Let’s understand the relation between Prakriti, Maya and the law of Karma, based on the explanation provided by Gnani, the Enlightened One!
Prakriti is the Result of the Karmas Created because of Maya.
In reality, we are a Pure Soul. The Pure Soul is a non-doer.
•But because of Maya, we believe, ‘I am John (please insert your name here); I am the doer.’
•According to the law of karma, the moment one claims to be the doer, karma gets charged.
•And as a result of these charged karmas, Prakriti comes into existence.
“Prakriti is like a top (a spinning toy). Each and every human being in this world is like a TOP.”
- Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan
Have you seen a ‘Top’?
It is a toy that spins on its tip when the string wound around it is pulled; and it continues to spin around until all its energy gets dissipated.
In this example,
•Prakriti is the spinning toy. It continues to spin around until all the charged karma for one life get finished.
•The winding of the string is called bhaav purushaarth (the cause karma), and thereafter, when the string is pulled away, the spinning of the top is called prarabdh (the effect karma or result). There is absolute precision in the winding and there is also a precision in the unwinding as the entire process is governed by the laws of karma.
•The illusion that, ‘I am a top and I am spinning’ – this ignorance of the Self is called Maya.
Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says,
“The (illusion of) doer-ship of the Soul has arisen due to the ignorance of the Self (maya). Because of this, the antahkaran (mind, intellect, chit, and ego) has been formed and so has the Prakriti... This Prakriti seems to be alive, but it is not alive in reality. Whatever interactions or the disturbances that people may get into, that too do not have life in it. There is only a wrong belief that “I did it.” All this happens in the presence of a Soul. There is only presence (of the Soul). Who is responsible in this?
What is the mistake in this? ‘Someone else’ is doing it, yet one says that “I am doing it”; that is the mistake. If this mistake is corrected, then solution can be achieved.”
Other than the Soul, everything else that we consider to be our self falls under Prakriti
Prakriti is the visible form created by the continuous instillation of the false attribution that ‘I am John.’ Anger-pride-deceit-greed, attachment-abhorrence, worry, tension, jealousy, me, mine are all attributes of the Prakriti. The attributes of the five senses are all attributes of the Prakriti.
Maya is ignorance of the Self
Maya means illusion. Maya is the power that veils and obscures the true nature of the Self. It is the illusion on account of which that which is not real (but is relative) appears as real. So, Maya implies ignorance of one’s real Self. This ignorance leaves as soon as one acquires real knowledge of the Self (Gnan). Because we have no knowledge of who runs the world, we believe ourselves to be the doer. That is maya and thereby we get trapped in it.
Karma is a substance with charge
Karmas are charged atoms (cause) that are carried forward in a subtle form as karmic seeds from the past life to the next life, where it gives the fruit and gets discharged (effect). The seeds of karmas are sown in the past life and the seeds give their fruits in this life. While experiencing the karmas, through attachment and hatred in turn, new seeds of karma are created that mature in the next life and have to be suffered.
The process of charging of new karma, accumulating, ripening and giving the fruits of karma is all governed by the laws of karma.
•You believe, “I am doing this,” so you become the ‘doer’. The planning (through bhaav purushaarth) occurs in this way. This becomes the cause or charging of new karma. Thus, you yourself are the planner. The only place for ‘doership’ is in this intent (bhaav) during the planning stage, but this fact is unknown to the whole world.
•The law of karma then shall bring forth the effect of this ‘planning’ in the next life. The discharge in the present life is the result of causes created in the past life. All that materializes in front of us in this life is a result of planning in the past life through bhaav (deep inner intent).
•Nothing in this life is under one’s control. The control lies in ‘other hands’. Once the ‘planning’ is done, it leaves the hands of the ‘planner’ and falls under the control of ‘other hands.’ These ‘other hands’ (Scientific Circumstantial Evidence) play their part in bringing forth the effects. Therefore, the effects may be different from the planning. The unfolding of the effects is entirely in ‘other hands.’ This is a very subtle point.
Thus, the karmas exist because the belief of doership exists in us. As ‘John’, when we say and believe, “I did this, I did that…” we become the doer. This belief becomes a support for karma. When one stops being the doer, the karma has no basis or support, so it falls away.
Once we come into the nature of the Self (the Soul whose nature is to only see and know without any attachment or abhorrence), no new karma will bind. This happens when the Gnani Purush makes us aware of our Pure Self - this is called Self-Realization!!! After that, new karmas do not bind and old karmas continue to discharge. When all the karmas have discharged, we attain final liberation.
Sharing His own experience with us, Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan explains,
“When someone insults me, I know that he is insulting Ambalal Patel. He insults this body complex. He cannot understand or recognize the Self. I, the Pure Self remain the Knower and the Seer of the event. I am Vitarag (Absolutely Detached). I do not have any attachment-abhorrence towards him or towards anything in this world. Final liberation is at hand for me.
The message of the Vitarags is that it is not the karmas that obstruct our liberation; it is our ignorance. Ignorance of what? The ignorance of the Self. As long as there is a body, karmas will continue to happen, but when ignorance is gone, the binding of new karma stops.”
To know more: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/the-scie...
Ambalal M. Patel was a civil contractor by profession. In June 1958, spontaneous Self-Realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. From this point on, Ambalal became a Gnani Purush, and the Lord that manifest within him became known as Dada Bhagwan. A Gnani Purush is One who has realized the Self and is able help others do the same. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan used to go from town to town and country-to-country to give satsang (spiritual discourse) and impart the knowledge of the Self, as well as knowledge of harmonious worldly interactions to everyone who came to meet him. This spiritual science, known as Akram Vignan, is the step-less path to Self-realization.