fashionable dress. The wife wishes to appear beautiful in the eyes of her husband, and to attract him. The husband puts on fashionable clothes to attract his wife. The sisters of ill-fame wish to attract more customers by wearing fashionable dress. This is all delusion. Can fashionable dress give real beauty? This is all artificial decoration—false, temporary, glittering beauty. It is decaying beauty. If you possess virtues such as mercy, love, sympathy and forbearance, you will be really respected and honoured. This will give everlasting beauty even though one is clad in rags. How simple Gandhiji was in his dress, having a loin-cloth only. How simple was Ramana Maharishi.

BANEFUL EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL LIVING

Life has become very artificial and there is physical, mental and moral degeneration. You do not find robust, sinewy, stalwart, healthy people. Longevity is now unknown and people are short-lived. You see puny, stunted creatures with poor physique, dilapidated frame and sickly appearance. They cannot walk even a furlong and want a taxi or bus. Children beget children and people are dying like moths. They have become weaklings, effeminate and impotent. How strong and healthy our forefathers were! At the age of seventy they could swim across a big river during floods. They could chop wood and carry heavy weights. They were strong and sinewy, living on simple fare. Even now, look at the labourers of Maharashtra and Gurkha, and the energy they have. They live on ordinary bread, salt and two chillies. Look at the tremendous work turned out by them! See their health and marvellous strength.

Today everyone wants Ovaltine, vitamin extracts, Allenbury rusks and oatmeal. The wife wants an exclusive servant and a cook. The husband wants a servant to put on his shoes for him. The child wants a nursemaid.

Science has given us many comforts. Electricity does all sorts of work. It pumps water, lifts us to the top storey of a building, cooks our food and also carries us to London and Paris. Science has made our travel and communication easy and quick. There are some advantages but the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. It has made living very costly and luxurious. Man is more restless now. He has no peace of mind.

Every man or woman wants a pocket radio, cellphone, wrist-watch, car and TV. The standard of living has become extremely high. Clerks and officers don't hesitate to tell lies and accept bribes to make ends meet. The cinema and fashion-world are devouring all their earnings.

Gratification of the senses has become the main goal of life. Intelligent people devise intelligent methods to take bribes and earn money by various dishonest means. There is corruption all over. Honesty and candour have disappeared. Cheating, untruth, double-dealing and crookedness have taken possession of all. These are the products of our modern luxurious ways of life, the results of technology, scientific inventions and Western civilisation.

A doctor, even if he has to starve, must maintain a car, otherwise he cannot find clients. His wife wants silk sarees, face powder, lipstick and perfume. Seats have to be reserved at cinemas. How to get money? He has to tap the poor by filling bottles with water and coloured tinctures and charging heavily. Mercy, sympathy and honesty have fled from his heart.

In this age of so-called modern civilisation, greed, passion and selfishness are increasing day by day, nay, hour by hour. Man has lost his manliness. The son drags his father to court for division of property. The wife divorces her husband and marries another if he happens to be wealthier and younger. The younger brother poisons his elder brother to obtain possession of the estate. You see cunningness, cruelty and dishonesty everywhere. No one wishes to keep his promise. The father has no faith in his son, the wife in her husband, and the husband in his wife.

LIFE DIVORCED FROM GOD & RELIGION

This is the Atomic Age. Righteous conduct has become decrepit. People act according to their own whims and fancies. There is no check. Every man is his own teacher and does not care for any religious instructions. Passion sways all. Discrimination, right thinking and right enquiry have taken to their heels.

Eating, drinking and procreation are now the goal of life. Freedom has become a non-entity and a visionary dream. Evil habits of every kind have arisen at all places.

A friend greets another not with the Names of God—Jai Sri Krishna or Jai Sri Ramji—but with a packet of cigarettes and a peg of whisky. He says: "Come along Mr Naidu, have a smoke. Have a drink."

MONEY—THE MODERN GOD

Money is doubtless necessary for man; but it is not the goal of life. One should not worship mammon. The dollar cannot give peace and bliss. There are buildings in America that are a hundred and twenty-three storeys high. Every room is fully air-conditioned and has up-to-date electric equipment.

