Ananta Sesa Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 Some say around the age of 5, while others say around the age of 12... What´s the sastric truth in this matter? When does one become responsible for one´s actions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCC Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 Some say around the age of 5, while others say around the age of 12... What´s the sastric truth in this matter? When does one become responsible for one´s actions? you are responsible of your own action when you are aware about evil and good this is around 12 years old, not before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehat Posted February 28, 2008 Report Share Posted February 28, 2008 you are responsible of your own action when you are aware about evil and good this is around 12 years old, not before. Are you sure? I'm sure I read that actions have reactions as soon as one comes into contact with material nature. Or in another words, karma is there from birth in material world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beggar Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 ISKCON's founder acarya, Srila Prabhupada recommended that children follow Ekadasi day, fasting from grains and beans beginning at five years old. This is because sinful reactions take shelter of grains on Ekadasi and those who have attained the age of five years of age will be sheltered from the sinful reaction by following the Ekadasi fast. Also five years of age is a good time to remember Krsna considering the stories of Prahlada and Dhruva Maharajas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCC Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Are you sure? I'm sure I read that actions have reactions as soon as one comes into contact with material nature. Or in another words, karma is there from birth in material world. yes all of us come with a karma from previous life, but you can't be responsible for your actions before 12 years old, children are pure and there is a big change to make them Krsna Conscious up to 12 years old, the karma will be transfered to their parents or advisors. They are like sponges, they are not aware about evil and good they learn imitating others, and those others are responsible of these childrens. For example a boy of 9 years old make suffering a little cat, because He thinks that is funny and saw an adult making the same thing, in this case the karma will go to the adult. But if the children has 14 years old and do the same, the reaction will go back to him, because he is now aware of evil and good. search in google about evil and good and brain, it is know by the science that childrens start to be aware at the age of 12, something happen in the brain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beggar Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 Obviously the more conscious you become the more you are responsible for your actions. But five years old is when it begins and there is a continuum of responsibility until one actually becomes an adult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCC Posted February 29, 2008 Report Share Posted February 29, 2008 ok 5 years old, end of the discussion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
son_of_erin2000 Posted March 1, 2008 Report Share Posted March 1, 2008 how is this? the karmas of previouse lives fall on a person,for example, an aborted fetus may have been a woman in a past life who had her own child aborted.and speaking from personal experience,i knew i was a devilish child,and knew i was doing wrong long befor 12 years old.anyways,just my thought on the matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ananta Sesa Posted March 2, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 ISKCON's founder acarya, Srila Prabhupada recommended that children follow Ekadasi day, fasting from grains and beans beginning at five years old. This is because sinful reactions take shelter of grains on Ekadasi and those who have attained the age of five years of age will be sheltered from the sinful reaction by following the Ekadasi fast. Also five years of age is a good time to remember Krsna considering the stories of Prahlada and Dhruva Maharajas. I always thought that is when one comes at the age of puberty, around 12, when one starts to be responsible for one´s actions, and when one starts to commit sinful actions... OK then, around the age of 5, but is there any sastric evidence on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchandra Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 ok 5 years old, end of the discussion <embed src="http://krishna.terapad.com/resources/3490/assets/videos/rasha-krishna.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="439" width="300"> http://www.eprarthana.com/virtual/vkrishna.asp Looks like even children start to create karma. Prabhupāda: Śūla punishment. So when he was condemned to the śūla punishment, then the king heard that “Mandūka Muni, the great sage, he is punished like that?” Immediately he stopped. “What is this nonsense that Mandūka Muni has been punished? He is a great sage.” So the king stopped the punishment and immediately came to see what has happened. Then he was immediately released. But he was very sorry, that “Why the judge Yamarāja punished him like that?” So he asked Yamarāja, “Why you have punished me like this?” “Now, in your childhood you pierced the rectum of an ant with a…,” what is called? Devotees: Pin, straw. Prabhupāda: No, not straw. Prick, pricking? Devotee: Pin. Prabhupāda: Kāntā, kāntā. We say kāntā, that pricks. What is called? Devotees: Thorn. Prabhupāda: Ah, thorn, yes. So therefore he was punished. Now just see. In his childhood he was playing with an ant, piercing the rectum with a thorn. That is also taken account, “All right. You will be punished.” Just see how finer laws are there in nature. So the Maṇḍūka Muni did that. Therefore it was recorded he should be punished like that. This is our position. Anything… If you are walking on the street, if you kill an ant by walking, you will be punished. This is nature’s law. We are in such a dangerous position. In every movement there is punishment. Now, if you believe the śāstras, that is different thing. If you don’t believe, then do anything you like. But from śāstra we can understand the laws of nature, or God, is very, very strict, very, very strict. So Mandūka Muni also chastised Yamarāja, that “In my childhood, without any knowledge I did something and for which you have given me so great punishment. So you are not fit for becoming a brahmaṇa or ksatriya. You become sudra.” So he was cursed to become śūdra. Therefore Yamarāja took his birth as Vidura and was born in the womb of a śūdra mother. This is the history of Vidura’s birth. