Karma is a fundamental mechanism of our existence. It applies to everyone, regardless of belief. Anyone can understand the reasonableness of karma, and all great spiritual authorities have taught the principle of karma: that there are reactions to our actions. In the Bible, for example, we find the statement of Jesus Christ: “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
The earliest evidence of the term KARMA's expansion into an ethical domain is provided in the Upanishads, a genre of the Vedas (sacred scriptures).In the middle of the 1st millennium bce, the Vedic theologian Yajnavalkya expressed a belief that later became commonplace but was considered new and esoteric at the time: “A man turns into something good by good action and into something bad by bad action.” Although within the Vedic ritual tradition “good action” and “bad action” may have included both ritual and moral acts, this moral aspect of karma increasingly dominated theological discourse, especially in the religions of Buddhism and Jainism, which emerged about the middle of the 1st millennium bce. Both of these religions embraced ascetic modes of life and rejected the ritual concerns of the Brahman priests.
Karma in Hinduism, can be understood only with reference to Bhagavad Gita wherein lies the dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna,when Arjuna refused to fight the war in Mahabharata .The 18 chapters of the Gita are an attempt by Krishna to make Arjuna see what was inside him. In our own professional lives, we come across situations when we know what we want but were unable to decide whether we should compete with a colleague or counter him. At those moments we are ruled by confusion. When someone who understands our dilemma suggests, say for example, that friendships are kept for life, we become clear in our mind and give our colleague the space for healthy competition. Had that clarity not come through we would have lost perhaps both - a friend as well as an opportunity.
Arjuna was precisely in that position - justice or relationships? Krishna helped him to understand that it was justice he must seek. He had the skills and proficiency for the task and was more than capable of achieving the result. With the clarity from Krishna's words, he achieved what was to be.
Our sufferings as well as our achievements are a direct corollary of our own deeds. If we trust God and presume that He’s the one to administer pain and pleasure in our lives, then we must also know that He does give us the freedom to choose our own deeds in a given situation. Only on the basis of this independence of actions, He judges us and decides whether to reward us with pleasures or to make us suffer. If we really want to be happy, we have to prove ourselves to be worthy of it in the Lord’s eyes!
When a child is born, the first thing it does is to cry. All others greet the child into this world with a smile on their faces, but the child itself weeps. If this situation reverses at the time of his/her death, then it can be considered a truly accomplishing and satisfying journey. During the last moments of life, the person leaving the earth should have gratifying smile on the face and all others should be the ones shedding tears with the pain of his/her parting in their hearts.
So the only mantra that seems to be workable in achieving a trouble-free life is, “Sow well and you can earn a right to reap the best!!”
How often we wonder why bad and sinful people enjoy life without any apparent effects of bad karma. You could compare karma to a contagious disease. Sometimes there are symptoms right away, and other times there is a long incubation period. But once you are infected, it’s just a question of time until the symptoms catch up with you.
How long good karma lasts, well, imagine you have a bank account. You are spending and spending, but you never get to see the balance sheet. One day there is no money left—and you’re in trouble. That’s what happens with good karma. If you’re not accruing more good reactions, one day your good karma will run out.
In the material world everything is temporary. Both good and bad things end.When we give up desires and don't fall a prey to baser instincts,we can refine our senses and enjoy on a much higher level. It would not be reasonable to take our pleasure away and leave us with nothing. Activities in Divine consciousness not only replaces our loss,” but they allow you to enjoy more than you ever did.In this way bad karma can be avoided.
The activities of a person who does not incur karma differs from the activities of a materialist. One who follows a righteous path, serving the God almighty,incurs no karma. A materialist on the other hand, because he falsely identifies with his body, acts only to please himself or extensions of himself, such as his family or community. He doesn’t know that he is actually not satisfying himself, but only his body.
The Vedic literature explains that by pleasing the Lord, the source of all existence, you benefit too. just as all the branches and leaves of a tree are nourished if you water its root. But if you try to gratify your own senses, that is like watering the leaves of the tree: it won’t work.
Knowing the law of karma, we can understand that no one is really innocent. Although we appear innocent at birth, the consequences of our past deeds reveal themselves in time. In fact, the material body itself is a symptom of the living entity’s entanglement in karmic reactions, just as fever is a symptom of disease.
Yet there is always a chance to break free from the cycle of birth and death, which is propelled by karma. Hinduism believes in the theory of rebirth.There is no eternal hell. We come to the material world to exercise our independence from God, but He has given us the Divine literature, an instruction manual explaining how to return back to Godhead.
Well, life is like a lengthy movie of hundreds of thousands of individual pictures. In one scene the character is laughing, and in another one he is crying. But the spectators know the movie is not real. After the movie, only the screen remains;))
Similarly, the only real, permanent factor in the drama of our existence is the soul, which passes through the various scenes of different bodies. We can see the scene of only our lifetime and we don't know the screenplay of next!
Without knowledge of karma, we become more and more entangled in the network of actions and reactions, like a fly caught in a spider’s web. But the practice of Divine consciousness can bring our material existence to a happy end.
