Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s33.2

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.