Question:

If life is a flow of events, where everything that is happening has to and we have nothing to do with it, then how does the karma theory play in with the above statement, where we alone are responsible for our prarabdh karma due to our sanchita karma?

Answer:

Life is a flow of events because you created Karma in the past. You cannot say that ‘I was bad before but I am good now so I should not suffer now.’ No that is not possible. You were bad before so the demerit might come your way much later after you have turned good. The flow takes its own time. 🙂 Today you may have nothing to do with the flow but you must experience it. It is from the past. So a wise one, just views it as a happening and lets go of the raaga or dvesha that can be created due to the flow. A wise one realizes that he alone is responsible for the flow.

Also according to the above statement all the bad acts that are being committed, those who are committing them are not responsible, because whatever is happening is happening because it has to happen and the doer is not responsible for them?

A wise one realizes that he alone is responsible for the flow. Only a fool thinks that he is not responsible. Whatever comes from the past karmas to you today, you cannot control. But Nature has given you the freewill to act wisely in the ‘present moment without creating future agami karma’. If you commit a crime, you will have to pay for it in future. It is as simple as mathematics dear 🙂 100% fair!

Question:

If we see something bad happening and we observe sakshi bhav, then aren’t we being devoid of empathy by not feeling bad/hurt for that terrible thing/act happening to that person?

Answer:

Sakshi Bhava means ‘being a witness’ to everything that is happening. It does not mean being insensitive to all that is happening. Your understanding of sakhi bhava is incorrect. Please revisit the videos. It is essential that these sessions are attended with complete attention otherwise one can form incorrect concepts. If you do not understand something, you must revise it again. Understand that the mind is not always attentive because it assumes that it knows a lot. But in reality, it does not. When one is in Sakshi Bhava, one does not act out of raaga/dvesha which means not acting out of anger/hatred/jealousy/passion, etc.

Ask yourself, whenever you have acted out of these emotions, has your action been fruitful? Obviously not. It has only generated guilt and regret. This guilt and regret is just an agami seed again. One gets trapped in the cycle of Sanchita-Prarabha-Agami and remains stuck. This is called Bondage. The only way out of this bondage is to drop the raaga/dvesha and act spontaneously being a sakshi. If its still unclear, go back to Ashtavakra 1 again and revise. Happy swadhyaya!