He said that as we choose to sacrifice certain habits for Yoga poses in nature Lent, we need to be sure that they are sacrifices for God, and not only Yoga poses in nature for ourselves. Many Christians give up something for Lent. Typically it is alcohol, coffee, or sugar, or something similarly bad for us that we enjoy. It feels like a huge sacrifice, but it isn’t really much of one at all because our intentions are misdirected. He told a story of a man who’d been on the Weight Watchers program all year long. The man confessed to him that it was so much easier to stay on the program during Lent. This implied that Lent was a time for him to recommit himself to his daily commitments, but not necessarily a time of sacrifice. Most of us tend to choose things to give up that we know we can do without anyway.
Thus the karma doctrine was from the very beginning interlinked with the emerging institution of castes (varna) (Chatterji 2007, Bandyopadhyaya 2008 ). Karma explained and legitimised the caste society, which was crystallising. Those who followed the rules governing their caste would be reborn under good conditions, but those who did not would be reborn as the lowest of the low, those who were powerful and those who were poor reaped what they had sown. According to Chandogya Upanishad:
Now, people whose behaviour is pleasant can expect to enter a pleasant womb, like that of the Brahmin, the Kshatriya and Vashiya class. But people of foul behaviour can expect to enter a foul womb, like that of a dog, a pig, or an outcaste woman. ( 5.10.7)
