asraya and alambana. The cause of all this trouble is our ignorance of Truth. I am
repeating what I said already. What is ultimate Truth, no one knows. We have been
placed in a fool’s paradise by this circumstance of oblivion, darkness, in respect of
the ultimate nature of things. This ‘fool’s paradise’ is the world that we are seeing in
front of us which we mistake for the only reality. This paradise in which we are living
attracts us, compels us, obliges us to act in a particular way. This attraction that we
feel is the kama, and the work that we do on the basis of it is karma. These objects
attract us and also act on us; they produce impressions upon the mind with a
reciprocal action that causes the mind to think of them more and more.
Then there is the unfortunate consequence that follows from all this—jāti āyuḥ bhogāḥ
(II.13)—the birth into a particular species, life in that species for a length of time, and
the undergoing of all sorts of pleasurable or painful experiences according to the
nature of the karma in that particular span of life. This is a concise picture that is
presented by Patanjali in connection with the explanation of this particular feature of
what is known as karma—namely, hetu phala āśraya ālambanaiḥ (IV.11).
Chapter 102AVOIDING KARMA THAT HAS NOT YET GERMINATEDIt was said already that apart from these actions of a yogin, every action is of a
specific character—good, bad or mixed, as the case may be. But in the case of a yogin,
the actions are neither good, nor bad, nor mixed. This was the point made out in the
sutra. Why the yogin’s actions are not binding and cannot be categorised as either
good or bad would be very clear from the very nature of things, because a yogin does
not act with a sense of agency from the point of view of his personality or ego. It is
not he or she that acts; it is a spontaneity of nature that manifests itself through the
apparent personality of a yogin. But in the case of others, action is specifically
generated by a sense of agency. Every agent of action feels, “I do the action.” When
there is this ‘I-ness’ in respect of the doership of an action at the background, the
result of the action also should come to the agent, and this explains why all
individualised action should bear an individualised result.
Every action produces a result in this manner. The result is produced because nature
tries to maintain a balance at all times. Every individualised action, or action
proceeding from a sense of egoistic agency, may be said to be a kind of disturbance
created in the harmony of nature. In nature there is no such thing as ego and,
therefore, there is no personality; hence, there cannot be any isolated actor or agent
of action. Thus, it may be said that every sense of agency attributed to an individual
event or to any action is contrary to the law of nature. Therefore, retribution
follows—what they call the nemesis of action. It is disobedience to law. It is very
strange, indeed, that every action that we perform seems to be a violation of the law
of nature. Therefore, we are punished by the law, by the reaction that is set up. Every
action is a kind of disharmony expressed through the personality of the individual.
This is something which the ordinary mind cannot grasp, because no human being
can ever imagine what impersonality is, as such a thing does not exist in this world.
And it is impersonality that is the remedy for all the ills of life. The ills are caused by
the personalities themselves, and the solution is the abolition of the personality.