The Whole Map

Karma is doing, and what doing leaves behind (karma). A seed.

The self that wills is where karma starts (volition). A finger on the button.

Karma is memory (kirat). A path worn in grass.

Four memories we share: elemental, atomic, evolutionary, genetic (collective karma). Stardust.

Four memories of our own: karmic, sensory, articulate, inarticulate (individual karma). An iceberg.

Everything stored (sanchit). A warehouse.

How it began. Before the first box.

The portion for this life (prarabdh). The pack, and the arrow already in flight.

What we do now, and what it becomes (kriyaman and agami). The arrow in the hand.

Choosing from liking and disliking breeds more (karma vriddhi). The bird and the bait.

Inclusion does not entangle (all-inclusive). The langar row.

Action from tera burns karma (karma nashana). Fire, not seed.

The door (karam, nadar). A door opened from the other side.

Living it (Hukam). Walking.

Words to know

• Agami (ਆਗਾਮੀ): what is coming. The part of today's deed that is laid by to ripen later.
• Articulate memory: what you can call up on purpose and put into words.
• Atomic memory: the long history of the matter you are made of.
• Brahm giani (ਬ੍ਰਹਮ ਗਿਆਨੀ): one who knows God.
• Elemental memory: the nature of the matter you are made of: solid, flowing, burning, moving, and the space that holds them.
• Evolutionary memory: the shape of a human body, carried by the whole human race.
• Genetic memory: the features of your own family line.
• Gurbani (ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ): the Guru's word, gathered in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
• Haumai (ਹਉਮੈ): I, me. The self that says I did it, this is mine.
• Hukam (ਹੁਕਮ): God's will. The living order that runs through all things. Not fate: it holds the given, the law of deeds, our freedom, and grace.
• Inarticulate memory: what acts on you from below the reach of thought and words.
• Karam (ਕਰਮ): from Arabic and Persian. Kindness, a gift freely given, grace.
• Karma (ਕਰਮ): from Sanskrit. Three things in order: the act, the mark it leaves in the doer, and the fruit that ripens from the mark.
• Karmic memory: what your own repeated doing has made of you, felt as a pull to act.
• Karma nashana: action that clears karma instead of adding to it. It comes from a heart that does not grasp, whether the deed is great or small.
• Karma vriddhi: action that breeds more karma. It comes from grasping, even when the deed itself is good.
• Kirat (ਕਿਰਤੁ): the push of all that we have done. All the marks together, pressing in one direction.
• Kriyaman (ਕ੍ਰਿਯਮਾਣ): what is being done. The act of this moment.
• Langar (ਲੰਗਰ): the Guru's free kitchen, where all sit in the same row.
• Nadar (ਨਦਰਿ): the kind glance of God. Grace.
• Naam (ਨਾਮੁ): God's Name. The One remembered with love.
• Prarabdh (ਪ੍ਰਾਰਬਧ): already set in motion. The part of the store already ripening in this life.
• Raag and dvesh: attraction and aversion, liking and disliking.
• Sanchit (ਸੰਚਿਤ): gathered, laid by. Every mark of past deeds still waiting to ripen.
• Sensory memory: what came in through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin.
• Seva (ਸੇਵਾ): service freely given.
• Tera (ਤੇਰਾ): yours. Also the number thirteen in Punjabi.
• Volition: the power to will. It is not haumai; haumai is the claim, I did this, that rides on the will.

Where these ideas come from

Every Gurmukhi line in this book is taken word for word from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Where a line already appears in Wahe World's bani readers, the English here uses the same words. The other lines were rendered into English for this book. In order: Japji Sahib (pauris 1, 2, 4, 20, 21, 28, and 29, and the closing salok); Asa Ki Vaar (the salok of Guru Angad, Ang 466, and Ang 474); Guru Nanak in Raag Maru (Ang 990); Bhagat Pipa in Raag Dhanasari (Ang 695); Guru Arjan in Raag Gauri (Ang 176); Guru Nanak's Asa Patti (Ang 432 and 433); Guru Amar Das in Sorath Ki Vaar (Ang 651); Guru Amar Das's Asa Chhant (Ang 440 and 441); Sukhmani Sahib (ashtpadis 8, 9, and 21); Guru Arjan in Raag Asa (Ang 394); Guru Arjan in Raag Kanra (Ang 1299); Guru Ram Das in Gauri Ki Vaar (Ang 308); Guru Arjan's Barah Maha (Ang 133 and 134); Guru Tegh Bahadur in Raag Sorath (Ang 633); Guru Nanak in Raag Suhi (Ang 729).

The accounts of Guru Nanak at Sultanpur, of Guru Nanak and Sajjan, and of Bhai Kanhaiya at Anandpur are sakhis of the Sikh tradition, told here in our own words.

The four names of karma, sanchit, prarabdh, kriyaman, and agami, belong to the old thinkers of India. So does the picture of the archer and her arrows.

With gratitude: the way this book lays out the eight kinds of memory, the warehouse, and the trap in choosing follows the clear teaching of Sadhguru in Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny (2021). The words here are our own.

That cells which fire together wire together sums up a theory of learning put forward by Donald Hebb in 1949. That the atoms of our bodies were made in stars long ago is plain astronomy. Whether a grandparent's hardship can leave marks that are handed down is still being studied, and the book says so.