I know I do. I almost always give up alcohol Yoga poses inversions , with the exception of when I gave up drinking for three years to help me quit Yoga poses inversions smoking. This year, I had given up drinking alcohol and Yoga poses inversions eating red meat . . . again. I had tried giving up the latter once before Yoga poses inversions for a New Year’s resolution a few years back, with the intention of slowly weaning myself off a meat-eatmg diet and easing into a vegetarian one. It was painless, so the following year I upped the ante and tried to cut out all poultry, too.
The karma discourse among the Kshatriyas and Brahmins became a strong ideological tool controlling the masses by convincing them to accept and reproduce social differences and conditions. Expressed in the terms of Cultural Studies (Wikipedia link) the karma sign was hegemonic (Wikipedia link) : it made those in a subordinate and marginal social position accept and understand their situation as natural and given.
However the karma discourse was at the same time a double-edged sword. Its accompanying Axial Age rationalism, universalism and ethical outlook were in direct conflict with the Indian caste society, with its ritual foundation, its tribalism and its differentiation of living beings (Gombrich 2009, Obeyesekere 2002). When the karma sign was given meaning in an Axial Age episteme, it did not fit well into the emerging class society. This side of the edge of the karma sword was exploited by especially by the Buddhists. They attacked the caste society and they often reached out towards the masses by promoting Axial Age compassion, equality and universalism.
