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by Jayaram V
The law of karma is a simple and straightforward concept according
to which
beings, not just men, are rewarded or punished according to their
own actions and intentions. Thus good actions and intentions reap
good rewards and bad actions and intentions result in suffering
and pain. With some minor variations this concept is common to Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. In Islam we find some echoes of it
in such declarations of Quran as "Whoever does a good deed
he shall be repaid ten fold and whoever does evil, he shall be repaid
with evil." We have every reason to believe that Jesus was aware
of the law of karma. He willingly agreed to take over the karma
of all his followers and free them from sin as long as they acknowledged
him as their savior, repented for their actions and made a true
confession of their actions before God. He suffered on the cross
because he took over the karma of many people during his lifetime
upon earth and he continues to do so even after his departure. In
the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna makes a similar promise. He promises
salvation for all those who willingly offer all their actions to
Him, accepting Him as the real doer, with a sense of detachment,
and without desiring the fruit of their actions. The main difference
between the eastern and western religions is that in Islam and Christianity
you commit sin against the law of God, where as in Hinduism and
related religions, you commit sin against yourself by your own actions.
The Meaning of Karma
In simple terms, the law of karma suggests that a person's mental
and physical actions are binding. Through our actions or inactions
and our intention behind them we bind ourselves to Prakriti and
cycle of births and deaths. Broadly speaking, karma means not only
actions, but also the intentions and consequences associated with
each action. In ancient times, karma originally meant sacrificial
or ritual acts. Karmakanda meant body of rituals and sacrificial
ceremonies we were expected to perform as a part of our moral and
social responsibility. However as the time went by it came to be
associated with all intentions and actions that had consequences
and were binding in nature. The Bhagavadgita went a step ahead and
included the desire for fruit of one's action also as binding.
The law of karma has its echoes in the scientific world also.
We find it in Newton's law motion, according to which every actions
has an equal and opposite reaction. The law of karma is very much
verifiable in real life. We all have seen in our own lives, and
in nature too, that we reap what we sow. Our successes and failures
are mostly products of our own thoughts and actions. If we think
positively and act positively, very likely we will succeed. On the
contrary if we think and act negatively, very likely we will bring
negativity and suffering upon ourselves. Sometimes inspite of all
the good work and sincere intentions, we may reap negative consequences.
A student may prepare well for his exam, but may fail. A very evil
and wicked person may earn the jackpot or become owner of a successful
business venture. The theory of karma has a convincing explanation
such situations. The current events in our lives need not necessarily
be determined by our previous actions in this very life, but also
by the actions we did in our previous lives. This explains why sometimes
there is a disconnect between our actions and consequences, why
bad people often seem to enjoy success and prosperity, while good
people seem to suffer despite their best actions and intentions.
Some Beliefs About Karma
Some of the beliefs associated with karma are well known: that
it is a self-correcting mechanism, that it binds beings to the cycle
of births and deaths, that it is caused by desires and the activities
of the senses, that it is responsible for the evolution of beings
from one stage to another and that it is possible to reverse
the bondage caused by law of karma through various means.
It is also believed that just as each person incurs karma through
his or her actions, actions performed as groups also give rise to
collective karma that would impact their collective future. According
to this belief, nations, organizations and associations also incur
karma because of the collective actions and decisions of the people
who are part of them. If a nation is oppressed by another, people
belonging to the nation that is acting as the oppressor incur bad
karma and have to repay for the actions of their country through
their own lives. Same is the case with groups and nations that follow
a policy of religious intolerance or economic exploitation. We
should realize that environmental pollution and degradation is a
direct result of our indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources
and the mass annihilation of millions of innocent animals, whose
consequences we suffer in the form of natural disasters, greenhouse
effects, new diseases and scarcity of raw materials.
According to Hindu scriptures, the law of karma is universal.
Even gods are subject to it. Some Puranas declare that the trinity
of gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, have attained their current positions
of divine responsibilities because of their meritorious actions
in the previous cycles of creation. Lord Krishna himself said to
have died because of the unintentional action of a hunter, who stuck
an arrow in his toe, mistaking it to be a rabbit, as a consequences
of his own act of killing Bali from behind a tree in a deceptive
manner in his previous incarnation as Lord Rama.
