Talk:Karma

By Swami Harshananda, and Vishal Agarwal

Karma literally means ‘that which is done’.

It is one of the most widely used words in religion. It is derived from the root-verb ‘kṛ’, its general meaning is anything that is done. In this sense, it means:

• Work
• Profession
• Duty

In technical sense, it means an action that binds one to sansāra or trans-migratory existence. This type of karma can be accomplished either by the body, speech or mind. They are:

1. Kāyika - actions by body
2. Vācika - actions by speech
3. Mānasa - actions by mind

Occasionally the word ‘karma’ is also used to indicate the sanskāra or sacraments.

Nature of Karma

Sometimes, karma or actions are classified according to their nature, good or bad. They are:

• Sāttvika - actions done without being tainted by the selfish motives but with noble intent
• Rājasika - actions done with the selfish motive but without ill intentions
• Tāmasika - actions performed with the evil designs to harm others

Results of Karma

Karma has the potential to produce its fruits. It can be classified as:

1. Sañcita - accumulated over several lives
2. Prārabdha - begun to bear fruit in this life
3. Āgāmī - being performed now and in future

Karma, As per Philosophy

All the darśanas or philosophies that accept this theory of karma also concede that:

• The effects of karma done in one life do not necessarily exhaust in the same life. Hence punarjanma or rebirth has to be accepted.
• Jñāna or spiritual wisdom from the realization of one’s nature as the immortal soul destroys sañcitakarma completely.
• Self realization makes āgāmi incapable of producing its results just as the burnt seed cannot sprout.
• Prārabdhkarma starts giving results in the same life. It exhausts only through experiences.

Karma, as per Other Viewpoint

• From another standpoint, karma is of two types:

1. Niṣiddhakarma - prohibited or sinful actions
2. Vihitakarma - actions ordained by the scriptures as duty to be performed

• Vihitakarma is further of three types:

1. Kāmyakarma - desire-motivated actions
2. Nityakarma - daily duties
3. Naimittikakarma - occasional duties

Kāmyakarma : It is performed to fulfill a desire that otherwise cannot be fulfilled by normal human efforts. For instance, the Putrakāmeṣṭi rite is said to have been performed by the king Daśaratha to get worthy sons. This vrata belongs to this category. Several vratas like the Satyanārāyaṇa vrata are common even now.

Nityakarma : Nityakarma include the daily rites prescribed by the scriptures. These karmas include:

• Sandhyā-vandana
• Repetition of the Gāyatri mantra
• Repetition of Agnihotra

Naimittikakarma : Naimittikakarmas have to be performed due to certain nimittas or the presence of special causes. For instance, during an eclipse, śrāddha have to be done.

Karma - "What Happens when We Die - Ātmagatividyā and Punarjanma" The first cause of rebirth is to reap the fruit of prior Karmas that had not ripened in the last life. Hindu Dharma teaches that the Jīva is reborn to bear the consequences of its past karma. Ian Stevenson found that there was no evidence that a person who had led a moral life earlier was reborn into a better socioeconomic status, or that a person who had led an immoral life in the past was reborn into an inferior status. However, he admits the possibility that the effects of karma on the next life need not be external (e.g. on the socio-economic status), but instead, they can be internal, i.e., in terms of joys and sorrows experienced. He explains how this explanation provides hope for human existence:

“Although the cases provide no evidence for a process like retributive karma, this does not mean that conduct in one life cannot have effects in another. Such effects, however, would not occur externally in the material conditions of successive lives, but internally in the joys and sorrows experience. In this respect – and in it alone. I think – the cases provide hope for improvement in ourselves from one life to another. The subjects frequently demonstrate interests, aptitudes, and attitudes corresponding to those of the persons whose lives they remember. These similarities occur not only in matters of vocation but also in behavior towards other persons, that is, in the sphere of moral conduct. One child counts every rupee he can grasp, like the acquisitive businessman whose life he remembers; but another gives generously to beggars, just as the pious woman whose life she remembers did. One young boy aims a stick at passing policemen, as if to shoot them, as did the bandit whose life he remembers; but another solicitously offers medical help to his playmates in the manner of the doctor whose life he remembers.”

In fact, Hindu Dharma considers the doctrine of rebirth as a corollary and a natural consequence of the doctrine of rebirth. Rebirth happens because we must reap the fruit of all our actions, and we see that one does not necessarily reap the fruit of all the actions performed in his present life.

