LOKĀḤ SAMASTĀḤ SUKHINO BHAVANTU
May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.
Let’s look more closely at this invocational mantra:
This is a prayer each one of us can practice every day. It reminds us that our relationships with all beings and things should be mutually beneficial if we ourselves desire happiness and liberation from suffering. No true or lasting happiness can come from causing unhappiness to others. No true or lasting freedom can come from depriving others of their freedom. If we say we want every being to be happy and free, then we have to question everything that we do—how we live, how we eat, what we buy, how we speak, and even how we think.
Karma means “action.” It covers all actions—thought, word, and deed. The law of karma says that for every action there is a reaction. Albert Einstein was reminding us of the law of karma when he pointed out that space is curved. Whatever is thrown out there will eventually but inevitably find its way back to its origin, so we should be careful about what we choose to think, say, or do, because we will be revisited by our actions in due time.
This may be a difficult idea for some of us to grasp, as we have been so thoroughly conditioned by our culture of slavery, violence, and denial. We have been told over and over again that we don’t have to take responsibility for our actions and that our individual actions don’t matter much to the whole—much less to ourselves. But they do matter; in fact, they are probably the most important and defining aspect of how our future world will be shaped. We ensure our own future suffering by what we do to animals now. These warnings date back thousands of years to the Yoga Sutras, whose dictates are as relevant today as they were then. We each weave our own tangled web of karma and will most certainly become entangled in it, as our reality is being created from our own actions.
The practices of yoga can guide us toward right action and a lifestyle guided by compassionate concern for the happiness of others. The first step toward understanding the link between how we treat others and our own happiness and liberation is to look at the deeper aspects of what the practice of yoga may be able to reveal to us.