The Types of Karma
To explain situations like the one mentioned above, Hinduism
recognizes four types of karma operating in our lives simultaneously.
They are:
- Sanchita Karma. It is sum total of the accumulated karma
of previous lives. It is the burden of your past, which is in
your account and which needs to be exhausted at some stage in
your existence.
- Prarabdha Karma. It is that part of your sanchita karma
which is currently activated in your present life and which
influences the course of your present life. Depending upon the
nature of your actions, you are either exhausting it or creating
more karmic burden for yourself.
- Agami Karma. It is the karma that arises out of your current
life activities, whose consequences will be experienced by you
in the coming lives. It is usually added to the account of your
sanchita karma.
- Kriyamana Karma. This is the karma whose consequences are
experienced right now or in the near future or distant future,
but in any case in this very life.
If something happens unexpectedly against our intentions and
despite our good efforts, Hindus believe it be the Prarabdha or
the consequence of actions performed in their previous lives. There
is nothing much we can do about it, except seeking divine intervention
and exhaust it through our current actions. Such is said to be the
power of prarabdha karma that only the serious minded devotees and
servants of God are freed from it by His grace.
The traditional view of Hinduism has been that karma is a body
of obligatory duties, rites and rituals, we are expected to perform
as a part of our social, moral, family and personal responsibilities.
Same is the approach of the Mimansa (ritual) schools of Hinduism.
Hindu scriptures classify such duties into the following three categories:
- Nitya karma. These are the daily sacrifices, such as the
morning, afternoon and evening prayers and the five kinds of
sacrificial offering of food (ahuta, huta, prahuta, bali, brahmayuta,
prasita). Technically, whatever duties that we are supposed
to perform as human beings, come under this category such as
bathing, eating, praying, sleeping and so on.
- Naimittika karma. These are the duties that are to be performed
on specific occasions, such as festivals, solar and lunar eclipses,
the various samskaras such as upanayana, marriage, funeral rites
and so on.
- Kamyakarma. These are the optional duties that we perform
in order to realize a particular goal or wish, such as going
to a pilgrimage, educating one's children, buying some property,
performing a sacrificial rite wishing to attain heavenly life
and so on.
Of these, the first two are obligatory in the sense that if we
do not perform them we will incur sin. The third one is optional,
that is there is no harm in neglecting them, but there can be some
merit if we decide to pursue them in a right manner. We have to
remember that in the very concept of karma is implied the importance
of means. Whatever may be the end, if the means are not good, we
will incur sin. By studying the scriptures, by practicing morality
and by the use of buddhi (intelligence), we develop the sense of
right and wrong. However since our knowledge of right and wrong
is never perfect, there is no guarantee that by performing these
duties and actions in a right way we will always incur merit. Hence
the need to neutralize our karma in more effective ways, through
spiritual means, which are discussed below.
The Solutions To the Problem of Karma
Since no human being can escape the law of karma, it leaves us
with anxiety, especially when we know that we cannot live without
performing actions and our actions would result in consequences
for ourselves and our future. When we know that the consequences
of our actions may go beyond this life, we become even more concerned
as we are not even sure how they are going to effect our future.
Because we do not have the all round vision of the divinities, we
cannot see into the future and know what is going to happen or how
we are going to live. In these circumstances, how are we supposed
to conduct ourselves? Should we stop all action, because every action
will have some negative impact at some level? These questions
are answered in our scriptures in great detail. For the purpose
of our essay, we deal with the solutions suggested in Vaishnavism
and Saivism, the two dominant traditions of Hinduism. Both of them
agree on the point that we can reverse the consequences of our actions
through the grace and intervention of God. However they differ with
regard to the means we can employ to achieve it. More or less,
we find similar approaches in other traditions of Hinduism also.
Vaishnavism
According to Vaishnava tradition1,
kaivalya or happiness of one's true state comes only after the experience
of true self (atmanubhava). The individual jiva is truly a servant
of God, but because of ignorance and attachment, he becomes a slave
of his senses and mind and forgets his connection with God and the
true nature of himself. At some stage in his existence, after going
through several lives, he experiences despondency (nirveda) and
non-attachment (vairagya) and becomes a seeker of liberation (mumukshu).
