Is there a way to modify your course of karmic cycle? The answer is yes. God is so kind that at every moment you are given the rarest of rare opportunity to choose—whether to react or respond, whether to say something offending or just ignore, whether to be positive or negative. Every moment you are getting the luxury of choice, and your future course of life is shaped based on the choice that you make.
If you are disturbed by the other and you react, then the karma falls into the deep reservoir of samskaras. You are accumulating again for future lives. But if you don’t react, then the past karma is fulfilled. You must have insulted this man in some past life—now he has insulted you, the account is closed, finished. A man who is aware will feel happy that at least this part is finished, now he has become free. There is no balance left.
Once it happened, somebody came and insulted Buddha. Buddha remained quiet, he listened attentively, and then he said, “Thank you.” The man was puzzled. He said, “Have you gone mad? I am insulting you, I am hurting you, and you simply say thank you?” Buddha said, “Yes, because I was waiting for you. I had insulted you in the past and I was waiting. Unless you had come, I would not be totally free. Now you are the last man. My accounts are closed. Thank you for coming. You may not have come in this life, and then I would have had to wait for you. I don’t say anything anymore because enough is enough. I don’t want to create another chain.”
This is what a man of awareness does—he never reacts, because he is perfectly aware that with every reaction he is getting lost in an unending cycle of repetitive karma. A man of awareness is perfectly aware that the way out of this repetitive cycle of karma is through not reacting but through deep understanding.
Understanding cannot be studied. Nobody can teach it to you. You have to be a light unto yourself. You have to seek and search within your own being. You have to learn how to dive within yourself—not in the scriptures, but within your own existence. The more you look within, the more is the depth of your understanding.
Weak people react quickly because there is simply no depth of understanding. Somebody is late and you react: “Why are you late?” Only a man of awareness will not react. He will simply respond by saying, “Don’t worry, I understand. Next time please be on time.”
Lovers are mad in love, but if one has to wait a little longer, immediately the reaction is: “Why are you late? How can you be so late?” True love is born out of understanding. Buddha says, true love is understanding. The ego is not, and the ego exists as long as the mind exists. The mind can never understand; it only knows how to react, how to quarrel. The more you follow your mind, the more shallow your understanding. The more you follow your heart, the deeper your understanding.
The heart has its own reasons which the mind cannot understand. The heart is higher and deeper than the mind, beyond the reach of it. It looks foolish. Love always looks foolish because love is not utilitarian. The mind is purposive, end-oriented—it turns everything into a means. But love cannot be turned into a means. That is the problem. Love in itself is a goal.
A deeply meditative man never reacts. Then the daily karma does not fall into the reservoir, it does not add to it. In fact, the reservoir is less than it was. Your transits of planets will become less and less effective as you become less and less reactive. And you will become less and less reactive when you become more and more meditative. It is all connected. And at the root is just one simple thing: to know yourself, to realize yourself.
But who wants to listen? People want fancy answers and fancy ideas, something that will stimulate their mind. So they continue to run everywhere. That is what the mind does—the mind is always wandering.
The reality is: you are not the mind. Sri Ramana Maharshi says, the nature of the mind is to wander. You are not the mind, but your ignorance makes you believe that you are the mind. And then you become the mind. And then begins the cycle of your unending miseries.
Mind makes everything complicated. That is how you ask questions—otherwise questions wouldn’t arise. The mind continues to give birth to many questions. But for the heart, everything is simple. It simply takes the world as it is. A man of heart is not acceptable to society. He is too simple, almost a simpleton. He may not have many followers, he may not have much support, he may not have many friends. And yet all the beautiful things open themselves to him because he has centered himself in his being.
Once you are rooted in your own center, nothing from outside can move you. You can overcome the effects of transits and Mahadasha only if you are centered within, only if you are turning inwards, and only if you are becoming more and more meditative.
Astrology is not to create fear within you. Astrology is not to make you a robot who follows the stars and planets. Astrology is not to limit you, not to block you, but to make you realize the vastness of this human life—the depth and value of this human life.
Time is less, life is short. Instead of wasting this precious human life in seeking pleasures and satisfying unending desires, how beautiful it will be if we all spend some quality time to discover our true self. Then there will be a song to it, a dance. Then life will be no more the same. Then life will be no more a problem but an adventure.
Let us fall in love with ourselves. Let us rejoice in the name of the Lord. Let us all become more and more meditative. Start with meditation and things will go on growing in you: silence, serenity, blissfulness, and sensitivity. And whatever comes out of meditation, try to bring it out in life. Share it, because everything shared grows fast. Just as the river flows, your Mahadasha flows. And you have to be aware, conscious as you flow through—because at every stage of your Mahadasha, it is the depth of your awareness, your consciousness, that enables you to realize the many wonderful insights of this human life.
The key to your growth is in the depth of your awareness, your consciousness. Although you appear in earthly form, your essence is pure consciousness. You are the fearless guardian of divine light. So come, return to the root of your own soul.
Whatever watches the mind is not the mind. It is greater than the mind. It is awareness—and this is your true self. You can start with awareness. Then awareness takes you away from the mind, and the identification with the mind drops naturally. The body starts relaxing; you are no longer attached.
Tensions cannot exist in the light of awareness. When you come with an inner light, you move fully alert. Each step is taken in awareness—the walking, the coming, the sitting, everything is done in full awareness. Then tell me, can tension ever exist in your life?
Your tension of transits, or Mahadasha, or anything under the sky, is because of your ignorance. Come to the light of consciousness, move towards the sky, and become more and more aware. Meditate.
Jai Shree Ganesha. Jai Guru
