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EDITORIAL:
O Karma, Are Thy Ways Inscrutable?
Introduction
Theirs not to reason why
Theirs but to do and die.
Swami Vivekananda also exhorted, 'Let me see that you die while labouring hard.'
Uncompromisingly, as it were, Sri Krishna says in the Gita, 'That which you do not wish to perform due to delusion, you shall be compelled to do (kartum nechchhasi yanmohat karishyasi avashah api tat).'
'Theirs but to do and die'--poor 'they'! In the Gita, Arjuna, the ardent devotee and friend of Krishna, could not remain without asking the obvious question: 'Why then, O Keshava, do you engage me in this terrible action?'
Jack works day and night for his livelihood and that of his dependants; I follow the path of righteousness as enjoined by the scriptures; you are a devoted recluse or a householder engaged in meditation of God; a person does some welfare work without thought of any return whatsoever; Mr. So and So cheats people and commits crimes; so goes the list of various works or actions performed by people. The scriptures have not created any karma, nor do they thrust them upon us, but they simply grouped the karmas according to their gati or result. They are being performed by people having various types of nature.
Sri Krishna observes, 'The ways of action (karma) are mysterious (gahana karmano gatih).'1 So the karmas themselves are not mysterious. Our confusion arises when we try to understand their end or gati. How to evaluate them--which one is right, which is wrong? Even the wise are perplexed about it.
For our benefit, all karmas have been grouped by the wise of yore under a few definitions and types. Let us discuss them in brief:
1. Ordinary Karma
(a) Svabhava Karma (Natural Work): People in general do incessant karma. They are compelled to do it. Even for the maintenance of the body one has to do karma. But for many there is no awareness as to what happens next. What is the end? If the end of work is clear, one will not normally expect a result that is not due. If, nevertheless, we aspire for an undue result, it is called daydreaming. If, however, we have an aspiration, we can work to achieve a cherished goal.
Great things are done
when men and mountains meet;
This is not done by jostling in the street.2
With higher aspirations, even a butcher can transform himself into a more cultured man, a surgeon. Whatever we produce, we have a right to demand a share of it. It is said in the Bible, 'If any would not work, neither should he eat. 'If we produce happiness, we can demand for it; otherwise not.
Therefore, the scriptures say, 'They work for enjoyment and suffer thereby. 'For them, the path or end has been stated as 'They are born and they die--this is the third way'.3
(b) Works Enjoined by the Scriptures: The scriptures do not deny peoples 'hunger to live a long life in the world, in spite of all its stench and problems. Rather, they try to show an easier way to make it rich in joy, quality and zest. Neither do they frown at our urge to do work; but advise us how to fill our long life with useful actions. Life, otherwise, will turn into a lamentation if it is to be enjoyed by people who are weak physically and mentally. A long life can be fruitfully enjoyed by a strong physique and a wise mind. Otherwise, youth will lose its zest and old age will be a curse.
The Isha Upanishad4 takes all these into consideration before calling upon us to take up those actions which are enjoined by the scriptures: 'By doing karma, indeed, should one wish to live here for a hundred years. 'Closing the sixteenth chapter of the Gita, Sri Krishna advises Arjuna: 'Therefore, let the scriptures be your norm in determining what should be done and what not. Understand the injunctions of the scriptures first and then set yourself to work. 'These people, after their death, will attain to pitriloka, the world of the Manes, because the shruti says: the world of the Manes (is attained) through rites (karmana pitrilokah)5.
(c) Upasana or Meditation: The actions, like the sacrifices etc., which are performed with the help of the body are called karmas, and those actions like meditation etc., which are done by mind are called upasana. They are mental activities (manasavyapararupani) relating to the Personal God. Hence upasana is also a type of karma called mental karma.
Those aspirants who follow the path of upasana (meditation on god) attain the world of the gods after death. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: vidyaya devalokah, i.e., the world of gods is attained through meditation.
(d) Combination of Upasana and Scriptural Work: The Isha Upanishad enjoins a combination of upasana and work (permitted by the scriptures). This is an awareness about the total vision of the Reality--not only the surface but also the depth of it has been taken into consideration, which will encourage us not to stop in between, but to go on asking critical questions until we (the questioners) come face to face with the total vision. In one of his poems, Rabindranath Tagore prays: 'Due to laziness or fatigue if I take a breather and unroll my mat on the road; yet the awareness that a long stretch of road is still left uncovered should not stop to haunt me.'
Likewise, the combination will help us to maintain a discontent until the highest is reached. If the quest is in the form of a desire for heaven etc., it will lead us to the Brahmaloka, the world of Brahma, the Creator, wherefrom we will finally be liberated through the path of krama mukti (gradual liberation). On the other hand, if the combination is practised without desire (nishkama) then it will help us purify our mind gradually and we will be groomed for the path of discrimination (jnana yoga).
It sounds paradoxical to say that the combination of upasana and works(which are goaded by desire) may be performed unselfishly. Let us probe into this. The paraphernalias of work and upasana include some form of sacrifices to be mandatorily undertaken by the votaries, for the sake of the manes or gods. Thus the aspirants are made to learn to renounce and gradually, as they progress, they feel duty-bound to offer some gifts as sacrifices, and also come to appreciate that not to do so is sinful. The Gita stresses this idea in regard to sacrifices and concludes saying: therefore, the all-comprehending Veda is established in sacrifice (tasmat sarvagatam brahma nityam yajne pratishthitam).
