Law of Karma and Videha Mukthi

Tattva Bodha - 8

Law of Karma states that every deliberate action one does, produces two types of results; one that  flows from the visible action called dhrishta phala, visible result and another that flows from the invisible motive behind the action called  adrishta phala. invisible result. The positive invisible result is called Punyam, with a pleasurable impact and the negative invisible result is called Papam with a painful impact. While the dhrishta phala fructifies soon after the action, the adrishta phala takes its time to fructify, maybe now or later in this janma or in next or in one of the subsequent janmas.  This uncertainty of the gestation period gives rise to three categories called, Agami Karma, Sanchitha Karma, and  Prarabhdha Karma. 

The actions wilfully performed by a Jeeva in human form with a sense of doership result in Punyas and Papas which come under Agami karma. Living beings other than humans have no sense of doership and no judgemental capacity to discriminate actions as good and bad and so they all have no Agami Karma.  Some of the Agami Karma may fructify during jeeva’s current lifetime.  The unfructified Agami Karma at death gets added to the unexhausted, accumulated stockpile of Karma called Sanchitha Karma. Sanchitha Karma is the unexhausted accumulated punyas and papas over the countless births in the past.   Cycle of birth and death continues until Sanchitha Karma is reduced to nil balance with no unfructified Agami Karma to add at the time of the death of Jeeva. 

Prarabhdha karma is that portion of Sanchitha Karma that comes to fruition at the time of Jeeva’s birth.  Prarabhdha Karma determines जातिः आयुः भोगाः (Jathihi, aayuh,bhoghah),  as per sutra 13 of Sadhana pada of Patanjali Yoga Sutra.   जातिः stands for environments of birth like birth in a particular country, society, family and other characteristics at birth like sex, defects or peculiarities. आयुः  stands for the life span. When Prarabhdha is totally exhausted death of the body occurs.  भोगाः stands for experiences of life pleasant, painful and mixed. Prarabhdha is commonly called fate or destiny.

So in a nutshell,  Agami Karma is the freshly acquired punya, papa in the current janma;  Sanchitha Karma the stockpile of unexhausted  Agami Karma  accumulated  over countless births and  Prarabhdha Karma  the portion of Sanchita Karma that matures at  jeeva’s birth to be exhausted in jeeva’s  lifetime.

Law of karma is not fatalism. Rightly understood it can be an antidote for fatalism.  From the study of Prarabhdha Karma we understand that past "I" as kartha is responsible for the present  "I".  Extending this logic we can say future "I" can be shaped by the present "I" as kartha by managing the circumstances intelligently in this janma.  So the responsibility for our future lies in our hands only and  that is why Sri Krishna says in Gita(6-5) “उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं (uddhareth athmanaathmanam)”- one should lift oneself by one’s own efforts. 

Every experience we undergo in our life is because of Prarabhdha Karma and Agami Karma i.e. our own actions in the present and past janmas.  So we cannot blame the world or any other beings for our experiences. When we understand this we will stop blaming the world or others for our sufferings; and accepting responsibility as a past or present karta, will improve our mental health.  So right understanding of the law will help us to stop blaming others or the world including God for our ills and sufferings.

We are experiencing in the present janma not only the Agami phalam (action done as current kartha) but also the Prarabhdha Phalam (action done as previous kartha).   That is the reason why some good people appear to suffer and some not so good people appear to prosper.  If the reason is rightly understood that it may be the effect of past karma, this understanding will help us retain our faith in the Lord and not turn cynical. 

Swami Paramatmananda talks of the availability of Prayaschitha Karma to mitigate the effects of Prarabhdha in his talk on Law of Karma.  Prarabhdham is adrishtam, not visible.  So this cannot be dealt with normally. Planetary positions as revealed in the horoscope give an indication of the Prarabhdha in store, but they themselves do not cause joy or sufferings.  Through the clock we see the time of sunrise and sunset but clock itself does not cause sunrise or sunset. By knowing what is in store for us, we can create an Agami, to counter or mitigate the Prarabhdha effects to come. This is called Prayaschitha Karma which like medicine can cure the disease or help to manage the disease or only be just a temporary palliative. In the case of weak Prarabhdha it can relieve the suffering, in intermediate case it can help to manage the suffering and in a strong case give the mental strength to accept it.  When the Prayaschitha is general it is called prayer, when it is specific, it is called parihara.

