Once upon a time there was a sage who was taking a bath in the mighty Ganga. His disciple meanwhile sat in asana (yoga posture) by the river side with the sage’s clothes and rosary.
The sage noticed a scorpion struggling in the current. Taking pity, he lifted the bedraggled scorpion in his palm and started wading towards the river side. No sooner had the scorpion recovered than it promptly stung the sage on the palm. The sage felt an unbearable, burning pain shoot up his arm, but he did not drop the scorpion. Instead, he gently shook his hand to encourage the scorpion to move away from the wound. The sage’s disciple, watching from the shore, became alarmed, but did not say anything. The sage had only taken a few more steps when the scorpion stung him again. A searing pain more intense than the first one went all the way up his arm and throbbed in his hand. The sage staggered and nearly collapsed in the river.
This time the disciple did call out. “Put him down, guruji! He will only sting you again. Leave him to his fate. Your kindness is of no value to such a creature. He will learn nothing from it!” The sage ignored him and continued walking. He had nearly reached the shore when the scorpion stung him for a third time. The pain exploded into his head, lungs, and his heart. The disciple saw a blissful smile appear on the sage’s face before he collapsed in to the river. The disciple dragged the sage to the shore, still smiling and still cradling the scorpion in his palm. As soon as they had reached shore, the scorpion crawled away as quickly as it could.
“Guruji!” said the disciple after the sage had regained consciousness. “How can you smile? That wretched creature nearly killed you.” “You are right, my son,” said the sage. “But he was only following his dharma, his nature. It is the dharma of a scorpion to sting, and it is my dharma to save its life. He is following his dharma and I am following mine. Everything is in its proper place. That is why I am so happy.”
Dharma, Karma & Kriya
Dharma is our purpose of life path. Kriya, is the effortless flow or boundless action.
And what about Karma? We all believe that karma basically means what goes around comes around. Actually this is not quite what it means. Karma is the universe’s way of sending you to the path of your dharma. It is the bounded action. When we make daily choices that are NOT in alignment with our purpose roadblocks may seem to appear. It is as if the universe puts blocks against you if you are not going towards your path to your dharma. Only we can fulfill our dharma. And when you don’t follow your true path that is when karma gets in the picture.
Dharma is you life’s purpose. Karma is what happening when you are not going the correct way towards your life’s purpose. Sometimes it takes life shaking experiences in order to realize who you truly are and get back on your path. If life is going hard then there is something that you might be doing wrong. When you are not following your dharma, things feel difficult because karma is trying to wake you up. However, when you are following your Dharma and allowing kriya to flow, positive karmic actions will appear because of your aligned action.
Kriya, means effortless flow. Is when you are following the path towards your dharma and everything happens with ease. Kriya is when life is just in flow and synchronicity surrounds you. When magical coincidences and signs are an everyday experience and things are happening to you that they cannot be explained. When you are experiencing Kriya, is when you are finally following the path of your dharma and the universe is helping you by giving you the next step to take. We are supposed to always be in flow, if we are not then something is wrong.
