Cyber cadet, Jutikadevi, asks Gurudeva if we take on karma when watching certain television programs. Gurudeva says if you are not emotionally affected by what is going on the television screen then this indicates that those karmas you have gone through and now you are no longer affected by it.

Unedited Transcript:

A cyber cadet in Atlanta, Georgia, Chudikadevi wonders about television. "Do you take on karma, make new karma by watching television programs in which somebody gets killed or hurt?"

If the television program that you are watching affects you emotionally and you get totally involved within it, but the characters on the screen are not like you at all and very possibly won't experience these experiences in this life, perhaps you are going through experiences, emotionally and mentally, of a previous life and working out that karma.

When you are totally unaffected by what you see on the television screen, it would indicate that you have already worked through those karmas and they no longer affect you, emotionally or mentally.

Should you remember what you saw the night before in the morning, then play it again the next day. You will not be as interested as you were, when you were taken up in the emotion of the program. Now, you are an adult and you can handle your mind in this way. But, children are deeply impressed with, "This is how life is going to be when I grow up. This is how I should live and face experiences, how I should think about things and react."

Our Nandinatha sutra tells us that we are only to watch television two hours a day, no more. Less would even be better.

You can watch the forms on the TV screen and be caught up in the emotion. It will awaken memories of the past and fears of the future. But, if you simply shift your consciousness to the light which shines through those forms, it is the same light that shines through your thinking mind, that lights your thoughts. That light is coming from God. Siva is the light of your mind.