But tell me, brother, who is superior—he who lives in a hundred and twenty-three storeyed building in America, with aeroplanes and cars, with a lot of money, with cares, worries and anxieties, with blood pressure and other diseases, having a small, constricted heart saturated with ignorance and its modifications, such as lust, greed and wrath, or he who lives in a small grass hut on the banks of the Ganges, without money, without cares, worries and anxieties, but with perfect health, with a large heart filled with peace?

What is wanted is a spacious, large, loving heart with high sublime thinking. You may live in a small thatched cottage, it does not matter at all.

Once an Englishman, a military officer of Meerut, came to me. He was much attracted by the quiet and calm atmosphere of Ananda Kutir. I told him that he could have the same quietitude in some of the silent corners of England, in some parts of the hills there. He said: "No, there are aeroplanes ever flying about overhead. Quietitude is unknown in England."

A SCENE OF CHAOS & BEWILDERMENT

You yourself have made your life complex and intricate. You have entangled yourself in the quagmire of birth and death. You have multiplied your wants and desires and are daily forging an extra link in the chain of bondage.

Simplicity of life has now vanished and luxurious habits and ways of living are embraced. There is unemployment and people are dying of starvation. There is depression in trade. Everywhere there is unrest. There is looting and killing. Divorces are increasing. One nation is afraid of another, suspecting that the other is preparing for war. There is bewilderment, confusion and chaos everywhere. Modern life has become very insecure. It has become quite boisterous and stormy, and full of under-currents, mixed currents and dangerous cross currents.

THE WAY OF ESCAPE

Now then, is there no escape from these troubles and trials? There is only one way. Lead a life of dispassion, self-control, purity, selfless service and cosmic love. Develop the habit of taking the right point of view, of right thinking, right feeling and right action, with the right mental attitude. Develop devotion and practise meditation. Attend Satsangs and prayer meetings.

To move in a Rolls Royce is not real civilisation. To live in skyscrapers and to fly in helicopters is not civilisation. To be loving, honest, humble, pious and merciful is true civilisation. To be endowed with purity, devotion and wisdom is civilisation.

We will have to get back to nature and natural way of living. We will have to practise simple living and high thinking. We will have to live the spiritual life and seek God. This alone will bestow upon us everlasting peace and happiness.

Lead a life of simplicity. Wear simple clothing, walk to work whenever possible, give up visiting cinemas and reading novels, eat simple food, lead a hard, laborious life, be self-reliant. Do not engage many servants. Reduce your wants. Control the sense-organs and the mind. Develop noble qualities. Have recourse to the company of the wise. Remember God. Sing His Name. Feel His Presence. Speak the truth. Learn to discriminate. Learn how to lead a detached life. Learn how to lead a divine life while remaining in the world. Serve society with the feeling that all are your own Soul. Then the whole question is effectively solved. You have regained your Godhead. You have once more regained your lost heritage. All miseries will come to an end. You will have success in every walk of life and in every undertaking. Keep this master-key with you and open the chambers of bliss.

EVIL COMPANY

What is the state of your mind when you attend a ball or dance party, or when you read the Mysteries of the Court of London? What is the state of your mind when you attend the prayer meeting of Jayendrapuri Swami at Benares on the banks of the holy Ganges, or when you study the soul-elevating scriptures?

Compare and contrast your mental state now. Remember, my dear friend, that there is nothing so utterly ruinous to the soul as evil company. One should not even associate with those who indulge in talks about sex, luxurious ways of living and gambling. The mind gets excited in such company and begins to imitate others. Desires crop up and attachments make their appearance.

Immoral songs produce a very bad and deep impression in the mind. Aspirants should shun the company of those who indulge in such vicious songs.

Obscene pictures, vulgar words and novels that deal with sex excite passion and produce ignoble, mean, undesirable sentiments in the heart. On the contrary, the sight of a good picture of Lord Krishna, Lord Rama or Lord Jesus, and listening to the sublime devotional songs of Surdas, Tulsidas and Tyagaraja induce pure, noble sentiments, and produce tears of joy and love. They elevate the mind to a higher state of consciousness quickly. Do you see the difference now? Discriminate and become wise.