Virtuous karma (punya) leads to a virtuous world, and evil acts to a sinful world. Both of them (i.e., a mixture) lead to the world of men (i.e., to a human birth). Atharvaveda, Prashna Upanishad 3.7'

The ātmā which is affected by the bright and dark fruits of karma enters a good or an evil womb. Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Upanishad 3.1 According to his karma, the embodied ātmā successively assumes different forms in different places. Shvetāshvatara Upanishad 5.11b Karma is the cause of the production of the body and therefore its union with the ātmā. Nyāyasūtra 3.2.70 Experiences of pleasure and of pain are the results of virtuous and evil actions respectively. Yoga Sūtra of Patanjali 2.14 He who performs binding karmas with his current body has to reap their results in a future birth. Just as one can infer the seed from its fruit, and the fruit from the seed. Charaka Samhitā, Sūtrasthāna 11.31 Evil as well as virtuous deeds indeed all bear fruit. That fruit does not get destroyed away even in a hundred lives till it is experienced by the doer. Nārada Purāņa 2.29.18 In this world, good and evil karmas do not get destroyed till they have reaped their fruit. The fruit of every karma depends on the karma (whether it is good or evil) and due to this, the soul assumes another body upon the death of its previous body so that it can reap the fruit of its karma done in the past. Anugita 3.1 Whichever good or evil Karmas a person does with his body in this life, he has to reap their fruit in the future. Anugita 3.12 Man enjoys only the fruits of his previous actions; whatever he has done in the previous births has its reactions now. Garuda Purāņa 1.113.18 The sinner is born again and again and dies again and again till he has exhausted his sin and acquired virtue. Garuda Purāņa 2.3.84

Those who have reached heaven as a result of prior good karma eventually exhaust the fruit of their noble deeds and are then reborn as human beings to resume their spiritual journey.

After a person has exhausted the results (fruit) from the performance of yajnas and charitable acts (ishtāpūrta) in heaven, he has to be reborn. Yajurveda, Taittiriya Brahmana 3.11.8.10

Dwelling in manifold ignorance, these children gloat egotistically, “We have achieved our goals.” As these ritualists do not know (the truth) due to their attachment, they fall (to earth) when their (heavenly) worlds obtained by the performance of yajnas are exhausted and become miserable (again). Muṇdaka Upanishad 1.2.9

Krishna said: The knowers of the threefold Vedas who drink the soma (juice), and are purified of evil, worshipping Me with yajnas, seek the goal of heaven. They reach the holy world of Indra and enjoy the celestial pleasures of the Devas in heaven. Gita 9.20

Having enjoyed the vast realm of heaven, they then enter the world of mortals when their merit is exhausted. Thus, conforming to the Dharmas of the threefold Vedas, desirous of enjoyment, they attain to the state of coming and going. Gita 9.21

The soul never gets eternal happiness anywhere, it is not able to stay permanently in any abode. No matter how exalted abodes the soul reaches after a lot of troublesome efforts, it eventually falls from these abodes. Anugita 1.30

Even the dissolution of the current universe does not stop an ātmā from being reborn in the next cycle of creation and reaping the fruit of its prior actions.

At the time of pralaya, the Devas who have not yet exhausted the fruit (= abode in heaven) of their good karmas are then reborn in heaven during the next cycle of creation. Whereas those Devas who had exhausted the fruit of their karma before the pralaya are then reborn as humans when the next cycle of creation starts. Mahābhārata 12.272.52 In the next creation, Bhagavān connects each Jīvātmā with the residual karma from the previous cycle of creation. The cycle of creation and destruction of the universe, and karma are both without a beginning. Brahmasūtra 2.1.35

All people bear the fruits of their actions. The good and evil deeds do not disappear or abate even after the elapse of a million kalpas (eons). It is due to the influence of karmas that a being is born in the realm of Brahma, Indra, and Surya; It is due to karma that a being is born among human beings and it is due to karmas that it takes birth as an animal, etc. and due to karmas goes to hell and heaven. Due to one’s karma, one becomes a great king or a servant. It is on account of karmas that a person becomes beautiful or diseased…Karma makes people rich and poor, karma causes a person to be born into a high family and it is due to karma that a person becomes a thornlike relation. It is due to one’s karma that a person acquires an excellent wife and a good son and remains happy. It is due to one’s karma that a person is without a son, has an evil wife, or is a widower. Brahmavaivarta Purāņa 3.11.19-24

References

• The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore