Karma Yoni
Every question on the site tagged Karma Yoni, each answered from a timestamped source rather than a summary written from memory.
Human life's unique status as a realm of action, where one can shape their own destiny through effort — unlike other realms, which are strictly Bhoga Yoni.
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Vachan of eventual release: how high-caliber tantriks keep a bound shakti
The speaker says high-caliber tantriks — even those on vaam marg who seek mukti through tantra, as it is said of this Kaliyug — nourish their prana urja through their own tapobal, doing japa in the crores of a mahashakti, and keep such shaktis only for their own seva or for lok kalyan. Alongside the siddhi they give their own vachan: to keep the shakti a fixed term — a year, two, five or ten — after which they will perform its visarjan and, through whatever karmakand is needed, tantric or vaidik, work for its sadgati and its mukti from that yoni. When the vachan is kept this way, he says, no rin dosh attaches to either side: the shakti repays its debt in advance simply by doing the work asked of it, and is set free in exchange.
Final gati of a sadhak who dies without freeing his bound shaktis
If such a sadhak dies for any reason without having freed these bound shaktis, the speaker says he becomes trapped along with them. Citing Narayan's teaching in the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita that one attains what one worships, he says a sadhak who spent his days worshipping the chowki ends up becoming part of that very chowki, and strife begins in his family. So the gati is not mukti — he cannot attain liberation. Freeing him would require releasing every single entity of the chowki individually, with the full support of tantra, which becomes an entirely separate undertaking.
What is Karma Yoni, and why does human life uniquely offer it?
Human life is a Karma Yoni — a realm of action where one can shape one's own destiny — unlike other realms, which are strictly Bhoga Yoni, realms of merely experiencing the results of past karma.
Sacrifice has nothing to do with the taste of the tongue
The speaker says that nowhere in this subject is Bali being tied to food or the taste of the tongue. For those who look at it through taste, thinking they will get meat to eat, he says it is equally clear that whoever eats sacrificial meat with that attitude is himself born in the species of the next animal sacrificed.
What does the Parvati Gita say about the jiva in the womb?
He says the Garbha Gita — the Shri Parvati Gita — describes that when the jivatma is in the mother's womb, in the sixth and seventh month it obtains awareness of all its previous births. Suffering there, it makes stuti to Bhagavati, to its aradhya, praying that when it takes birth this time it will certainly do her upasana and not let the birth go waste, asking only to be freed from this suffering — for the greatest suffering in the world, he says, is the suffering of the mother's womb, where the jiva hangs upside down and endures it.
When we ourselves are in trouble we call it God testing us, and when others fall into trouble we call it their karma
People fall flat when they are very close to the goal, he says. He cites something he had seen on Facebook and shared in a group: when we ourselves are in trouble we say God is testing us, and when others fall into trouble we say he is getting the punishment of his karmas.
Preachers belittle one another: a rival preacher's broken finger is called his karma, while one's own misfortune is called a test
He asks listeners not to be offended, saying he is a lowly creature and no sant, and that if someone abuses him he abuses back double. His example: if Pradeep Mishra ji's finger were to break — which he says would also be wrong — then the "pitambare baba" people would at once say that this person has received the punishment of his karmas, that Radha Rani Shri ji has punished him, that he is going down the steps. And when their own man is on dialysis, that is not the punishment of karmas but a test. You are the same and we are the same, he says; why belittle one another.
Who are Bhagavati Sati's sisters?
The 27 wives of Chandrama are all sisters of Bhagavati Sati. The 10 wives of Dharmaraj are also daughters of Daksharaj. Maharshi Kashyap's marriage took place with 13 maidens, and they too are Sati's sisters. Rishi Angira and Krishashva were likewise married to daughters of Prajapati Daksha, and all of these are Mata Sati's sisters.
Why does a spouse behave the way they do?
The deeds and karmas of our previous births are such, the speaker says, and according to them we obtain our life partner. Their behaviour, which gives us pain or gives us comfort, is our own karma of a former birth. He gives the example bluntly: if one has got a wife who beats one morning and evening with a stick, then such must have been one's karma — perhaps in the past birth she was a cow and we were her master and beat her with a stick, and so in this birth such a wife is obtained.
