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Bonding of Karma (Bandha)
133
efficient and lawful system that one gets unhappiness, happiness, etc. exactly in accordance with the fruition of the
then arising Karma. Question: If a cook is also a Nimitta and the arising Karma are
also Nimitta then why do we give credit to Karma only? Answer: We should be thankful to cook, host, cashier, etc. also.
However, when work is done by us for others or others could not do work for us then this logic of Karma may be useful in reducing our ego, anger, guilt, fear, etc. These stanzas are not meant to make any list of recipients of 'thanks'. The main theme of these stanzas is to express this point that just as in the transaction of money between a customer and a cashier, the cashier neither gives money from his pocket nor puts any money in his pocket; in the same way, in a deeper sense, during all worldly interactions, one cannot control happiness of other persons. (Despite such independence, through stanzas 259 and 260 we would learn further that one gets bonded by sin Karma if one desires to make others unhappy and one gets bonded by virtuous Karma if one desires to make others happy.) To illustrate this point further, we may consider one eample: Mahesh gets a gift voucher from Suresh and enjoys dinner in a restaurant with his family. The dinner is served by a waiter, Bunty. In this scenario we ask a question: Who is to be considered as the provider of the dinner? Suresh or Bunty? Their five-year old child may name Bunty, his wife may name Suresh, and here these stanzas name 'the fruit of their Karma'. Depending on the objective/purpose of the questioner, different answers may be appropriate in our day-to-day life. For example, for paying the tip, the appropriate answer would be Bunty. However, the answer provided by these stanzas is highly valuable in resolving various kinds of conflicts and
