How Yogasanas Can Help You Work Out Your Karma

Is Karma like a judicial system that rewards and punishes us for our actions? Can asanas help us break the cycle of Karma? Find out the truth about Karma from Sadhguru.

Philip Goldberg: I was very pleased to see that in your book on Karma, you dispense with some common misunderstandings about Karma. One is that most people see Karma as a system of reward and punishment, like a judicial system of some kind. And the other is that it’s a kind of fatalism that everything is predetermined, and it’s actually the opposite. Can you elaborate on those points?

Sadhguru: It is amusing that you use the word “judicial system.” Yes, that is exactly what people think it is. In most countries’ judicial system, whatever you might have done, you have an opportunity to defend yourself and explain your position. But in this kind of judicial system that you are talking about, you have no role – they are just going to rap you on your head or hang you. This is a kangaroo court, not a judicial system. Is Karma like a kangaroo court which will hang you for things that they think you did? There is no such thing. A human being is a composite of a variety of memories that are formed within us. It goes back to evolutionary memory – all the evolution that has happened from an amoeba to now is recorded in your system in some way.

Makarasana (crocodile asana)

The Astonishing Connection Between Yogasanas and Karma

This is the reason why Yogasanas[1] are named after various creatures, because the idea is to work out those Karmas by being in those postures. Unfortunately, the way Yoga is being taught is about twisting and turning. Otherwise, looking at a person’s karmic background, we say, “This is the asana you must do.” Even now, that is how we do it. The general asanas are taught in the beginning, but after some time, we say, “This is what you must do, because we see that is what you are stuck with.”

Let’s say you have to do a crocodile asana. This does not mean you are a crocodile – it is just that you have a few tendencies like that. Every human being has various tendencies within themselves. These unconscious tendencies are a consequence of the type of karmic imprints we have taken in, how we have experienced those imprints within ourselves, and how we relate those imprints to everyone else around us.

[1] Yogic postures

Mayurasana (peacock asana)

How Your Tendencies Drive You in a Certain Direction

These tendencies are called vasanas, which is like a smell. Let’s say someone had a party yesterday, and there were lots of roses in their house. Once the party was over, they took that truckload of roses and put it in the garbage container. If you walk by the garbage container on that day, it will smell like flowers. If someone puts some rotten fish in it tomorrow, it will smell like rotten fish. Depending upon how it smells, accordingly different lives are attracted to it.

You can only remember the past. You can only experience the present. But you can create the future.

This is how Karma is. Depending upon the type of vasanas that you have, or the consequential impact you have on the atmosphere around you, accordingly you attract certain situations, people and lives around you, and you are also drawn in these directions. This is the reason why we say you must fix your Karma. Fixing your Karma does not mean fixing the past. There is no such thing as fixing the past. You can only remember the past. You can only experience the present. But you can create the future.

You cannot fix past Karma, but the present moment’s Karma is in your hands. If you take it into your hands, you can craft your destiny the way you want. If you allow the past Karma to seep into this moment, you will repeat the cycles of the past. This is called as samsara. Samsara means that life has become cyclical, and the same things are repeating over and over again.

Veerabhadrasana (warrior asana)

The Only Way to Get Out of the Cycles of Karma

The length of these cycles determines how stable, equanimous, and conscious you can be. You may be trying to be conscious, but if your karmic cycles are very short, then try as hard as you want, you will not become conscious. You need to lengthen the karmic cycle. As it becomes longer, you come to more ease. Your Karma and the tension of the Karma come to ease. When they come to ease, becoming conscious becomes more effortless. Otherwise you are just mistaking mental alertness for being conscious.

For consciousness to happen, your physical, psychological, and energy structures have to come to ease.

With mental alertness, you will become more excitable, tense, and easily provoked. But if you become conscious, no one can provoke you; nothing really throws you off. If you are trying to become conscious by being mentally alert, you are always on edge. It is very important to understand that becoming mentally alert is not consciousness. For consciousness to happen, your physical, psychological, and energy structures have to come to ease.

Solar system

Evolution, from a Yogic Point of View

When Adiyogi talked about evolution, he said that the first form of life was a fish; then it became an amphibian; then it became a mammal, which was a wild boar; then it became half man, half animal; then a dwarfed man; then a full-fledged man, but very volatile; then a peaceful man; then a loving man; then a mystical man.

If the trajectory of the planet changes, all life will either change or get obliterated.

His disciples, the Seven Sages, asked, “Can we evolve further, right now?” Adiyogi said, “For you to physically evolve further, some drastic change needs to occur in the solar system, and that is not going to happen. The only way you can evolve is consciously. If you try to evolve physically, it will not happen. Because the potter’s wheel is spinning at a certain speed, it is not going to cooperate with you.” This is a clear statement that this potter’s wheel, that is the solar system, has spun out a certain kind of life.

If the trajectory of the planet changes, all life will either change or get obliterated. Let’s say the spin of the planet becomes more or less than what it is now, the shape of life on this planet will change. Today, scientists are trying to connect the movements of the Earth and the neurological system. This research is still in an early stage. But the yogic system talks about how the way we have evolved is because the structure of the solar system determines what type of life we are.