Man's Fate and God's Choice by Bhimeswara Challa (feel good fiction books .txt) 📕

the human mind. And it highlights the connection between dharma and karma. Dharma is really that karma by which one contributes to social good and to Self- realization. Adharma is any karma that impedes man’s social obligations and his path towards spiritual growth. In all human affairs, there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result. In tune with the human swabhava (nature), man generally plans to get the fruits of his work before he even starts any kind of work. The human mind is so endowed that it cannot think of any kind of work without remuneration or reward. In real life, we want reward without effort, and assume that more effort means more ‘success’ and that any effort is moral if that is our ‘duty’. In this logic, a contract killer can say he is doing his ‘duty’ to his master, that he is being paid to do so and he has no selfish motive. A soldier kills as part of his ‘duty’ to his country. Buddhism gives particular attention to this aspect. In its eight-fold Noble Path are included Right Livelihood and Right Effort.

In short, karma is, in the famous American psychic Edgar Cayce’s words, ‘memory coming to consciousness’, and of interconnectedness, not only of cause and effect but also of individuals and of the universe. It is the casualty of energy which sets up patterns that rule our entire life experience, a universal order to give coherence and management. Every thought, word and deed leaves a karmic imprint. Every action involves give and take, and that has a karmic effect. Karmic effect begins with our birth and with the family that we are born into. One is born into a family where conditions are conducive to give effect to one’s karma and where one has significant give-and-take accounts with each member of the family, the most with those closest. According to the Spiritual Science Research Foundation, 27 percent of the ‘give-and-take’ account can be attributed to the spouse, 25 percent to parents 9 percent each to siblings, close friends, colleagues and to people in romantic relationships, and the

balance 12 percent to ‘others’.280 Percentages apart, it is obvious that the closer the intimate interactions, the greater will be the karmic fallout, both in terms of consuming past karma and acquiring new karma. A major tenet in the law of karma is that every positive deed generates a ‘merit’ while every negative deed generates a ‘demerit’ or a sin. Whenever one does a good deed to others, it is bound to give a positive return (in the form of some happiness), apart from a simple thank you from that person! Whenever one inflicts harm, it is bound to give a negative return in the form of sorrow in some form. It cannot be undone by a simple ‘Sorry’! The law of karma is infallible. As an ancient Hindu text describes: “Your wealth will remain on earth, your cattle will remain in the stables, your wife will come till the entrance door, your relatives and friends will come till the cremation ground, your body will accompany you till the funeral pyre, but on the way beyond this life, only your karmas will accompany you”. This applies to dharma as well. Throughout our lives, we are either settling an old account or creating a new one. If the account cannot be settled in this birth, as is the case most often, it is carried over to the next. We are not consciously aware of the give-and- take accounts generated in our previous births. Even the actions of others towards us are part of our karma and consequently, of their karma. For one person, it is a ‘pay-out’; for the other,

 

 

 

280 Spiritual Science Research Foundation. Accessed at: http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/articles/id/spiritualresearch/spiritualscience/lawofkarma/karma

 

it is a ‘pay-in’, an incremental addition. What is immediately painful can be earned as a credit, and what gives immediate joy can be a debt incurred. And yet, no soul is given more than it can bear to carry — this is the paradoxical blessing hidden in the limitations of time and space. Our perspective on life changes if we perceive it from this perspective. That is why traditional Hindus welcome suffering as a faster way to reduce or redeem their accumulated sins.

One of the often-heard laments is that there is no justice, that the good suffer and the bad have all the luck. Rarely do we think about how unjust we are, making the good suffer and of the times we take pleasure in our own luck at the expense of someone more worthy. It is precisely this perception that the twin doctrines of karma and dharma address and offer a plausible rationale for. They do that primarily and simply by stretching the span beyond a single life, or a lone form of life, and a particular place in the cosmos. According to this theory, you are repaid by the same amount of pain or pleasure that you caused others with your original action. It also answers another question: what determines character? It says that every thought, word and deed produce what are called samskaras or tendencies or potencies, which cling to the astral body after death and are carried over from womb to womb.

