Introduction
Some of Robert’s talks were on a very light note. Sometimes they were both light and practical, sometimes heavy and profound, sometimes subtle. One could never tell which talk you’d find at Satsang. This was a practical talk on a very light note, on a Sunday, when his talks were addressed to a much larger and more “lay” audience. I have to admit that at the time, I thought this talk was a waste of time—except for the box.
Robert: Om , Shanti, Shanti, Om. Peace, peace. Good afternoon. I welcome you with all my heart. It is good to be with you once again. I love every one of you unconditionally.
Never judge things as they appear. Never look at the world and allow the world to tell you how things are. The world is false. There are all kinds of people living in the world, all kinds of beings, all kinds of animals, all kinds of insects, all kinds of birds.
Everything intermingles with everything else. Nothing is as it appears. By judging the world you become very frustrated and your equilibrium gets out of balance. Rather, turn within to Reality and see the truth which is within each one of us. The truth is that you are the universe. Everything in the whole universe is within you. You have given birth to the universe. If you did not exist there would be no universe as when you go to sleep at night. When you're in deep sleep the universe does not exist. You may say it exists but you don't know; it doesn't as far as you're concerned.
So it is with the Sage. It's like being asleep but awake. There is no universe yet there is a universe. What do you see when you look at the world?
Problems. Man's inhumanity to man? You're seeing what you are that's all you can ever see. Each one of us is like a mirror. A mirror can never see itself but sees it's reflection. There's only one. One is all-pervading, omnipresence, the Absolute Reality. That One is you. When you look at the world you're seeing yourself what else can you see? So if you're seeing the wrong things in this world, do not think they appear wrong or there is something wrong in the world. Look at yourself ! Ask yourself, "Why do I see these things?? Why so I feel these things? Where do these things come from?" And soon you'll discover you've been giving birth to them. It will change your mind and everything else will change.
Change your mind and change the world!
One day a man was walking through the park late at night and he heard somebody yelling at him. "Hey you! Come here!" And he looked around and he didn't see anybody. And he kept walking and the voice said, "Come here! I'm over here!" And he looked down at the rock and he saw a frog sitting on the rock. So he bent down to the frog and the frog said, "Kiss me and I'll become a beautiful maiden and do anything you want!" And he didn't say anything and the frog said, "Didn't you hear me? I said, 'Kiss me and I'll become a beautiful maiden and I'll do anything you want." So the man picked up the frog and put it in his pocket, and he proceeded to walk along. And the frog yelled, "Hey! I told you, kiss me and I'll be a maiden and I'll do anything you want!" So the man said, "Well, I'm deciding whether to turn
you into a maiden or to keep a talking frog." And so it is with us. Are we all talking frogs? What does this story have to do with anything? (Laughter) Interesting story. Remember it always I for no reason just remember it.
I receive many phone calls, as many of you are aware. This morning I received a phone call from a lady who asked me an interesting question. It was a question so interesting that I'll share it with you. I got permission from the lady first. She's here this morning so it's O.K. She asked me, "Robert, when I was younger, I lived a rich, full life. I was really a bitch. I teased people. I hated people. I did everything to get my way and I hurt a lot of people. Now my question is, can karma be abated? Is there some way I can forgive myself, expunge the karma, or does it have to come back to me? The things I have done to people, is there any way I can be free of this? Also in my past lives a psychic told me I was a rotten person in those lives too!" What to do? "Is there any hope for me?” she wanted to know.
Well, my answers are always ambiguous. I said, "Yes and no." So we'll talk about this. I asked her if I could talk about this in class. She said yes. So we'll discuss my answer. What I mean by yes and no?
No, you can't abate your karma. You cannot remove the karma that's coming to you. This is a very difficult thing to do. And yes, you can. It depends on who you are what you know, where you're coming from. There is no human being on this earth who has not gotten into problems growing up, of some sort, of some kind. There's no such thing as a perfect human being on this earth! This earth is not meant for perfect human beings. If you want to be a perfect human being, you got to go to another planet! You're on the wrong planet. There's no perfection on this planet.
I kid you not. This is not a planet of perfection; there are such planets, but this is not one of them.
So, when one realizes this, in order to abate their karma, they have to change their lifestyle totally and completely and absolutely. And not many people are willing to do this. In other words you have to do a turn-around, a complete about-face. Anything you believe has to be dropped. Every action you've ever taken has to be changed. The more you react to person, place and thing, it has to be totally changed completely and absolutely. Not just slightly but altogether. In other words, if you want to transcend the karma, become totally free and liberated, you have to look at yourself totally differently.
