Mechanical and Organic

[Guest guest]

Dear Shri Sunder,

You have said:--

 

" Gita, 9:20-21, seem to imply that those who enjoy

the heavenly worlds are already cleansed of their sins (and thus

deserving of heaven), and on exhaustion of their merits they return

to the mortal world. Hence, only the agami (kriyamana) karma would be

the cause for creating or exhausting papa karma in the mortal world. "

 

My remarks are as below.

It is not correct to say that those who go to heaven have no sins at all in

their sanchita karma. When a person dies he has the sanchita larma

accumulated upto the end of the previous birth, plus the karma, good and

bad, earned during this birth. The latter is also added to the prvious

sanchita karma. There is no AgAmi karma when he dies. Whatever karma was

earned during this life has also become sanchita karma. prArabdha karma has

already been exhausted at the time of death.. The sanchita karma at the time

of death need not consist only of merit in order to enable him to go to

heaven. Good karma or puNya is of two kinds—That which entitles him to a

sojourn in heaven, such as the puNya earned by ishTa and pUrta, and that

which does not entitle him to go to heaven, but will give him joyful

experiences in the next birth. During his stay in heaven only the first type

of puNya will be exhausted. The second type of pUnya and the pApa in his

sanchita karma determine what kind of birth he will have when he is born

again on the earth. Mundaka up.says in 1.2.10— " They having enjoyed the

fruits of karma on the heights of heaven that are the abodes of pleasure,

enter the world or an inferior one " . In the bhAshya it is explained that

'inferior world' means 'that of animals, or hell, etc.' Birth as an animal

means there is pApa left. The bhAshya says that a person may even go to hell

after his stay iin heaven, which means that there may be very stromg pApa

also left.. So it means that a man may have at the time of death puNya of

the kind that entitles him to heaven and also pApa of such a severe nature

that he has to go to hell after return from heaven!. The two can co-exist.

 

What I have said above is further supported by chandogya up. 5.10.5 and the

Bhashya thereon. In response to a question, " Does the man who goes to the

lunar world (heaven) return from there after the exhaustion of all the

results, or does he do so with some residual results?', Sri Sankara

abswers; " If all the results of actions are exhausted in heaven itself,

then, for one who comes from there to this world there will be no

possibility of embodimeny, enjoyment, etc. And there will be contradiction

with the smRti text " As a result of the remainder of that (he gets

embodied). Is it not a fact that in the human world over and above such

activities as sacrifice, public welfare, charity, etc., there is the

possibility of many otheractivities consequent on the enjoyment with the

body?And those results are not enjoyed in the lunar world. So they remain

unexhausted. Only those results get exhausted (in heaven) owing to which he

had ascended to heaven. And the word 'remainder' (in the smRti) refers to

the residue of all actions in general.

To sum up: When a person dies he may have (1) puNya of the type which

entitles him to sojourn in heaven, (2), other puNya which can only give him

happiness on this earth in a future embodiment, and (3) pApa. The karma

earned during this life, which was called Agami karma before it was earned,

is already included in these three catgories. Only(1) is exhausted in

heaven. Out of the other two, a portion becomes prArabdha karma for his

birth on earth immediately on return from heaven.

Sri Sankara says that all these matters are stated in the upanishads only to

generate detachment in us by telling us that even heavenly pleasures are not

worth striving for. I am stating this because some members question the need

for such discussions.

I hope this answers also the points raised by Shri Sampath and Shri

Devanathan.

S. N.Sastri .