Karma sakthi....................................................................

Karma Sakthi (Cause & Effect of Deed/Act)........Guru on behalf of God can mitigate some of the Karmas of his disciple/devotee.


Karma is a concept in Hinduism which explains causality through a system where beneficial effects are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful effects from past harmful actions, creating a system of actions and reactions throughout a person's reincarnated lives.

The doctrine of transmigration of the soul, or fateful retribution for acts committed, does not appear in the Rig Veda. The concept of karma appeared in Hindu thought during the period 800-200 BC and became widespread during the period considered as "Classical Hinduism"


"Karma" literally means "deed" or "act", and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction, which Hindus believe governs all consciousness. , Karma is not fate, for man acts with free will creating his own destiny. The Vedas tell us that if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness; if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determine our future. The conquest of karma lies in intelligent action and dispassionate reaction. Not all karmas rebound immediately. Some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this or other births. We produce Karma in four ways :-

through............................................thoughts

through............................................ words

through ...................actions that we perform ourselves

through............. actions others do under our instructions

Everything that we have ever thought, spoken, done or caused is Karma; as is also that which we think, speak or do this very moment. Hindu scriptures divide karma into three kinds :

Sanchita is the accumulated karma.

Prarabdha Fruit bearing Karma.

Kriyamana Everything that we produce in current Karma

It would be impossible to experience and endure all Karmas in one life. From this stock of sanchita karma, a handful is taken out to serve one lifetime and this handful of actions, which has begun to bear fruit and which will be exhausted only on their fruit being enjoyed and not otherwise, is known as prarabdha karma.

Prarabdha Fruit-bearing karma is the portion of accumulated karma that has "ripened" and appears as a particular problem in the present life.
Kriyamana is everything that we produce in current life. All kriyamana karmas flow in to sanchita karma and consequently shape our future. Only in human life we can change our future destiny.

After death "we loose Kriya Shakti" "(ability to act)" and do (kriyamana) karma until we are born again in human body.

Actions performed consciously are weighted more heavily than those done unconsciously. But just as poison affects us if taken unknowingly, suffering caused unintentionally will also give appropriate karmic effect. Only human beings that can distinguish right from wrong can do (kriyamana) Karma. Animals and young children are not creating new Karma (and thus can not affect their future destiny) as they are incapable of discriminating between right and wrong. However, all sentient beings can feel the effects of Karma, which are experienced as pleasure and pain.

"Our destinity was shaped long before the body came into being." As long as the stock of sanchita karma lasts, a part of it continues to be taken out as prarabdha karma for being enjoyed in one lifetime, leading to the cycle of birth and death. A life cannot attain liberation until the accumulated sanchita karmas are completely exhausted.

The cycle of birth and death on earth is formed from 8.4 millions forms of life and only one of them is human. Only as humans, are we in position to do something about our destiny by doing the right thing at the right time. Through positive actions, pure thoughts, prayer, mantra and meditation, we can resolve the influence of the karma in present life and turn the destiny for the better.

A spiritual master(Guru) knowing the sequence in which our Karma will bear fruit, can help us. As humans we have the opportunity to speed up our spiritual progress with practice of good Karma. We produce negative karma because we lack knowledge and clarity.

Unkindness yields spoiled fruits, called sin, and good deeds bring forth sweet fruits, called punya. As one acts, so does he become: one becomes virtuous by virtuous action, and evil by evil action.

The role of divine forces....................

Several different views exist in Hinduism regarding the role of divine beings. In Hinduism, many see the devas as playing some kind of role/symbol. Still others such as followers of Vedanta consider Ishvara, a personal supreme God, as playing that role. In these theistic schools, karma is not seen merely as a law of cause and effect, a view espoused by Buddhism, for example, but dependent on the will of a personal supreme God. A good summary of this theistic view of karma is expressed by the following:

"God does not make one suffer for no reason nor does He make one happy for no reason. God is very fair and gives you exactly what you deserve."

Other Hindus,such as the Mimamsakas, reject such notions of divinity being responsible and see karma as acting independently, considering the natural laws of causation sufficient to explain the effects of karma.

These differing views are explicitly noted in a series of passes in the Brahma Sutras (III.2.38-40), an important text in Vedanta, the major school of Hinduism, which endorses the concept of Īśvara i.e., a personal supreme God, as the source of fruits of karma, but note opposing views in order to refute them.According to Swami Sivananda, Verse III.2.38 from the Brahma Sutras refers to the role of Īśvara (the Lord) as the dispenser of the fruits of karma. According to Swami Vireswarananda on the same verse, says that the purpose of this verse is specifically to refute the views of the Mimamsakas, who say that karma (work) and not Īśvara, gives the fruits of one's actions. According to the Mimamsakas it is useless to set up an Īśvara for that purpose, since Karma itself can give the result at a future time.

