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What Is Karma?
Karma is one of those topics that many people know a
little about, but few understand the intricacies of it. To start
with, the second law of thermodynamics is that for every action
there is an equal and opposite reaction. On the universal scale,
this is the law of karma. The law of karma basically states that
every action has a reaction and whatever you do to others will
later return to you. Furthermore, ignorance of the law is no
excuse. We are still accountable for everything we do, regardless
of whether we understand it or not. Therefore, the best thing is to
learn how it works.
If everyone understood the law of karma, we would all
be living a happier life in a brighter world. Why? Because we could
know how to adjust our lives so we would not be suffering the
constant reactions of what we have done due to the false aims of
life.
According to Vedic literature, karma is the law of
cause and effect. For every action there is a cause as well as a
reaction. Karma is produced by performing fruitive activities for
bodily or mental development. One may perform pious activities that
will produce good reactions or good karma for future enjoyment. Or
one may perform selfish or what some call sinful activities that
produce bad karma and future suffering. This follows a person
wherever he or she goes in this life or future lives. Such karma,
as well as the type of consciousness a person develops, establishes
reactions that one must experience.
The Svetashvatara Upanishad (5.12) explains that the
living being, the jiva soul, acquires many gross physical and
subtle bodies due to the actions he performs, as is motivated by
the material qualities to which he obtains. These bodies that are
acquired continue to be a source of illusion as long as he is
ignorant of his real identity.
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4.45) further clarifies
that as the atma or soul in the gross and subtle bodies acts, so
thereby he obtains different conditions. By acting saintly he
becomes a saint, and by acting immorally he becomes subject to the
karmic consequences. In this way, he accrues piety or the burden of
impiety accordingly.
Similarly, it is stated that as a man sows, so shall
he reap. Therefore, as people live their present life, they
cultivate a particular type of consciousness by their thoughts and
activities, which may be good or bad. This creates a person’s
karma.
This karma will direct us into a body that is most
appropriate for the reactions that we need to endure, or the
lessons we need to learn. Thus, the cause of our existence comes
from the activities of our previous lives. Since everything is
based on a cause, it is one’s karma that will determine one’s
situation, such as race, color, sex, or area of the world in which
one will appear, or whether one is born in a rich or poor family,
or be healthy or unhealthy, etc., etc.
So when the living beings take birth again, they get a
certain kind of body that is most suitable for the type of
consciousness they have developed. Therefore, according to the
Padma Purana, there are 8,400,000 species of life, each offering a
particular class of body for whatever kind of desires and
consciousness the living being may have in this world. In this way,
the living entity is the son of his past and the father of his
future. Thus, he is presently affected by his previous life’s
activities and creates his future existence by the actions he
performs in this life. A person will reincarnate into various forms
of bodies that are most suitable for the living entity’s
consciousness, desires, and for what he deserves. So the living
being inevitably continues in this cycle of birth and death and the
consequences for his various good or bad activities as long as he
is materially motivated.
What creates good or bad karma is also the nature of
the intent behind the action. If one uses things selfishly or out
of anger, greed, hate, revenge, etc., then the nature of the act is
of darkness. One will incur bad karma from it that will later
manifest as reversals in life, painful events, disease or
accidents. While things that are done for the benefit of others,
out of kindness and love, with no thought of return, or for
worshiping God, are all acts of goodness and piety, which will
bring upliftment or good fortune to you. However, if you do
something bad that happens because of an accident or a mistake,
without the intent to do any harm to others, the karma is not so
heavy. Maybe you were meant to be an instrument in someone else’s
karma, which is also yours. It will take into consideration your
motivation. Yet the greater the intent or awareness of doing
something wrong, the greater the degree of negative reaction there
will be. So it is all based on the intent behind the
action.
However, we should understand that, essentially, karma
is for correcting a person, not for mere retribution of past deeds.
The universe is based on compassion. Everyone has certain lessons
and ways in which he must develop, and the law of karma actually
directs one in a manner to do that. Nonetheless, one is not
condemned to stay in this cycle of repeated birth and death
forever. There is a way out. In the human form one can acquire the
knowledge of spiritual realization and attain release from karma
and further rounds of birth and death. This is considered to be the
most important achievement one can accomplish in life. This is why
every religious process in the world encourages people who want
freedom from earthly existence not to hanker for material
attachments or sensual enjoyments which bind them to this world,
but to work towards what can free them from further cycles of birth
and death.
All karma can be negated when one truly aspires to
understand or realize the higher purpose in life and spiritual
truth. When one reaches that point, his life can be truly spiritual
which gives eternal freedom from change. By striving for the
Absolute Truth, or for serving God in devotional service,
especially in bhakti-yoga, a person can reach the stage in which he
is completely relieved of all karmic obstacles or responsibilities.
Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita (18.66): “Abandon all varieties
of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from
all sinful reaction. Do not fear.”
Without being trained in this spiritual science, it is
very difficult to understand how the living being leaves his body
or what kind of body he will get in the future, or why there are
various species of life which accommodate all the living entities’
innumerable levels of consciousness. As related in the
Bhagavad-gita, those who are spiritually ignorant cannot understand
how a living entity can depart the body at the time of death, nor
can they understand what kind of body he or she will enjoy while
under the influence of the modes of nature. However, one who has
been trained in knowledge can perceive this.
Thus, we encourage everyone to understand the law of
karma more completely and how one can engage in the devotional
service of the Lord in order to become free of all good or bad
karma and develop a purely spiritualized consciousness. This is
real freedom and liberation from all material limitations by which
one can reach the spiritual strata. You can start by contacting the
person who gave you this brochure for more books or literature that
can explain more about this topic.
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