Karma probably one of the most misunderstood words. For sure, it’s become part of the English lexicon today, but misunderstood and misinterpreted in a million different ways. A range of things… the very way… the nature of karma is, just like that its interpretations – the karmic structure is a very complex mess.
But there is a… there are very… what to say… very descriptive stories in the Indian culture about the type of jewellery the courtesans used to wear. That is, very famous courtesans were covered in gold and diamonds. No clothes, only jewellery covered their body. Such complex jewellery that when the men who came to them, they had no clue how to take off this jewellery because it was such a complex web of chains. Try as hard as they did, but they cannot get this jewellery off.
Jewellery is beautiful but for a man, whose mind is running riot with lust, this is a barrier. So, usually, she encourages him to drink and drink, little more and little more, so that he sleeps and gifts her more jewellery and goes home. But when she wants to take it off, there is just one pin, normally located at where our anahata is. This one pin if she pulls, the entire jewelry falls down in one shh – just like that, it falls down.
To dismantle it [karma] skilfully, that just the karmic aspect falls off and you exist as a liberated being, that takes lots of skill
Karma is like this. It’s a complex web of chains. Some of them of course, decorated with diamonds, some are ugly, some are rusted chains, but chains and chains and chains. But there is just one single pin. Only because you are not able to consciously find that pin, the fundamental reason… let me tell you, the fundamental reason why there is a culture or there is a tradition of depending upon a Guru for one’s spiritual growth is just this, that you want him to pull the plug when the time is ripe. Because in this complex web of chains, you don’t know where the pin is. Right now, if you try to find it, you can go on a search forever and not find it. And if you find it, just in case, if you find it, you will dismantle it in such a way that you’ll dismantle your very life.
To dismantle it skilfully, that just the karmic aspect falls off and you exist as a liberated being, that takes lots of skill. It is for that skill that you come to a Guru. It is your karma that you have to endure me. If you had figured it out yourself, you didn’t have to bother about me.
So, Sadhguru, when are you going to pull my plug?” That means you’re not ready yet. If you are in a state, where you think your karma is a burden and you must get rid of it, you’re not yet ready for it. If you come to a state, where you have learned how to transform every memory – conscious and unconscious, pleasant and unpleasant, beautiful and horrendous ones, everything into well-being, if you come to that state, then it’ll be good for me to pull the pin. Now if you pull the pin… because this is not liberation, this is an escape.
There is difference between walking out of this body and committing suicide. They’re two different things altogether. Committing suicide means you want to escape a difficult situation. Walking out of this means your term is over, your time is up, so they have released you. These are two different things, completely. If you escape from the prison, you will have to run for the rest of your life. But if you’re freed from the prison because your term is up, then you’re a free man. That’s a big difference.
