Purushartha - Human fundamental aspirations - Continued

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Namaste:

 

In advaitic terminology, Prarabdha are the vasanas (habits,

possessions and preconceived notions) and Purushartha are efforts to

control their effects. It is possible to classify one's Prarabdha by

the level of potential effects. For example, the problem of

addiction to alcohol can vary between persons and they can be

classified very acute (untreatable) to very mild (easily controllable

with some discipline). Prarabdha also falls into a similar

classification and very acute Prarabdha cannot be changed in spite

of intense and extraordinary Purushartha (efforts) during one's

lifetime. For example, our birth through certain parents in a certain

country, community, caste, creed, race or sex after it happened,

can't be changed. We cannot change our parents and our kith and kin.

We can change some of what we possessed at the time of our birth and

for others we have to learn to live with it! The law of karma (karma

theory) postulates that what we acquired at the time of our birth

were due to the consequences of our deeds-actions creating debits or

credits with them in previous births. Hence during the present

lifetime we exhaust our past karma and get the account fully

cleared. It is like the credit balance in the bank account and we

have to pay off our debts to get the account to normal. Until the

credit is paid off, we have pay our monthly payments till we get

freed from the debt.

 

The effects of some other Prarabdha (lower level than the very acute

level discussed above) can be diluted by our persistent efforts

(Purushartha). If it is destined for us to suffer a severe blow of a

stone-throw to hit our forehead, we cannot completely escape but we

can take steps (Purushartha) to reduce the pain and get necessary

treatment. If we get a headache, we can relieve the pain by taking

an aspirin. If our Prarabdha is mild we can completely wipe it out by

acute Purushartha just like washing our dirty laundry!

 

The bottom line of the above thought process is to make us aware that

we should continue our Purushartha and never try to abandon it at any

stage. When our efforts fail, we can reconcile that certain things

are beyond one's purusharthas and learn to accept the outcome and

attribute them to be cause of very acute Prarabdha. This entire line

of action-outcome analysis requires a strong belief in karma theory.

Prarabdha is nothing but the ripened and matured fruits of one's

previous Karmas and nobody else, not even God is responsible or to be

blamed!

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

Note: The above analysis is another approach to the well known fate-

freewill framework.