KARTA, KARMA & KRIYA

I clearly remember the day when I decided to keep the fancy pen my teacher owned. For want of a better word for ‘stole’, I am going with the other word ‘decided’. I also remember everything that followed my decision.

I guess my teacher loved her pen as much as I did. She found the pen missing from her table while she gathered her stuff to leave the class. She panicked and put all of us in the search and we missed the short break that followed the class- searching for the pen that I had.

Know what you are thinking. Sumi was a  then.

I was scared to death to admit that I took her pen  . She was very angry at this point and asked us to stop playing the prank and to return her pen. She said if the person who stole it wouldn’t submit it, then the whole class gets punished. Though the whole class witnessed the theft but they remained quiet.

The whole class was punished.

This memory pops into my head whenever I listen to Guruji speaking on Karta & Karma.

Imagine the following:

The Whole Class –   Jiva-Atman (YOU)
Sumi –  KARTA (who stole the pen/inner&outer faculties)
Stole the pen –  KRIYA (Act)
Punishment –  KARMA (that followed)

When Sumi stole the pen, Sumi should be the KARTA & BOKTHA.
Likewise The SELF or ATMAN needn’t take the ownership.

My classmates were not involved in the ACT and did not deserve the punishment. They clearly knew I was responsible yet remained silent and thereby became the part of the ACT as well as the Punishment.

Just like my classmates, in every day of our lives, WE OWN the

• THOUGHT of our MIND
• ACT of our BODY
• WORDS of our MOUTH

We know it’s the faculties in play yet we own all those by accepting and saying-I THOUGHT, I SPOKE and I GAVE. Because of that, we have to own the consequence that follows the actions of our Mouth, Body and Mind.

Next time when the Mind thinks, give credit. The same goes for the other faculties. They are there to help you and you are responsible for their actions. But you do not own their actions. Though I am responsible for the content on this blog, my hands are helping to document and hence they own the act.

Clearly, I am nowhere involved in any of the activities here, I witness the act. The mind thinks, hands write and Sumi, the body is responsible for the act. But that’s another story for another time 🙂

Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 5, Shl 8 and 9

Naiva kinchit karomeeti yukto manyeta tattwavit
pashyan shrunvan sprishan jighrann ashnan gacchan swapan shwasan // 5.8  //
Pralapan visrijan grihnan nunmishan nimishannapi
indriyaaneendriyaartheshu vartanta iti dhaarayan  // 5.9   //

The knower of the Truth, being  centered in the Self, thinks `I do nothing at all’ – though seeing, hearing,  touching, smelling, eating, going, sleeping, breathing, speaking, letting go,  seizing, opening and closing the eyes – convinced that it is the senses that  move among the sense objects.

Image credit: deposit photos