Samskaras also recreate desires in the next birth automatically. For example, a person can experience the desire to steal although he is brought up in a good family and he himself would not understand why he experiences that desire. The Manu Sastra, the treatise containing the laws of Manu, says that “a man reaps the appropriate fruit of any act in a body

that has the qualities of the frame of mind in which he committed that act.”281 The karmic  law mandates that every human wish must be fulfilled, and it is this chain that binds man to the wheel of causation. The misfortunes of our lives, according to Indian thinkers, are but the results of our misdeeds; calamities are brought about by our sins. Every tiniest act of caring or dismal deed of shame leaves a trail behind, that stretches over millions of multiple lives. It is said that where and to whom we are born, and even every specific disease we suffer, from colic pain to cancer to leprosy to impotence, are all consequences of specific sins. We reap the rewards of good deeds and pay for bad deeds not only through our behavior, but also how others, particularly the kith and kin, behave towards us, and it works both ways. Karma comes into play only in company, not in absolute isolation. Indeed nowhere, being alive, can we be in solitude; other creatures will be around and our actions affect them and their actions affect us. The more intimate the relationship, the more intense is the karma we acquire as well as spend. Strong attachments and strong dislikes are carried forward through several lives. It shows that hatred shown towards or by others is also a part of our karmic payback, as well as theirs. If someone loves you more than you do or vice versa it is also part of karmic reversal. And this applies similarly to groups, communities and clusters of individuals. It is important to note that every action produces a two-fold effect: one, an impression on the mind which one carries when one dies; the second, it creates an impression on the world or on what is called Akashic records, a theosophical term which is a kind of universal all- inclusive filing system that records every thought, word, action, emotion and experience that has ever occurred in time and space, the story of every soul since the dawn of creation. It is also referred to as the collective unconscious or the collective subconscious, or Cosmic Mind, or the Book of Life in the Bible. Although every individual life is a product of one’s own karma, it is still a part of the cosmic scheme, and it has a bearing on and influences the destiny of all life. No action is therefore in isolation either in its cause or in consequence. In

 

 

 

281 Wendy Doniger and Brian K. Smith. The Laws of Manu. 1991. Penguin Classics. Penguin Books. London, UK. p.286.

 

its intent it could be a consequence, and in its effect a cause. How a ‘consequence’ is carried out determines the nature of karma, good or bad. Because of the existence of the afflictions (klesah), of ignorance (avidya), egoism (asmita), attachment (raga), aversion (dvesa) and the clinging to life (abhinivesah), we amass and experience karmas. We produce karma in four ways: through thoughts, through words, through actions, and through the actions of others under our behest or connivance.

In the Hindu trilogy of karma, three entities — sanchita (the reservoir of all past lives’ karmas); prarabdha (the portion being experienced in this life) and agami (the one we are acquiring in this life by the way we live) — have a more direct bearing on dharma. The karmas wait for an opening to come to the surface and to express themselves through klesah. One strong karma may call for a particular birth and body to express itself, and other closely related karmas will also be expressed or exhausted through it. Prarabdha first manifests in the circumstance of our birth — where, when and to whom — and once we expend it we die

— not a minute sooner or later. That is the connecting thread through life. Our connections to other humans are ways through which we redeem and replenish our karma. This goes on until one attains Self-realization and ceases to create new karmas. We need to understand that we are simply living out our karmic destiny. Time is karma, the sages say. Everyone has a karmic map. We are often befuddled as to why someone acts a certain way, or lives a certain way; ‘how could he?’ we mutter. Perhaps that person is sharing the same thought about us.

Each of us is programmed with a certain nature, the quintessence of karma, the nature required for the fruition of prarabdha. In the Yoga-Sutra, the ancient Indian sage Patanjali tells us: “Because of virtuous and non-virtuous karma, there are [corresponding] pleasurable and painful consequences.” The circumstances of our life are the coordinates for karma. But we have free will as to how we will deal with these, positively or negatively. If we choose to deal with these negatively, for example, in creating suffering for others, the reactions return to us in more intense or terrible forms. Dealing with circumstances patiently, creating happiness for others, neutralizes the karmic consequences gradually.

The karma that is of immediate concern to most people and which they would like to be relieved of by any plausible means is prarabdha, which is what one actually experiences in life, and it brings up the questions of both self-effort and God. Prarabdha karma is itself of three categories: ichha (personally desired), anichha (without desire) and parechha (due to others’ desire). An often-debated, even practical, issue is the clash of prarabdha and free will. When a man fails to achieve his desired object, is there a way to find out whether the failure was due to prarabdha or due to the deficiency or incompetency of his effort? At what stage should a man stop his effort, when it is supposed to be useless because of his prarabdha? Swami Sivananda answered this question and said that though every experience is finally caused by prarabdha alone, its connection with one’s consciousness constitutes an effort or a fresh deed. Effort is nothing but consciousness of action as related to oneself, whatever be the thing that prompts one to do that action. It is not the action as such but the manner in which it is executed that determines the nature of the result. Experiences which are forced upon oneself or which stem on their own accord without the