The Role of The Satguru
Responsibly resolving karma is among the most important reasons that a satguru is necessary in a sincere seeker’s life. The guru helps the devotee to hold his mind in focus, to become pointedly conscious of thought, word and deed, and to cognize the lessons of each experience. Without the guidance and grace of the guru, the devotee’s mind will be divided between instinctive and intellectual forces, making it very difficult to resolve karma. And only when karma is wisely harnessed can the mind become still enough to experience its own superconscious depths.
The guru guides and also shares a bit of the heavier burdens, if one is fortunate enough to be dedicated enough to have a guru who will lend his powers in this way. But each aspect of the karma, the outgrowth of the dharma, must be passed through by the disciple, creating as little as possible of a similar karma on this tenuous path of the repetition of the cycles of life.
The guru is able, because of his enlightenment or tapas, or as his tapas, to take upon himself the karma of another. Just what exactly does this mean? You have already found such persons at the moment of your birth—your mother and your father, who, perhaps unknowingly, took the full impact of your dharma, and continue to take the impact of the karma you create, deeply within their nerve systems. If your karma is of a heavy nature, it could disrupt the entire home, and they could suffer because of it. On the other hand, if your dharma is devonic, full of merit accrued by generosity, good deeds and graciousness in your former life, your presence in their home is a blessing, and the force of your arrival may mitigate influences in their minds of an uncomely nature, bringing peace, harmony and forbearance into the home. The guru may take unto himself, into his nerve system, some of the heavier areas of your karma in the same way your parents performed this function for you perhaps unknowingly.
Planetary changes activate new karmas and close off some of the karmas previously activated. These karmas then wait in abeyance, accumulating new energy from current actions, to be reactivated at some later time. These karmic packets become more refined, life after life, through sādhana. All of this is summed up by one word, evolution.
The planets do not cause the events or the vibrations that individuals react to either positively or negatively. The magnetic pulls of light or the absence of light release that which is already there within the individual. If not much is there, not much can be released. The magnetic pulls and the lack of magnetism are what jyotisha (Vedic astrology) is telling us is happening at every point in time. Two things—magnetism and its absence. On and off. Light and dark. With and without. Action and no action. Therefore, these keys release within the individual what was created when other keys were releasing other karmas. It is our reaction to karmas through lack of understanding that creates most karmas we shall experience at a future time. The sum total of all karmas, including the journey through consciousness required to resolve them, is called saṁsāra.
Dharma is like a box, made of restraints and observances. The box contains karma. It allows an individual to work through his birth karmas and prevent unseemly new karmas from being created to be worked out in the next life. Without the guidance of dharma, the individual is free to make all kinds of new karma.