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.13.15 by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda Geneva, June 4, 1974 http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/740604SB.GEN.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCC Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 <embed src="http://krishna.terapad.com/resources/3490/assets/videos/rasha-krishna.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="439" width="300">So Mandūka Muni also chastised Yamarāja, that “In my childhood, without any knowledge I did something and for which you have given me so great punishment. So you are not fit for becoming a brahmaṇa or ksatriya. You become sudra.” So he was cursed to become śūdra. Therefore Yamarāja took his birth as Vidura and was born in the womb of a śūdra mother. This is the history of Vidura’s birth. Here is the thing again, He was punished unfairly by Yamaraj, but this was a lila of the Lord (For Yamaraj Descending). Of Course that children comes with a karma but they start to pay for their actions when they are aware of bad and good, and this is near 12 years old, before this, the parents are responsible for their sons, I mean all actions that they do are because they learned them from their parents or other persons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Them Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I remember being aware of good and evil when I was only 4. I couldn't stand cruelty toward animals even though I was exposed to it almost daily living in village. I knew it was wrong to kill animal for food. One more interesting thing is how I discriminated between good and bad people. I had no respect for atheists at such young age even though I didn't even knew what atheism was. I intuitively felt something was wrong with them. As if something was lacking. I remember how I felt they were so immature and foolish when I myself was 4. I even tried to trick them and offend them whenever opportunity arose but when I was around religious people I always shown them respect. When my grandmother ( deeply religious person) scolded me I always took it to heart. She radiated authority, but when my atheist parents tried to control me I would go completely wild, throwing all kind of stuff at them ( even knives), running and hiding in woods. Later when my grandmother died I started to treat them better but still had zero respect though they weren't really bad parent's at all. I've just felt that somehow they were incomplete human beings lacking something essential. It's not that I didn't care for them. I loved them but could never accept they authority regarding important matters in life. I know few sadhakas and all of them were compasisonate being from early childhood even those raised in atheistic abusive families. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munishsharma Posted March 5, 2008 Report Share Posted March 5, 2008 But how one decide that what is right or wrong in the age of 5 or 12 too. It all depends upon in which circumstances he/ she will be educated. and for karma, I think, age shukd be 12.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarva gattah Posted March 5, 2008 Report Share Posted March 5, 2008 In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth. According to Vedic teachings, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture", but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate. Perplexed by the seemingly inexplicable, apparent disparity that existed among humanity, once a young truth-seeker approached a great devotee of the Lord and questioned him regarding this intricate problem of inequality: "What is the cause, what is the reason, O Master," questioned he, "that we find amongst mankind the short-lived and long-lived, the healthy and the diseased, the ugly and beautiful, those lacking influence and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, and the ignorant and the wise?" The devotee’s reply was: "All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states." He then explained the cause of such differences in accordance with the law of cause and effect. Certainly we are born with hereditary characteristics. At the same time we possess certain innate abilities that science cannot adequately account for. To our parents we are indebted for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so-called being. They remain dormant within each parent until this potential germinal compound is vitalised by the karmic energy needed for the production of the foetus. Karma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of all embodied baddha-jiva's destiny in the mahat-tattva dream of Maha-Vishnu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xexon Posted March 21, 2008 Report Share Posted March 21, 2008 Karma begins with the first moment a soul incarnates. But karma also looks the other way until the child becomes aware of duality and begins to make decisions accordingly. It isn't the age so much as it is the individual. x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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