He realizes the futility of performing meritorious acts to attain
the pleasures of heaven or success upon earth, because he finds
them to be displeasing, uninteresting and impermanent. He therefore
yearns for permanent liberation from the travails of his earthly
existence, through various means (upayas), which are especially
meant to neutralize his ongoing karma and also exhaust his previous
or prarabdha karma. These means are discussed below.
1. Jnana yoga. The first step in the path of self-realization
is to become aware that there is something more than what we see
and what we know about ourselves and our existence. Such a realization
begins to dawn upon us, as we begin to suffer from the limitations
of our existence and our own mental and physical activities. From
the study of scriptures or through a guru, we come to the realization
that we are not mere body or the mind or the senses, but the inner
self, which is permanent, eternal and infinite and shares the same
consciousness as that of the Divine. We learn how our actions have
consequences, how our desires and senses bind us to our actions,
how we are subjected to the pairs of opposites and how all this
results in the delusion of our minds. From this awareness springs
forth a genuine determination (samkalpa) to find release or freedom
from the impermanence and the limitations and the curiosity to search
for effective solutions. The purpose of jnana yoga is to develop
wisdom, so that we know who we are and what we can do to achieve
freedom from the cycle of births and deaths. This is the first stage
in our quest for God realization.
2. Karma yoga. If karma means performing our obligatory
religious, social, moral, personal and professional duties, karma
yoga means performing them with a certain attitude, in which the
desire for the fruit of action or the result and the
feelings of egoism are absent. A karma yogi performs desireless
actions (nishkama karma), with detachment, as sacrificial offerings
to God, without an eye for their results. He realizes that it is
not possible for any one to live without performing actions and
since actions create karmic consequences, he should save himself
from their impact by developing detachment from the consequences
of his actions. A karmayogi is duty bound, not desire bound. He
renounces the fruit of his actions (karmaphala sanyas), not the
action itself (karma-sanyas). Since he has no interest in the consequences
(results) of his actions, they do not bind him. He also sacrifices
his egoistic feelings in performing his duties by acknowledging
God, as his real self, doing the works through him as His instrument.
Karma yoga is considered to be easier to practice and especially
meant for people who are teachers, scientists, artists, writers,
kings, scholars and men of knowledge, who can help others and spread
the knowledge of God with detachment. King Janaka was one notable
example of a karmayogi we find in our scriptures.
3. Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga. If action is the main focus
in karma yoga, it is knowledge in jnana yoga. Jnana yoga is living
with an attitude and knowledge that the inner self (atman) is the
real self. It is considered to be more difficult to practice than
karma yoga. In this yoga, one's life and actions are illuminated
by the knowledge of self. A jnana yogi also, like a karma yogi,
does not renounce actions. He performs his actions just like a karmayogi,
without seeking the fruit of his actions. But he goes one step further
and performs them with the awareness that he is indeed neither the
body nor the mind nor the senses, but the illuminated self itself.
This is called Jnana Karma Sanyasa Yoga or renunciation of the fruit
of action through knowledge of self. It is said that a person becomes
a true jnana yogi on this path only after years of practice as a
karma yogi. By withdrawing his senses, contemplating upon his self,
controlling his thoughts, he develops equanimity towards the pairs
of opposites, such as pain and pleasure, happiness and sorrow, cold
and heat, comforts and discomforts and so on. When a person practices
jnana yoga by renouncing the fruit of his actions, he goes through
several stages of development which culminate in his self-realization,
in which he experiences the taste of his self or the state of his
self. This is called kaivalya or the joy of the realization of the
self.
