THE THEORY OF KARMA (http://www.2mp.com/shiva/thekarma.htm)

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I apologize for the length of this paper, but it is worthy of reading.

Below is the secret of Karma and freeing effect of Karma Yoga.

Mahabhakti

M

THE THEORY OF KARMA

H. H. MAHATAPASWI SHRI KUMARSWAMIJI

 

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Life is governed by two principles - Desire fulfilment and Law of Karma.

Desire is the most potent force in our life and early or late all our desires

get fulfilled. We get whatever we desire and work for, but at the same time we

have to undergo the good or evil effects of our deeds in accordance with the

strict principle of retribution. This principle of retribution is known as the

Law of Karma. All our voluntary acts which affect others agreeably or

disagreeably are rewarded or punished in accordance with the strict law of

justice of Karma. This law of Karma is just and properly maintained; cosmic

justice demands that there should be strict and equable retribution in nature

since there is an arrangement in it to keep balance of action and reaction.

Hence no one can escape or evade the good or evil consequences of his deeds

accruing to him. If he does not meet the consequences in life here and now, he

can meet them in some other life, for life is vast and varied. The ego also does

not die completely. The doer of the deeds does never vanish into nothingness.

There would be chaos and rule of injustice in the universe, if one were to cease

to exist without having undergone the consequences of his deeds. Death is only a

change in our life; it shuts the physical world from us and awakens us into a

subtler world.

 

Why are we drawn to this physical world? It is because we have entertained

many desires connected with this world which still remain to be fulfilled, and

because we have to undergo the consequences of the deeds done in our previous

lives on this plane. Our desires and our record of deeds bring us back to the

physical plane. Life here presupposes a life there to account for the

inequalities of circumstances. Pre-existence and post-existence are implied in

the law of Karma. Rebirth or reincarnation is not only a postulate but a fact.

Some of the Western thinkers of modern times like Shirley have appreciated these

two doctrines of Karma and reincarnation as worthy of acceptance. The law of

Karma proclaims that we get what we give, we reap what we sow. Man has power to

act but his power ends with the act committed. The effect of the act cannot be

altered, annulled or escaped.

 

The theory of Karma is the application of the law of cause and effect to

moral experience. The law of Karma means that all actions, good or bad, produce

their consequences in the life of the individual who acts, provided they are

performed with a desire to the fruits thereof. Now if some good or bad actions

are thus found to produce certain good or bad effects in the present life, it is

quite reasonable to maintain that all actions will produce their proper effects

in this or another life of the individuals who act. The law of Karma is this

general moral law which governs not only the life and destiny of all individual

but even the order and arrangement of the physical world. But on the

psychological level the law of Karma affirms the freedom of the self. Freedom is

a real possibility and the individual can control his desires and direct them in

a proper channel by virtue of his discrimination and reason. Fatalism or

determinism is a misrepresentation of the theory of Karma. Fate or destiny is

nothing but the collective force of one's own actions performed in past lives.

It can be overcome by efforts of this life, if they are sufficiently strong,

just as the course of old habits can be counteracted by the cultivation of new

and opposite habits.

 

Not in action but in desire, not in action but in attachment to its fruit

lies the binding force of Karma. An action is performed with a desire to enjoy

its fruits, the soul is expectant and nature replies to it, it has demanded and

nature awards. So every cause is bound to its effect, every action to its fruit,

and desire is the cord that links them together. If this could be cut asunder,

the connection would cease and when all the bonds of the heart are broken then

the soul is free. The wheel of cause and effect may continue to turn but the

soul remains unaffected.

 

Our desires are innumerable and unlimited. Many of them conflict with each

other. We have to choose some and reject others. Man is a rational being and is

endowed with the power of discrimination and control; with the help of this

power he should bring about an order in the realm of desires. Some of them are

for enjoyment of the pleasures of the world while others are for moral

perfection and spiritual freedom. Indian thinkers realised that the whole of

human life should not be dedicated to the pursuit of wealth and pleasure, for

the real man, the spirit within becomes atrophied by them alone. The

Kathopanishad classified all the desires under two heads, namely, the Preya,

pleasant ones and the Shreya, good ones. The Upanishad emphasised that the

latter should be preferred to the former. The Indian thinkers did not altogether

cannive at the accumulation of wealth and enjoyment of pleasures, for they knew

that acquisitiveness and sex were very powerful drives of man. But they also

knew that unbridled enjoyment of sensual pleasures and social disharmony. Hence

they have to be guided and controlled by Dharma, that is by righteous means and

moral principles such as truth, honesty, self-control, fellow-feeling and

moderation.

 

The Indian thinkers knew that the law of Karma is at the bottom of law of

Moral order, the law that makes for regularity and righteousness and works in

all times and climes. This idea gradually shaped itself into the Mimamsa concept

of Apurva, the law that guarantees the future enjoyment of the fruits of rituals

performed now; into the Nyaya-Vaisheshika theory of Adrashta, the unseen

principle which sways over the material atoms and brings about subjects and

events in accordance with moral principles; into the theory of dependent

origination or Pratitya Samutpada of Buddhism and finally into the general

concept of Karma accepted by all Indian systems.

 

The law of Karma, that works with all its might on the physical, mental and

moral planes, ceases to be all-powerful on the spiritual plane. On the religious

level, Karma loses its might and assumes an attitude of surrender to God. Mukti

or spiritual freedom would be impossible if divine justice functioned through

the mathematical rigour of the law of Karma. Religion therefore requires that

the legal concept of Karma should be transformed into the religious concept of

Krupa. Krupa or the grace of God transfigures the rigorous law of Karma and

becomes the redemptive principle of religion. From this point of view even the

law of retribution has redemption as its inner motive, for the law of

retribution does not inspire any hope of Mukti or salvation, while the law of

redemption leads to salvation. The dualism between Karma and Krupa cannot be

overcome by mere ethic or ethical religion. The seriousness of the moral

consciousness and the reality of the sinfulness of sin fail to bring out the

spontaneity and freedom of the divine life. This defect is removed by the loving

nature of God who is the ruler as well as the redeemer. The individual soul

achieves his spiritual freedom by immediate contact with God.

 

The whole discussion of the theory of Karma, in its last analysis, amounts

to this that Karma is the result of knowledge, that it is the spontaneous

expression of real understanding. By knowledge is meant the appreciation of the

truth that God is the all-doer, without this appreciation no Karma, no moral

activity is worth recognizing. Those who hold that Karma is prior to knowledge

on the supposition that it gives purity of mind labour under the false sense of

agency. It is the possession of knowledge that makes one morally pure. The

thought of individual doership is a case of illusion for God is the all-doer.

The appreciation of the all-doership of God does not make an individual inactive

but it makes him full of activity. Hence, to think that an individual is the

doer is to arrest activity. Karma or activity of the individual becomes free and

spontaneous only when he realises that it is the supreme energy which works

through him. This does not negate the individual, it only negates the illusion

of personal doership which restricts the range of activity. There are some

existentialists who separate essence from human existence and assert that there

is no God and no objective value. But it is difficult to realise how and to whom

I am still responsible especially when there is no standing that I should bear

the burden. It is good to be reminded that in our real existence we enjoy an

inner subjective being, call it God or Truth which in its depth cannot be

reached or represented by any generality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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