How to be Free from Karma

Paramhansa Yogananda taught that “The drama of life has for its lesson the fact that it is simply THAT: a drama!”

We don’t know where we came from or where we will go when we no longer have a human body. We don’t know where the universe came from, or why.

Both scientists and metaphysicians tell us that this world is a world of pairs, of opposites and that the contrast between the opposites is a necessary fact of the universe’s ability not only to exist but to be perceived as existing.

In the theory of creation beginning with a “big” bang, no scientist can say what preceded the BIG BANG. (Never mind, “why?”)

Scientists also speculate, or rather, calculate, that some 96% of the universe’s energy and matter is invisible.

Therefore, it seems to some of us that the most “real” aspect of the universe is, well, invisible. What is seen and measurable, then, consists of opposites (whether in visible form or energy or whether in thought and emotions) which seem to come out of, and then return to, invisibility.

It would not be difficult to speculate with some confidence that this “invisible” realm or force is the nucleus around which matter, and energy rotate and have their source and their final end.

Returning to the subject of “How to be free from karma” we cannot escape the implication that there is a “who” in the equation that seeks to be free from karma. Is this “who,” the invisible self of the ego: the doer of action? The maker of karma? Is there here, too, an “Invisible Man?” This invisible “force” seems all pervading whether localized or cosmically.

And we must of course ask: what is karma? Karma is action and includes the consequences of action. Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This “law of motion” is the physical equivalent of the metaphysical law of karma. What applies to objects applies to the invisible world of emotions and thoughts.

Going back to the list of existential unknowns listed at the beginning of this article, we can now ask “Who is the doer of action? The maker of karma?”

For in this question lies the secret to becoming free of karma. So long as there exists the thought of an “I” that “does” things, that “wants” results, or that “fears” consequences, then the vortex of that singular force is tied by necessity to those actions (whether physical, mental or emotional).

According to our analysis thus far, there is an invisible source or force from which all things emerge and to which all things return. Since we have no idea of our own origins or destination, ought we not to consider the probability that we are a part of that invisible force?

Herein, then, lies the secret to becoming free of karma: transfer our self-identity to the larger force out of which all opposites arise.  

Let us now re-frame this conversation in more traditional forms. God is the creator of all things. God cannot be seen. God is a Spirit and thus invisible. God has taken visible form in manifesting the creation. But in taking form God also hides his true (because invisible) Self. God thus is not only the essence of creation but the Doer of all things.

But is God responsible for ignorance, error, suffering and evil? In a sense, yes, but true to duality, no. God’s manifestation in creation requires a deception; a trick; a magic show. That magic show is the contrast of opposites which gives the appearance of an independent reality and substance separate from God.

As God made the choice to manifest so the magically appearing objects of creation are endowed with God’s intention to manifest. This outflowing force (from Spirit) thus takes on the appearance of separate realities, both visible (matter) and invisible (energy and consciousness). To perpetuate the magic show, the original divine intention and intelligence remains within the essence or heart of each appearing “object” (visible or invisible). Each “object” necessarily has its duel: its opposite.

As the Book of Genesis declares that God found the creation “good,” the endowed consciousness of seemingly separate things also delights in the creation and seeks to perpetuate it. This outflowing conscious intention becomes increasingly distant from its Source (not in time or space but in intention). As dark is the absence of light, so evil is the absence of good while good is God in the dualistic nature of God’s creation. In relative terms, good and evil are opposite but good reflects the light of pure Spirit more clearly. Pure Spirit is by nature transcendental: meaning above BOTH good and evil. Thus, virtue can take us towards pure Spirit even if, like Moses who could not enter the Promised Land, virtue—as virtue—is not pure Spirit, or God-ness, itself.

This outward flowing and creative force seeks, then, to perpetuate the creation and to find in the creation its own justification and destiny. This outward flowing consciousness is called maya in Sanskrit and Satan in the Bible. It is intelligent, energetic, and creative but it is also consciously committed to self-perpetuation, to independence, and to affirming its existential and permanent separateness not only from the rest of creation but from the Creator. As it moves outward, it increasingly takes on demonic intentions and forms, so twisted and absent of redeeming virtue as to be almost unrecognizable. But nothing can ever truly be other than a manifestation of God.

There is, however, another power or force: the inward call of the soul to return to the Creator. Attraction and repulsion, you see, are the two fundamental forces we find in creation: from the microcosmic to the macrocosmic. The “dice” of creation are loaded because nothing exists that doesn’t contain at its heart the bliss and love of the Creator from which the impulse to create came. That bliss and love can be distorted beyond recognition but it still exists nonetheless. The seed of our memory of perfection can be resurrected only by contact with more evolved beings.

Indeed, there can be no redemption without such contact because the centrifugal power of separateness is otherwise self-perpetuating as described above. Ultimately the need for this contact is the basis for the role of a savior, a redeemer or true guru.

When, in religion, we pray to God and the saints, and worship God, we are turning our attention to Spirit. The reality that “tat twam asi” (that we are THAT Spirit too) must await its own awakening. Like virtue, we must start somewhere, and since our starting point is the illusion that we are separate it is helpful, and, indeed necessary, that we turn our attention to a more elevated form of Being.

By our love for God, we go beyond thought and enter the invisible transit-tunnel of stillness, coming out the other side into pure Spirit: the source of creation. This is meditation; this is self-forgetfulness; this is pure egoless action; this is the secret to becoming free from karma!

To eschew the sense of doership and transfer that sense to the Doer of all action (God), we gradually free ourselves from karma. We don’t free ourselves from the consequences of past actions but when those ripen into their consequences there’s “no one home” to receive them. No one, that is, who reacts and takes personally those consequences. We have surrendered (using courage, will power, wisdom and the flow of divine grace) to the invisible God who lies both at the heart of every atom and yet, at the same, time beyond all karma, all creation, all consequences.

Seek then to associate with those whose consciousness is filled with divine love and wisdom and prepare yourself for the “coming of the Lord” for when the disciple is ready, the guru appears!

Is that a wow, or what?