(e) Karma Without Desire for Result: There is another group of people who love to do nishkama karma. Desire is the root cause of ordinary actions. Unchecked, it gets degraded to consumerism--cut-throat competition, 'win-lose' greed. Sri Ramakrishna gives a list of the evils that beset the path of nishkama karma: 'There are many people who talk big and who say that they have performed most of the duties enjoined in the scriptures. But with all that their minds are engrossed in worldliness and deeply preoccupied with money, riches, name, fame, creature comforts, and such things. '6 Having all these considerations in mind Sri Krishna says in the Gita that men like Janaka verily attained to perfection by (unselfish) work alone. The result of nishkama karma is chitta shuddhi, i.e., the purification of mind, which in turn, according to Shankara, makes one fit to take up the path of knowledge (jnana marga).
2. Akarma (Inaction)
The Gita has very efficiently dealt with this kind of karma in the fourteenth chapter, verses 16-23. There are two types of akarma or inactions. One, that performed by a knower of Brahman, who has identified himself or herself with the Atman. It is inaction, for it has no binding effect like ordinary actions. He or she remains as an unattached witness. And two, the avoidance of duty due to laziness or delusion. Such inaction will incur sin for the lazy person, and be detrimental to him or her. Sri Krishna prefers performance of karma with desire to eschewing work itself. Because by avoiding work, none reaches the state of inactivity.
3. Vikarma (Prohibited Work)
The scriptures do not try for 'the greatest good of the greatest number, ' but for the absolute good of all, moving or unmoving creation. So, as a corollary to this message, they have cautioned us against performing those actions which are harmful to others. It forms that great branch of philosophy called 'ethics'. In an attempt to find out a universally acceptable criterion of ethics, the scriptures have listed some karmas like killing, deceit, theft, promiscuity, hoarding wantonly, etc. as vikarma or prohibited actions. The results have also been cited: papah papena (bhavati), i.e., one becomes evil through evil work.7 Manu, the ancient law-giver, says:
Sharirajaih karmadoshair
yati sthavaratam narah
Vachikaih pakshimrigatam
manasair antyajatitam
By the evil effect of karma performed by the physical body, people are reborn as stationary creation like trees, by that of karma performed by speech, they are reborn as birds and beasts, and by that of mental action they take rebirth as low-born humans.
Conclusion
What happens to a jiva (soul) after the natural destruction of the body? Where does the jiva live then, what is its repository? (kvayam tada purusho bhavati, i.e., what is the support for this disembodied being?). In reply to these questions asked by Artabhaga the sage Yajnavalkya (Brihadaranyaka Up.) says that the jiva holds on to the thread of his own karma. There is no death for the jivatma. With the death of the body, it (jivatma) never dies. The Upanishad says: jivapetam baba kila idam mriyate, na jivo mriyate, i.e., this body surely dies when separated from the individual soul, but the soul does not die8. Na hanyate hanyamane sharire, i.e., it is not injured even when the body is killed9.
But as long as the jiva, under the influence of his own desire, remains engaged in action, he/she has to undergo the cycle of transmigration. Desire is the cause of bondage. It cannot be satiated by enjoyment. Rather enjoyment helps its growth. Yayati, after a long life of enjoyment, commented, 'The desires are never quelled by enjoyment, but they grow more like the flame of fire fed with clarified butter.' So the results which are the effects of karmas performed with desire are within the pale of relative existence (karmaphalanam samsaratva10).
Actually speaking, the ways of action do not seem to be mysterious or inscrutable. It is indeed inscrutable when we long for a result for which we have not worked! Swamiji clarifies this mystery when he observes: 'We get caught. How? Not by what we give, but by what we expect.'11 Otherwise, how could a downright corrupt person aspire for even public acclaim, let alone heaven?
Liberation is not to be achieved by such karmas. They are perishable because of their fragility (plavah hyete adridhah12). The Self cannot be attained through impermanent things (na hi adhruvai prapyate hi dhruvam tat13). It is, therefore, a pragmatic approach to karma that is required to get out of this maze of karma. Sri Krishna, the most practical among the ancient teachers, gives the only solution saying, 'Therefore, perform necessary action always without attachment (tasmad asaktah satatam karyam karma samacara). Confirming Sri Ramakrishna 's ideas Swamiji says: 'A man ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water; so a man ought to live in the world his--heart to God and his hands to work. 'Because the Shruti observes, 'When all desires clinging to one's heart fall off, then a mortal becomes immortal and he attains liberation here.'14 Therefore, Sri Ramakrishna provides a unique insight into the vortex of perplexing karma when he says, 'It does not matter what kind of actions you are engaged in. You can be united with God through any action provided that, performing it, you give up all desire for its result.'15
References
1.Cf. The Gita, 4.17.
2. William Blake, Gnomic Verses, I.
3. Cf. The Chandogya Upanishad, 5.10.8.
4. Cf. The Isa Upanishad, 2.
5. Cf. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,1.5.16.
6. M., The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Nikhila--nanda, trans. (Chennai: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 2000), p. 469; hereafter 'The Gospel '.
7. Cf. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 3.2.13.
8. Cf. The Chandogya Upanishad, 6.11.3.
9. Cf. The Katha Upanishad,1.2.18.
10. Shankara on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 3.3.1.
11. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vols. 9 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1985), 2:4
12. Cf. The Mundaka Upanishad, 1.2.7.
13. Cf. The Kathopanishad, 1.2.9.
14. Cf. The Kathopanishad, 2.3.13.
15. The Gospel, p.579.
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