What stri dosh is: a man who tormented his wife in a previous birth suffers through his wife in this one
He supposes a person who has stri dosh — who in a previous birth tormented his wedded wife a great deal, on account of which he obtained stri dosh in this birth, and in this birth is being tormented by his wife, or is suffering mental, physical or financial harm through her.
Where do those who sin all their life and die in Kashi go?
Asked where those go who commit sin all their life and give up their life in the last moments on a Kashi yatra, the speaker says Bhairav ji beats them and cuts them and makes them even — they are given bhairav yatna, bhairavi yatna, which is held to be thousands of times more terrible than the yama yatna. Bhairav ji does not send them to naraka; on death in Kashi, if a matter of this kind arises, it is not a matter of akaal mrityu but of purnayu. So if death occurred at the full span, then there Bhairav ji makes them the target of the bhairavi yatna and gives them punishment — beating them with a sota and flaying the red skin: having sinned all their life, will they simply be let off?
Is deva-hood itself a yoni, and what does that mean?
The speaker says a devata is also a yoni, and it is a bhoga yoni. Karma yoni is only the yoni of the human being. However much a devata does good or harm to anyone, no particular ruin or rise comes to them; their own karma was settled before they went into that yoni of enjoyment. When their time is complete they take birth again in the mrityu lok, accordingly as manushya, as jada or as pashu.
The pret is settling its own accounts, human birth alone being a karma yoni
That pret and pishach too is settling its accounts, the speaker says, as he had said earlier: the yoni of the human being is a karma yoni, while pret, pishach and devata are all bhoga yonis — they are enjoying. Whatever karma we do now, after death we will get that kind of yoni and will enjoy it; whatever good or bad we do there, no fruit of it will come. Bhagwan Shri Krishna has said this in the Gita, he says, not I.
The devatas had been created but not human beings, and the prajas were not expanding
Before this, the srishti Brahma ji had brought forth had produced the devatas and such divine forms, but the srishti of human beings had not happened. All the prajas produced by Brahma ji were not expanding, and he became greatly sorrowful and much distressed. Then an akashvani occurred, telling him to make the maithuni srishti.
How long does a soul hold the divine post obtained after death by worship?
The speaker says the time is determined there too — it may be a hundred years, it may be five hundred years, it may be for many long periods. But a time will come when, giving up that post, you will either take a new birth or have some other gati, and someone new will come in your place. When the punya is exhausted, birth must be taken again.
Who is Mata Bamati, and how does a Bamat come into being?
The speaker says that just as Brahm are of fifty-two kinds — the boys of Brahmin families became Brahm — so the girls who die in the womb for some reason, or die in the unmarried state, go into two kinds of yoni; and one of those two is the Bamat.
Is akal mrityu written in the kundali and the karmas?
The speaker says there is a yoga of akal mrityu, and that yoga can be averted. Its very name is akal — that is, the kaal has not come, the time is not yet complete, it is incomplete. But if you could not avert it, then it comes to fruit; and since it is akal and its time was not complete, then for as much time as remains you are in the pret yoni. When your time is complete you will move on to further gati.
Why should a being of an upadev yoni be liberated rather than worshipped?
The speaker calls this a very good question. He says that all the shaktis of the upadev category — whoever goes into that yoni — are in a bhog yoni, and they suffer. They stay bound by maya according to that yoni: as, in the living state, someone very fond of jalebi could eat jalebi, so after death he will not actually eat it, but is nourished by its fragrance, and so will say offer me jalebi. He gets bound there.
What is said to come from mere darshan of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini?
Merely by darshan, release from every yoni is obtained, he says — merely by having darshan of Bhagavati Vindhyavasini. Its description will be found in the Durga Kalpadruma and other granthas of the Shakta mat, and in the discourses of siddhas and sadhaks: that by the mere darshan of Jagadamba Vindhyavasini a being obtains liberation from every kind of yoni, whichever yoni it may be in, and becomes an eternal parshad of Durga.
How is such a kshudra shakti actually made?
Suppose some young woman of sixteen or seventeen dies an untimely death, or is killed by some tantra kriya, the speaker says: the yoni she goes into is a very powerful yoni. As he had explained about devputras, boys of fourteen or fifteen years, and up to the age of forty or forty-five, or those of twenty-five or thirty who remain unmarried — their shakti is very great, the reason being that the shukra formed in the body has not been emitted anywhere and the capacity remains intact. The same happens with a woman.
