Table of Contents
Why do people suffer in life and What is the law of Karma?
Suffering is an aspect of Karma Effect. Happiness is also an aspect of Karma Effect. Most of the life events and circumstances are dictated by Karma alone. If that were so, are we to take this position, that nothing can be done about life, and that life shall mutely follow the calculations of Karma?
This seems to be a logical argument. Acceptance of Karma, then becomes fatalistic altogether. All said, we see that there is lot of action happening in the world. Karma, also means action. Most actions follow the wheel of Karma, the wheel of cause and effect.
Like a huge tsunami, events of the world unfurl and people are flown or floored by circumstances, just as gusty wind blows away a pack of cards.
Everything seems to take a chaotic route. Events are categorized as appropriate / inappropriate, good / evil, right / wrong and so on, the way circumstances emerge. Where do individuals fit in, if Karma Effect were so powerful.
It is to be understood that although Karma Effect is powerful, there is something unilateral in the Karmic Effect flow. There are some aspects of free-will, which can nevertheless influence Karma. This is where consciousness, has a role to play.
On that side of Karma Effect, there is opportunity of rearranging the blocks of the Karmic structure. It is an invitation to understand this aspect of life, which can help one, work one’s way through the apparent irreversibility of Karma Effect.
Man, is usually driven by his desires and disposition and hence blind to the possibilities of ending suffering and attaining “eternal” happiness also known as redemption. All this said, only time shall reveal the opportunities to the person who wishes to escape the tightening noose of Karma Effect.
It becomes important to understand, what it takes to escape the wheel of Karma. Although, Karma Effect cannot be escaped in the literal sense, a lot can be done to transform Karma into a fruitful aspect of life. Such a transformation is only possible, if one develops the vision to view life-events in a larger, wholesome perspective.
When the vision changes, Karma Effect shall present itself as an opportunity of growth and possibility. When one learns to accept things as they are, without trying to over-analyze the events of one’s life, a deeper vision develops. It is to be understood that Karma Effect, is a unresolved doing of the past, which finds expression in some person, thing or event into the future, wanting to resolve itself. This resolution does not hold any person in special esteem.
The way Karma Effect gushes forth is universal. It has certain laws, that it follows. Santana Dharma delineates how Karma Effect flows with immaculate precision. If one becomes capable of the workings of Karma Effect, one can easily mend one’s thoughts, words and deeds, so that Karma Effects get neutralized. Good always begets good and evil begets evil. All this, religion construes with much promise. What becomes difficult to comprehend is the time, when actions come to such fruition.
One may see that an evil man, enjoys his life and proliferates in his criminal ways. Nature seems to offer no punishment to him. On the other hand, a good man seems to suffer heavily without any rhyme or reason. In one’s entire life, one is seen to be attached to Truth and Goodness and yet one suffers inconsolably. Why?
The answers to these questions lie deep inside the sphere of the Karmic mesh. When one pursues the teachings of the Vedic scriptures, long enough, without doubting it, with total commitment, the answers to the deepest questions on Karma Effect get revealed, on their own.
There shall not remain, an iota of doubt. Karma Effect is subjective in nature although it is talked about objectively by many knowers of Truth. By no means is Karma Effect objective, but it may help to objectify Karma, for people who want to understand Sanatana Dharma, Karma being a good starting point into the world of spirituality.
The great rules of Karma Effect become evident, only as one takes up sadhana or spiritual practice, under an adept Guru who has performed regulated Sadhana, with the sole intention of Serving the Highest Truth, Bhagawan. To such a Guru, Bhagawan reveals the secret of Karma Effect almost unknowable to the ordinary or even the so-called materially advanced beings.
Karma, it is to be understood, cannot have simple explanations, although, for a “seer” the law of Karma is as clear as the back of one’s palm. Law of Karma, undeniably, is that which runs the world. For a worshiper of Truth, Karma Effect opens up its deep secrets just as the cheating wife reveals the dirty arcane to her spouse, when caught red handed.
Karma Effect, cannot be studied or understood intellectually, just as the ocean cannot be contained in a tumbler. Karma is an undeniable law, which operates as the confidante of Maya, the cosmic illusion. If, Maya is curtailed and confined, through spiritual practice, Karma shall follow one, just as, the servant follows his master.
How can we define Karma?
Karma means a certain action. That action can be through thought, word and deed.
Karma also stands for Nature’s reaction to a previous thought, word or action, appearing in the life of individuals at different points in time.
Purpose of Karma
The True Purpose of Karma is to establish Truth in an individual, especially a sincere seeker. For others, Karma is just a ruthless tormentor who apparently punishes or rewards individuals for no good reason. When an Individual establishes Truth within himself, he is Liberated from the wheel of birth and death. Until such time, only Karma Effect governs the period between birth and death.
Three Types of Karma
There are three types of Karmas that affect a living entity, especially the human form of life. They are Sanchita, Prarabdha and Aprarabdha or Agami Karma. These three Karmas represent Karma Effect carried over from previous life times. In short, Sanchita Karma represents past unresolved actions and results of Actions, carried over to the present lifetime. Prarabdha Karma is the Karma Effect that is about to fructify.
