“Everything has changed except for your experience. You can keep modifying the outer environment, but nothing will work because you haven’t figured out how to change your karma. Something else seems to be pushing your buttons. Someone else seems to be driving your car.” ~ Karma: A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny

I often watch Sadhguru on YouTube and I find the way he teaches to be both riveting and inspiring. I resonate with his sense of humor which at times can be cheeky. I especially like it when he uses the imaginary comedic figure called Shankaran Pillai to relate a story which would later be used as the backdrop of a lesson or realization for the audience.

In his latest book simply titled Karma, Sadhguru offers answers to the mysteries of karma, the Sanskrit word used in popular culture to mean “what goes around comes around”. Karma is explained in this book as a way to put ourselves back into the driver’s seat of our lives.

This puts us back in charge of our lives instead of falsely thinking that our karma is a “fate” we cannot change. The subtitle of this book A Yogi’s Guide to Crafting Your Destiny is befitting as Sadhguru explains that karma is responsibility. If we want to take charge of our lives, we must take responsibility – for our actions as well as inactions. Karma are behavioral tendencies (mostly unconscious) so it’s our responsibility to exercise conscious choice in every moment to follow our tendencies, or not. If we live our lives consciously and with responsibility, our tendencies will not rule us, and our future will not mimic our past.

The word “karma” literally means action. But inaction is also karma. As humanity, we are collectively responsible for what happens or does not happen in our world, that is our collective karma. That we are living uninvolved in a world in which bad things happen, that is our collective karma. If we live without any humanity in our hearts for what’s going around us, that is our collective karma. All the ensuing outcomes are our collective karma of inaction.

The book is written in 3 parts. Part One looks at the building blocks of karma and what karma actually is. Part Two focuses on the technologies of transforming karma which I found profound yet practical. Part Two in essence tells us about karma yoga, the process of using our karma or actions to liberate, rather than entangle, ourselves. Part Three is given in Q&A form – searching questions that Sadhguru had been asked over his 3½ decades of teaching.

As we course through life, we instinctively sense the network of connections between our actions (or inactions) and outcomes. Karma is written in an engaging and penetrating way that evokes memories of experiences we are all familiar with. For me, this book brings to light those connections and how we can consciously use cause and effect to bring our life to mastery. No more blame. No more victimhood.

This enigma called karma has an irresistible pull. Some may even dislike its influence in their lives but yet, find it magical once they know how to work with it. With Karma, I find karma more fascinating now than before, even as some of its mysteries are unplugged. A stranger no more, karma is now a friend that empowers me.

Note to readers: In Volume 12 (April-June 2017) of bodymindsoul magazine, we published an interview with Sadhguru and also reviewed his book Inner Engineering A Yogi’s Guide to Joy. Do check out these 2 articles with your free membership access to discover more about the revered guru.

Sadhguru
Founder – Isha Foundation
www.ishayoga.my