Some interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita[16] suggest an intermediate view, that karma is a law of cause and effect yet God can mitigate karma for His devotees.

Another view holds that a Sadguru, acting on God's behalf, can mitigate or work out some of the karma of the disciple/devotee


Mitigation of bad karma - Karma in the Dharmaśāstras

In Hinduism, more particularly the dharmaśāstras, Karma is a principle in which “cause and effect are as inseparably linked in the moral sphere as assumed in the physical sphere by science. A good action has its reward and a bad action leads to retribution. If the bad actions do not yield their consequences in this life, the soul begins another existence and in the new environment undergoes suffering for its past deeds”. Thus it is important to understand that karma does not go away, one must either reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of his past actions.

The Brahdaranyakopanisad states, “According as a man acts and according as he believes so will he be; a man of meritorious acts will be meritorious, a man of evil deeds sinful. He becomes pure by pure deeds and evil by evil deeds. And here they say that person consists of desires. As is his desire so is his will; and as is his will, so is his deed; and whatever deeds he does that he will reap”. The doctrine of karma dates from ancient times and besides the above author is mentioned in the Gautama dharma-sutra, Satapatha Brahmana, Kathaaka-grhya-sutra, Chandogyopanisad, Markandeya-purana and many others.


The sastras written about karma go into some detail about possible consequences of karma. There is often talk about coming back as a variety of different object when it comes to reincarnation and pasts lives. In this case, it holds true, or at least insofar as the texts state. The Kathaaka-grhya-sutra states, “some human beings enter the womb in order to have an embodied existence; others go into inorganic matter (the stump of a tree and the like) according to their deeds and according to their knowledge”.

More extensively discussed is the consequences of karma in relation to sin. “Karmavipaka means the ripening (or fruition) of evil actions or sins. This fruition takes three forms, as stated in the Yogasutra II. 3, viz.

Jati (birth as a worm or animal),

Ayuh (life i.e. living for a short period such as five or ten years)

and

Bhoga (experiencing the torments of Hell”.

There are long lists of birth of lower animals and the diseases and deformities from which sinners suffer. Some authors offer specific ramifications for specific sins. For example, in “the Haritasamhita it is said the killer of a brahmana suffers from white leprosy and the killer of a cow from black leprosy.” While the list is extensive for ways of reducing sin and therefore reducing bad karma, some authors, such as Mitaksara, a commentator on the Yarjnavalkya, believe karma is, “not to be taken literally, but is meant to induce sinner to undergo such prayaschittas as
Prajapatya which entail great worry and trouble and which no one might willingly undertake.”

Further the Karmavipaka states, “that no soul need be without hope provided it is prepared to wait and undergo torments for its misdeeds, that it need not be appalled by the numerous existences foreshadowed in those works and that the soul may in its long passage and evolution but ultimately able to discover its true greatness and realize eternal peace and perfection.” Thus the sastras turn to means of reducing sin, some of which are hard to reconcile with the doctrines of karma. For example, one practice, sraddha, or as the Brahmapurana sates, “whatever is given with faith to brahmanas intending it to be for the benefit of pitrs at a proper time, in a proper place, to deserving persons and in accordance with the prescribed procedure” is meant to honor ancestors, however a believer of karma would agree that when the body dies the soul automatically enters into another body. Therefore, in contrast with karma, Kane states about srāddha, “the
doctorine of offering balls of rice to three ancestors requires that the spirits of the three ancestors even after the lapse of 50 or 100 years are still capable of enjoying in an ethereal body the flavor or essence of rice balls wafted by the wind.”. Of course the two can be reconciled if taking into account the sastras that state that karma is not to be taken literally, but as evidenced by the variety of opinion written on the subject this will not hold true everywhere.



Besides narrow meaning of karma as the reaction or suffering being due to karma of their past lives and that one would have to transmigrate to another body in their next life, it is often used in the broader sense as action or reaction.

Thus, karma in Hinduism may mean an activity, an action or a materialistic activity. Often with the specific combination it takes specific meanings, such as karma-yoga or karma-kanda means "yoga or actions" and "path of materialistic activity" respectively. Yet another example is Nitya karma, which describes rituals which have to be performed daily by Hindus, such as the Sandhyavandanam which involves chanting of the Gayatri Mantra.