On Karma
It was a half past four, early morning in the summer of ’83. Our family had been traveling to Madurai from chennai, in an ‘omni’ bus. It was raining cats and dogs. But the bus driver did not mind it. He was driving like a formula one race driver, negotiating the curves with aplomb. Alas there was this very C curve that he misjudged. The result: the vehicle carrying 75-80 passengers skidded at great speed. The brakes were jammed. It was moving towards a ‘kamma’ on the other side of the road. Nothing could stop it. But, there was this single huge ‘thoongu moonji’ tree. And the bus crashed into it headlong and stopped. It was nothing short of a miracle. It could have easily missed the lone tree and fallen into the ‘kamma’ killing a few and severely injuring many in the process. But…it did not happen. The driver later recounted that he lost control of the vehicle and he could not see any tree in the heavy rain. The tree saved the lives of many and prevented a disaster.
Was it really the tree, which saved the day for the passengers of the fateful bus? Or was it something else. An old man in the bus exclaimed minutes after the accident, “It was the good karma of the few people traveling in the bus which saved rest of us.” I was a teenager then, and I could not understand the word ‘karma’. My query to my mom about the meaning of the word met with a stoic reply, “It is your father. He is our karma.” So my understanding of ‘karma’ was firmly established. My father is karma. He is the superhero who saved us all. I was very proud. One day I will succeed him. Not until my paternal grandma broke the myth of karma. She explained my mother’s wrathful reply and declared that it was he forced us to board that ill-fated bus, ignoring my mother’s plea to travel by train the next day.
What is actually karma? Even though it is a Sanskrit word, karma has found its way into Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. May be it was karma, that it should so happen! The lexicon opines karma, as a “(in the Buddhist and Hindu religions) the force produced by a person's actions in one of their lives which influences what happens to them in their future lives”. So the definition presupposes the concept of reincarnation present in these religions. The ideas of reincarnation and karma have had a tremendous influence on the Indian society. Its many values and traditions are intricately linked with these vital ideas. The value of truth, justice, ahimsa, chastity, non-covetousness, service, sacrifice. Everything is based on Karma. People were advised to uphold the values in order to clear their bad karmas (evil deeds) and create good karmas (good deeds). Karma means both the action and the result of the action. If you do good things respecting the values outlined above, you will have a good karma leading to a blissful life. On the contrary if you commit bad things to other living beings then you will incur negative karmic impressions and will lead of suffering. It is an extension of the theory of causality into the moral realm. The doctrine of karma has helped build the morality of the Indian nation, which has not invaded any country as military aggression. But its ideas have pervaded the whole world through the ‘wandering monks’.
In this age of science, one can ask, “What scientific proof can you show for the effect of karma ?”. A rational questions no doubt. The evidence for karma has only an indirect evidence. If one can prove that reincarnation is true the same can be said of Karmic influences. The lives of the individual soul, which travels from successive births, can be examined. The most telling evidence comes from the experience and writings of Dr. Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist who had personally recorded the recounting of past lives ofhundreds of persons in his best-selling book "many lives, many masters". These individuals could remember, under the hypnosis, their past lives and occupations. A young nurse could recall in one of past lives the process of embalming the dead, taking care of the horses in another. In her present life she could no access to these knowledge and skills. There were many such cases.
It was a half past four, early morning in the summer of ’83. Our family had been traveling to Madurai from chennai, in an ‘omni’ bus. It was raining cats and dogs. But the bus driver did not mind it. He was driving like a formula one race driver, negotiating the curves with aplomb. Alas there was this very C curve that he misjudged. The result: the vehicle carrying 75-80 passengers skidded at great speed. The brakes were jammed. It was moving towards a ‘kamma’ on the other side of the road. Nothing could stop it. But, there was this single huge ‘thoongu moonji’ tree. And the bus crashed into it headlong and stopped. It was nothing short of a miracle. It could have easily missed the lone tree and fallen into the ‘kamma’ killing a few and severely injuring many in the process. But…it did not happen. The driver later recounted that he lost control of the vehicle and he could not see any tree in the heavy rain. The tree saved the lives of many and prevented a disaster.
