A Million Thoughts: Learn All About Meditation from a Himalayan Mystic

The word karma here is meant to signify action and not destiny. Imagine a spinning wheel painted with bright spectral hues. Since it is spinning its face appears illusory white. In reality, there is no white colour on the wheel. It’s the momentum, speed at which it’s spinning that’s creating the illusion of white when the reality is far more vivid and colourful. Similarly, mind is always moving. Like the spinning wheel, it creates an illusion of reality of the material world. It makes the world look like a permanent place. However, that is not so.

In knowing your true nature, the one independent and cleared of all conditioning, your mind must acquire certain stillness. To attain that stillness and examine the nature of mind, its movement must cease. It must stop spinning. It is only after such cessation that you can see the real colours. With an ever moving mind, we remain oblivious to the impact of our actions. Every action leaves behind a residual trail. Whatever we do with speech, actions or words, leave an imprint on our mind and in our lives. This realization, however, comes to a still mind, a mindful mind. A sprinter running a race has no time to sit down and see what others are doing. He’s too busy getting to the finish line. Similarly, a mind engaged in reckless pursuits has no time to reflect on its own actions.

Action, further is of three types and each one leaves behind an imprint based on its type. Physical actions may produce tangible residue whereas verbal and mental karma create psychic imprints.

The residue of karma may fade over a period of time (sometimes lifetimes) but it doesn’t completely get destroyed unless you consciously work on erasing the imprint. Our actions don’t condition us, their residue does. How? Let me walk you through with an example while elaborating on the three types of karma.

Physical Karma – Tangible Residue

All physical actions requiring touch are physical karma. Physical karma leaves behind physical residue. Let us say you have an apple. You peel and deseed it to enjoy better taste. You eat the apple leaving the skin and seeds behind. Your action of eating the fruit has resulted in the residue of apple skin and seeds. You dispose of the uneaten parts. A cow comes and gladly accepts that as its food. The residue you left behind has now impacted someone else you may not even know. That apple you consumed is now in your body. It is processed by your digestive system. Two sets of residues are formed. The one that gets absorbed in your body is now traveling in your veins by way of blood and the unabsorbed portion (read: residue) is let out of your physical system by way of urine and faeces. Further, bacteria and other microorganisms may feed on such excreta.

Your physical karma of eating an apple has left an imprint on you and other lifeforms. The residue from the apple that is in your blood directly affects your physical health. The residue eaten by the cow has a bearing on its health and on the quality of milk it produces. The excrements from your body have an impact on microorganic life forms as well as the environment.

Now imagine seven billion humans on the planet doing that. Further, envision billions of other living creatures in the equation. The physical world is a residue of the collective karma. It is the residue that matters. Your physical karma has a telling impact on you and your immediate surroundings. Plus, it has an impact on the whole world. It is for this reason that the path of meditation requires a degree of self-discipline and restraint. No matter how miniscule an action, eventually it will impact everyone in the world.

Verbal Karma – Psychic Imprint

An instruction, statement, question, or anything else you utter is verbal karma. All verbal karma leave behind psychic residue. Words uttered by you have a great impact on your mind and consciousness as well as on the mind of those at the receiving end. A conditioned mind is supported and driven by psychic imprints. It is relatively easy to clean up physical residue but psychic residue takes much greater effort.

Let us go back to the example of the apple. Assume you are a person of fine taste and you are eating an apple. The apple is delicious, fresh and crunchy with perfect sweetness. You remark about its taste and how you have never had such an amazing apple. A few weeks later you may not recall the taste of the apple but you are likely to remember what you had said at the time of consumption. In fact, anytime anyone else is going to make a similar remark about other fruits, it may remind you of that apple. And here is the interesting point: had you not uttered anything while eating that apple, it would be much easier for you to forget about the apple. Why? Because you left no psychic imprint beyond the taste and sight of the fruit.

Mental Karma – Emotional Imprint