Which profession is joined with dharma?
Asked by a listener with a strong interest in dharmashastra which work he should do, the speaker says to choose according to your own interest. All works are in accord with dharma; there is no work that is not. If someone becomes a doctor professionally then he is becoming a vaidya, and in the form of the vaidya are present Bhagwan Dhanvantari, Bhagwan Vaidyanath, Bhagwan Pashupatinath Mahadev and the Ashwini Kumars.
Which deity stands behind the engineer's work?
Those who are engineers do the pujan of Bhagwan Vishwakarma ji, he says. On going to Kamakhya, Vishwakarma ji has been established near the second gate on the path that goes by the Saubhagya Kund; Kamadeva called Vishwakarma ji and had the temple constructed. It is held that it is by his grace alone that one becomes a successful engineer and gains mastery in the work.
Who is most defamed in the matter of adharma?
In the matter of adharma, the speaker says, the most defamed of all are the tantriks, the pandits, the people of this profession, who are called frauds. But look at it another way: go into any field at all, and the state of affairs is the same everywhere.
What is the relation between Bhairav and administrative office?
Bhagwan Bhairav is the kotwal, the protector of Kashi, he says, and in every administration it is the duty of every administrative officer to protect in the form of Bhagwan Bhairav. The Kshetrapal who protects his own territory is Bhagwan Bhairav, and all the administrative officers, whether an inspector or anyone else, are his followers; if they are protecting their territory it is Bhairav ji's form, and that too is a work joined with dharma.
Can a nurse conduct deliveries while doing a sadhana?
A nurse asks whether it is true, as she has heard, that one cannot conduct deliveries for patients while in sadhana. Since your profession is itself of that kind, for service, do not be troubled by it, the speaker says — do that work. But purity is to be kept: you will have to bathe daily, and at the time of sadhana the hair too will have to be washed, day after day, and that is a somewhat difficult matter.
If a devata appears before time, does suffering end?
Before the time — that is, according to what karma is left and what prarabdha is left — even if the devatas have manifested, the speaker says, they cut his suffering while remaining with him; they do not end it, as though because we have manifested you will now have no suffering at all. Pay attention to this in the Kali kaal, he says; do not remain in this delusion.
Why does a pitr say he will destroy everyone?
A listener says that when the sawari comes, it says it will ruin them all. See, brother, the speaker says: understand it this way — if in the living state suffering was given to someone, then this happens. You will all have heard that the father takes birth as the son. That is true: if we earned ten crore rupees, did not spend it, and my attachment remained with that wealth — earlier it used to be gold and silver — then, saying we have so much wealth and did not spend it, since attachment to it did not end, we will take birth again in the third or fourth generation and will waste and finish whatever wealth remained. This is the karma chakra. It is for this reason it is said that at the last time one should become detached.
Does one who serves a deity become their doot, and is there rebirth?
Manas Sharma ji asks whether one who serves a devi-devata becomes their doot after leaving the body, whether he will then be born again on earth, and whether an ordinary sadhak too can become a doot. The answer to all of what you have said is absolutely yes, the speaker replies; it absolutely can happen. Everyone's time is completed; rebirth is certainly obtained, until full gati is attained.
Why does suffering not lift quickly once you have taken on everyone's burden?
When afflictions come in life — someone's sister has a trouble, someone's brother, someone's mother and father — then they go and begin puja paath in that manner. Well then, brother, now you have taken everybody's upon yourself, so how will the suffering be wiped out? Now it will take time. You have kept a load weighing a thousand kilos ready beforehand, a load of karmas. Now here you are giving it back one kilo at a time — so why this hurry? It will have to be cut through at ease; let it run on, and alongside keep making the attempt too.
Why did the devatas undergo suffering at all?
Although he had become Indra, he says, even so he received a curse on account of his own fault. So tell me — even he who is the son-in-law of Bhagavan Sadashiva has received a curse. In whose life is there no suffering? When suffering has been in the life of the devatas, who created their own prarabdha and underwent it and set it before you, so that you should see that on account of karma this thing will have to be undergone — then who are you and I? This leela, he says, is why the dev shaktis staged it: so that we too should learn from them that yes, we too will have to undergo it, we cannot run away. So keeping a little patience, these things are to be crossed.