Before going into Videha mukthi let us see what happens to the bodies at the time of death. The gross body of ajnani as well as Jnani  disintegrates to merge with the Pancha bhuthas at death.  The subtle body and causal body of the ajnani along with the reflection of Chaithanyam in Sukshma Sareera, Chidabasa, leave the gross body to take up a new body according to the fructified portion of Sanchitha Karma, Prarabhdha Karma; and continues in the new body accumulating Agami Karma until the Prarabhdha Karma is exhausted when again it continues the journey in another new body with fresh Prarabhdha Karma.  Liberation from this cycle of journey from body to body is called Mukthi. What happens in Mukthi we can see from the life of Jnani.

A Jnani is one who is  firmly established in Athma Jnanam.  Whatever Sanchitha Karma was to his credit along with the unexhausted  Agami Karma in his account , they all get totally destroyed  on the date of his firm realization that he is neither the doer nor the enjoyer but only the witness Consciousness. This Sri Krishna points out in Bhagavat Gita (4-37) 

“यथैधांसि समिद्धोऽग्निर्भस्मसात्कुरुतेऽर्जुन।(yathaidhamsi samiddhognih bhasmasath kuruthe Arjuna)

ज्ञानाग्निः सर्वकर्माणि भस्मसात्कुरुते तथा ॥ (Jnangnih sarvakarmani bhasmasath kuruthe tatha)

As a blazing fire reduces all fuel to ashes, O Arjuna, so does the fire of Self-knowledge reduces all karma to ashes.

But this applies only to Sanchitha and Agami Karma.  Prarabhdha Karma has to be exhausted by living it through.  That is why we have seen Jnanis like Ramakrisna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi suffering from body afflictions before death.  Their illness only brought grief to others but they remained indifferent to it with the firm conviction that it is only the body that is affected and they are not the affected body. Because of this Jnanam the Jnani lives as Muktha Purusha until death and is called Jeevanmuktha and his state is called Jeevanmukthi, liberation while living.  Agami karma does not accrue to him after he attains Jeevanmukthi as he has no sense of doership.  At death Jeevanmuktha’s  subtle body merges with the subtle bhuthas and the casual body gets liquidated as there is no residual karma to give rise to gross body or to sustain subtle body. Since the subtle body is dissolved,  Chithabasa, the reflected Consciousness, also gets dissolved  and the witness consciousness becomes one with the total Consciousness like pot space becoming one with the total space when pot is broken.  This is called Videha Mukthi, liberation at death.

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Iswara’s Grace

Sri Krishna says in Gita (9-29) “समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योस्ति न प्रियः”। (Samoham sarva bhutheshu na may dweshyosthi na priyaha)  I am same to all beings; there is none hateful or dear to me.  This declaration He makes not as the son of Devaki but as Paramathma, whom we shall refer to as Iswara.  But we feel in practice some seem to be recipients more of Iswara’s Grace or Iswara Kripa or Anugraha than others.  What is the yardstick to qualify for the special Grace, one may wonder. I want to analyse it in this blog in the light of other statements Sri Krishna makes in the same chapter.

As Sri Krishna says ‘I am same to all’, He does not choose anybody to shower special Grace; rather He showers His Grace equally on all.  It is only we through our actions need qualify ourselves to take advantage of His Grace.  Acharya Sankara  illustrates this through an example.  In winter people light a fire and sit around it.  The fire gives the same warmth to all, but the one who sits near it seems to receive more warmth than the ones sitting a bit far off.  Swami Paramarthananda gives an example from current scenario. Solar energy flows same to all, but the one who has erected a solar panel gets the benefit of electricity from it to escape power-cut.  The one who has attained a higher degree of mental purity, through selfless prayer, worship and actions done in karmayoga spirit makes oneself eligible to take advantage of the Grace like the farmer who has tilled the land and sowed the seeds beforehand, gets greater benefit from the rains and reaps a good harvest as compared to the one who has neglected the field and let the water go waste.  This Sri Krishna himself states in the second line of the above quoted verse: ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहं॥ (Ye bhajanthi tum am bhakthya mayi te teshu chapyaham) But those who worship me devoutly, abide in Me and I too am in them. This means that more you get closer to Him the more you feel His nearness to you.

Now the question is “How to get closer to Him?  Does it need special sadhanas like Vrata, Upasana, Yagna or a special Puja somewhere?”  Sri Krishna Himself has given the solution earlier in the same chapter in verse 29.

यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् । (Yatkaroshi  yadasnasi yajjuhoshi dadasi yat) 

यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ॥ (Yattapasyasi Kaunteya tatkurushva madarpanam)

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give in charity, whatever you do by way of penance,O son of Kunti, do that as an offering unto Me.  

This attitude converts the very life itself of bhaktha as a worship of Iswara.  There is no division as secular and religious work, as all work is treated as worship, being an offering to Iswara. With such an attitude one will not stray from the path of dharma; rather he will give up any bad or immoral habits, acquired earlier.  Sri Girish Chandra ghosh, a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a good dramatist but also a great drunkard.  When he confessed his inability to give up drinks, Sri Ramakrishna asked him only to offer every glass of drink to him before taking it. Gosh did accordingly but could do so only for one day and from the second day onwards, he could not bring himself to offer the drinks to his master and so gave up the habit of drinks itself.  When one invokes God in all of one’s actions sincerely, one acquires selflessness in actions. As God comes more in one’s life, the less the play of ego in one’s life, as what is ego but edging god out and replacing it with ‘I’. 

Sri Krishna goes on to list a few actions, the first among them being food.  The food we take has a great impact on our thoughts.   The more satvic the food the more satvic tends to be our mind.  In Chandogya Upanishad Sanatkumara tells Narada “आहारशद्धौ सत्वशुद्धिः” (Aahara suddhau satva suddhihi) When nourishment is pure, thought processes of the mind also become pure.  When one performs religious acts or sadhanas offering them to Iswara, he eschews selfish motive in performance.  As one gives everything with the mindset that he is giving to none other than Iswara, he cultivates humility and eschews arrogance that comes from a feeling of superiority as giver.

Such a virtuous, selfless, egoless action done with humility and with dedication to Iswara earns one Punya, good karma-phala.  Swami Paramarthananda in his lecture on God’s Grace observes that God's Grace is only another name for the ripe Punya-phala that becomes ready for tapping, because God as karma-phala dhata has no preferences and only acts as per the law of karma laid down by Himself to regulate our lives.  When the accrued Punya becomes ripe for tapping is not within one’s knowledge.  So when one enjoys the benefit of ripe punya-phala it looks as though one is enjoying special Grace.  So if one wants the favour of special Grace let him through righteous, selfless, egoless actions performed with humility and devotion, earn the Punya-phala and make oneself  eligible to receive the Punya-phala as His Grace, which may be then or later, depending upon when it becomes ripe and ready for tapping.

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Parabhaktha, the Jeevanmuktha

Arjuna in his query regarding Gunatheetha, has also asked how one can transcend the three gunas (Gita 14-21). Lord Krishna, in his reply, discusses this in two verses 14-26 & 27 after briefly enumerating the qualities of Gunatheetha. He prescribes ananya, nish-kama bhakthi to ‘Him’ i.e. unswerving all-time devotion to ‘Him’ seeking no material benefits but only ‘His’ Grace, as a sadhana for transcending the gunas in verse 26, and in verse 27 explains who that ‘He’ is. It is not that Krishna, son of Devaki-Vasudeva, with a form and a body that is mortal and subject to changes which Arjuna is seeing before him, but the Uttama Purusha, the eternal, immutable Supreme, who pervading the three worlds sustains them, and is called the Paramatma (15-17). Such a bhakthi is called parabhakthi, the supreme devotion and one who has this bhakthi is parabhaktha, the supreme devotee. This parabhaktha is one who through total surrender to Paramatma, rises above the gunas, overcomes the spell of maya, sheds his identification with body-mind-complex, realizes his true Self as Athma, and continues to live in the body as Jeevanmuktha, free of samsara, until the exhaustion of prarabhdha.  “Such a bhaktha who holds me extremely dear, I too hold him dear” Lord Krishna has declared earlier (7-17). The characteristics of this bhaktha, whom Lord Krishna holds dear, the Parabhaktha that is Jeevanmuktha, Lord Krishna lists out in detail in 7 verses, from 13 to 19, in chapter 12.  Since the qualities of a Parabaktha are listed elaborately here, they are listed in groups and not individually.  They are:

1) अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च adveshta sarva bhuthanam maitrah karuna eva cha– Parabhaktha bears no hatred, ill-will or malice towards all other creatures, humans included, and he is friendly and compassionate towards one and all.

2) निर्ममो निरहंकारः nirmamo nirahamkaraha – He is free from the feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. He is always conscious of his real identity as sakshi ‘I”, and the ego ‘I’ he uses for transactions with the world as slave ’I’.  He has no attachment either to his meagre possessions, nor to any relationships.

