Bhagavad Gita Karmic Law Introduction
Bhagavad Gita Karmic Law describes the workings of Karma in our lives and what we do with the choices that are open to us in order to progress spiritually. Here we will discuss scriptures from both the Bhagavad Gita and the Bible to show that Karma is an integral part to both texts.
Bhagavad Gita Karmic Law Scripture Analysis
3: 33 Even a wise man acts in accordance with his own nature; beings will follow nature; what can restraint do?
There is a reason for our existence and why we act the way we do. This implies we have a certain karma which maps our path ahead in life.
All creatures act according to their nature and human beings are the same.
The animal follows its instinct. Humans have a choice, we can either follow our divine impulse through our higher nature, or our lower instincts and so we have a choice.
The bible describes it as below:
Romans 8: 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
emnity = a state or feeling of active opposition or hostility.
Our lower nature is NOT subject to the law of God. So where does guilt and sin come in ? They are something we construct, and the church badly misinterprets.
Sins can be very CULTURE dependent.
Sin = separation from the spiritual path or right side of the brain (spiritual side), our true nature or the right hand of God.
Back to the Gita verse:
3: 33….what can restraint do?
what is the point of religion ? Many act religious in a church once a week or year with nothing fundamentally changing.
Some people are loud and boisterous and some are quiet and reserved people act in accordance to their personality.
This is also saying that there is NO reason that we should change our nature. We should just connect with who we are naturally and follow our unique journey & by trying to change who we are we just set up conflicts within ourselves.
The one thing we CAN do to get away from our carnal side or lower consciousness and produce a more spiritual environment for our lives is enter into meditation. We need to plug into what has been handed down from the ancients whether in the form of meditation techniques or similar spiritual process.
3: 34 The love and hate which are aroused by the objects of sense arise from nature. Do not yield to them they only obstruct the path
Nature = your human nature and it is this that causes the obstacles to our meditation. The mind constructs many reasons not to sit down and meditate or follow a spiritual path.
love and hate = both are equally a hindrance to our meditation. Having too much fun or being angry at the world are equally responsible for keeping us away from our meditation. Both are just attachments.
Matthew 6: 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
this implies non attachment from the senses and therefore connecting with the divine inside.
Our habits can change if we begin to meditate and then we get divine instructions inside. For instance by meditation we might decide we do not want to eat meat but prior to meditation such a change would be unnatural to us. So our lives will change from the realisations which NATURALLY follow from the stillness of meditation.
In the bible Paul says:
Romans 7: 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
where shall I go to find my divinity ?
25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
mind = has to be higher mind as we have already stated above that the carnal mind does not subjugate itself to the law of God.
Christ = Christ consciousness within
flesh serves the law of sin = sin is separation from our divinity so by serving our lower nature it separates us from our divine self.
There are many examples of how the Bible is symbolic of the spiritual path of the Gita:
Revelation 21: 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
does not mean when we die we will follow a path of gold to heaven
streets of gold = pathway to God
Gold = God, rare, pure.
street = pathway, narrow is the way
so the way to God is narrow, we have to search inside for it, but once found it unfolds the pure consciousness of spirit.
crown = Qabalah = highest place of human consciousness
Gita:
3: 35 Better is one’s own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another well discharged. Better is death in one’s own duty; the duty of another is fraught with fear.
This is telling us to be true to ourselves rather following blind instructions from others.
Also we have to find our own spiritual path and not be forced to follow what others may tell us to do.
the duty of another = is an external process and then we are separated from that which is universal, the spiritual path is on the inside.
People join all sorts of extreme cults and religions which are very destructive or this process can happen in much more subtle ways.
Sometimes this ‘control’ can lead to widespread discontent e.g. the Russian & French Revolutions riots, protests
The Oracle of Delphi says ” To thine own self be true”
Arjuna = our higher self.
3: 36 But impelled by what does man commit sin, though against his wishes, O Varshneya (Krishna), constrained, as it were, by force?
compulsion = irresistible urge. Then we feel guilt through the system.
We can look back at the Bible at this point:
Romans 7: 14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
The LAW is spiritual and has nothing to do with going to church or what we eat or drink.
even though the law is spiritual we are ALL carnal.
Paul is saying what am I going to do as im only human with all these ‘faults’ and I need to find my spirituality
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
He does the things that he does not allow others to do. He is saying do what I say not what I do and admitting that he is human with all the desires that go with it.
So this verse of Romans is saying exactly the same as Arjuna when he states that “what is it that drives a man to sin even against his will”
19. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
He does the things that he shouldn’t and avoids the things he should do.
Gita Chapter 3 :37 Arjuna said; what is it that incites one to commit sinful acts even against ones will as if compelled by force. It is aversion born of passion
aversion = turning away from the path of enlightenment which makes this process so frustrating
born out of passion = passion is anger, love and desire according to the dictionary strong and barely controllable emotion.
desire consumes and corrupts everything it is a mans greatest enemy.
Psalms 10: 3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
this is saying that we always seem to desire what others have.
3: 38 As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, the living entity is similarly covered by different degrees of this lust.unless fire is put out it consumes everything
unless fire is put out it consumes everything = our passions will take up our entire life. It may not be obvious in terms of addictions but may be as subtle has never having the time for inclination to develop ones spiritual path in this lifetime.
3: 39 Thus the wise living entity’s pure consciousness becomes covered by his eternal enemy in the form of lust, which is never satisfied and which burns like fire.
it is the wise mans constant enemy and desire covers ones true nature or spirit. We do not have the stillness or development to access spiritual planes of consciousness as our attachments in the world are too strong.
3: 40 The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.
explanation as for 39.
3: 41 Therefore, O Arjuna, best of the Bharatas, in the very beginning curb this great symbol of sin [lust] by regulating the senses, and slay this destroyer of knowledge and self-realization.
meditation can help us withdraw from the influences of the 5 senses and give us the stillness to access planes of spiritual consciousness within.
Bhagavad Gita Karmic Law YouTube Links
Below is a link to a playlist by Bill Donahue on YouTube. This article was based around his talks.
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