4. Bhakti yoga. This is the practice of intense devotion
to God. It is considered to be the most difficult of all yogas,
because only those who had a taste of their real selves (atmanubhava)
are qualified to practice it. It is believed that a person is fit
for the yoga of devotion, though not necessarily but usually, when
one has achieved stability in karmayoga and jnanayoga after years
of practice. According to the Sri Bhasya of Ramanuja, a person who
wants to practice bhakti yoga should have the following seven qualities:
discrimination of purity and impurity (viveka), freedom from desires
(vimoka), repeated worship of God (abhyasa), performing daily duties
(kriya), practice of godly virtues (kalyana), living in the present
without brooding about the past (anavasada) and not feeling too
elated (anuddharsa). If the practice of jnana yoga results in self-realization,
the practice of bhakti yoga results in God realization.2
God can be realized only through devotion, not
by any other means. When a person becomes a true devotee, he experiences
intense devotion and longing for God, in which God becomes everything
for him. He see God in himself, everywhere, and himself in God.
He cannot stand any notion of separation from God and becomes the
very soul of God.
5. Sarangathi. Sarangathi is Complete and unconditional
Self Surrender to God. It is also known as nikshepa, nyasa, sanyasa,
tyaga and prapatti. It is prescribed for those who find the path
of devotion difficult to practice. However only those persons are
qualified to practice it, who do not have any desire other than
the desire for liberation (moksha) and who are not able to find
any means for salvation except this only. It can be practiced in
six ways, known as sadangayoga3.
They are: doing whatever that is pleasing to
God, not doing whatever this displeasing to God, having abiding
faith (mahavisvasa) in God that He would do whatever that is appropriate,
intense and desperate yearning for God's protection, surrender of
the self (atmanikshepa) and feeling helplessness (karpanya).
It also consists of surrendering the thought that "I am the doer",
surrendering the thought that "this is mine", surrendering the fruit
of one's actions and surrendering the very notion that "I can enjoy
the fruit of my action by doing works." These four forms of surrender
would make a mumukshu feel that he is completely dependent upon
God and that God is the cause of all his actions, where by he becomes
immune to the working of karma.
In the Bhagavadgita, Lord Krishna describes these paths more
or less in the same sequence and explains the importance of each.
He teaches bhakti yoga to Arjuna only after the latter is filled
with devotion, after showing him His cosmic from. The first chapter
is about suffering. The second one is about jnana yoga, the third
one is about karma yoga and the fourth one is about the practice
of jnana yoga with renunciation of action. It is only in the twelfth
chapter, after more discussion and a chapter on divine manifestation,
that we find the discourse on bhakti yoga. Many people now a days
believe that bhakti yoga is easy to practice. They confuse
ordinary devotion or superficial display of bhakti as bhakti yoga.
They go to temples, perform pooja at home or participate in some
devotional bhajans and believe it to be bhakti yoga. This is like
trying to get admission into a university, without even learning
the alphabet! Bhakti yoga is not for people, who have not conquered
their attachments, desires and ambition, who have not learned enough
about themselves or learned to live their lives selflessly with
a sense of duty. In bhakti yoga you do not pray to God to seek material
favors for yourself or your family members only. You seek God Himself
out of your intense yearning for God, without interest in anything
else. You genuine feel that your life is futile without God and
you will not rest till you find. This is the hallmark of a true
bhakti yogi. We have seen that even in the practice of sarangathi,
which is a lesser kind of bhaktiyoga, the quality of mumukshu is
a prerequisite. The ordinary bhakti that most people practice is
part of karma yoga and should be treated as such.
Saivism
Saivism, like Vaishnavism, is more like a religion rather than
a sect, with a mass following of itself. It is perhaps the oldest
of the Hindu sects. In Saivism, there are many sub sects like Siddha
Saivism, Kashmiri Saivism, Veera Saivism, Pasupatha Saivism and
so on, besides some tantric sects. It is difficult to detail the
variations and the different approaches followed by each of the
sects in this essay. So we limit our discussion to the broader aspects
of Saivism in dealing with the subject of karma.
In Saivism, the absolute highest lord of the universe is identified
as Siva or Pati (Lord), who is eternal and unbound, in contrast
to jivas (beings) or pasus (animals), who are bound to Prakriti,
or the dynamic energy of Siva, through the three pasas (bonds) or
malas (impurities), namley, anava or egoism, karma or actions with
consequences and maya or delusion. Because of these three bonds,
a jiva undergoes repeated births and deaths, till it is liberated.
