Treasures of the Past

This new addition to our existing bulletin is aimed at audience other than children, especially those who are interested in understanding our philosophical thoughts as propounded by Scriptures. This shall serve as a discussion forum and topics dealt can be analysed corroborated by the readers and they can interact with the editorial board through email. The interpretations given in the bulletin are personal in nature and in no way interfere with traditional views and stand points held by celebrated authors and commentators.

This serves as a disclaimer too.

We shall take up the relevance Karma and its utility in the light of contemplation on God.

Karma as dealt in our scriptures is a very exhaustive term encompassing both physical as well as mental planes. The work done by both faculties of men are included in the scope of this term. For the purpose of analysis of this term in its totality, the scriptures through the Dharma sastras elaborated various tools or yardsticks to be used. They are Varnasrama Dharmas, (Divisions of populace based on their occupation) Nithya and Naimitika Karmas meaning (daily duties and special duties).

While arriving at these divisions the scriptures took ample care not to belittle any one by mere social status, or birth. They carefully defined the basic objective of the exercise and also the scope of it. Only thereafter they embarked on the actual division.

What was the objective?

The objective is to bring about an order in the process of carrying out the mission of God! Let us look at this in an elaborate manner.

What is the mission of God?

Before we begin to unravel this, we need to understand on thing clearly. That is the concept of God itself. God is all encompassing all pervading entity endowed with immense potentialities that are beyond the scope of physical organs and perception of human intellect in its present capacity that is limited by forms and names.

This creation, in the above perspective is the product of the potentiality that He possesses. Here again we are likely to go wrong by excluding aspects of creation that are dealt in the scriptures in detail but are not explained or supported by the modern science due its inherent limitations of lack of tools to verify them. They mostly belong to the domains of mental planes and beyond!

Men of our age have been able to analyse the “How” of Creation but not the “Why” this is the logical limiting factor beyond which science has so far been largely unsuccessful.

There is an entity within every human being that oversees and directs its activities and makes use of the instruments of its own creation for a definite purpose. In this process the same entity also follows a self-imposed law pertaining to the domain of its operation namely physical, mental etc. Thus the whole exercise is an exiting process of self-discovery with innumerable possibilities that are truly self-sustaining and perpetuating.

Now a question arises that is If the mission is self-discovery then why this concept of works and its resultant effects? It could have been simply the direct involvement of the Supreme Being without much of the complexity that we now come across. True!

But the whole exercise would have been too mechanical and monotonous and will fall short of the capabilities of the Supreme Being with immense potentialities!

Only here the concept of Maya comes in. This is also an aspect of the potentialities that we mentioned earlier. What is Maya? To understand this concept we have to adopt a step-by-step approach to this universal creation and while doing so not exclude phenomena that are beyond the scope of modern science and intellectual perception. We should approach with a totally open mind and should not impose any restrictions that are product of human creation through thought and action.

First step is to understand the meaning of this term. Maya is simply that puzzles and that defy logic! The building block of this is the sense of separate identity in relation to the creation around. The most intriguing question is how independent are we really? If we can successfully answer this question then a lot of unexplained aspects will be clearer to us. But in reality we fail to answer this question in entirety.

More to follow in the next issue…….