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Q & A

Questions and Answers on spiritual life

What are the Consequences of a Misuse of Free Will Regarding Negative Spirits?

bondage to evil - misuse of free will

To someone who objected to what I wrote in the section “What are ‘demons’?” in Satsang With the Abbot.

“Those who are devoted to the gods (devas) go to the gods. Those who are devoted to the ancestors (pitris) go to the ancestors. Those who are devoted to the spirits (bhutas) go to the spirits. Those who are devoted to me surely come to me” (Bhagavad Gita 9:25).

Those who worship or link up psychically with the bhutas go to them after death. The more those spirits gave things to them or did things for them in this world, the more karmic debt is created, and the longer they are in bondage to them.

They worship them because they have an affinity for them–they are like them. So negativity attracts and compounds negativity.

This happens in various degrees according to the intensity of the karmic connections. Furthermore, those spirits do not willingly let go of their slaves, and follow them into subsequent incarnations and endeavor to entrap them again and again.

Just because this is an ugly situation to contemplate does not mean it is not real. There are many people who deny the Nazi Holocaust because they just cannot believe that human beings could be so evil and perpetrate such cruelty on other human beings. But they did and do. And it is the same in the astral worlds.

What about “free will”?

It is the use of their free will that gets the prisoners in the condition I have described. Of course people have free will over their destiny, and it is the corruption and misuse of their free will that puts them people into these horrible situations.

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Suffering and Karma: A Yogi’s Perspective

suffering karma statue

Q: May I ask, when it comes to suffering, particularly of the chronic physical type, is this all a result of inflicting such pain on others in a past life?

Karma works very exactly. Karma is extremely complex because exactly what we did must come back to us. It does not get bundled up with various types of causes and result in an unspecific form.

For example, if you inflict pain on someone, then someone will inflict pain on you. Physical illness or suffering can be caused by having neglected or or even done deliberate harm to our body in anger or some other negative emotion, including self-loathing. Unsuccessful attempts at suicide can be a cause of present pain.

Or is it a combination of that and obstacles set in place (by a higher self) to help us grow and develop?

No. Neither our higher self or God ever decide that we need “a good kicking around” for our own “good.” We do not get karmically spanked for “being bad.” The reaping of negative karma is not retribution.

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Fasting: A Sensible Perspective for Meditating Yogis

fasting for yogis

Q: I think I remember reading in one of Abbot George’s writings that “fasting is not the way.” Should an occasional fast, or time-restricted eating be considered healthy or unhealthy?

Body-identified people who aspire to be yogis think that the body is what is wrong with their minds, when it is the mind itself that is the problem. And the mind is a field of energy formed of the food we eat. This is the teaching of the Chandogya Upanishad:

“Mind consists of food. That which is the subtle part of milk moves upward when the milk is churned and becomes butter. In the same manner, the subtle part of the food that is eaten moves upward and becomes mind. Thus, mind consists of food” (Chandogya Upanishad 6.5.4; 6.6.1-2,5).

Therefore diet–both what we do and do not eat–is a key element in attaining success in yoga. However, what we think is also a key element in the condition of our mind. And that is where correct sadhana comes in. But that is another matter altogether, and I will stay with your question.

Pure body, pure mind?

The body-identified for some reason are obsessed with fasting. They think that if they purify their body by fasting they will purify their mind, but they are wrong. (However, I have observed that a lot of “yogis” are intuitively very intent on things that will leave their mind alone while they entertain themselves with disciplines such as fasting which will leave the delusions of the mind safely and surely intact. Such persons are the kind that love to let everybody know they are having “a day of silence” or are “on a fast.”)

There is no doubt that people who have harmed their body and mind by eating  destructive things or good things in a destructive, mistaken manner, can be benefitted by a very mild form of abstinence from food such as a day on water or juice alone.

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