At the birth of the seventh generation the bound ancestor is released automatically
When the seventh generation is born — take the father of your grandfather's grandfather — then as soon as you were born his mukti happens of itself; he will not remain bound. Unless you have given him a place and worshipped him, which is a separate matter, then even if no kriya karma was done for him, he will move on from that yoni and will not stay stuck there.
Birth in a Sanatani household has taken place for the sake of sadhana alone
Why, he asks, has your birth taken place in the house of a Hindu, as a Sanatani? However calamitous your condition, however destitute you may be, your birth has taken place for the sake of sadhana alone. Had that not been the intention you would have been given birth abroad, or among others of that kind. There were some good deeds behind it, that even if the birth was in the lowest family, a path has been given to you — because what you may obtain here will be obtained nowhere else.
Why are we drawn to the bhakti of God?
Asked what karmas of ours make us attracted to the bhakti of God, the speaker says that attraction to bhakti happens first of all when suffering comes into life. When suffering comes into life we begin to see tantra mantra, we go towards katha and puran, we try to learn havan and offer bali and to know all these vidhi vidhans. That is what happens first. When God wishes to call us near him he begins to give suffering, and then we go towards him. The second thing is karma: when karmas become good, then too.
What does Ravan's brahmin lineage show about karma and birth?
When Ravan had to take birth in the rakshasa yoni — but who was his father, the speaker asks; his great-grandfather is Brahma ji, in whose brahma kul his birth took place. Even being a brahmin he had to perform deeds like a rakshasa, from a curse. In exactly the same way, when the deeds are bad, such a curse will be received, and taking birth in such a household and such a lineage one will have to perform deeds of that kind, and will receive that suffering.
The child shaktis are undergoing their own prarabdha, so the notion of being bound by mantra or tantra does not apply to them
A child's word only a child will accept. In their child form they are undergoing their own prarabdha — so do not apply the notion here that a mantra worked, a tantra worked, they were bound or not bound. If their death occurred in the womb or from any cause, that is their prarabdha, and it is the prarabdha of the family they are in that they had to go into that yoni. Our body is complete with five elements; theirs is of one, of the vayu tattva.
What decides which form a sadhak is finally taken to?
He says that they will take you there for the form in which your rin stands. If in a previous birth you performed the upasana of Bhagavati Saraswati and it remained unfinished halfway for some reason, then in this birth, whichever devata's sadhana you may do, in time when you arrive fully and properly at your level, your aradhya of this birth will take you there and have that sadhana completed. They will not leave a rin standing.
Whose karma is a child under thirteen bearing?
But pay attention, he says: if that child was under thirteen years of age, then at that time he was undergoing the karmas of his own mother and father. Up to thirteen years, the body's progress or decline happens according to the parents' karma — up to five years the mother's, and after that, for the remaining years up to thirteen, the father's. So it was according to their karmas that he was suffering.
Two jivas were interfered with, and in truth the whole family behind them
Now here interference has occurred in the prarabdha of two jivas, he says — and if it be seen rightly, in that of the whole family, because if harm had come to the child, harm would have come to the whole family. Now the interference that the great-grandfather has made will fall entirely upon him. This is karma; it has to be balanced. Kaal, he says, will not let it go.
Up to what age do a child's papas not accrue?
Asked whether papas do not accrue up to fourteen years, he says it does not remain up to thirteen years, brother. The twelfth begins, the twelfth ends; between twelve and thirteen take it as fifty-fifty. Up to thirteen it is still not counted; it is counted from after thirteen. But going by the present time, he says, it should be counted from even earlier.
What happens to a person who helps another bear his prarabdha?
Sanatan culture says exactly this, he answers: that if any human being is in suffering, then help should be given to him. This is your responsibility and mine, this is our samskar. That became one subject, and it should be done. Ordinary help — as we do it financially, as we do it physically, or as we include them in our prayers — that far it is all right. But if you are asking with reference to the subject of tantra, then the subject there becomes different; there the subject of giving assistance becomes something else again.
