No escape from karmas

There is no escape for man from doing actions (karmas). Wherever he is, man must take extra care to do only good actions. Fleeing to the forest is no solution, for it only gives the situation a new turn. To drive home this message, Swami narrated a funny story in a discourse on 24th October 1963.

There was a saadhaka (spiritual seeker) who was initiated into a mantra by a yogi. He wanted to meditate on the mantra undisturbed and found his house to be full of distractions. He fled to a forest, located a tree, and decided to meditate under it in comfort.

Before long, the birds roosting on the tree branches started to clamour aloud and they showered on his head their droppings. He was furious. “Have I got no place where I can commune with God in peace,” he cried. “Children at home; birds and bats in the jungle! I shall immolate myself, be born under better auspices and start my saadhana afresh,” he decided.

So, the saadhaka collected a pile of fuel and made a pyre out of it. He was about ascend it when he was interrupted by an old man. The elderly man said, “By all means, carry out your decision. But now the wind blows from here towards those huts where we live. So, please wait until the wind turns direction, for, the smell of burning human flesh does not agree with us. Or, if you are in haste, you can shift to some other place and avoid being a nuisance to us, poor folks.”

The saadhaka felt he had no freedom even to die. So, he returned home, and decided to brave it all at his own house. He understood that karma must be carried out right amid worldly life and there is no use trying to shake it off in a huff.

From the a-shaanthi—the confusions and travails of the world—one must snatch harmony and peace.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume 3, Chapter 31, 24/10/1963.