Acceptance – A conversation between Lover and Beloved

The spiritual path, or spiritual sadhana, or we could also call it path of unfoldment, because we just unfold to what is; at the beginning, requires of:

• Assuming one’s responsibility
• Accepting the state of affairs of our life as it stands today
• this brings us to a general sense of devotion to our lives
• which in turn brings about the surrender required to experience Unity Consciousness

Acceptance is one of the key qualities that we need to implement in our lives. Understanding that our particular form of life is the result of an evolutionary process brings us into terms with life, as it is experienced by our own particular individual mind. Karma is a very much misunderstood concept.

A fictional conversation between chela and Guru by Raman Leonato based on the teachings of Gururaj Ananda Yogi

The Lover: You have said that we carry the memory of millions of years of experience in our subconscious mind and that these impressions are the basis of our karma.  From a practical point of view, how many of these experiences can we free ourselves of in one life?

The Beloved: Karma works hand in hand with Grace.  If you have millions of years worth of karma stored up within you, which are the impressions that make up your ego self, it does not mean that you have to live millions and millions of lifetimes to get rid of them all.  They can be got rid of in one lifetime.  Man has the ability in him to reach enlightenment in one lifetime. Not by getting rid of the karmas, but by shedding them.
Now, how does one shed karma?  The seeds are there, and the normal expression used by Sanskritists is this, that you burn the seeds so that they could not germinate.  Now, how does one burn the seeds?  Spiritual practices play a great part.  The proper mode of life, of living and thinking, plays a great part.  But the greater part is played by action and by non-stagnation.
I usually say that if you have killed ten people it is not necessary to be killed ten times.  You might be faced today by a fire in the school nearby, save eleven lives of the children inside, risking yours each of the times you get into the fire, and you end up with one in the credit balance. So, the impressions and the karma formed by ten killings is automatically removed because it works on the balance sheet principle, and is forever balancing itself.  How much karma you have left on the debit or the credit side is what you are today, and the circumstances you are in are those in which you resolve yourself.

The Lover: So I should then not worry at all about my past deeds, even if I have been doing bad things?

The Beloved: If you have done bad things that does not effect your spiritual self at all.
Your spiritual self cannot be touched by good nor bad. It is above it all.  The spiritual life we talk of is above good and bad.  But, if some things you have done are contrary to the laws of nature, then you have to pay for that.  That is what we call the concept of hell, where you are tortured for it and you pay for it.  Yet those very heavens and hells are here and now today and can all be rewarded, or paid for, or repented upon, here now.  So the entirety of millions of years of buildup can be done away with here in this lifetime.
According to karmic law, time is not the factor.  We measure time only in the relative expression of the here and now, but in the entire scheme of things there is no such thing as time.  In ordinary existence, on the relative or the grosser relative, a million years might have passed, but all of that can be wiped away in a few moments.  The time it takes in preparing the candle and the match is far, far longer than just striking the match and creating light, and that is illumination.  Then the darkness of all those samskaras  – disappear.  A darkness might exist in an old ancient English castle for a few hundreds of years, and yet you walk in there with a lighted lamp and the darkness of hundreds of years in this unoccupied castle vanishes immediately. It vanishes because you are there with this light.  And this light is lit by meditation and spiritual practices.

The Lover: Should I then think that my circumstances today are there for me to pay back my karmas?

The Beloved: You’ve gone through so many lifetimes and so many experiences and you are paying for it today.  It is good to think that way.  That gives you a sense of acceptance that – “I must accept my lot wherever I am placed”.  That is why Christianity says we are born in sin. There is great truth in that. We have brought with us all those samskaras which form our tendencies in life. Essentially the human being is divine; but he does come with this burden.

The Lover: So I accept that. My circumstances today are those in which the karma, the burden I carry is resolved. How do I resolve it?

The Beloved: With this acceptance you must perform action, for acceptance alone will not help you, and it cannot be cowardly acceptance – because you are a coward and you are not prepared to fight; you just accept.
If a person is stronger than you, a big bully and you don’t fight him and you say, “Oh, well, I am a stronger man because I’m not going to be violent.”  Sounds beautiful from the outside, but really speaking, you are afraid.  You are accepting defeat there now, not because you are stronger but because you are weak.  Because you fear.  The proper kind of acceptance would mean that you are accepting the challenge by action.