Question:

Please explain the sentences

Excerpt 1 -The space is not afflicted by any action. Similarly, you are free from karma. 

Answer:

Look around you right now. You are surrounded by space from all angles. Can you touch the space around you? Can you wet the space around you? Can anyone stain space? No! Space is not afflicted by any action. Is this clear so far?

Ishavasya Upanishad speaks about the consciousness. The main teaching of the Upanishad is that everything is consciousness, everything is Brahman. Trees, humans, monkeys, elephants, tables, chairs, cockroaches, river water, the mud in your backyard, the fire in the candle flame, the air that is all around you. It is all consciousness, it is all Brahman. You are Brahman! I am Brahman! Everything is Brahman. Brahman is like space, it cannot be touched, it cannot be stained. Once you recognize that you are Brahman not just intellectually but as an internal realization, an awakening, then you are liberated, you become free from karma!

Excerpt 2 -Karma is the action which is potential, which is present (you are acting on it), and the third is the impression or the effect of an action.

Answer:

Lets divide this sentence for simplification purposes –

a) Karma is the action which is potential:

From a Dvaitam perspective, you are carrying Karma impressions from your past incarnations and past of this lifetime. These impressions are in a seed form. A seed has the potential to sprout one day. These are Sanchita karma. Your past Sanchita comes to you suddenly. For e.g. You have a sanchita karma of a dvesha with a particular person. There is a potential of this person entering your life and even though you have never met this person before, for no reason, you feel a repulsion towards him/her and create a bad karma again. This is your Sanchita dvesha from your past coming back at you.

Another example is that you had a money raaga in your past life, this led to a sanchita karma seed of money. One day suddenly you win a lottery, you did not make any efforts now to earn the money, it is just some Sanchita merit that has suddenly sprouted. Understand that you will get what you desire may be in this lifetime or maybe in the next lifetime. So never say that your wishes don’t get fulfilled. But remember every fulfilled desire gets a dukha along with it. It is the tax you must pay. Thus you will be stuck in the karma cycle lifetime after lifetime.

For a wise person, established as a witness intermittently, who is on the path of knowledge and meditation, Sanchita Karma will come but will not affect him but he will not create new karma by getting attracted (raaga) or repulsed (dvesha). He will just observe his raaga and dvesha and surrender to the inner Guru/God again and again.

Understand here that both good karma and bad karma needs to be gotten rid of. Otherwise, you will keep rotating in the cycle of birth and death.

b) Karma which is present (you are acting on it):

This is the karma you are experiencing now. You are married to a particular person, you have kids, you have a particular job or business, all this is your current karma. It is happening right now. This is called Prarabdha. While you are experiencing today’s Prarabdha, you can either have raaga for it or dvesha for what you are experiencing now. If you nurture this raaga and dvesha, then you will create a future karma impression.

c) and the third is the impression or the effect of an action.

This is Agami Karma – the future impressions (seeds) that you are throwing out today. These will potentially sprout in the future. Therefore, one must be careful today and not give into raaga and dvesha. Because this raaga and dvesha of today will lead to seeds of tomorrow. As mentioned above, this is the Dvaitam perspective for the Dvaitam path follower. 

Excerpt 3 -A glimpse of this dimension which is beyond the space frees you from karma. 

Answer:

This is again a repetition of your Excerpt 1. Until the time, one is attached to this Maaya (raaga and dvesha for people situations and things), he does not understand Maaya. If he does not understand Maaya, he will always be stuck in this Vishwam. He is an ignorant one.

But a wise one is the one who recognizes Maaya, who through his own self-effort attains self-knowledge.

Now, what is self-effort?

Step 1: Self-effort is observing and accepting that one is swamped by raaga and dvesha. Then making every effort to surrender raaga and dvesha to God/Guru/Self, again and again. Letting go of every desire of want or ‘not want’, ‘like’ or ‘dislike’, ‘should be’ and ‘shouldn’t be’ is self-effort.

Step 2:  Because he is free of raaga and dvesha, he is now beyond doership / experience-er.

Step 3: He recognizes that everyone and everything is Brahman. He rises above Maaya. He gets a glimpse of this Advaitam dimension that he is beyond this Prakriti of the 5 elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air & Space). He is the only one who becomes free of Karma!