Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s33: XLII Karma
Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s33
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XLII Karma
v2.c26.s33.2
The law of karma is assumed by Śaṃkara. Individuality is due to karma, which is a product of avidyā.¹ The kind of world into which we are born is just the return of the works on the doer.² The individual organism is the working machinery³ intended to produce that requital in the form of actions and its results of suffering and happiness. Sometimes the works of a single existence have to be atoned for in several succeeding ones. Even as the atonement for the past is completed, fresh karma accumulates, " so that the clockwork of atonement in running down always winds itself up again."¹ Moral life is an unremitting active energising, which is never exhausted. It takes endless forms, owing to the variety of the demands of the conditions of human life. This process goes on for ever, until perfect knowledge is gained, which consumes the seed of karma and makes rebirth impossible. Freedom from subjection to the law of karma is the end of human life. To get rid of avidyā is to be freed from the law of karma. But so long as the individual is finite, he is subject to the law of karma, i.e. he always strains after an ideal which he never reaches. Morality is a stepping-stone and not a stopping-place. All acts done with an expectation of reward yield their fruits in accordance with the law of karma, while those done with no selfish interest, in the spirit of dedication to God, purify the mind.
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¹ S.B., iii. 2. 9.
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² Kriyākārakaphalam.
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³ Kāryakāraṇasaṃghāta.
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¹ D.S.V., p. 354. ² S.B., ii. 3. 42. ³ S.B.G., iii. 3. 4. ⁴ See Jivanmuktiviveka, ch. i. ⁵ S.B.G., viii. 18; iii. 33.
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It does not, however, follow that we move like marionettes pulled by the strings of our past karma. It has already been said that the individual is responsible for his acts, and God is only the assisting medium, conserving the fruits of his deeds.² God does not compel anyone to do this or that. Even those tendencies with which we are bound can be overcome by strength of will.³ Vasiṣṭha asks Rāma in Yoga-vāsiṣṭha " to break the chain that holds us in bondage by free effort."⁴ The individual has an impulsive nature by virtue of which he has likes and dislikes.⁵ Man, if guided by the unformed nature with which he is born, is completely at the mercy of his impulses. So long as his activities are determined by these, they are not free. But man is not a mere sum-total of his impulses. There is the infinite in him. The self as causal power lies outside the empirical series and determines them. The history of man is not a puppet show. It is a creative evolution.
Cites (1)
- Jīvanmuktiviveka — Mādhava, Sanskrit