Do the karma and do not worry about the fruit
To the comment that it depends on one's own work and karma, he says that then what is there to think about — do the karma. Do not worry about the fruit.
If the head of a house is steeped in sin, must his sons bear the fruit?
This absolutely happens, the speaker answers: if the chief person of a house is steeped in sinful deeds, then whatever sons there are, whatever later kula there is, have to undergo it. But those sons will also be undergoing that fruit according to their own karma.
What does Sanatan prescribe after death?
Sanatan culture, the speaker says, tells you that even drinking liquor in the living state brings so many sins, and that fifty things are told to you and you are told to remain good. In our place, he says, bhoga is nowhere given after death: there is the vidhan of the attainment of Sayujya and Salokya, and six kinds of mukti have been spoken of. Those things are attained according to one's own punya, and according to the desires one obtains such yonis as well, where you obtain bhoga. It is a lack of information, he says, that people are not able to understand.
What does accumulated japa make of a sadhak in the eyes of the devatas?
The speaker says that if you have completed sava lakh, four lakh, ten lakh, twenty lakh, crores of japa of a mantra, you have become a bhakta of the special category of treatment for the devatas. We do not see which devata is watching us, in what pitch we are going, what a shakti holds for us there — that too is a loka. In Sanatan culture the life journey does not end after death; only the body changes.
What decides the nakshatra a child is born in?
When we take birth, it is according to the pre-determined karma — whatever karma we performed in earlier births — that we obtain this birth's kundali, that is, the nakshatra we are taking birth in. And according to the presiding deities of that nakshatra, its graha adhipatis and its rashi, an effect falls not only on us but on our whole family.
What happens to a child's past-life memory?
It is said that after becoming about sava varsha old — that is, one year and three months, fifteen months — whatever memories of past birth a child has slowly and completely come to an end. The body has been newly taken; the atma is the same. And along with that atma go whatever siddhis, whatever japa and tapa, and whatever good and bad karma were attached to it.
What does a nakshatra carry with it?
If you go by the nakshatra, then according to the nakshatra there are deities, according to the nakshatra there are trees, according to the nakshatra there are creatures of the sarisrip yoni, and to all a dhatu has been assigned. In the same way tantra holds that if at some time a pregnant woman in the kula dies for some reason, then whichever nakshatra and whichever day her death fell on, a maan attaches to that day in the house.
When a puja is bound, how will Bhagwan hear the prayer?
Attend to this, he says: there is a difference between Bhagwan and devata. Devata is a yoni, and Bhagwan is the param mahashakti, the param satta. As manushya is a yoni and pashu is a yoni, so devata too is a bhog yoni. Manushya alone is a karma yoni: the karma you do here, and the fruit that comes of it, decides the next yoni you obtain. Do base karma, do wrong work, and you go into the lower yonis — pashu, pakshi, jad, chetan; do high karma and you go into yaksha, kinnar, gandharva, devata. These are yonis; Bhagwan is not. Bhagwan is Bhagwan — adi, imperishable, with no form and no shape, though he came in the sakar form for us.
What does karma vipaka say about unauthorised mantra japa?
The speaker says karma vipaka will be found in every Purana, and that on reading it you will find that one who, being unauthorised, does the japa of these mantras takes birth as a donkey for many births. That is karma vipaka. You are hardly going to go and watch it — but at least you would know.
When does a jiva come to know of its past births?
For that, the speaker says, go to the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, and then read the Parvati Gita: it will be written there that when the jiva is in the mother's womb, all the gati of all its previous births comes into its remembrance, all of it stays in its memory — how many times it took birth — and there it performs the garbha stuti, saying that we took birth so many times and our condition was such, we did such and such wrong deeds, this time we will not do so, this time we will do the aradhana of Bhagavati. This happens particularly when a person comes into a human womb.
Why does the karma vipaka warning not deter people?
The difficulty, the speaker says, is that when someone becomes a donkey or a mule or a bull or something else, you and I are hardly going to know of it. We will say it is a story — but when you yourself become the bull, what will you do at that time? Just now you are not accepting karma vipaka; just now you will say that we will do jyotish after drinking, what is your trouble; that we will do exactly the mantra you say is not to be done.
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