“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.” ~ Unknown
‘As you sow, so shall you reap.’
‘The present is nothing but a result of our own past actions.’
‘Our present and future is affected by the cause and effects of our past.’…
All this is karma, the reflection or effects of our own doings from the past. Over time, we are expected to be punished or negated for the bad deeds, and rewarded for the good ones. The concept of Karma is the basis of world equilibrium, a way of balancing the universe. The inequalities are related to the constructive or destructive actions of human beings.
As we all know, a person’s true identity is not based on his words but his actions. In very basic terms, someone with good intentions and clear conscious living a noble life is expected to have good karma. Any incident that adversely affects our life is blamed on bad karma – the result of destructive or ‘bad’ deeds from the past.
Of course, this is simplification, but our karma can be directly related to our conscience.A person with clear conscience always thinks twice before doing something hurtful or bad. He/she often sticks to a positive outlook and prefers ‘right’ actions, instead of the ‘wrong’ ones. The conscience provides us the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. The karma eventually rewards him/her for all the beneficent or ‘right’ actions. On the contrary, someone without a conscience would be more inclined to be selfish and sinful, less thoughtful while taking advantage of a situation with no regard for others’ welfare. Those actions eventually catch up with us, and the karma is bound to punish sooner or later for ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ deeds.
The concept of karma can be simplified or complicated based on how closely or how deeply we want to look at the concept. In principle, the karma is the reflection of our deeds. In Hindu, Sikh and Buddha religions, karma is also linked to what we are born with, including effects of the previous lives. With the existing beliefs of reincarnation in Indian religions, the karma is often linked to the good or bad of the past and past lives. This is often used to justify or explain the basis of how some – with good karma- are born in a favorable social conditions; while others – with bad karma from previous lives – are born into poverty and other miseries. Over the long run, it is said that every sin affects our karma negatively -sooner or later; just like every kind act improves or ‘cleans’ our karma.
Our karma is what we are, our true existence based on our actions. After all, we are what we do; we make our own luck, our own destiny. Our future is not engraved on our foreheads or in the lines of your palms. One always has the power to change tomorrow; we have the power to influence our own karma.
So, our life is not based on a pre-determined fate or kismat. We cannot control what we did in the past or in our previous lives, but we can certainly make a difference by having a positive outlook, by leading a constructive and meaningful life.
In the simplistic terms, no matter how we look at ourselves or what we believe in, it is far easier to live with a clear conscience. A clear conscience always leads to good deeds; and good deeds lead to a better karma.
As you sow, so shall you reap!
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The conceptof Karam is not so simple. You must be very well aware of the question “Why do bad things happen to good People?’ Now looking at the Karma theory as you have said this question cannot be answered. Yet this a very common occurance. You see the biigest crooks having a very good life tule so much so that de dies also peacefully, while some very good people have misfortunes piled upon them. If this were the result of past Karmas why can’t they we changed in this lifetime. There is something amiss in your concept of Karma.
The Vedant clearly defines Karma as action. Now action cannot to stored, then what is all this talk about past karnas. We have two entities PRARABDH and KARMA. Prarabdh is what is commonly known as Destiny, or what is talked about the result of past Karmas. It is not the result of past Karmas it is the result of the residual Vasnas of the past life. Vasnas loosely defined means desires, thoug it is much more than desires. The primodial desire is the desire to attain to our forgotten form i.e. Brahaman. In order to get over thses Vasnas we have the agenty of Karma through dextroud Karmas we can rid ourselves of our Vasnas and attain to Moksha or our true self. We thus bound by our Vasnas which give rise to Prarabdh and free to act by doing Karma. The outcome is the resultant of these two. In the Vedant there are no bad or good Karmas, all Karmas are simply Karmas, and you move from a lesser truth to a higher truth. There being no good or bad deeds.
Ashok,
Thanks for your detailed comments about Karma. As you know, the concept is well detailed in different religions, including Hindu Vedants (and Holi Book Gita). It is almost impossible to include all the aspects of this concept in one post. I appreciate you taking the time and providing additional information for the readers. I look forward to any other suggestions (may be write a follow-up post?) to further elaborate it.
Regards.
An Indian Abroad
In the Advait Vedant we belive that in the beggining there was only Brahman and nothing else. We dare not say that there was only ONE, because the very word one imples that it is something that has been single out from a lot and therefore it connotes more that one. We therefore say ADVAIT meaning no two. This is an indirect way of saying the samething but we escape from uttering the word ONE. Now if something exists it has in it the inherent property of getting lost or more explicitly of getting forgotten about this we call IGNORANCE or AVIDYA or MAYA ( that which is and is not), If something does not exist there is no question of it ever getting lost or forgotten about, Hence BRAHAMAN exists. But then Brahman cannot forget itself this forgetfullness must come over someone else. that is the possesser of the thing that gets lost. Who can posssess Brahaman when there is no one else. This third entity is called JIVA or living being. This living being comes into existance only when Maya or forgetfullness of Brahaman comes over him. But this can be possible only if Jiva was already existing. But its very definition JIVA comes into existane only after forgetfullness. This is the eternal riddle of the Vedant, How Jiva came into being is something that cannot be answered but alive and kicking it is in the form of man, plants and animals. All of whom have been overcome by forgetfullness of their own original form that is Brahaman. This forgetfullness is in different degrees which has goven birth to the diffrent species. The whole purpose of life is to get rid of this forgetfulness and go back to our original form that is Brahaman.
Good posts Agarwal – I do agree with you broadly that the tit-for-tat popular definition of karma is flawed. But I do believe that Karma is about taking responsibility for one’s actions. The primitive western King religins have a King that will forgive you for your misdeeds. That sounds very nice but what does that say to the victims? Say a terrorist shoots innocents and God forgives him? One of the innocent dead goes to heaven only to see his murderer enjoying himself while down on earth his loved ones suffer. Does that sound right?
But with Karma, one does not evade responsibility. You are asked to take responsibilty and in the next life, an opportunity to right your mistakes. Of course Karma also gives you the biggest gift of all, the Gift of Life. Abrahamic religious people are one-and-done, whereas Hindus get to enjoy the gift of life again and again!
The best thing about Karma and Rebirth to me, is that it does away with the concept of Hell. I have always been uncomfortable with the concept of hell, a place of torture, where God uses physical violence. Recently we saw a video in the Taliban area of pakistan, where a young girl was forcibly held down and brutally whipped while she begged for mercy. Do we really think God follows the same brutal policy? And exactly what are we supposed to be learning while getting tortured?
the quotation u used in the beginning is a saying by Hazrat Ali, a muslim scholar who was very close to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). so now its not unkown to you anymore
thanks for sharing.