Predestination, Karma, and Sweet Songs.

The sixth in the archive series of 2003 from the Satyananda Tapovanam Ashram in Bangalore, India. Conversation and discourse from Swami Nishchalananda. These sessions are edited to get the essence of Swamiji’s replies to questions, or impromptu discourses. An extra treat awaits us in this session as a lady, clearly well versed in classical Indian singing, is there to entrance us at the end of the session with three beautiful songs.

Are our lives pre-destined? Swamiji offers a reasoned opinion on this subject using arguments such as abilities in young children outside of genetic determination. But he acknowledges that the subject is very complex; we seem to have choice in day to day matters, on a personality level, but on a larger scale there can seem to be destiny, karma, call it what you will. And this standpoint is actually quite liberating, because it frees one from ‘what if’; the doubt of having made wrong choices when in reality you cannot do anything about choices you made in the past.

in India the ideas of Karma and Samskara have been around for ages past. But in the modern era are we living in a much more ego driven world perhaps? Even to the extent that modern society is driven by the individual’s need to satisfy the ego

Certainly in India the ideas of Karma and Samskara have been around for ages past. But in the modern era are we living in a much more ego driven world perhaps? Even to the extent that modern society is driven by the individual’s need to satisfy the ego. But this can give rise to doubts and emotional turmoil. There’s no doubt that life in the present moment goes along with living a little more outside of the personality and accepting what life brings us moment by moment. Living totally in the personality, the ego self, is without doubt extremely limiting compared with the freedom that recognition of life outside the personality, as in the practice of Yoga, brings.

A question about death promps Swamiji to question whether the very fact of death bring an imperative to look more deeply at what is life? He refers to the story of Ramana Maharshi who had a near death experience when he was young and was ‘forced’ to realise that part of him which was deathless.

At the end, a musical treat. This editor knows nothing about the lady who sings three beautiful songs, one a poem by Kabir. If anyone reading this was there and knows who the singer was, there is a place for comments at the bottom of this post.

Please enjoy…..