Wednesday, January 25, 2012

More about Karma


What you are facing or enduring in this life is NOT the result of any past karma. Karma is a baggage. We live in the “prakriti-mandala”. Uncertainty is one of the primary characteristics of prakriti. Krishna calls prakriti as “maya” in BG while telling Arjuna that he cannot unravel the mystery of the prakriti mandala. While the body is part of prakriti mandala, the atma is not. What maya means in this context is “that which is capable is creating unique and surprising things”. That is why uncertainty is an essential attribute of prakriti. While we own our action having acted out of free-will, the outcome of the action is not governed by our karma. It is governed by the uncertainty in prakriti.

If the outcome of the action is as we expected, we experience happiness. If the outcome is not as we expected, we experience unhappiness. When we experience happiness, we are spending the good karma, and when we are experiencing unhappiness, we are spending our papa-karma. In this manner, we need to exhaust the entire prarabdha in this life, and entire sanchita in future lives.  This is the theory of karma!

Now imagine, while it takes one a life-time to exhaust the prarabdha which is but a spoonful of karma from our sanchita baggage, how long it would take for us to exhaust the sanchita! The only way to exhaust the prarabdha and sanchita in one shot is surrendering at the feet of Sriman Narayana, the supreme Brahman. 

Glory to the Azhwars! Glory to Swami Ramanuja! Glory to the Acharyas!

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