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Can you provide an explanation of how the concept of karma operates within the context of Hinduism? I’m interested in understanding the principles behind it, how it affects our actions and consequences in this life and the next, and how it relates to the ultimate goal of spiritual liberation.
Up0Can you provide an explanation of how the concept of karma operates within the context of Hinduism? I’m interested in understanding the principles behind it, how it affects our actions and consequences in this life and the next, and how it relates to the ultimate goal of spiritual liberation.
The concept of karma has been a part of Hinduism since its inception. In its most basic meaning, ‘karma’ refers to the principle that every action has a corresponding consequence. This can be understood through the popular saying “what you sow is what you reap”.
If you do good deeds, help people, radiate positivity, take care of animals, good things will happen to you. On the other hand, if you intentionally hurt people, kill, harass, try to make others ruin themselves, bad things will happen to you.
The law of karma is simple – you will have to suffer the consequences of your actions. Even if one lifetime isn’t enough for you to experience the consequences of your deeds, you will have to suffer them in another life after you are reincarnated. This is why you often hear people saying ‘pata nahi pichle janamm me kya paap Kare the’ (I don’t know what sins I committed in my past life).
Karma is explained in great detail in the Bhagavad Gita by the ‘karma fal siddhant’ (the principle of action and consequence). The word ‘karma’ has originated from the Sanskrit root ‘kri’ which means ‘to do’ or ‘to act and react’.
Karma is not fate, as Hindus believe that we act with what can be described as a conditioned free will creating our destinies. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determine our future.
The conquest of karma lies in intelligent action and dispassionate reaction. Not all karmas rebound immediately. Some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this or other lifetimes. Human beings are said to produce karma in four ways:
- through thoughts
- through right attitude words
- through actions that we perform ourselves
- through actions others perform under our instructions
Everything that we have ever thought, spoken, done or caused is karma, as is also that which we think, speak or do this very moment. Hindu scriptures divide karma into three kinds:
- Sanchita: the accumulated karma. It would be impossible to experience and endure all karmas in one lifetime. From this stock of sanchita karma, a handful is taken out to serve one lifetime and this handful of actions, which have begun to bear fruit and which will be exhausted only on their fruit being enjoyed and not otherwise, is known as prarabdha karma.
- Prarabdha: fruit-bearing karma is the portion of accumulated karma that has “ripened” and appears as a particular problem in the present life.
- Kriyamana: everything that we produce in the current life. All kriyamana karmas flow into sanchita karma and consequently shape our future. Only in human life can we change our future destiny. After death, we lose Kriya Shakti (ability to act) and kriyamana (do) karma until we are born again in another human body.
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