We always try to gloss over Karma theory. If a person is not serious or sincere to one’s own approach, through the misunderstanding of Karma theory, one will justify one’s own actions. If you want to consume this just as an information, then there is no point learning it through a teacher. If a person is really serious on learning this and observe one’s self, so that the person can grow. A teacher expects growth both for himself and his students through the learning of Karma theory.
There are three kinds of Karma – Agami, Sancita and Prarabdha. We are discussing Karma theory for a living and liberated person (Jnani). Tattvabodha talks about the sadhanas or qualifications. After this, once the person is serious about the qualifications, it talks about the body that is available in front of you and makes you to understand yourself.
When you look at this Karma theory for a living liberated person you have to careful on how you look at this Karma theory. There is a very good explanation of Adi Shankaracarya of the Bhagavad Gita. The question is ‘what are the characteristics of a wise person?’. That time Lord Krishna did not answer the question of Arjuna. When the discussion starts, Adi Shankaracarya wrote commentary saying “The characteristics of a wise person becomes the qualification of a s!dhaka (seeker)”.
Unless we work on the qualifications discussed in Tattvabodha, knowing the Karma theory is not going to help much. There is a possibility that you may misunderstand or misinterpret. The living liberated person after listening to the knowledge, whatever action he does is called Agami Karma. Whatever the person has done in his previous life, as there are thousands of life, all the accumulated Karmas are called Sa<cita Karma. Moreover, the Prarabdha Karma is interesting. Say a tourist has chosen a package for travel, he becomes a traveller. He does not have much choice during the travel time on whom he is going to meet and what places he is going to see. Similarly, you don’t have choice on whom you are going to meet in life.
You just meet a person. What you are going to come across in your life, whether a person or situation, with respect to that, you don’t have any choice. This is called Prarabdha. Nobody has choice on what a person is going to come across in life.
The package called Prarabdha brings this body and mind. You are not mentally retarded or physically handicapped. That is your Prarabdha. There are diseases which people go through without any reason, where medical science is unable to do anything. The person just goes through the suffering. It is because, the person may have done something in their previous life due to which they go through in this life. When the person does small remedies, there is good improvement.
We have not chosen this body or mind. It has come because of Prarabdha. You come across situations which are pleasurable or painful. In both cases, you do not have much choice rather than going through it.
One day a large bird Garuda discovered that another small bird is about to die. Garuda thought that since it is the vehicle of Lord Vishnu, it can protect the small bird. At that time, Yama, the Lord of Death, was getting confused. As per Yama, the small bird was reaching it death time at a place farther from the current place. Yama thought, how can the bird travel the distance in short time. At this time, Garuda thought, it will take the small bird to the place where Yama had in mind. Thus, Garuda solved the confusion of Yama by taking the small bird to the specified place. This is called Prarabdha.
Have you ever observed an accident? Observe how a person is dragged into an accident. There is no logical reason for it. It is purely Prarabdha. Also in a group, many people will die due to the Prarabdha of a few. For example, say three people are travelling in a group. As per Prarabdha of one person, he is going to die. The Prarabdha of other person is weaker. You will discover that when accident takes place, the main person will die, the one whose Prarabdha is weak may be hospitalised and the ones whose Prarabdha is strong will escape unhurt. This has been verified through astrology as well. Due to the Prarabdha you come across many such situations.
Prarabdha can be exhausted only by going through it. There is no other option to escape it. Even a wise person has to go through Prarabdha. With reference to Prarabdha, no one has choice. If you observe people who are living liberated, they have also gone through their own painful situations.
Now a question may arise, “what about our effort?”. Remember by putting effort, you cannot completely change your Prarabdha, however, you can change or improve its impact to a great extent.
Let us look at some examples from Puranas. Arjuna was supposed to be killed by Karna as he got the boon from the father of Arjuna that he was supposed to kill Arjuna. Karna was also waiting for this opportunity for a long time to kill Arjuna. The Mahabharata war was going on. Arjuna and Karna were facing each other. Lord Krishna was the charioteer. Here Lord Krishna represents God’s Grace. Krishna says “Karna has shot his arrows. As your charioteer, I will defend those. Your job is to just bend down.” Arjuna listened to Krishna. The arrow was supposed to kill Arjuna. Instead, it hit the crown of Arjuna. If a prince looses his crown, it is equivalent to death. Instead of physical death, socially, position-wise Arjuna was death. This happened due to God’s Grace and Arjuna’s effort. If God’s Grace and one’s own effort is there, Prarabdha can be improved.
Sancita or accumulated Karma will not get destroyed by doing anything. We all have spent enough number of lives doing many actions. If all those actions have to be destroyed in one way, it is only when a person understands that he is Brahman (knowledge of Self). In India, one of the large banks follows this rule properly. If you open an account in this bank, they will not give a form to fill in the nominee details. You have to ask for this form. This is because, there are sadhus in Kashi, Banaras, Haridwar and Rishikesh who open accounts and keep their money. When they pass away, all this money is taken by the bank. Similarly, though we have lot of accumulated Karma, if we do not identify ourselves with our body or mind, then this accumulated Karma will not affect us.
Agami Karma also gets destroyed by the knowledge of the Self. When the jnani does any action, it is like the lotus leaf in water and not being affected by the water. If you attach yourself to anybody or any situation, you will be affected by that person or situation. A wise person does that action that is to be done. However, you do not do what is to be done most of the time. What is spontaneous for a wise person will be a conscious effort for a seeker. If you don’t put conscious effort Vedanta will not be of any use.
Those who praise or respect wise people, to them the benefit of action done by the wise people is passed on. To those who abuse or hate or give discomfort to a wise person, all the Agami Karma will come back to them.
Excerpts from Swamiji’s satsangs