Karma
has quite a karma. Long after India's seers immortalized
it in the Vedas, it suffered bad press under European missionaries
who belittled it as "fate" and "fatalism," and today finds
itself again in the ascendancy as the subtle and all-encompassing
principle which governs man's experiential universe in a
way likened to gravity's governance over the physical plane.
Like
gravity, karma was always there in its fullest potency,
even when people did not comprehend it. The early seers
who brought through the Vedas were practitioners, mystics
and divine oracles who put into practice the knowledge of
karma. To them, Karma (from the root kri, "to do") was a
power by which they could influence the Gods, nature, weather,
harvests and enemies through right intent and rites righteously
performed. Thus by their actions they could determine their
destiny.
Through
the ages, other realized souls explained the workings of
karma, revealing details of this cosmic law and, when the
tradition of writing came into vogue, recording it for future
generations. In this way they established karma as perhaps
the fundamental principle of Hindu consciousness and culture
then and now. Primordial and unborn, karma is anadi, "beginningless."
Its Rig Veda definitions are linked to the performance of
the homa, the potent fire rite that temporarily opens a
window between the three worlds, physical, subtle and causal.
With Sanskrit mantras, mudras and meditative powers, Vedic
priests precipitated a flow of shakti from highly evolved
souls, Mahadevas, residing in inner worlds, securing the
blessings of the Gods, insuring happiness for the clan.
Neglecting the rites or misperforming them made negative
karma and invited calamity and loss of wealth. Communities
were tight knit, and the clan prospered or suffered collectively.
When one person did transgress, elders suspected not so
much an individual's willful intent to do malice as malperformance
of the homa. The ritual was held responsible for sustaining
a spiritual force-field strong enough to ward off demonic
entities that torment, confuse and misguide weak individuals.
Priests assumed primary responsibility for the well-being
of the community.
Indologist
Herman W. Hull, author of The Vedic Origins of Karma, writes:
"In the context of Vedic ritual thought, good and bad apparently
refer to a valuation of action based on ritual exactitude:
good being equated with the correct performance of the rite,
bad with the incorrect performance." Swami Vivekananda,
who spoke and wrote on karma extensively, commented on this
understanding of the law: "The Vedic doctrine of karma is
the same as in Judaism and all other religions, that is
to say, the purification of the mind through sacrifices
and such other external means." The Upanishads (circa 1500-600
bce), the philosophic treatises of the Vedas, show how karma
relates to the individual and his or her actions, with questions
of morality, responsibility, reward and retribution. They
clearly command the individual to be responsibly concerned
about personal conduct and not expect the priesthood alone
to secure and safeguard one's karma through the performance
of sacred rites. As Sage Yajnavalkya says in the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad: "What becomes of this man? Indeed, one becomes
good by good action and bad by bad action."
Karma
in Mystical Vision
The
yogis of the ancient Sankhya philosophical system offered
a deeply mystical vision. They scrutinized karma to profound
levels of magnification and stressed its bearing on the
soul of man. What they saw was a plasmic jelly pulsating
within the subtle bodies of each person. Embedded in this
plasma, which persists from life to life, are the seeds
of all past thought and action. In each lifetime, certain
of these karmic seeds are released into the nerve system
with coded impulsions and tendencies affecting present actions.
The effects were most commonly understood to determine three
spheres of life:
a)
jati, family and occupation;
b)
ayus, health and length of life;
c)
bhoga, quality and enjoyment of life.
Karma
as a Cosmic Building Block
To
the rishi seers, karma appeared with such fundamental force
and substantive reality that they perceived it as one of
the thirty-six primary evolutes of form, called tattvas,
which range from Parashakti, pure consciousness, to prithivi
tattva, earth. Karma is number eight, called niyati tattva,
a spiritual-magnetic energy form. This identification of
its magnetic quality is a crucial clue to understanding
how karma "comes back," rather than just "goes out."
Each
karma, or action, generates a vibration, a distinct oscillation
of force, a vasana, or subliminal inclination that continues
to vibrate in the mind. These vasanas are magnetic conglomerates
of subconscious impressions. Like attracts like. Acts of
love attract loving acts, malice attracts malice. And each
action, karma, continues to attract until demagnetized.
This is accomplished through re-experiencing it, or resolving
it with understanding (rather than compounding it with reaction)
or through other subtler spiritual means and practices.
Karma
Goes Global
"What
goes around comes around," sings country Western singer
Willie Nelson. His ballad about "getting back what you give
out" dominated US and European radio waves for years and
became the West's homespun Upanishad on the Hindu concept
of karma. You can hardly watch TV today without a subtle
lesson in this cosmic law of cause and effect. Everywhere,
karma has squeezed through the white picket fences of non-Hindu
religions and irrevocably attached itself to the global
ethic emerging worldwide.
But
karma has suffered a chronic association with the word fate.
Fate is a Western idea, derived largely from the three Abrahamic
religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It means, with
wide variation, that one's life has been set by agencies
outside oneself. Karma is exactly the opposite. "`It is
the coward and the fool who says this is fate,' goes the
Sanskrit proverb," said Swami Vivekananda. "But it is the
strong man who stands up and says, `I will make my fate.'"
Karma
Glossary
karmabhanda:The
bonds of actions, i.e., being bound to rebirth.
karmadosha:Sinful
work or vice, blunder; evil consequences.
karmadushta:Corrupt
in action.
karmaja:Act-born;
resulting or produced from an act, good or bad.
karmajiva:Livelihood
earned by work, trade, profession.
karmakshaya:Annihilation
of work.
karmakshetra:Place
of religious acts.
karmanirhara:The
removal of bad deeds or their effects.
karmanishtha:Diligent
in performing religious actions.
karmapaka:Ripening
of acts, matured results of acts of former births.
karmaphala:The
fruit of actions.
karmarambha:The
commencement of an act.
karmashaya:"Holder
of karma." Describes body of the soul.
karmasamya:Equipoise
of karma.
karmasiddhi:Successful
action.
karmatyaga:Abandoning
worldly duties and obligations.
karmavasha:The
necessary influence or repercussion of actions.
karmavidhi:Rule
of action; mode of conducting ceremonies.
karmayoga:"Union
through action;" selfless religious service.
kriyamana
karma:Actions being made. Karma being created.
papa:Wickedness,
sin, crime. Wrongful action. Demerit from wrongdoing.
prayaschitta:Penance.
"Predominant thought or aim; weighing heavily on the mind."
prarabdha
karma:Actions set in motion.
Sanchita
karma released to bear fruit in one's current life.
punya:Holy,
virtuous; auspicious. Meritorious action.
sanchita
karma:The entirety of all karmas of this life and past lives.
Reference:
A Sanskrit English Dictionary, Sir Monier Monier-Williams.
[KARMA
is pronounced as "karmuh," the "uh" being subtle.]
| Authors
Details: Hinduism Today Newspaper
|
Find
out how to short cut your own natural karma and avoid all
the pain and rebalancing.
More articles on Karma
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(How
Karma Works)
(DK on Karma)
Choosing
Your Karma
(Karma
- Meaning & Definition)
(Karma
- Rules Of The Game)