It's very rare that this happens. It's very rare because most people refuse to change themselves. They don't want to. They want somebody else to do it for them. They want to keep on going the way they're going. And it's true that when you come to Satsang, things begin to happen to you. But yet I am with you about twice a week, maybe about 4 or 5 hours altogether. And the rest of the week, you're on your own. What do you do when you're by yourself? What do you do when you're on your own?
What kind of life do you live? Only you know that! Do you have loving kindness in your heart for person, place and thing? Do you have peace in your heart? Or do you allow things to bother you, annoy you, make you upset, angry, mad? It is only when you calm down totally and completely, and you have peace in your heart that that a change takes place within you. And unless that change takes place within you, you're in the laws of karma.
Most of us here know the ultimate truth; karma does not exist. But what's the use for most of us to get up and say karma does not exist, when we're controlled by it? It's fine to be able to say that intellectually. There's no karma. There is no world. There is no liberation. There is no illusion. There is no God. In the ultimate sense this is true. But is it true for you? Are you living that sort of life or are you just speaking words? People learn at the talking school where you just talk... talk.... talk....talk, talk, talk on spirituality.
But are you learning to keep silent and make something happen with your life? The choice is always yours.
What difference does it matter? What difference does it make what happens to you as far as going through life? What difference does it make, whether you lose your job or you get a job, whether you have money or you're broke, whether you have health or sickness, whether you're happy or sad, whether you get what you want or you don't get what you want? There should be no differentiation in your mind. If you can learn to treat these two imposters just the same they're all imposters, human good, human bad; they are all imposters. If you learn to treat them just the same, then you'll see you'll be free. But if you keep reacting to things, all you're doing is you're accruing more karma. That's all you're doing.
Karma comes in two different sections: what you call Boomerang Karma and Parabdha Karma. Boomerang Karma is like when you step on a rake, the handle hits you in the head. That's Boomerang Karma. It comes right back to you. You step on the rake and the handle hits you in the head. It's karma like this when you do something; it comes right back.
Then there's Parabdha Karma, which is your destiny which comes to you from past lives, from things you've done when you were little. This seems to go through time and space. In other words, there seems to be a long time before you get it back.
What I'm trying to say is that most of us have no idea what karma has in store for us. We have no idea. We may believe and think things are well, that things are going right for us. Then we may step off the curb and a bus hits us and breaks our back and we become paralyzed and we're in a wheelchair the rest of our lives. We don't know! Not one of us knows what's going to happen tomorrow. But by what you do, you can tell if your karma's going to get you by the way you act, the way you think, the way you react. If you begin to understand and realize, what ever has happened to me is the result of karma, good, bad or in between, whatever situation I am now, is a result of karma. Nobody made it like this. No one's responsible for my being who I am.
This is the first truth that you have to remember. No one is responsible for your being the way you are, where you are, where you're living or whom you're living with. No one is responsible NOT EVEN YOU!
If you knew what was going on, you'd put an end to it. But unfortunately, you don't
know what's going on, so you're experiencing karma, apparently different situations different moods, different times, different days, different weeks, different situations. All kinds of things come to you.
The important thing for us to understand is that this is all karma. If you know it's all karma you realize if you react to any condition that comes to you, you're accruing more karma; that's all you're doing. Nobody wins and nobody loses in this game called life. There are no winners and no losers. You're always accruing karma, always, by the way you react to a situation. It's up to you to see this, be aware of this.
If you can see this and be aware of this, you develop loving kindness, peace. You no longer believe there's a god that dealt you a bad hand or you can't be like this one or that one. Or, " I wish I was like this person or that person." You stop thinking like this. You look at yourself, you make the best of who you are, and you work through it. But you've got to do it ! You've got to do it yourself ! This is what I mean when I say you take an about-face. You reverse everything. Never mind what anybody else is doing! What are you doing? That's what matters. For what you do determines what's going to happen to you over and over again.
So here we are. Karma's all over the place. Do you really wish to transcend karma? Do you really want to get rid of it, totally and completely? Then you must turn within and never react to the outside world again! Understand that your happiness is WITHIN YOU, not in things or people or places. Everything you're looking for is within you. That's the first principle you have to understand. All the answers are within you. The way to become free is within you. Liberation is within you. It's all within you...... you've got it all. Not outside nothing's outside. Do not pay attention to one thing in this external world. Do not take one thing seriously.
