Mohini Chatterji on Karma – Sowing and Reaping 2

From May to September 1886, an intriguing short story by Mohini Chatterji ran in the Theosophist, entitled Sowing and Reaping. It is a fascinating story about karma and reincarnation in the east and the west, and contains certain recondite passages involving the teachings of a spiritual guide to a student, sometimes of an esoteric nature, some extracts which will be featured in a short series of posts.

“My son,” replied the mystic “our acts and thoughts are natural forces, which, when once set in motion, must work to the last turn of the wheel of causation. If you shoot an arrow at your friend thinking him to be a robber, can you recall the shaft when the mistake is discovered? The caused you have generated will produce their appropriate effects, however much you may dislike them. The wisest thing therefore is to bear with patience and dispassion the Protean manifestation of your past karma, and carefully guard against ignorantly falling into the vortex of delusive life. Look upon your life as service done to the earth herself, and resign all selfish interest in it. This is true renunciation. Know yourself to be the infinite spirit of Nature, and your conscious life as the work of Nature herself. You are merely the spectator.  

This union with the all is the supremest happiness which rises from the ashes of sins and sorrows burnt by the fire of wisdom and universal love. So long as you are dependent on conditions your liberation is far away. For conditions will change and you will suffer. To master all conditions, so as not to oppose your scheme of personal enjoyment, is an impossibility. The supreme happiness never comes to the man, who seeks to produce a change in the infinity of conditions so as not to cause him pain.The eternal infinity cannot change, but your finite desires and tendencies can. Secure then the crown and glory of life by changing your finite self towards the infinite spirit which is the inmost self of Hugh St. Clair, now before me.”

“ Master ” I said, " your words are wise and may they rest in my heart! ’ But deign to explain the working of the causes which force me back into the world while my heart would feign fly

The venerated Brahman with a smile, whose crystalline radiance seemed to light up my soul with the silver glow of peace, repeated the Sanskrit verses—

Vaneshu doshan prabhavanti raginain.

Griheshu panchen driya migrahas tapas,

A Kutsite Karmaniya pravarté,

Nivritta rásgasya grihan tapovanam” (1)

Even in the forest,” he said resuming the conversation in English, “the passions of the passionate grow powerful. The subjugation of the five senses in the house is asceticism. For the dispassionate, who engage in blameless karma, the house is even as the forest-hermitage (translation of the Sanskrit verses). My son, to those, whose souls have by devotion to the spirit within reached the supreme tranquility, differences in the conditions of life are of no consequence. Who would cast a glance at the shape of the cup, ugly or beautiful, if it holds the ambrosia that gives immortality ? The supreme spirit is everywhere and in you, then why should you desire one thing more than another? If by devotion you can unite your soul to the inner spirit, all conditions of life will be the same to you, for your heart has reached its supreme fruition, you have but dimly seen the inner light in moments of the highest exaltation of your nature. You cannot feel that your soul is your own wherever you may be and whatever you may do. Your heart is faint and your devotion is weak.

Your karma places you in a sphere of life where alone will come to you the lesson you have to learn and the sacrifice you have to make to add wings to devotion. Look then with gratitude upon your karma which gives you exactly what you need. Murmur not that it should be so.”

“I do not complain, father,” I replied, “but I feel as if my self-identity is passing away. With all the yearnings of my soul I had looked forward to the serener life, which comes to those who have left behind the sorrows and joys of the world. This desire for me had been the last thing to die in the unconsciousness of sleep, and the first to awake with returning life of the day.

“ My son ” continued the Brahman after a pause, it is your karma to be a householder and you cannot cheat nature by seeking a shorter route to the goal. The path of the law is even as the edge of the razor. Fulfil the law. Remember the great sage Janaka was a king among men and yet one of the greatest among the wise men of the earth. This life of ours is the offspring of our prior deeds, which must produce their legitimate consequences. Do your duty cheerfully and without regard to your personality, the day of redemption will come. Your fate is no worse than that of the youth whose body lies in yonder cave temple, but whose exiled soul is fulfilling its destiny. Together you were bound in sin and together shall redemption light upon you. Enough. Mine will not be the hand to draw aside the veil from the mysterious face of karma Time will elucidate all. Take my blessings and this parting advice:- Do thy duty unselfishly and yet preserve thy personality disentangled from work. Let thy acts not forge fresh links in karmic chain, but let them pass over thee as water passes over the lotus-leaf, without wetting it. Fresh karma will lead to a continuance of material life with all its grief-embroidered joys.”

(Chapt. 5, The Theosophist, July, 1886, pp. 647-648)

(1) See Mahabharata [Sec. CXCIX, Vana Parva]

Part 3