Questioner: Do Karmas exist? And how to they affect our destiny?
Sadhguru: Let’s understand this. Karma means action. So when you say karma, you’re referring to action. There are four type of acts, four types of actions that you’re performing right now, as you sit here. Your body is doing something, physical action. Your mind is doing something, mental action. Your emotions are doing something, emotional action. Your energies are doing something, energy action. These four dimensions of activity are happening every moment of your life. Both in wakefulness and sleep, it’s happening.
There are four types of actions that you’re performing right now
Since today morning, since the time you woke up – I will excuse you for the times when you were sleeping – from the time you woke up till this moment, how much of this, what percentage of these four actions are you conscious of? That’s a question. How much percentage do you believe you’re conscious of, from morning to now, these four types of actions? Well below 1%, isn’t it? So 99+ of your karma, your action is unconscious.
Suppose, unconsciously I am taking something and throwing like this [throwing up randomly], all over. And this keeps coming and falling on my head. I think it’s being dropped from heaven, because I’m unconscious that I am throwing all these things. When 99% of your actions, or over 99% of your actions, are unconscious, you always think something is being done to you, isn’t it?
Why forever people have been talking about being conscious is just this – if you raise it to 2%, suddenly it looks like your destiny is in your hands. If you have mastery over your physical body, 15 – 20% of your life and destiny will be in your hands. If you have mastery over your mind, 50 – 60% of your life and destiny is in your hands. If you have mastery over your life energies, 100% of life and destiny is in your hands.
If you have mastery over your physical body, 15 – 20% of your life and destiny will be in your hands
Now your intelligence, or your mind structure finds expression in many ways. I know in English language, if you say mind – one word – it’s supposed to cover everything. In the yogic way of looking at things, we look at human mind as 16 parts. Right now, I won’t go into the 16. We will make it into 4 segments. The 4 segments are called – Buddhi, Ahankara, Manas and Chitta.
Buddhi means the intellect. Intellect is a sharp knife. The sharper it is, the better it is. So, the way of the intellect is, it has to dissect everything to know anything. This is the nature of the intellect. Because our modern education has become fully intellect oriented, other dimensions of intelligence have been completely ignored, by the so called education today. Everything is by intellect! What this really means is – if I really want to know you well, I have to dissect you. Yes! This is the only way intellect can know something.
If you have mastery over your mind, 50 – 60% of your life and destiny is in your hands
See, if you give this beautiful flower to a scientist – what he will do is, he will rip it apart into many pieces and tell you many things about this flower. Only thing is, he will not experience the flower, the way it is, for what it is. He does not know what a Bee knows. But he knows many other things, because this is the nature of the intellect. If you really love somebody, you must dissect them – you get me! I’m telling you, that is the way we are going right now. Our entire education system, our cultures are becoming intellectual. When it becomes intellectual, whatever is given to you, helplessly you will dissect it.
This is why people are having such problems with human relationships, because if you dissect and look at anybody, nobody seems ok, including yourself. Yes! If you include them, if you embrace them, you may know some beauty about who they are. But, if you dissect them, everybody is ugly. Yes or no?
If you have mastery over your life energies, 100% of life and destiny is in your hands
So, the next dimension is called Ahankara. Ahankara means, it’s your identity. I know, it’s largely interpreted as ‘ego’. No – it is your identity. Whatever identity you have taken, your intellect will do everything to protect that identity, always. If you strongly think – I am a man – it will try to protect your masculine gender. If you say – I am a woman – it will try to protect your feminine gender. If you say – I am an Indian – it will protect that. If you say – I am an African – it will protect that. Whatever identity you take, your intellect will always try to protect that. It works around that. Whatever kind of identity you take, it is a certain type of prejudice. No…no – I am very broad minded. Alright, you have a broad prejudice. But, it is a prejudice. The moment you are identified with something, you can not help it. Because your intellect functions around it.
The next dimension of the intelligence is called Manas. Manas means – it’s a huge silo of memory. There are 8 forms of memory.
There are 8 forms of memory
Let me not go into all that, but it is clear, there is evolutionary memory. That is, see – if you eat a Mango, it goes inside and become a male body. If a cow eats a Mango, it goes inside the cow, and becomes the cow’s body. This is because there is a certain type of evolutionary memory in you. If this memory was not strong, suddenly you eat a Mango, and you could become a Monkey one day! Such a thing never happened, ever, to any creature. Because the evolutionary memory is so strong, and there. It will never wavered for a moment. You may think many things in your mind. But the evolutionary memory never wavered for a moment in your life, isn’t it? No matter, even if you ate dog food, you did not become a dog. Yes!
The next is a genetic memory. Now when we say memory, we always think it is here [brain]. No – every cell in your body carries a trillion times more memory than your brain is capable of. Do you remember how your great great great great great grandfather looked like? You don’t. But his nose is sitting on your face. It is. Million years ago, how your forefathers were, your body still remembers, isn’t it? You are living in Africa now, it never got confused! Even the tone of the skin, it did not get confused. It is continuing. If you live here a million years more, it will still continue remembering how it was, isn’t it? There is a genetic memory.
If the memory, and the intellect get delinked, then intellect is no use
So, there is conscious memory, subconscious memory, unconscious memory – many layers of memory. But there is a silo of memory. If the memory, and the intellect get delinked, then intellect is no use. Your intellect looks smart only because it’s continuously fuelled by the memory that you carry. So, today being smart means, you know what – when you go to the next dinner party, you know what you do, this is what everybody is doing these days – they’ll open up the internet. Do you understand, they’ll google it out, and see galaxy Z65. Some detail about galaxy Z65! Nobody knows whether it really exists or not. Some detail about it – like what is the distance, what is the million light years is it. And in the dinner party, just casually throw it out! You know galaxy Z65… Yes, people are looking smart like this only, everyday.
So, without memory, your intellect is no use. That is why we are trying to ramp up our memory all the time. Because without memory you look stupid in front of other people. But there is another dimension of intelligence, called Chitta, which is unsullied by memory. There is no iota of memory in it. It’s pure intelligence.
There is another dimension of intelligence, called Chitta, which is unsullied by memory. It’s pure intelligence.
Now, what is memory means is – all your boundaries are set by your memory, please understand this. You say – this is my country, how? You have fixed your memory like this. You say – this is my body. This body has a structure and a framework only because of the memory it carries, isn’t it? Yes or no? You understand what I’m saying? Right now, it’s taking this human form – whatever food we put in, it’s taking this human form, because it has a certain type of memory. Never it’s going to become like an elephant. You can try it, but… People try, but it doesn’t work. Because, there is a proper structure or boundary of memory.
Your ideas of every kind of boundary is only fixed by the memory that you carry. But there is an intelligence within you, where there is no memory. If you touch that dimension of intelligence, then this longing to expand will disappear in you. Because you found unbridled access to the cosmos. In yoga, the yogis have a mischievous way of expressing this. They say – if you touch your chitta, then Gods will become your slaves. This is a mischievous way of saying it.
