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Karma as the Source of Diversity

The Vedas recognize divine karma (the action of God) as the source of all creation, preservation and destruction. However, since God performs them without desires, unlike human beings he is not bound by them. From the first chapter of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.6.1) we learn that karma is one of the triple causes of diversity, the other two being name and form. The diversity in names arises from speech, and the diversity in forms comes from the eye, whereas the (mind and) body is the sources for the diversity in actions. For all actions, the body is the source, the controller, or the lord. Within the body, the mind, the speech, breath, the organs of action, and the organs of perception are considered the main deities who receive their share of food from the body and perform their actions. However, we cannot fully rely upon them to fight the impurities and the evil that can infest our body, since they are all vulnerable to evil and demonic actions, thoughts, desires, temptations, a
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How is one to acquire knowledge? How is one to attain liberation? And how is one to reach dispassion?

If we are seeking liberation, avoid the objects of the senses like poison and cultivate tolerance, sincerity, compassion, contentment, and truthfulness as the antidote. We do not consist of any of the elements -- earth, water, fire, air, or even ether. To be liberated, we should know ourself as consisting of consciousness, the witness of these. If we will remain resting in consciousness, seeing ourself as distinct from the body, then even now we will become happy, peaceful and free from bonds. Righteousness and unrighteousness, pleasure and pain are purely of the mind and are no concern of ours. We are neither the doer nor the reaper of the consequences, so we are always free. 

We are the one witness of everything and are always completely free. The cause of our bondage is that we see the witness as something other than this. Burn down the forest of ignorance with the fire of the understanding that "I am the one pure awareness," and be happy and free from distress. That in which all this appears is imagined like the snake in a rope; that joy, supreme joy, and awareness is what we are, so be happy. If one thinks of oneself as free, one is free, and if one thinks of oneself as bound, one is bound. Here this saying is true, "Thinking makes it so". Our real nature is as the one perfect, free, and actionless consciousness, the all-pervading witness -- unattached to anything, desireless and at peace. It is from illusion that we seem to be involved in samsara. 

Meditate on ourself as motionless awareness, free from any dualism, giving up the mistaken idea that we are just a derivative consciousness or anything external or internal. We have long been trapped in the snare of identification with the body. Sever it with the knife of knowledge that "I am awareness," and be happy. We are really unbound and actionless, self-illuminating and spotless already. The cause of our bondage is that we are still resorting to stilling the mind. All of this is really filled by us and strung out in ourselves, for what we consist of is pure awareness. Just as a mirror exists everywhere both within and apart from its reflected images, so the Brahman exists everywhere within and apart from this body. 


Recognise that the apparent is unreal, while the unmanifest is abiding.


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