Was it really the tree, which saved the day for the passengers of the fateful bus? Or was it something else. An old man in the bus exclaimed minutes after the accident, “It was the good karma of the few people traveling in the bus which saved rest of us.” I was a teenager then, and I could not understand the word ‘karma’. My query to my mom about the meaning of the word met with a stoic reply, “It is your father. He is our karma.” So my understanding of ‘karma’ was firmly established. My father is karma. He is the superhero who saved us all. I was very proud. One day I will succeed him. Not until my paternal grandma broke the myth of karma. She explained my mother’s wrathful reply and declared that it was he forced us to board that ill-fated bus, ignoring my mother’s plea to travel by train the next day.
What is actually karma? Even though it is a Sanskrit word, karma has found its way into Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. May be it was karma, that it should so happen! The lexicon opines karma, as a “(in the Buddhist and Hindu religions) the force produced by a person's actions in one of their lives which influences what happens to them in their future lives”. So the definition presupposes the concept of reincarnation present in these religions. The ideas of reincarnation and karma have had a tremendous influence on the Indian society. Its many values and traditions are intricately linked with these vital ideas. The value of truth, justice, ahimsa, chastity, non-covetousness, service, sacrifice. Everything is based on Karma. People were advised to uphold the values in order to clear their bad karmas (evil deeds) and create good karmas (good deeds). Karma means both the action and the result of the action. If you do good things respecting the values outlined above, you will have a good karma leading to a blissful life. On the contrary if you commit bad things to other living beings then you will incur negative karmic impressions and will lead of suffering. It is an extension of the theory of causality into the moral realm. The doctrine of karma has helped build the morality of the Indian nation, which has not invaded any country as military aggression. But its ideas have pervaded the whole world through the ‘wandering monks’.
In this age of science, one can ask, “What scientific proof can you show for the effect of karma ?”. A rational questions no doubt. The evidence for karma has only an indirect evidence. If one can prove that reincarnation is true the same can be said of Karmic influences. The lives of the individual soul, which travels from successive births, can be examined. The most telling evidence comes from the experience and writings of Dr. Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist who had personally recorded the recounting of past lives ofhundreds of persons in his best-selling book "many lives, many masters". These individuals could remember, under the hypnosis, their past lives and occupations. A young nurse could recall in one of past lives the process of embalming the dead, taking care of the horses in another. In her present life she could no access to these knowledge and skills. There were many such cases.
Similarly, in 1997, Stevenson released Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects, a two-volume, 2268-page examination of cases in which persons were born with birthmarks or birth defects related to traumas purportedly suffered by a "previous personality," and medical records associated with such cases. His research, over 3,000 study cases, provides evidence suggestive of reincarnation, though he himself was always careful to refer to them as "cases suggestive of reincarnation" or "cases of the reincarnation type." Professor Stevenson himself recognized one fundamental flaw in his argument for reincarnation: the absence of any evidence of a physical process by which a personality could survive death and travel to another body. [See http://www.childpastlives.org/library_articles/birthmark.htm ]
Since the law of karma operates, in the spiritual plane, its operation cannot be demonstrated as in a laboratory. There will be only indirect proofs. [ see http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter24.html ]And there is a popular western belief that karma declines freewill and it engenders fatalism and inaction aka inertia. But it is not true. Swami Vivekananda outlines in his karma yoga that it behooves the humanity to do their duty to best of their abilities, enjoying it all the while, without unduly worrying about the fruits of the effort. This, swami asserts is karma yoga. And it is the highest yoga of all.
Since the law of karma operates, in the spiritual plane, its operation cannot be demonstrated as in a laboratory. There will be only indirect proofs. [ see http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter24.html ]And there is a popular western belief that karma declines freewill and it engenders fatalism and inaction aka inertia. But it is not true. Swami Vivekananda outlines in his karma yoga that it behooves the humanity to do their duty to best of their abilities, enjoying it all the while, without unduly worrying about the fruits of the effort. This, swami asserts is karma yoga. And it is the highest yoga of all.
No comments:
Post a Comment