Day 25 - Our Life's Song

 

Today's Tarka Practice

Our focus this week will be on the Bhagavad Gita. The Gita is one chapter out of the Mahabharata, which is one of the longest Sanskrit epic poems from ancient India.

Yesterday, we talked about yoking together our earth life with our spiritual life, what that means, and whether or not we felt that we were living our lives harmoniously. Today, we will continue on in our exploration of this idea.

The meaning of the words Bhagavad Gita are Lord’s song or life’s song. As we know from our previous reflections on the Atma and the Brahman, our lives are a part of the bigger picture or the atma (the self, the wave) within the Brahman (absolute reality, the ocean). Hence, the Gita asks us to reflect on first life’s song and second our own life’s song.

So, the first question for our journal writing today is what is life’s song? And, our second question is then what is “our” life’s song? In yoga and upon reading the Gita, we are meant to reflect on and we are supposed to determine what our purpose is here in this earthly life.

In the first sense, life’s song is to serve. In other words, our absolute purpose is to serve humanity. In the second sense, we are asked more specifically to reflect on how we, as individuals, are meant to serve that greater purpose. In other words, what is your specific task or how will you serve?

Many people do not understand what it means to serve. Usually, we think of service as taking care of others. For example, we think of service as volunteering at a nursing home or to feed the homeless. While these things are certainly a part of service, they are not the only part. In fact, upon closer reflection, everything we do is a type of service. From doing laundry and cooking dinner to helping our kids with their homework and writing a report for our boss.

For today’s journal entry, I want you to write about all of the things you “do” in your life from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed and think about each task as your service to the world. What did you learn about yourself during this process?

Shanti

Day 30 - Pralabdha Karma

Today's Tarka Practice

This week's discussion is on karma, what it means, and some of the different types. On Monday we talked about San-chitta karma or all of your karma from all lifetimes. Today, we will talk about Pralabdha karma.

 

Pralabdha karma is just the karma of this lifetime. So, if you did Monday's tarka, you will be off to a good start thinking about the karma you have in this lifetime. Take a look at the list I asked you to make on Monday. On this list, you should see some of the karma you were born with.

 

Your karma can tell you about your dharma, so it is important to understand the type of karma you were born with. This is the most likely karma to manifest in this lifetime. I'll use myself as an example here to illustrate what I mean. On my list of characteristics, I have teacher. Whether formal or informal I always seem to be teaching something. I teach my kids, I teach my students, I teach myself. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get away from this approach. Smiles. It follows me everywhere. It seems that I was born with this already in place. So, one might say that I was born with the karma of a teacher.

 

To take this further, the way I approach life - through the eyes of a teacher - can then be seen as a part of my dharma. It is in my essence. I might then say that it is my duty or my responsibility to be a teacher in this lifetime.

 

For today's journal entry, take a look over that list of characteristics you made on Monday and see if you can draw a relationship between your characteristics and your passions. What are you most passionate about? How might this tell you about your karma and what you are meant to manifest in this lifetime?

 

Shanti