3) समदुःखसखः क्षमी sama-dukha-sukha kshami – He views with equanimity, pleasure and pain, and he is of forgiving nature.  In fact, in his vision, there is nothing for him to forgive as he lives in the present, carrying no memory of past wrongs or insults, and in the present, as he does not identify himself with the name and form, any offence or insult, does not touch him.

4) संतुष्टः सततं योगी santhushtah satatam yogi – He is always happy and contented and is firmly established in meditation.

5) यता्मा दृढनिश्चयः yatatma drdha-nischayaha – His body, mind and senses are under his control and he is a man of firm conviction

6) मय्यर्पितमनोबद्धिः mayyarpitha mano buddhihi – His mind and intellect are ever dedicated to Paramatma

7) यस्मान्नोद्विजते लोको लोकोन्नोद्विजते च यः yasmanno dvijate loko lokanno dvijate cha yaha - He feels oneness with the world and his heart is full of love for all other living beings, and his calm, peaceful, compassionate composure is one that is not  affected by the happenings in the external world, nor does it cause agitations in the external world.

8) हर्षामर्षभयोद्वेगैर्मुक्त: harshamarsha bhayodvegair mukthaha – As regards inward agitations, he is also free of them for excesses of joy, fear, intolerance, and anxiety do not touch him.   Whatever feelings or emotions that come to his mind, they have no force, and are short-lived.

9) अनपेक्षः सूचिर्दक्ष उदासीनो गतव्यतह: anapekshah suchirdaksha udhasino gathavyathaha – Here another set of mental qualities are described. His mind has no dependence on external things, is pure, alert, unconcerned and untroubled

10) सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी sarvaarambaparityagi – He has renounced all ego-centric selfish undertakings.  Whatever he does is for universal welfare and social good and without any selfish motive. 

11) यो न हृ्ष्यति न द्वेष्टि न शोचति न काङ्क्षति yo na hrishyathi na dweshti na sochathi na kankshathi – He does not become elated when something agreeable happens nor does he suffer pangs of regret if something disagreeable happens.  He does not grieve over a loss or long for a gain.

12) सुभासुभपरित्यागी भक्तिमान् subhasubhaparityagi bhakthiman – He is ever devoted to Paramatma.  As he is beyond dharma and adharma, right and wrong, he is not concerned about the punya or papa attached to his action.  Acharya Sankara, while discussing Jeevanmuktha in Tattva Bodha states in section 13 that any punya arising out of his action will accrue to those who praise, adore and worship him, while papa, if any, will go to those who insult or abuse him.

13) समः सत्रौ च मित्रे च तथा मानपमानयोः samah satrau cha mitre cha tatha manapamanayoh – He is the same to all whether they are his well-wishers or ill-wishers as he has love for all.  He treats alike honour and dishonour, i.e. with total nonchalance.

14) शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु समः सङ्गविवर्जितः sithoshna sukha dukheshu samah sangavivarjitaha – He is free from all attachments, including his body-mind-complex. So he is immune to bodily and mental discomforts and disturbances, and his placidity suffers no change in all circumstances affecting the body-mind, like climate changes from one extreme to other or swings in experiences like pleasure and pain.

15) तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिर्मौनि tulyanindasthuthrmouni –  His equanimity is undisturbed by praise or blame. He does not indulge in loose talk or gossip and enjoys silence as a means of communion with his Self. This state of silence arises out of intoxication with the supreme love for the Supreme Lord.  This is described in Narada Bhakthi sutras in sutra 6 as मत्तो भवति, स्तब्धो भवति, आत्मारामो भवति matho bhavathi, sthabdho bhavathi, athmaramo bhavathi i.e.  he becomes intoxicated with devotion, and enjoys silently that state of ecstacy, united in the Self, that is Paramathma.

16) संतुष्टो येनकेनचित् अनिकेतः स्थिरमतिः भक्तिमान् santhushto yena kenachit anikethah sthiramathihi bhakthiman  –  In all places he feels at home, while calling no place as his home. He is happy and contented with whatever he has or gets and has no demands from anybody and no expectations in life.  He has a steady mind, fixed in devotion to Paramatma.

This parabhaktha, Lord Krishna describes as ब्रह्मभूतः Brahmabhuthaha, one who has attained Brahman, in verse 54 of Chapter 18.  A Parabhaktha is indeed a Parama Jnani, as it is true in reverse as  well..

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