The future destiny of the world rests on the lap of the teachers and students. If the teachers train their students in the right direction, on the path of righteousness and truth, the world will be filled with good citizens, saints and holy men, who will radiate peace, light and bliss everywhere.

O teachers and professors, wake up now! Train the students on the path of Brahmacharya, truth, righteousness and morality. Do not neglect this divine work. You are morally responsible for this onerous task. This is your spiritual practice. You can have the realisation of the Almighty Lord if you take up this work in right earnest. Be sincere. Open your eyes now and perform your duty.

THE SMOKING HABIT

One who smokes is unfit for the practice of selfless service. His mind becomes dull when he cannot get a smoke. He cannot work properly without his cigarettes. He wastes money that can be very well utilised in the service of the poor and needy. A selfless worker should be strictly free from the evil habit of smoking.

Smoking is an evil habit. Smokers bring a little bit of medical opinion and philosophy in support of their principles. They assert: "Smoking keeps our bowels free. We get a good motion in the morning. It is very exhilarating to the lungs, brain and heart. When we sit for meditation after a smoke, we meditate better. Why should we give it up?" Very sound philosophy indeed! They bring in ingenious arguments to support their evil habit. They are unable to get rid of this evil habit. They are heavy smokers and can finish a packet of cigarettes within a few hours.

The habit of smoking starts from early boyhood. A small boy stealthily removes a cigarette from his elder brother's pocket and tries his first smoke. He gets a little tickling of nerves and hence continues stealing daily. After some time he arrives at a stage when he finds it extremely hard to manage with a few cigarettes only. He then begins to steal money to get a packet independently. The father, brothers and sisters are all heavy smokers. They are the Gurus of these little boys. What a sad and deplorable state of affairs! Horrible indeed is the sight!

The parents are wholly and solely responsible for the evil conduct of their sons and daughters. Any intoxicant breeds a bad habit soon and one finds it hard to give up the habit. The power of illusion plays havoc through habits. This is the great secret of its workings. You will not get an iota of benefit from smoking. Pray, give up this foolish imagination. Money is wasted.

Smoking causes irritable heart, "tobacco heart", and diseases of the eyes. It brings about nicotine poisoning of the system. Nervous diseases and impotence develop. Short-sightedness, palpitation of the heart, irregular action of the heart, angina pectoris, gastric catarrh, inflammation of the trachea, throat troubles, muscular weakness and tremors have been traced to smoking.

The correction of any evil habit is very simple. An advocate was a terrible smoker for a period of fifteen years. With one strong, powerful will he abandoned it entirely. Feel very strongly that you should give up this evil habit at once. Think strongly of the advantages of sobriety and temperance. Then you have already attained success. Giving up a bad habit at once is better. The habit of giving it up by gradual reduction generally does not turn out to give good results.

Give up evil company and take recourse to the company of devotees and pious people. Their strong currents will overhaul your vicious habits. Prayer, meditation, repetition of the Divine Name and reading of scriptures will help in the eradication of evil habits and finally grant you the glorious vision of the all-compassionate Lord.

MEAT-EATING

Meat is not at all necessary for the keeping up of health. Meat-eating is highly deleterious to health. It brings a host of ailments like tapeworm, albuminuria and other diseases. In large meat-eating countries cancer mortality is very high.

The indiscriminate killing of animals for food is a great sin. Instead of killing egoism and the idea of "mine"-ness, ignorant people kill innocent animals under the pretext of sacrifice to the Goddess. But it is really to satisfy their tongue and palate. Horrible! Most inhuman! Ahimsa or non-injury is the greatest of all virtues. We should have reverence for life because all life is sacred. Lord Jesus says:"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

The law of Karma is inexorable, unrelenting and immutable. The pain that you inflict upon another will rebound upon you, and the happiness you radiate to another will come back to you.

Meat-eating and alcoholism are closely allied. The craving for liquor dies a natural death when meat is withdrawn. The question of birth-control becomes very difficult in the case of those who take meat. To them mind-control is impossible. Meat has a direct evil influence on the brain. The first step in spiritual advancement is the giving up of meat diet. The Divine light will not descend in one if the stomach is loaded with meat and other non-vegetarian foods.