Whatever Karma remains at the time of death of a living entity is Aprarabdha Karma or Agami Karma. This is future Karma, which carries over to the next lifetime.
When a living entity is born, it is on account of Agami Karma of the previous lifetime.
As soon as he is born, that Karma becomes Sanchita Karma of the present lifetime.
Sanchita Karma
A man trapped in the cause-and-effect cycle has many of his desires and intentions unresolved within his heart in seed form. The fundamentals of Karma drive his/her intention of Action, rather than the nature of committed Action. The unresolved, unsatisfied buildup of intentions and desires turn themselves into a reservoir battery of potential future action.
The living entity receives the effects of those past actions at an appropriate time in the future. If there are bad or ill-intentioned accumulated activities, they shall fructify at a very uncomfortable time, place and circumstance, during the course of the lifetime of an individual, almost cornering him. This shall translate into suffering. Not only will a man suffer, but his Karma shall spawn new threads of Karma cycles. Sanchita Karma then becomes Agami Karma.
When Karma is not fully understood, when people do not consciously alter their actions or intentions, bad Karma shall make the sufferer commit more mistakes. This can result in an avalanche set of actions, desires, and intentions that will free-wheel into a whirligig of serious future Karma. Thus, unresolved Sanchita Karma shall have two bifurcations as time progresses.
Having a God-Realized Spiritual Master in one’s life becomes a matter of utmost important in order to resolve this unending puzzle of life and after-life.
Depending on the mental makeup, capability, and capacity of the living entity, some of the Sanchita Karma qualifies as Prarabdha. Most of it will go forward into the future as Agami or Aprarabdha Karma.
That Karma shall wait for its turn, its resolution sometime in the future within this lifetime or shall carry forward into a future lifetime. That said, when there is a tendency to build Karma, the possibility of liberation is close to zero.
Prarabdha Karma
Whatever Sanchita Karma comes forth, a major portion of it becomes Agami or Future Karma. A part of it becomes Prarabdha Karma; Mature Karma will now, for certain, manifest as life situations, circumstances, time, place, people, and events. Thus, Prarabdha Karma also represents Karma we cannot alter. The Arrow leaves the bow and now, we cannot recall the it.
It is just like the seed that shoots forth from the ground and cannot go back into the soil once again. One cannot reverse Prarabdha in the same way. I have to undergo the good and the bad results of previous actions. Prarabdha is the continuous manifestation of the lifetime baggage of Sanchita transforming into a living experience. On the other hand, one can reverse Agami and Sanchita Karma through right action.One should atone for wrong Actions, by taking up spirituality.
Aprarabdha or Agami Karma
That Pending Karma at the end of a lifetime, produced freshly through actions of the current life postpones itself into a future lifetime. This becomes Agami or Aprarabdha Karma. Many times, current actions and intentions happen under influence of the three modes of material nature.
7/8 Questions from Sanatana Dharma
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This Karma too comes into being because of Intentions and desires, in the conscious and subconscious realms of the mind. Consider this; a devotee takes up the spiritual practice after realizing the shallowness of material pursuit, within the heart.
By the power of Divine grace even Agami Karma reduces to ashes and there is no possibility of its fruition.
However, it takes time for the living entity to deliberate on his spiritual intentions and follow practices. After Material nature’s test of his true intentions, he is completely absolved from the ill effects of Agami Karma.
Karma Effect and Surrender
The hand of the Supreme is behind the Karmic Cycle. And he can alter or withdraw it to a maximum extend if He is convinced that an individual is committed to His service, without any selfish motive. The agents of the Supreme Being manage Karma. It is Maya or Mother Nature, that influences an individual’s thought patterns, owing to his or her past Karmas.
Nature’s Divine Intentions
Nature’s intention behind strategizing the Law of Karma is only to bring to the notice of the living entity that there is a superior order that needs attention at all times. If one neglects this fact, one will keep paying the price, till one learns one’s lessons. Sanchita Karma takes into account, the capacity and capability of the individual. Many times, an individual is vile and vicious and performs bad Karma from time to time encouraged by ill-intentions.
If a person realizes his mistakes and Surrenders to the Lord, he is rid of Sanchita and Agami Karma.The amount of Sanchita and Agami Karma is rid to the degree an individual surrenders. If the individual keeps the Lord as his highest priority and atones for all his misdoings of current and previous lifetimes, Sanchita and Agami Karma shall disappear without a trace.
Prarabdha Karma remains to some extent so that the body lasts its stipulated period for the current lifetime. One must also realize that having got rid of Prarabdha too, by exhausting one’s body, and having got rid of Sanchita and Agami by Sadhana, the Guru’s Grace and Bhagawan’s mercy one attains redemption or permanent Service at the Lotus feet of Bhagawan, never to return to this mortal world of suffering.
