Karma Sidhantha,” or “The Law of Karma

Introduction:

While my neighbor who is always engaged in sinful activities leads a very happy life? What kind of justice is this?”

Why was God silently witnessing the tragedy? Why didn't He save them? Children are being kidnapped and brutally killed! Where is God?”

So many whys! We need to understand “Karma Sidhantha,” or “The Law of Karma”, to get the answers for all these.

In this Topic I will discuss ‘Karma Sidhantha’, and what is ‘Karma’ and ‘Janma’.

Topic:

Even a small ant cannot bite us unless it is ordained by God, Why does god make some people do good deeds and others do evil ones? Make the virtuous enjoy, and the sinners suffer? Why all this?

To understand ‘Karma Sidhantha’ we should first know about ‘Janma’ (birth)—‘poorvajanma’ (previous birth) and ‘punarjanma’ (rebirth).

Nature is an ocean of knowledge. The science we’ve mastered so far is just a potful. Imagine how much water is still left in the ocean. There are so many secrets in nature yet to be unfolded. ‘Punarjanma’ is one such aspect of nature.

Once a well-read American gentleman too was troubled with similar questions on rebirths. He visited Kanchi Parmaacharya and humbly asked him,

“Do previous births and rebirths really exist? Is it possible to take rebirth based on the ‘karmas’ of the past births?”

The Acharya just kept silent.

The gentleman visited him every day with the same question. Having realized that he is a genuine seeker, the Acharya said one day.

Acharya had given a task to him to clear his doubts.

The man felt blessed to help him. Acharya said, Can you get data on newly born babies in the surrounding villages.

Within two days, the man returned to the Acharya with the required data. The Acharya asked him to analyze it.

These many babies were born during the week. Some were born in rich households; some in poor households; some are healthy; some are beautiful babies; some are just normal, some are born weak, some are born with disabilities…

“The Acharya guru said, think with your knowledge and logic and tell me what could be the law behind such disparity in births?”

The Acharya added, “Nature does its work perfectly. It never reacts unless we meddle with it.”

The man thought deeply and finally said, “Perhaps the babies born with disadvantages must have committed misdeeds in their previous births; and those with all the advantages-- good deeds, to deserve such births.”

The Acharya said, “I thought that you get your doubts cleared”. This is ‘Karma Sidhantha’. The American gentleman left the Guru satisfied.

This is the only answer to the many questions like, “why am I suffering in spite of visiting so many temples? Why is God so merciless towards the disabled and the disadvantaged? And so on.

We read about terrorists committing genocides most brutally and without any mercy- locking them in cages and burning them alive, or killing them by drowning them in water, and in more savage ways.

These barbarous sinners take rebirths to suffer for their bloody crimes.

Such people, with so much baggage of bad karma, cannot end their sufferings in their present birth, by visiting temples, chanting stotras or offering money in the hundies.

God cannot be bribed like humans. Besides, He never interferes with anyone’s karma. You have to suffer for your own sins that you had done. This is ‘Karma Sidhantha’.

Software engineers and architects know pretty well that nobody can ever write flawless code.

But, ‘Nature’ has written a flawless algorithm millions of years ago. It exists even now and will be there forever flawless.

This perfect ‘algorithm’ is ‘Karma Sidhantha’.

 “Avasyam anubhokthavyam kruthaa karma shubhoshubham” says “Karma Sidhantha”, which means whether you do good or evil you have to experience the results of it.

This is what Newton later said in his third law as you all know. If you extrapolate this law to ‘Nature’, it is ‘Karma Sidhantha’. Everything in the world happens in accordance with this law.

Now you may get the doubt, "Who maintains the account of every individual’s rights and wrongs? Where is all this data stored?"

Through the Mahatmas of our "Sanathana Dharma” we learn that the data is stored in the invisible ‘Aakaashik Records’.

It is stored in a ‘Chitra’ and ‘guptha’ manner. These terms mean ‘tricky’ and ‘secret’ respectively.

Chitragupta is therefore a ‘shakti’ of ‘Nature’ which is in charge of the data of all our actions on earth.

Based on this data, Nature decides where a person should be born, in what conditions, and what sort of karma s/he has to undergo in the next birth.

People personify this Shakti and call it Chitragupta. But how can this Shakti witness a man’s secret sins committed inside closed doors?

The whole mystery of ‘Karma Sidhantha’ can be unfolded if we can understand this.

Since we are ignorant of such truths, we blame God for not showing mercy on the disadvantaged. God is silent because he is omniscient.

Now the question is, “Who will watch all of these actions of each and every individual. “

God has arranged 18 CC cameras: To record every action of an individual. This data is collected in the Aakashik records, processed by Chitraguptha; and Nature decides the karma one has to carry with him in the next birth.

Now let’s know about these 18 CC cameras. 12 of these are familiar to us. They are: Our conscience (1) Pancha bhootas (5) The Sun and the Moon (2) Night and day (2) Dawn and dusk (2)

There are 6 invisible cameras: Dharma (1) Truth (1) Vedas (4)

18 is a significant number. The Mahabharata has 18 parvas; the Kurukshetra war was waged for 18 days; 18 ‘akshohinis’ of army fought in the war;

the Bhagavad-Gita has 18 chapters. 18 is the symbol of the 18 divine energies of nature.

Now let’s see what the rationale behind our karmas is:

Karma is categorized as ‘sanchita karma’, ‘praarabdha karma’ and ‘aagami karma’, represented by the three red heaps or piles on the screen.

 ‘Sanchitha karma’:  It is the repository of the entire karma collected by an individual, over all his births and rebirths so far.

 ‘Praarabdha karma’: it is its subset—the portion of karma from the total mass, an individual gets along with his birth, to go through during his lifetime.

Here we may get the doubt. Why only a portion of the karma? Why shouldn’t the individual clear off the whole mass in a single Janma?

Bloodthirsty sinners like the terrorists mentioned before, amass so much bad karma that their huge repository of sanchita karma cannot be cleared off in one life. They need countless wretched Janma’s to clear their karma.

Aagami karma: It is the amount of additional karma that we earn in the present life in addition to the already existing praarabdha karma. This is finally added to the repository. In such a case, the pile of our sanchita karma goes on increasing.

How can we reduce bad karma? We can lighten bad karma in two ways. The first way is through repentance and atonement.

If we honestly repent for our misdeeds and make sincere efforts to make amends, our sufferings will surely soften.

The second solution for reducing bad karma.

People ask me. We know about the sins we have committed in this life, so we can make atonements. But what about the sins of previous births? How do we know?

We haven’t committed a single sin in this life. How can we make amends when we do not know what sins we've committed?

Our mahatmas have shown us a wonderful way to reduce such karma. "Do selfless service to the suffering and the needy; sweat for them; see God in them;

Sincerely pray for their wellbeing; don't crave for name and fame". Even the most hardened karma is automatically softened by such good acts.

During Guru Pujas, for example, people forget their position and status and do all kinds of service. No work is below their dignity.

Our mahatmas have recommended such selfless service as the surest route to reduce karma. These are the only two ways to melt our karma. Repentance and atonement; and selfless service.