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LAW OF KARM (ACTION)
The Principle of Cause and Effect
A Person’s Effort and Destiny (fate)
Fruits of Action and Rebirth
Architect of Destiny
Sin and Virtue
As
you sow so shall you reap:
The Law of Karm (action) is an important principle in the Vedic Scriptures. What
does ‘Law of Action’ mean? This is our everyday experience - that a person reaps
fruits according to one’s actions. In our daily relationship we find many
examples of action and its (accompanying) fruit.
One who does not walk with care on the road has an accident; one who eats wrong
food becomes ill; a student who does not work hard for the examination fails; a
shopkeeper who does not pay attention to his or her business has to suffer
losses; a farmer without hard work reaps fewer crops from the farm.
Examples of this type may be found in every field of life and therefore it is
said “as you sow so shall you reap”. If you sow the seeds of sour figs you
cannot expect to reap sweet mangoes. One who plots the fall of others becomes
the victim of one’s own plot. A person then suffers the consequences of one’s
own actions.
The Principle of Cause and Effect:
The basis of the fruits of action is the law of cause and effect. Whatever I
have done or am doing or whatever has been achieved by my efforts constitutes
the effect which must have some cause. A child’s crying is the result of some
cause - perhaps he or she is hungry or is experiencing pain or someone has hit
him or her. In other words, one’s crying must have an under-lying cause. A bird
flies away because someone threw a stone at it or it heard a sound or some such
cause, made it fly. Therefore we can say that without cause there can be no
action.
This cause and effect relationship extends far. The child is crying because
someone hit him or her. The “hitting” itself is a resultant action which must
have a cause - perhaps the child had used dirty words; the use of dirty words is
perhaps the result of someone teasing the child. Thus what is considered a cause
may be in a way a result and thus the consequential cause of an action can be
easily traced.
In this way what is deemed to be the consequence can be called the fruits of an
earlier action. To become ill, to fail in an examination, to suffer misfortune
are all fruits of some or other type of action. A person suffers the results of
one’s own actions. It does not always happen that the fruit of an action follows
immediately upon the cause. Sometimes results are immediate, at other times
belated. Every moment we are doing some sort of action either good or bad for
which one gets the result later on. Say for example someone donated hundred
dollars to the poor and God rewards the person with two days of happy life for
such a generous action. The same donor just few hours after donating to the poor
kills a person. Now when will God punish this person? Will God cancel the two
days of happiness that He has already rewarded to the person and punish the
person. If God does this then He is not truthful because He has not kept His
earlier words. Actually God always remains firm to His decisions. In such a case
God punishes the person after he or she has been rewarded i.e. once the reward
for good deeds is over one suffers for the evil deeds and vice versa. So if you
think you have done something good or evil and you haven’t got the result yet
then it doesn’t mean that you are free of the action. You will definitely get
the results of your actions when the time is appropriate.
A Person’s Effort and Destiny (fate):
Whatever action a person undertakes in this world is one’s effort. One thinks
and understands plans and makes attempts. Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes one
fails. Many causes may underlie one’s success or failure - one has not made full
efforts or one lacks the proper means or one has not given adequate thought to
one’s undertaking.
Sometimes it happens that under the same conditions two people undertake the
same type of work; yet one succeeds, the other fails. At times success comes
with little effort, at other times every effort meets with failure; and we sigh
‘my luck is bad, this is the fate destined for me’. What is this luck and fate?
This is the fruit of my past actions. Actions that have been performed in this
life or in a previous life. Our good or bad actions do not always bear fruits
immediately.
The fruits of past actions are reaped in the present life - and this is called
destiny. Our present actions may be aided or put at a disadvantage by past
actions. Two people under identical circumstances may thus experience opposing
results of success and failure. Good past deeds bring success and past sinful
actions result in obstructing all efforts.
The dispenser in the matter of destiny is God. But when the fruits of action
will be handed out or how much will accumulate, a person does not know. A person
is free to do deeds of one’s choice, but the reaping of fruits of one’s actions
is decided by God.
Fruits of Action and Rebirth:
Rebirth of the soul takes place in accordance with the actions of the past life.
In other words, with birth comes our actions of our former lives.
Therefore the individual has to undergo happiness or suffering. It is seen that
some infants are ailing at birth, others are healthy, some crippled, others
strong, some born in the homes of the rich, others in the homes of the poor.
These differences arise on the account of actions committed in previous lives.
The law of cause and effect may be brought forward. If we have not already
suffered the result of our actions, they have to be suffered in the next life.
The happiness or suffering, success or failure in the present life are caused by
the actions in our former birth as well.
A Person is the Architect of one’s Destiny:
A
person must pay the consequences of one’s own actions. Therefore, when one
performs actions in which one is unsuccessful, it is said that what is
established by destiny must surely happen. The power of fate is the most
dominant.
It is true that what is destined must be rewarded or suffered, but this destiny
is the fruit of our past actions. In other words destiny is decided by karm
(action). We must consider the question from the view point of the present life.
The actions performed now will establish our future destiny, which means that we
are the architects of our own destiny. A person builds one’s own destiny. We
must accept with fortitude the fruits of the past actions and for the future try
to build a beautiful fortune. This is the realistic path.
Sin and Virtue:
A
person is free to perform actions which may be good or bad. One indulges in evil
deeds on account of ignorance, selfishness, hatred etc. The evil actions one
commits are sin; the good one performs is virtue. The evil that a person commits
must be paid for; the question of forgiveness does not arise. Any person or
teacher can give us advice to follow the path of virtue and to avoid the road of
sin but finally our destiny will be decided in accordance with the actions we
perform. Thus it is we ourselves, who earn evil or good fruits by our actions.
We perform actions of our own free will and must eat the fruits thereof. The
giver of the fruits of action is God. The law of the fruits of action inspires a
person to accept the existence of God, reminding us of God’s justice,
omniscience (all knowing) and omnipotence (all powerful).
Adapted from
‘Dharmic Shiksha (Vedic Religious Knowledge) – Form Four’, Arya Pratinidhi Sabha
of Fiji, 1999.
Copyright: Arya
Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji
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