Talk:The Complexity of Karm:Necessity of a Perfect Judge of Our Actions

By Vishal Agarwal

Every complex society has a formal code of law or conduct that defines different crimes and their corresponding punishments. And yet, we need courts of law and competent judges who examine and evaluate alleged crimes and their doers to determine the appropriate quantum of punishment. Likewise, every large business corporation has guidelines for reward and merit (salary raise, etc., and bonus) for employees based on their performance. But it takes a human manager with first-hand knowledge of his employee performance to determine the exact reward and merit increase for his employees.

Likewise, our sacred texts and those who know and practice their teachings have spelled out detailed guidelines on evil and pious Karm-s and their respective fruit that we get. Given the complexity of Karm discussed above, how can we be sure that everyone gets the just deserts of their actions? Several solutions have been provided in the Dharmic traditions:

1. The Vedic ceremonial traditions (in Brāhmaṇa, Kalpasūtra texts) define quite rigidly the procedures of these ceremonies (Yajnas) and the result to be expected from them. In later ages, the scholars of the Pūrva Mīmāṃsā tradition like Shabara postulated that performance of Yajnas created an entity called ‘apūrva’ which connected the performer of the Yajna with the result at a later time, or even after he had died. It might be noted that the Pūrva Mīmāṃsā Sūtras themselves do not advocate the concept of ‘apūrva’. Furthermore, they do not discuss the role of Īshvara in this matter simply because it is beyond their scope of discussion.
2. Followers of other Darshanas like Vaisheshika postulate that our actions lead to an entity called ‘adriṣhṭa’ (the ‘unseen’) which later connects the doer with the results of his deeds, either later in the present life or in a future life. They do not deny the agency of Īshvara in the operation of ‘adriṣhṭa’. The Nyāya Darshana states that Īshvara accords the respective fruit of Karm to the doers. In later times, these two Darshanas got fused and it was accepted that, this connection is implemented by the Divine Bhagavān.
3. Yog Darshana declares that performance of each Karm results in ‘saṃskāra-s’ that are material and reside within the mind of the doer. Even when the doer dies, the mind, with these ‘samskāra-s’ stored in them transmigrates with the Jīva, ensuring that the Jīva can reap the results of the deeds even in the next life or lives at an appropriate time. It might be noted that Yog Darshana does not deny the role of Īshvara in dispensing the fruit of actions on the doer but is simply silent on His role in this matter.
4. The Sāṃkhya Darshana denies the role of the Divine Bhagavān in dispensing the fruit of actions to the doers because the actions are self-sufficient in bestowing their fruit on the doer at a later time.
5. The Buddhists and Jains have developed very extensive lists of deeds, their classifications and so on and have mapped them laboriously to their respective results so that the process of reaping the respective fruit of each karm becomes a very mechanical or automatic one. A detailed discussion on Buddhist and Jain theories is outside the scope of the present compilation.

Any theory (like the last two mentioned above) that actively denies the role of any intelligent and all-knowing Īshvara in connecting the doer with the effects of his Karm at a later period and in a future life fails to explain the following aspects of the Law of Karm:

1. If the latent effects of Karm reside completely inside the mind of the human doer before manifesting as the fruit of these actions, how do we explain cases like a lion devouring the doer? Does this mean that his mind brought the doer in front of the lion to be mauled to death or did the latent effects from the mind of the doer transfer to the lion and motivate the beast to maul the human being?
2. Natural calamities like an avalanche can result in deaths. How can the Karm of the doers initiate the avalanche to bury them alive?
3. Many external factors affect the moral evaluation of our Karm-s. If the latent effects are stored mechanically inside one’s mind or somewhere else, how do we ensure that the doer reaps a fruit that is just and takes into account all these external factors? After all, even in the real world, we need live and wise judges to arrive at a correct judgment despite the existence of codes of law.
4. When the universe comes to an end, the entire material universe, including our minds that store the latent effects of our deeds, are destroyed. In the next cycle of creation, when the minds are created afresh and conjoined to the Jīva-s, how will each Jīva get a mind that has the exact residual latent effects of Karm that he had in the previous cycle of creation?

All theories of the Law of Karm that do not include the role an intelligent, all-knowing Judge who evaluates our actions correctly cannot explain scenarios like the four listed above. Therefore, the dominant streams of Hindu thought like Veda, Vedānta, Nyāya, Bhakti and other genres of Hindu scriptures declare that Īshvara oversees and implements the Law of Karm.