On page 164 of Holy Mother (Swami Nikhilananda) an incident is told that brings to mind a question of karma.

The incident surrounds an untouchable who is about to be abandoned by her "paramour". Mother sent for the man and this is part of the quote, "It will be very sinful for you to reject her now: there will be no room for you even in hell."

In my Christian culture, "sin" amounts to 10 basic, flat "thou shalt Not...".s

Karma is a little more confusing. The way this incident is described, Mother did not address the issue of the couple not being married, but that is not really my question.

The only time I feel I could kill (thou shalt Not) would be to protect the lives of my children. This is built into me. I don't even know if I could kill to protect myself. Upon reading the Bhagavad Gita (not lately) the point to me was that if one could kill with a pure heart, without hatred or desire for self aggrandizement, then there would be no karma created. (I'm sure I missed the point entirely, it was very deep at the time)

Okay, personal relationships are much more confusing.
I do not want to cause pain to others, but it seems that I cannot step to the left or the right without causing pain to someone or myself.

If one's love is pure, does action create karma, even if it causes pain to others? It reminds me of the John Lennon, Yoko Ono relationship. John's ex-wife described the situation, "They did not care who they hurt". Yet it was obvious that they were deeply in love.

Mother's heart was undeniably pure. How does one stop creating karma?

Location: North Carolina

The first thing to understand is that "sin", as the word gets translated, in Hinduism is not the absolute concept that we Christians are used to. There may be rules, but not absolute rules. That is, what may be "right action" for a person in a particular circumstance might not be the right thing for another person to do in another circumstance.

The next thing to understand is that Hinduism or Vedanta, the principles on which Hinduism is based, recognized that no action will produce only good or only bad results. Manifestation or creation arises within the realm of "the pairs of opposites", ie., good/bad, dark/light/ hot/cold, pleasure/pain, gross/subtle, and so on. Just as we experience temperature, for example, along the continuum from hot to cold, so that we experience neither in absolute form, like so any result from action will fall along the good/bad continuum.

So, what are we to do? In simple terms, we are to learn to give up our concern for, or attachment to, the results of our actions. In devotional terms, we may offer and leave the results of our actions to God.

But this is only one aspect. The other aspect is the intent with which we act. The idea is not that one gets a free ticket just by offering the results to God. (If we are lucky, Vriju may tell us a story about a garden keeper. :)

Our intent is everything. What is our intent when we act? The fact is, it is impossible to be without attachments to results until we purify our intent, regardless of what we may claim. Step-by-step, we try to purify our intentions, first by consciously trying to give up all shades of selfishness and other impure motives. Ultimately we want to give up all sense of doership and realize that we are the channels or instruments through which the Divine is acting. However, as long as we feel that WE are acting -- and for the the majority of us, this will be true for a long time, probably lifetimes -- the path is one of purifying our intent and of offering the results of our actions to God.

Now, returning to the incident you describe regarding Mother . . . I can't reach my copy to look up the page, but my guess would be that the fellow was abandoning the woman for his own convenience, rather than from some higher moral insight or convenience, thereby leaving the woman in ruin. And while the relationship earned both of them a measure of not the best karma, Mother was saying that his wanting to "dump" her for his own convenience would earn him an extra dose of the bad stuff! In other words, we can't use excuses to avoid responsibility for our actions, good or bad. Sincerity and devotion to God will lessen the affects of our karma, Mother does say. This is what makes me think the fellow was neither sincere or devoted. :)

Hope this is a little bit of help. :)

Location: San Diego, California, USA

Thank you,
I am thinking along these same lines, but like the validation.
I believe you are right, that intent is everything.
Thank you sincerely for your insight and validation.

Location: North Carolina