You've got the power to change anything if you would but recognize it. But as long as you keep blaming person, place or thing, as long as you keep reacting to things, then the power lies dormant within you. It's in abeyance. It will not come forth until you begin to recognize it.
Principle number two: Realize that there's a power within you and know that it transcends all the karma that you ever had and sets you free. You must call upon it, acknowledge it, for it to do anything for you. This power is beyond any earthly person, any earthly situation, and it's beyond all phenomena. This power can be called the Self the Absolute Reality. It is the Self that seems to have created karma and the way to get rid of it. The Self is the source, the source of everything imaginable.
Your duty is to merge with the Source. Your duty is to become the Source. When you are the source of karma, how can you experience karma? When you realize that you are the Atman, the Self, and you're all-pervading omnipresence, there's no time and space, then where can there be karma when there's only the Self? Do you see what I'm getting at? Only the Self exists! The Self is pure awareness, Nirvana, Satchitananda. I am that I Am. Only That exists, nothing else. There's nothing else...only That!
Now with what are you identifying, worldly situations? You're not identifying with the Self. You can't identify with both! You have to become absorbed in the Self. This is your duty! to become absorbed in the Self, totally and completely. Now do you see why very few people can overcome their karma, for most of us do not want to be absorbed in the Self. We want to go on playing games. We think that if we become absorbed in the Self, we'll become lonely, we won't have anything to do, all the fun will be gone, there will be no T.V. to watch, no music to listen to, no sex, no friends! Where are you coming from that made you believe that? That's not the Self that you've talking about, it is you, It is your idea of what liberation is.
Liberation means that you're totally and completely free, without thoughts. There are no thoughts in the Self. If there were thoughts in the Self, it wouldn't be the Self. For the Self is only one and all-pervading. When you become absorbed in the Self, it's completely different than what you ever believed. It's not explainable. But as far as you're concerned, you become totally free, happy, peaceful. There is no longer anyone to argue with or become upset over. This is the Self. You become absorbed in the Self by thinking about the Self. How else? And you stop thinking about your problems, your affairs, your mind, your karma. And you begin to think of your Self and you never acknowledge the world again!
But you remain absorbed in the Self, all the karma will disappear and you'll never have to worry about karma again. You won't even think of the word. You will no longer think about overcoming karma, transcending karma, for there is no such thing to transcend.
And it's a new stage of your life. It is only where most of us are coming from now that we have to worry about karma so to speak. But when you start diving deep within yourself and you become absorbed with the Self, that's it. You're cooked. There's nothing else you have to do. So my question to you is, what are you doing with your life every day? How do you see things every day? Do you still have to be entertained by the world? As long as the world has to entertain you and you don't get entertained by Reality, you're stuck in karma and you're accruing new karma every day.
Leave the world alone. Leave people alone, mentally. Mentally. If you mentally begin to go within then you never have to worry about the physical again, the so-called physical body will take care of itself. You'll always be happy, always. You'll have real happiness, real joy, real peace. It's not what you think it is. It's complete bliss. Bliss in itself.
Feel the peace that prevails. Feel the emptiness. Feel the love. Feel the harmony. Do not think about it; feel it. If you think about it you spoil it. Just feel it; it's here; it's everywhere.
Feel free to ask questions. I know why you won't ask questions, you're afraid of this:
(Robert presses a button on a small electronic box which caused a voice to say...."Were you always this stupid?" Laughter )
Student: What's wrong with laughing?
Robert: Nothing.
Voice from the box: "You're a schmuck !" (Laughter )
Student: More!
Voice from the Box: "Screw you and your sister too."
Student: Robert, if it isn't necessary to overcome karma, nobody objects to good karma, they object to bad karma. What I object to is my own reaction to karma, not the karma itself. So there's no need to overcome it. If I don't care about it, it doesn't matter as long as I don't react of it.
Robert: This is true of course.
Student: So there's no need to overcome it.
Robert: No, you're right. When there's no reaction, there's no karma. When you learn to be still you'll never have any karma to worry about. But when your mind is always rattling, making noises, always thinking, thinking, thinking, you accrue karma by the very thoughts. Noise is still the mind. Keep the mind quiet, quiescent. Then you don't have to worry about karma.
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