Pati, pasu and pasas are thus the three most important concepts
of Saivism.
Since Saivism recognizes all the three malas as responsible for
the bondage of the beings, the emphasis is not on just karma but
on how to achieve salvation by severing all the three bonds. Different
solutions are suggested for this purpose. The Tantric texts
of Saivism prescribe four methods, or padas, namely scriptural knowledge
(vidya pada or jnana pada), practice of rituals and pooja
(kriya pada or mantra pada or karma pada), practice of yoga and
meditation such as kundalini yoga (yoga pada) and right conduct
(charya pada).
The Pasupatha sect suggests four means for liberation: moral
conduct (vasacharya), prayers (japa), meditation (dhyana) and remembering
Siva (rudra smriti). Followers of Pasupatha Saivism are usually
initiated into the path by a guru. It is believed that when a seeker
is initiated into the path by a guru, the latter frees the former
from all his previous karmas. At some stage in their development,
they engage in anti social behavior in public, as a part of their
spiritual practice, in order to attract public criticism with the
belief that when they are criticized, there will be an exchange
of karmas, so that all the good karma of those who criticize them
would be transferred to the ascetics and whatever bad karma that
is left in the ascetics would be passed on to their critics.
Followers or Saiva Siddhanta school of Saivism recognize three
types of souls: those who are bound by only one fetter only, namely
anava or egoism, those who are bound by two fetter only, namely
egoism and karma, and those who are bound by all the fetters namely,
egoism, karma and maya. This school accepts all the four padas,
jnana, kriya, yoga and charya, as the means of liberation. Diksha
or initiation into the path by a guru is considered the first and
most important step. Depending upon the caliber of his followers,
a guru prescribes one of the our margas or methods: dasa marga (path
of servant), which consists of the practice of charya (right conduct)
, satpura marga (path of son), which consists of the practice of
kriya (rituals), saha marga (path of friend), which consists of
the practice of yoga (meditation) and san marga (true path), which
consists of the practice of jnana (knowledge). As can be seen, jnana
or knowledge is considered more important than bhakti as the means
of salvation.
Whatever may be the path, the main emphasis in Saivism is on
the liberation of the soul, by making the jiva realize their Siva
tattva ( or nature of Siva) through initiation into the path by
a guru, performance of certain rituals in a dispassionate way and
acquiring the right knowledge by serving the guru and earning the
grace of Siva through him. The rituals are usually either simple
such as temple rituals or body rituals or mental rituals or rituals
of service to God, or complex rituals such as the ones practiced
by the followers of tantricism.
Conclusion
Awareness of the law of karma is an important step in the religious
life of any individual. Karma is responsible for our becoming and
being. Our problems of existence and the law of karma becomes active
only when we enter into the state of beingness. Through karma we
perpetuate this state of beingness and create our own future existence.
Karma is supposed to be a corrective mechanism, meant to refine
us gradually through our own actions, but since we are not perfect
masters, we do it rather clumsily, like blind people trying to carve
a statue out of a stone. When we realize that our thoughts, intentions
and actions lead to our bondage and suffering, we become more responsible
in what we do and how we live. We aim to lead divine centered lives,
in which our main objective would be to free ourselves from the
consequences of our own actions, without escaping from our duties
and responsibilities. The murma (secret) of karma (action) is to
consecrate both our actions and their fruit to our personal God
and cultivate purity (sattva), devotion (bhakti), equanimity and
other divine qualities enumerated in the Bhagavadgita to become
qualified for our liberation. The law of karma makes it abundantly
clear that the solution to our liberation lies in our hands and
how we go about it is left to ourselves.
Suggested Further Reading
Footnotes
1. For the purpose of
this discussion these concepts are taken mostly from the Vishishtadvaita
school of Sri Ramanuja, also known as Sri Vaishnavism and the terminology
and the concept may slightly differ from what is taught or practiced
in other schools such as Dvaita and Advaita.
2. Schools that
follow monism or advaita do not see any distinction between self-realization
and God realization. For them the practice of jnanayoga and bhaktiyoga
lead to the same experience.
3. These six angas of
sarangathi are described in the Ahirabudhanya Samhita.
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