Saturday, March 24, 2012

Part-II: Of Karma and Predestination

The Karma philosophy, in its essence, says that what you do, why you do things and how you deal with what happens to you combine to determine the sort of life you will lead. Prarabda Karma – the Karma of previous births – is considered the reason why some are born poor, some are born rich, some are born healthy and some are born sick.

Karma does not restrict itself to the sort of cause and effect that material science prescribes. It goes into the motives of why you do things as well. When you do virtuous deeds you accumulate ‘Punya’ (Good Karma?) and when you are vicious you accumulate ‘Paap’ (Bad Karma?). Virtue is a combination of deed and motive. Giving to the poor in the spirit of giving is not the same as giving to the poor for the sake of publicity.

Thus, in essence, Prarabda Karma decides what is predestined for you. In effect, then, if your exercise of free will in determining your motives and consequences and your efforts may not much alter your circumstances in this life but they shall certainly determine the sort of life you lead the next time you are born.

Going by the philosophy of Karma, a person who sits on his hands doing nothing since everything is predestined for him is like a person who spends what he saved yesterday and saves nothing for tomorrow.

If you truly believe in a chain of rebirths, then the Karma philosophy gives you the perfect reason why you should work. After all, not everything that you do today gives you results today. Thus, put in the efforts in this birth in order to reap the fruits in the next!

8 comments:

  1. Rebirth possible for every organism ?
    If Humans can take birth as plant and Animals due to their degraded style of living, can any an animal take a form of human?
    By setting high standards in their life ?
    Just a weird doubt sir !

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    1. That is the basis of Hindu philosophy.Every thing that has a life has a soul and every soul is striving towards realization.

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  2. Prarabda Karma is a concept that amazes me. The best possible explanation for rebirth and what one does in that. Contrast this with what Islam or Christianity says- they do not go beyond heaven and hell. I hope you are going to explain in subsequent part the Hindu concept of Moksha- how you get relieved of Karma.

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    1. Well! I don't know that I have elucidated moksha but, if you go by Advaita, you will cease to remain an individual and shall merge with the Cosmic All. You can either see this as the destruction of yourself or the promotion of yourself to BRAHMAN.

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  3. I have read all your posts on the topic,thanks.
    I think our prarabdha decides where we take birth & with which abilities or disabilities.This does circumscribe our growth to some extent but how we use our resources counts.That is free will.
    Two persons are born hale & hearty but poor, but they might adopt opposite streams of action,leading to how they will be rewarded in this birth or next.Free will is like a driver commanding a vehicle;how & where he drives this vehicle is up to him.

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    1. Quite, Indu! My point is also that what constitutes rewards and what constitutes the success of a proper exercise of free will may not quite be what we use as yardsticks for measuring success.

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  4. It is not that I don't believe in rebirth, but I believe we pay for our deeds in this birth itself. But yes, the kind of fate we are born with must have something to do with what we did in our last birth. That makes perfect sense.

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    1. Ah! Beliefs are one thing Jyothi! I only intend to say here that some of the logic of disbelief or, even, the logic of some believers is flawed :)

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