Pythagoras, the Grecian sage, preached: "Do not kill or injure any creature." He condemned meat diet as sinful food. He said: "Beware, O mortals, of defiling your bodies with sinful food! There are cereals, there are fruits bending their branches down by their weight, and luxurious grapes on the vines. There are sweet vegetables and herbs which the flame can render mellow and palatable. Nor are you denied milk, or honey, fragrant of the aroma of the thyma flower. The bountiful earth ever offers you an abundance of pure foods and provides for meals obtainable without the need of slaughter and bloodshed."

GAMBLING

Gambling is another dreadful curse. It is a great friend of Satan. It has broken the hearts of many. It tantalises, tempts and deludes. A little gain in the beginning makes the nerves of gamblers itch and forces them to wage a large sum. Eventually, they lose everything and return home with black and weeping faces. Yet they will not leave the habit. A gambler's intellect gets clouded and blunt. His reason and discrimination fail. An enormous amount of money is wasted uselessly in gambling and drinking. No virtue will dwell in the heart of a man who gambles. Gambling is a net spread by the power of illusion to entrap bewildered souls. There is no evil greater than gambling.

O man, it is difficult to get a human birth. Perennial joy and eternal bliss are in God. Do not waste this precious life in drinking, gambling and smoking. Wake up now. Open your eyes. Have virtuous conduct. Do good actions. Sing the Lord's Name. His Divine Name is a potent antidote for all evil habits. Study religious books. Seek holy company.

Ignorant people waste their time in cards and gambling. What a horrible state of affairs! Highly deplorable! How powerful is illusion! How powerful is ignorance! People are sunk in the mire of deep darkness. They have no sense of discrimination and dispassion. Pitiable specimens of humanity! Slayers of the Soul! May the All-compassionate Lord, the Indweller of your heart, give you strength to overcome all these evil habits!

A GRAVE WARNING

When Vali usurped the kingdom of his brother, Sugriva and also abducted his wife, Lord Rama says to him: "Thou hast acted in opposition to the spiritual law. While Sugriva yet lives, thou hast had marital relations with Ruma, who is thy sister-in-law. O perverse wretch, in order to satisfy thy lust, thou hast transgressed the law of righteousness and, O Monkey, since thou hast not respected thy brother's wife, this retribution has come to thee. I see no other means of restraining him who acts contrary to the interests of his subjects and does not conform to the social code, but punishment, O King of the monkeys.
"Being a warrior of an illustrious race, I am unable to brook thy villainy. The man who makes his daughter, his sister or his sister-in-law an object of lust, is punishable by death. This is the great law. You failed to observe the law and must now suffer punishment."

EFFECTS OF PAST KARMA

Tarak, aged about 19, suffered from intense colic, which drove him unconscious. A Brahmin, touched with pity, uttered Mantras and prayed to Mother Kali to let him know why Tarak was suffering so badly.

Tarak roared in his unconsciousness: "I am a part of Mother Kali. Shall I not punish Tarak? In a past life he insulted his mother, and his mother kicked her husband, Tarak's father. Both have been condemned to suffer for seven births, Tarak from this terrible colic, and his mother to become a widow only fourteen days after marriage in each birth. They have had four births already, and three more to suffer."

"Is there no means of deliverance, Mother?" asked the kind-hearted Brahmin. The unconscious Tarak replied: "There can be no deliverance unless Tarak takes the water with which the feet of his mother are washed, and also the leaving of her food. And if his mother gives him medicine, he may be cured even in this life." On enquiring where Tarak's mother was, unconscious Tarak replied, "Gopal Sen's widow is Tarak's mother."
Tarak came to his senses, heard everything from the Brahmin and obeyed the mandate. Tarak's mother gave him a portion of a betel leaf, which Tarak wore in a bracelet. Tarak was cured straightaway.

Next year the disease returned, but Tarak was cured when his mother sprinkled water with which she had washed her feet. It was found that Tarak's bracelet had been defiled by taking water from a lady in her menses.