Mohini Chatterji on Karma – Sowing and Reaping 3

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.

Dally not with the enchantress Error and her tire-women, the Passions, who, with loosened girdles and disordered garments, watch the narrow path of Truth, which they cannot cross. The seed was sown in the past, and now the harvest time has come; the hand that scattered the seed must also reap the harvest. The sap that gives bloom to the soul requires for its life both perfect knowledge and perfect love. A sin against love is a sin against knowledge. Listen thou who wert so wise in thy own conceit, a soul plunged in sin and sorrow, though ignorance may call it another and not thyself, is truly and really but a fragment of thee; in ignorance thou holdest fast to the other fragment and callest the whole, thyself. There is no self but one, though a myriad forms reflect its rays. Shun evil but not the evil-doer. Love imperfection for the sake of the perfection that struggles for life through it. Seek to conquer ignorance by knowledge and not by ignorance, with its numberless forms of unlove and ungood. Every denial of sympathy forces the soul to experience that manifestation of life to which sympathy is denied. Sympathy is the super-added life of the soul, it is the vicarious fulfilment of the law. Remember the narrative in the Book of Karma and read the legend inscribed on thy heart by the finger of the stern goddess. It is only by obedience that karma is conquered.

“Know thy soul to be thyself, and from that serene height contemplate the workings of what in thee belongs to the earth, until the earth takes back her own. Be but the witness thyself, and let thy nature fight. Let not karma master you, but be above it. Lose not thyself in action; live in the inner peace. May passion and attachment never grow in thee ! In the midst of trials and Suffering forget not that ignorance alone is pain, and knowledge is the supreme bliss. The hour has come. Go forth to thy work. May the blessings of all the holy men rest upon thy head, my son !” (Ch. 5, The Theosophist, Vol. 7, 645-646)

All mankind formed the object of the divine love in Jesus, and the love of his individual soul was given to all who did the will of his Father. The ideal of marriage in Manu contains the ideal of soul-love. The soul, as manifested in physical life, is a pilgrim following the path of the law. The life of the soul is in the law, and its love is attachment to the law. One embodied soul can love another only to the extent that it finds the law embodied in the other. For this reason Manu looks upon the following of the law as the first requisite in a marriage, and the perpetuation of the race occupies but a very unimportant position in his eyes. The Sanskrit word for wife, Sahadharmini, as you know, really means (a female com­panion on the path of the law. Such a marriage or union, it is obvious, does not die with the body, but re-appears whenever the soul re-appears in incarnation and exists in heaven between incar­nations. Many instances are to be found in which the Hindu sage entered into the married state without the least desire for offspring. You know the celebrated case of Yagnavalka, the sage legislator, and his two wives. These soul marriages were most frequently no marriage at all, as we understand it. (Ch. 8, The Theosophist, Vol. 7, 715)

They say the blood of the heart wash­es the wings of the soul, and makes them grow strong enough to soar to the empyrean of heaven in some future birth.

The sages say no one can read and compre­hend the Book of Karma, unless he is free from Karma himself— unless each individual thought, act and aspiration vibrate in unison with the All and not self. (Ch. 9, The Theosophist, Vol. 7, 779)

The growth of the soul must be like the growth of the flower. It must bend before it can bloom.  (Ch. 9, 784)

Sowing and Reaping 1

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

Mohini Chatterji on Karma – Sowing and Reaping 1

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.

The teaching is hard to understand, Master,” I said to my venerated Brahmin preceptor. " If desire for an object forges a fresh link in the chain of material bondage in which the soul is held, it is obvious that, as no action can take place otherwise than in consequence of desire of some sort—some want demanding fulfillment the student of the Spiritual Science would have to become a St. Simon Stylites.[1] Where, then, is there room for the performance of duty?” 

“It is true, my son,” replied the Master, “there is a cessation of action for the liberated soul, whether embodied or disembodied, but forcible repression of activity is not the rest of the beatified soul. Truth cannot be obtained by pretence. It does not avail to shut your eyes and say you are liberated if you are really not so. Constant repetition of the name of medicine does not cure disease, says Sankara.[2] It is not for you to say “ I shall be inactive,” but when your soul awakes there will be no action for you. That rest which is emancipation is as independent of your will as is the sensation of heat when fire is near. You can approach the fire or go away from it according to choice, but you cannot help being affected by the heat when you are near its source. If you are hot you are not cooled by merely saying that you are cool. Again, a determination to be inactive, on the face of it shows that the unity of being, the Supreme Spirit, has not been realized. There is no determination necessary to bring into existence that which already exists.”

“But, master, deign to explain how Buddha worked on for forty years after his liberation.” 

"Ah my son, it is a great mystery which you will not comprehend. I believe you are now satisfied that the root of false faith and doubt is not intellectual but moral deficiency. So long as there is the slightest trace of personal desire in you the Law of Karma will govern your evolution, you will enjoy the fruit of the good that you do, and suffer for your evil acts. When spiritual knowledge extinguishes all personal desire and removes the individual from the operation of Karma, then only can the purified soul comprehend the nature of those who are liberated while in the flesh. Those who have attained this condition of freedom from Karma are alone entitled to admission into our Brotherhood.” "

“But how does one get beyond Karma ?”

“As I have said, by a natural elimination of all personal desire.” 

“Then, on the instant I renounce my personality, renounce all self-seated, desire, Master, then bid me follow you to the home of rest and leave this world of passion behind.” 

“ Ah, my son,” said the Brahman ascetic smiling, “ you can no more renounce your personality in that way than you can renounce the colour of your skin. Cessation of karma comes only from the excess of good karma. Remember what is said in the Bhagavad Gita :—It is better to perish in the performance of one’s own duty; the performance of another’s duty is attended with danger.[3] Seek not to leave the life that is yours till it drops from you of itself. The vow that you were taking has really to be taken in silence by your soul when it is temporarily freed from your body. Practice the seven virtues, rectitude, gentleness, modesty, devotion to truth, patience, sympathy and right knowledge, and if your soul attain s the required purity, you will find me ready to receive you this day twelvemonth. But it is right that you should not be kept in ignorance’ of what ensues when the mysterious vow is taken. You will cease to acquire new karma, but the old karma will have to exhaust itself. The wheel will continue to move even after the potter’s hand has ceased to turn it. The causes, previously generated by you, which in the ordinary course of nature would take a number of incarnations to work themselves off, will be crowded into a very short space of time, and your whole being will suffer a convulsion from which nothing will save you but unselfishness and determination of will. Think of this and beware while there yet is time. But if this day twelve-month finds you as resolute as you are now, you shall have permission to try your footsteps on the path that leads to the higher life. But I give you the warning, the path is rugged and steep. I have no right to interfere with the birth right liberties of a human being; you can but obey your karma, the behests of your soul in other incarnations, the ancestors of the present. Now, farewell. Remember this day twelve-month.”

The Theosophist, May, 1886. v. 7, no. 80, pp. 517-18

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[1] Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite (c. 390? – 459) was a Syriac ascetic saint who achieved notability for living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo (in modern Syria).

[2] Adi Shankaracharya (733–746 CE) was an Indian philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. He is credited with unifying and establishing the main currents of thought in Hinduism. See Vivekachudaman, verse 62.

[3] Bhagavad Gita, 18, 47

Part 2