Karma and your destiny

[Guest guest]

‘Karma’ means action or deed. Any physical or

mental action is karma. But most people think of karma

as referring to the consequences of actions. The two

are inseparable, the action cannot be separated from

its consequence.<br><br>According to Swami Sivananda

the universe operates on four laws that relate to the

science of karma on both the physical and the mental

levels. First, is the law of causation. A cause must

produce an effect. The cause is found in the effect and

the effect is found in the cause. The effect is

similar to the cause. A corollary is that no action is

unnecessary. No action can occur without having a positive,

definite cause at the back of it.<br><br>The law of

causation includes the other three laws. The law of action

and reaction says that for every action there must be

a reaction of equal force and of similar nature.

Every thought, desire, imagination, sentiment causes

reaction. <br><br>The law of compensation. Nothing is

destroyed without compensation. The seed breaks and

produces a tree, the cherry blossom dies and leaves a

cherry, childhood leads to adulthood, fuel burns and is

destroyed but produces heat. Night follows day. War follows

peace and peace follows war. This law of compensation

maintains balance, peace, concord, equilibrium, harmony and

justice. <br><br>The law of retribution says that every

wrong action brings its own punishment. These laws all

act together. <br><br> But to look at an individual

life you may not find an obvious explanation or

solution for the affairs of the life because that life is

only a fragment of the soul-life. To find the cause of

an event in life, you have to go deep into the

affairs of the soul-life to see the cause of that action

and its compensatory nature. To see the effect of or

the retribution for events in a life, you have to

follow the soul-life and subsequent

reincarnations.<br><br>It is not God that punishes and rewards. it is each

individual acting within these four laws that creates his or

her own destiny based on prior thoughts, emotions and

actions. Human beings have a threefold nature that

produces karma: namely, Ichha or desire, Jnana or knowing

and Kriya or willing. A human sees objects,feels

emotions, has desires related to that object, thinks about

obtaining or avoiding the object and wills to do one action

to gain happiness or another action to avoid

unhappiness. Thought, desire, will, action -- these inform our

every moment of life, wake or asleep, conscious or

unconscious.<br><br>But there are another three aspects to each

individual. Tamas, the quality of inertia, resistance; rajas,

the quality of action; and sattva, the quality of

purity, described in the Gita (XIV.6) as immaculate,

illuminating, without ill. Tamas karma is performed by someone

who has no concern for the moral and spiritual

consequences their deeds. Rajas karma is performed to

experience pleasure. Sattva karma is is performed egolessly

without attachment to the fruit of the

actions.<br><br>Tamasic and rajasic actions lead to what is called ‘bad

karma’. Sattvic actions produce ‘good karma’. Even ‘good

karma’ has a binding quality. If you enjoy your good

karma, then you bind yourself to being reborn in this

phenomenal world just as surely as you do when you dislike

those bad karmas. So it is not God that rewards or

punishes you for your actions. It is you and only you that

is responsible for your rewards and punishments. You

are responsible for your destiny.<br><br>You sow

thoughts and emotions, you reap an action. You sow an

action, you reap a habit. You sow a habit, you reap a

character or personality. You sow a character, you reap a

destiny.<br><br>But destinies are subject to change and reincarnation

is not forever. My next post deals with these

topics.

[Guest guest]

Uncle omprem, thank you for your detailed posts

on karma. Little dry but still informative.

<br><br>Let me ask you this. Mahatma Gandhi was a chaste man

He was a 'karma yogi' in the real sense of the term.

He served the poor. He believed in truth and

non-violence. Yet, he was assasinated- struck by the bullets

from the handgun of a madman? do you think it was his

prabadha karma which accounted for his untimely death? Do

you think, mahatma gandhi is right now reborn as a

'pious soul' to save many souls because of his 'sanchita

karma;' and what about his 'agami' karma? <br><br>what

about hitler? do you think hitler has been reborn as

'osama bin laden'? <br><br>I think we need to be really

serious while discussing this 'karma' topic. I think

karma includes not only 'actions' but is a broad

subject involving many sub topics -such as how not to be

attached to the fruits of your actions, how to deedicate

the fruits of your actions to god etc...

<br><br>Uncle, there are many westerners here who are looking up

to you all to tell them the real meaning of these

esotoric philosophies. Please, let your posts be couched

in simple language and easily comprenensible to the

layman. Avoid using jargon and terms like chakras etc.

let us start from the beginining- A Hindu primer is

what is needed.!<br><br>pERSONALLY, i THINK uncle

silent soul should make you a founder. You did take care

of this club when he was missing for weeks on

end.<br> <br>MY 0.02 cents!!<br><br>Hari om tat

sat!<br><br>p.s. believe me I have been sent by Brahman to this

sadhnaa! no pun intended!!!<br><br>salaam