Choice

Someone once said: 'All actions are ruled by three aspects, attraction, repulsion or neutral'....

Agreed, different words for the same idea could be: positive, negative, neutral. These are in fact the three gunas acting and interacting with each other, rajas the positive, tamas the negative, sattva the harmonizing neutral. Rajas and tamas are at war with each other, their eternal conflict is the basis of all the creative and destructive tendencies we experience in the world. The incarnations of Brahma are the benevolent creative rajasic types, the incarnations of Siva the malevolent destructive tamasic types, and whatever guna predominates in yourself, so you become attracted to other people of the same guna type, and conversely repelled by the opposite type. The incarnations of Visnu are the types who are the maintainers in society, those who naturally gravitate to the work of keeping it all going. Brahmas are attracted to cultured Sarasvati's, Sivas to voluptous Kalis and Visnus to maternal Lakshmis.

Sarasvatis are noble, beautiful, lovers of culture and wisdom, they have light and love in their eyes, their ears are large and plainly shaped, their legs are strong practical and relatively unattractive. Kalis are ignoble, they are lovers of the dark arts, they have blackness and malevolence in their eyes, their high cheek bones, flared nostrils and subtle primitive facial features are not genuinely beautiful, their ears are pointed or kinked, but their legs are perfect and very beautiful. Lakshmis are neither noble nor ignoble, often they are quite ordinary and plain looking although sometimes they have a sweet homely appearance, they are lovers of children, family happiness, wealth and good fortune, look deeply into their eyes and you will see utter slyness there, their ears are of medium size and simply formed, their legs are heavy with the calf muscles distinctively pulled down towards mother earth. These are the main characteristics by which each of the three main types of women may be recognized. Mate with a Sarasvati and you will live a creative cultured life, mate with a Lakshmi and you will spend your life rearing children and amassing a family fortune, mate with wild sexually dissolute Kali and you will end as one of the skulls in her necklace, as is the usual fate of all her lovers.
 
In Karma Yoga Schools it is taught that the aim is to come under the will of Brahman. Critics of Karma Yoga say that there is an error in such a principle because when you say you are doing Brahman's will it is merely the 'I' or ego making the choice to be 'neutral'..... To that objection one could reply like this... Yes, it looks like the I or ego is making the choice to commit 'suicide'. The ego has to fade away. It depends what you want, whether you are completely happy with your nature, and want to stay as an individual, or whether you can't stand your nature and are in search of a lost finer self. Because the genuine self is everything you may realize that the I or ego is not yourself, it is actually an imposter that has taken possession of one. Brahman is everything, therefore the true oneself is everything and not an individual. Brahman is unity, and it depends if that wholeness, oneness, is what you want. Because we identify with the I, with the ego, we are apprehensive about dissolving ourselves into the whole, fearing loss of identity. The I doesn't want to lose its grip on one, it doesn't want to be annihilated.

It is always the I or ego which believes it has choice, and can do, and that it does the deciding and performs all the actions. But careful observation shows that everything just happens, and the self never does anything, including making choices. It is your nature, prakriti, that is acting through the body and mind, not you. Advaita says the only thing that is possible is for you to change your attitude. Attitude is free, and is not determined. You can change your attitude to what is happening, either you can enjoy it, or resent it, or you can regard it with equanimity. If you have a nature which decides to do and say whatever is necessary in the moment, then you happen to come under the will of the all, Brahman, if you have a nature which ignores or neglects what is necessary then you happen to come under the will of the unseen force which suggests, induces and controls your separate egoism. It is your attitude to what is happening that makes some difference. We are not our natures, we have become identified and entangled with parkriti (Nature). Because we are identified with our I, our me, it is very difficult to see this. Only the witness, the sakshin, can see this clearly.

Be the witness.