UNDERSTANDING OUR OWN POSITION - Part 02/02

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UNDERSTANDING OUR OWN POSITION - Part 02/02

 

 

We are all agents of The Divine. None is superfluous, each having an assigned

role. Our performance determines our spiritual progress.

 

We have acquired some knowledge of the gigantic enterprise, which is this

universe and the way it is managed.

 

Who dictates it? God of course. How does He run it? By well-defined and clear

principles of nature to which every constituent is subjugated and which is

applied without fear or favour to one and all.

 

With whom does He run it? Through the pre-ordained efforts of each and every

created being. Neither you me or her, not even the tiniest ant nor the big

banyan tree is here by accident and without purpose. Each being is created and

exists with the sole purpose of carrying out the Lords work exactly in the

manner He wants it. What is to be done, how it is to be done, when it is to be

done and who is to do it, all these have been set and planned with detailed

flawlessness exactly as in an organizational environment our corporate plans and

procedures are planned and executed. This pre-ordained plan is the obvious

outcome of divine and unchangeable set of rules and procedures based on cause

and effect, which we have come to understand as natural laws.

 

We are all agents that carry out this plan just as employees carry out their

assigned tasks. The important thing to remember is that not one living being,

not a single human on this surface of earth is insignificant or superfluous to

Him. No one comes to life by accident or exists without a purpose. In this

gigantic whole, even the roles of tiny 'you' and 'me' are well chalked out.

 

And He depends upon each of us. Each has an assigned role. Each one is different

from the other but at the same time complementing and supplementing some body

elses efforts. It is a matter of great good fortune that the Lord has chosen and

reposited faith in every single one of us to carry out his task. As a Chief

Executive of any organization would carefully select an employee and entrust the

responsibility to him or her, so does the Lord with unerring correctness.

 

As in any organization for a position of a marketing manager we have a marketing

manager for a cooks position we have a cook engaged, and so on, in the same

manner each of us in this great cosmic organization is holding a position. Each

of us has an assigned role to play, a mandate, while carrying out the Lords

work.

 

The position that we are entrusted with, is carefully chosen matching with our

ability and competence. No one can substitute for the other or make any one

redundant. After we have completed our job or failed in our task another job in

another form and under different environments awaits us.

 

Why does some one appear to be doing his job in this world better than the other

is? Why is some one apparently more useful to the world than the other?

 

This is also exactly like what happens in life. Some one performs his task in

the organization with merit and delivers better results than someone else does.

Somebody may be a senior manager and another a junior assistant. As we explain

away this by the individual competence, education, intelligence etc. so also in

the cosmic design and human life, a persons position and performance are

dependent on how well he has prepared himself. It depends on how well he is

equipped with intellectual and spiritual competence by his conduct in his

previous lives.

 

How is this competence and experience carried forward by us?

 

The Sanatana philosophy of Punarjanma or rebirth explains this. Each birth is a

stage in our overall developmental process. From life to life as we pass along

the results of our actions good or bad follow us like the balance sheet of our

conduct.

 

The records of our action are accumulated and saved for future reference. They

are called sancita karma or saved actions.

 

When a person takes a rebirth, he or she finds himself in a new set of

environments. The entire sancita karma which has been accumulated over different

lives and under many different circumstances, may not have direct relevance to

this new environment. Therefore that portion of sancita karma which has

relevance becomes operative and is known as prarabdha karma.

 

The Prarabdha Karma relates to past. But while we start leading our lives in the

present life form, we also do various actions dictated by our nature. We do good

deeds and also bad deeds.

 

What we do in the present life form with our own volition is known as Kriyamana

Karma. These get added up with the PrArabdha Karma and a new balance sheet is

written. Good deeds counteract bad deeds and the net balance is again our

sancita karma for the next life.

 

Any persons Sancita Karma or the carried forward results of the past life,

determines in what form and under what circumstances he or she takes rebirth and

what slot he or she finds himself in. The Prarabdha Karma or that portion of the

Sanchita Karma that relates to the present particular life form along with his

KriyamAna Karma or his own conduct in the present life together determines how

well he performs.

 

Does this not happen in our working life too? As in any organization we carry

with us the experience of the past job, the acquired skills and acumen as we

move from position to position. In the same manner we perform also in this great

cosmic organization. Fruits of our own actions our Karmaphala follows us from

life to life. If the past lives have been ill spent, it shows up in the work

that we carry out in the present life unless we conscientiously improve

ourselves. And in the same manner if good work in our past lives has conditioned

us to a higher mental development then that shows up in our work too.

 

In an organization as an aspiring employee continues to perform well with the

hope of getting a promotion so also the soul by dint of good conduct prepares

for a better life ahead. That is why the SanAtan Hindu Dharma popularly known as

Hindu religion-which considers religion as a way of life, stresses so much on

good conduct a righteous living or adherence to Dharmamarga or the path of

religion.

 

As a matter of fact all religions to the imperativeness of leading a

life of righteousness. Only Hindus relate this to a higher development of soul

a preparation for climbing higher and higher-a question of continuous individual

development.