Of the Self…& prarabdha karma
As I stood on the balcony of my second floor apartment looking at the open field that separates us from a very large technology park, I saw a few butterflies flitting in their characteristic way over some wild bushes. The word that came to my mind, looking at this scene, was ‘carefree.’ Well, I don’t know if butterflies worry and if they did, how. It did seem that that they had just given themselves to nature and lived their lives according to that nature’s diktats. We would say in our scriptural language that their ‘prarabdha’ was taking care of their needs. (Prarabdha is that portion of karma already done that is now fructifying.)
There have been many instances of people pouring their hearts out in sorrow to Sages like Ramana Maharshi only to be asked the question: ‘For whom is the sorrow? Who is it that has prarabdha karma?’ The elders always point out that we have the free will to pursue our sadhana. Our currrent destiny is nothing but past free-will. We typically speak of fate & free will only when we face unfavorable & choiceless circumstances. When things are hunky dory, we don’t philosophise, do we? Like a friend recently pointed out: When we are happy we listen to the music. When we are sad we try and listen to the lyrics! In other words, we speak of prarabdha mostly when we are faced with difficult circumstances – as if prarabdha denotes only difficulties! I remember a verse from Vivekachudamani that goes like this:
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prArabdhaM puShyati vapuriti nishchitya nishchalaH
dhairyamAlambya yatnena svAdhyAsApanayaM kuru |
Be unswerving & brave in the firm conviction that prarabdha karma will sustain the body; and with effort try and remove your super impositions.
Once a Saint told a villager, ‘Don’t worry. Your prarabdha will sustain your body.’ The villager did not believe it and wanted to put the statement to test. He said, ‘I will stop eating. If I am to get food, let it fall into my mouth.’ Knowing he will get into arguments with his wife, he went to a nearby forest and climbed a tree and sat there. Sometime later, a group of people came by after attending a marriage function. They stopped right below his tree and opened their sumptuous packed food from the wedding feast and started to eat. At that time they heard some noises and suspected that they were about to be attacked by forest bandits or animals. Leaving everything, they ran away helter skelter.
A few minutes later a group of bandits came by. They were thrilled to see a feast laid out on the ground in front of them. As they sat and were about to start eating, one of them said, ‘Wait! This could be a trick by the King. Maybe he has poisoned this food. Or added some herbs to make us swoon and then capture us. We need to test it before we eat it.’ The others agreed.
Our little villager hiding on top of the tree was watching all this. He then happpened to sneeze exactly at that time making the bandits look up. They concluded that he must the king’s spy and pulled him down. And then they force fed the struggling villager to ensure that the food was not poisoned! The more the villager struggled – he wanted to overcome his prarabdha! – the more convinced the bandits became that he was indeed a spy of the king. And they forced food down his throat!
Well, if it is prarabdha to eat…or not…that will happen. There is the famous incident of Ramana Maharshi writing in response to His mother’s pleas to return with her to Madurai ‘What is to happen will happen, no mattter how hard we try to stop it. What is not to happen will not happen no mattter how much effort we put in. The best thing therefore is to remain silent.’
If a nail has been hammered using a 10 pound sledge hammer and 10 strokes, one cannot use less pressure and a lesser number of tugs at the nail head and hope for it to come out. Thats physics. In the same way prarabdha is overcome by putting in extra effort to counter the action that caused a particular fruit of action or experience. Alternatively prarabdha is overcome by accepting the what-is – as it is – without worrying and lamenting. When choiceless situations occur in life, we lament in our helplessness. However, if we boldly take it as it is, the event’s hold on us is lost and we remain unaffected. Perhaps that is what the Maharashi meant when he said, ‘The best thing therefore is to be silent.’ Either way prarabdha is overcome.
There is a verse in Vivekachudamani where the revered Acharya, while talking about sadhana chatushtaya sampattih, explains titikShA, forbearance as:
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sahanaM sarvadukhAnAmapratIkArapUrvakam
chintAvilAparahitaM sA titikShA nigadyate |
The ability to endure all sorrows & sufferings without struggling to remedy the situation, without anxiety or lament is said to be titikShA or forbearance.
For at the end of the day, to go against prarabdha, effort is required. But to be my own Self, what needs to be done? The Scriptures and the Guru keep pointing out that I am already the Self. It is not a new state to be acquired. And moreover, there is no sense of doership in the Self. When there is no sense of doership, how can the sense of enjoyership come in it? My teacher’s teacher used insist that he memorise the following verse from the Acharya’s Brahma Sutra Bashyam:
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Contrary to the earlier belief that I have doership & enjoyership, in all the three periods of time I am the Supreme Brahman that is devoid of doership & enjoyership. I was not a karta (a person acting) or a bhokta (a person enjoying) then, I am not that even now and I will not be that in the future as well. The knower of Brahman understands thus.
In my humble opinion when the Maharshi says, ‘Be silent without worrying about the prarabdha’ he is referring to the fact that the person with the assumed worry is already the Supreme Self. When one abides as the Self, where is karma & its effects?
Even Acharya Shankara in the verse right after the “prArabdhaM puShyati…” verse quoted at the top of this article says,
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nAhaM jIvaH paraM brahmetyetadvyAvRRittipUrvakam
vAsanAvegataH prAptasvAdhyAsApanayaM kuru |
Preceded by the destruction (of the jiva) as ‘I am not the jiva but the supreme Brahman,’ remove your wrong super impositions brought about by the force of the vasanas.
The message that comes constantly is: Abide as the Self. That is what you are. Already. Then for whom is the prarabdha? And who worries about it?
Karta (actor), boktha (enjoyer), karma (action), and its effects…are all mere appearances in me, the Self.
