Karma as Inertia

The human body-mind mechanism (the body, the mind, and all their functions) can be said to be synonymous with karma itself. This is because no other body-mind mechanism can take the place of the position that a certain body-mind mechanism occupies in space-time; in other words, the fact that that body-mind mechanism exists at that position in space-time determines everything that happens in the life of that body-mind mechanism.

And as that body-mind mechanism goes through life, various habits and tendencies (the term 'tendencies' here does not refer to sexual preferences, but literally to personality traits and habits) are formed, and these can also be called karma. Writing it this way might make it seem as if there is a distinction between innate karma and acquired karma, but one can view it that way, or one can see it simply as innate karma taking on concrete forms in the phenomenal world.

In any case, Maharaj says that as long as one is living as a body-mind mechanism, such karma (habits, tendencies) will remain to a greater or lesser extent until death. However, when a phenomenon called awakening or enlightenment occurs in that body-mind mechanism, from then on, because the true self is aware of everything that happens to the body-mind mechanism, even if old habits appear, they are immediately noticed as 'an old habit has appeared,' and the emotions or actions that would follow are abandoned. And as such things are repeated, the appearance of old habits themselves becomes less frequent, though it does not necessarily mean they disappear completely.

Regarding tendencies, Maharaj states, 'As for human tendencies, I left them to take care of themselves until that destiny was exhausted.' I do not know exactly what this refers to, but habits and tendencies are the same; as long as they are acting on life as karma (that is, as long as they have the power to influence that person's life or the lives of others), the body-mind mechanism has no choice but to deal with them.

Generally, enlightenment or awakening is considered liberation from karma, and that is correct, but just because one is enlightened or awakened does not mean that the karma possessed by that body-mind mechanism becomes zero. This is because, as I wrote at the beginning, the body-mind mechanism itself is karma.

Liberation means that one is no longer pushed around by those karmas (i.e., one does not identify with that karma and act without even knowing what one is doing). Even in the life of an enlightened body-mind mechanism, the karma held during the life before enlightenment acts like inertia. In Yoga, this is called vasana (mental tendencies), but I perceive it as mental inertia.

Whether it is someone like Ramana Maharshi who suddenly became enlightened as a child, someone like Maharaj who, after passing the age of 30, believed the words of his guru and reached enlightenment within a few years, or someone like Ramesh Balsekar who studied under that Maharaj for many years and finally became enlightened, the way enlightenment occurs varies. Whether enlightenment happens or not is the destiny of that body-mind mechanism, but I believe that one reason for these differences, even when enlightenment does occur, may be the strength of the karma's inertia.

In my own case, it took 20 years to quit gambling and 10 years to quit drugs. Before I turned 40, I was able to break free from the inertia of these karmas (to use Maharaj's phrasing, 'the destiny was exhausted'), and around that time, the awakening of consciousness began. Once the awakening occurred, I became able to notice not only these habits (which I had completely broken by that point) but also all of my other various tendencies, but even so, I did not immediately become free from them.

More than 10 years have passed since then, and now I cannot think of any troublesome karma. However, tendencies such as being naturally not diligent remain unchanged. Will this continue until this body-mind mechanism dies? I don't think of it as a 'burden' like Maharaj does, but if I didn't have this, I might have lived a slightly wealthier life.