Chapter 6 Religions of South Asia 195smaller than the small and greater than the great, is hidden in the hearts of all
living creatures, goes everywhere, dwells in impermanent bodies but is itself
bodiless, is a subtle essence, is a part of Paratma. We sense it in deep, dreamless
sleep, the still center of the self, when all the sense organs are closed off from
the outside world. Yama’s answer to Nachiketa is, “The atma goes on after
death because it is a part of eternal Brahman.”
Death belongs in the physical world because of karma. The word “karma”
at its most literal means simply action. Because our bodies are material, we
must eat, move, speak, listen, think; our bodies demand it. But it is this very
action that keeps us connected to life. To exist in the material world is to act; it
is the very condition of our existence. And one action leads to another and
another and another. Acts are not solitary events but are connected by long
chains of action and reaction. This is a law of the universe: all action comes
from someplace and goes someplace. This is also a moral law, for good action
produces good results and bad action produces bad results.
Our embodiedness is a matter of three bodies, all governed by karma:
There is the physical body with its senses pointed outward to the world, to
food, to comfort, to pleasure. Our senses keep us interacting with the world.
Inside is the “subtle body”: emoting, longing, watching, caring, thinking, desir-
ing—our “psychological selves,” we might say. In one creation myth desire was
the originating force of the cosmos, and desire as karma keeps existence going
on endlessly. Only desirelessness can bring an end to existence. Finally, further
inside is the “causal body,” the “karmic seeds” left by actions in past lives that
have caused this new life to sprout. It is an agricultural metaphor of seeds lying
in the soil awaiting rebirth into a new plant, which will die and leave behind
seeds, which will grow again, a cycle going on forever. All that action of the
physical body gives life to the karmic seeds; all those actions await their results.
This endless cycle of birth-death-rebirth is called samsara.
Yama revealed the whole secret to Nachiketa: There is a way to escape the
hold of karma on you, but it is extremely difficult and only a few ever succeed.
If only you could escape the demands of karma and the body, your atma would
be finally freed to be reabsorbed in Paratma and exist eternally in blissful
repose, returned to the source of all things. The task is to escape the body in
this life. The senses, normally all turned outward, must get drawn inward. Stop
the activities of the senses; empty the mind. Try to achieve a continuing state of
dreamless sleep. All the disciplines of the ascetic are aimed at that.
A whole host of ascetics withdrew from society to seek this emptying and
escape from rebirth, practicing long hours of meditation, often accompanied by
withdrawal to places where the world’s hold is lessened, such as a mountaintop
or a holy spot along the Ganges or a temple, a cave, or inner room. Frequently
they tested the success of the struggle and triumph over the senses by flagellation,
stilling the heartbeat, exposure to extremes of heat and cold, elimination of food.
These philosophical currents of the late first millennium B.C.E. became the
foundation of the Hindu-Buddhist worldview.