Live with Understanding Rather Than with Rules
The karma theory (theory of cause and effect) according to me has no basis. It is only a faith, a belief created by man. By creating this law, man has done a great service to society, but he has created a great conspiracy against humanity. For social well-being, this theory or law is good. For example, one implication of this law is that you will not kill me and therefore I should not kill you. It is only an understanding between people so that they can live in peace and harmony. There is no spiritual attribute to this law. But we can start giving spiritual explanation saying that we will be punished for our sins. This sense of torture is not correct. It is used to instill fear in us, so that we follow the dictum of morality as dictated by society.
When we are teaching children about morality, we could resort to telling them stories to teach them the idea of right and wrong and what repercussions can happen if they don't follow morality. But this type of fear is not necessary to make mature people understand morality.
The truth is that we carry neither our sins nor our merits with us. But we cannot say that we can do whatever we want in our lives without regard to others. What we carry with us is the mental setup. For example, a murderer carries a mindset which tortures him. Be clear, it is not the burden of a hundred murders that he actually carries with him. It is the sense of sin that he carries with him.
We think that we will go to hell if we sin. Actually it is the other way around: we sin because we are in hell! When we are in bliss, we cannot harm any one. It is only our conscious attitude that will make us joyful.
As long as the karma theory is based on fear, it will never give fulfillment. No morality should be based on fear or greed. It should be based only on understanding. Man should be given techniques to create deep awareness within him; he should be taken to an appropriate level of maturity to understand the laws. There should be no fear of hell and heaven. Surely there is no hell or heaven based on the theory of karma. In fact if we associate ourselves too much with so-called wrong actions, we get tied so closely to our body that we cannot disconnect ourselves from it at the time of death. This is the truth.
For instance a man who has lived only for sensual pleasures cannot leave his body easily at the time of his death. There is too much pain, and that is really what hell is.
If we live with awareness and consciousness, we will radiate joy, bliss and compassion. We will experience life to be so enjoyable and radiant, that living leaves little time for anything else.
This is the reason I never give rules even during our meditation camps. I never ask people to refrain from eating non-vegetarian food. Surprisingly, even confirmed non-vegetarians have become vegetarian after attending the meditation camps. The awareness and consciousness becomes so sharp and heightened that our very being starts guiding us. There is no need for any law. If I force vegetarianism on people, they will come up with excuses for not giving up non-vegetarian food.
So I don't believe in morality since I know it is not going to work. I believe in experience. I don't believe in conscience; I believe in consciousness. When consciousness happens in us, automatically awareness will happen in us. Social morality will start manifesting within us. There will be no conflict between inside and outside. Morality will become our life. The moment we start living rules and regulations based on morality, we will not adhere to them. It is man's basic instinct to break rules. For example, the moment we see there is no policeman or the traffic signal is not working, we start speeding. The moment we see a policeman we reduce the speed.
We try to inject the karma theory in a subtle way through these social laws. As long as morality is taught with fear as the basis, when morality is instilled in us from the outside, it is a result of social laws. When it is programmed inside us in our mind right from a young age, we call it the theory of karma. But both of these are just programming. According to me, conscience is a poor substitute to consciousness. The karma theory is a very poor substitute for meditation. I always tell people it is time for us to drop our toys and become mature.
A small story:
A young girl who had not seen her parents for nearly five years came home unexpectedly one day.
No sooner did she set foot inside the house than her father screamed angrily at her, 'Where have you been all this time? Look at the state you are in. You are wearing lipstick. That skirt barely covers your legs. You left us without a word and we have not had any communication from you in five years. Why didn't you call? Do you have any idea what you've put your poor mother through?'
The girl started crying and said, 'I got into bad company. I took drugs. I became a prostitute...'
The father shouted in disbelief, 'What did you say? You are a sinner! You are a disgrace to this family. I don't ever want to see your face again!
The girl continued, 'I only came back to give mum this fur coat that I bought for her, the title deeds to a new house that I bought and a savings account certificate for one million dollars.
Her father interrupted and asked, 'What was it you said you had become again?' The girl started crying again and said, 'A prostitute.' The father embraced her and said, 'You scared me half to death! I thought you said 'a Protestant'!
All our morality is just skin-deep. If we look deeply, we will realize that the karma theory is only a societal program. People who are not programmed with karma theory are also alive. Social laws are social toys and karma theory is a mental toy.
Enough! Drop your toys and go beyond your fear and greed. Why should you do good acts just for a place in heaven? Do good acts for joy of doing it. Then the very act will bring you so much joy.
Francis Bacon says beautifully, 'Men fear death as children fear to go forth in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.'
Once, one of my devotees who was handling the entire collection of money from my classes in the USA, lost all the money while in the process of transferring it to the bank. Some of my very close devotees were very upset when they heard about it. I was very relaxed and calm. I told them to relax. When we are handling such big amounts, it is bound to happen. I am not worried about it. Sometimes these things happen. They were not ready to accept any explanation. They felt terribly sad because according to them, it was hard-earned money and I had worked very hard for it. I consoled them saying that when we work intensely, the work itself is the reward and not the effect. As long as we work on the basis of greed, there will be no joy. Likewise, service should never be based on some reward.