About karma and samsara

In the Yoga-Sutras, karma is described as the ineluctable consequences of our past actions in our previous lives and present life.

Our actions follow us. Each action produces an effect which becomes a cause. And the quality of the effects depends on the quality of the causes. The kleshas or emotional states (misapprehension, ego, excessive attachment, refusal to accept, fear) form a karmic layer from which causes and effects are constantly born; thus a vicious circle of which we are prisoners.

Yoga enables us to free ourselves from the laws of karma, from the impediments of the human condition. Karma ceases when we have reached Samadhi, this deconditioned state in which we become one with life, we accept change, our thoughts and actions are detached from automatism. At this point, the transformation process of the gunas reaches an end. Their reason for being having been attained, with respect to purusha, they are reabsorbed which marks the state of isolation of the mind in its original form.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains to Arjuna, that the wise are steady, strong and clear-sighted. When they renounce the fruits of the action, they overcome pain, suffering. The fluctuations of their minds cease. They break free from karma.

Samsara is the cycle of rebirth, of successive lives and deaths, to which we are chained until we reach freedom. Samsara is conditioned by karma.

Yoga helps us to get out of this vicious circle, notably via:

• Sustained effort, practice (tapas)

• Self-examination and study of the sacred texts (svadhyaya)

• Humility, patience, acceptance of what is (ishvarapranidhana)

Yoga enables us to get rid of our physical and mental impurities. When we reach the Self, this state of mind that has one only direction and where the gunas are reabsorbed, then the cycle of rebirth is broken. We are free from samsara, from karma.

#Karma #Samsara #Tapas #Svadhyaya #Ishvarapranidhana #Kleshas