Do Wrong Actions and Attribute it to KARMA ???

[Kavitaparna]

OM SRI SAI RAM

A man doing a wrong thing argues that he is doing it because of his Karma; and he does not even try not to do it, because it gives him immediate happiness. How to impress upon him not to do it ?

Karma does not compel a man to do wrong actions. Samskara(impressions) does, to a certain extent. But God has bestowed free will on man, with which to make or mar his career. Man has no Bhoga-Svatantrata (freedom to enjoy or suffer), which factor is governed by Karma. But, he has got Karma-Svatantrata (freedom to do good or evil). He can substitute good Samskaras in place of the old vicious Samskaras by Vichara-sakti (power of enquiry), will-power and continued practice of good actions.

That evil seems to give immediate happiness is the greatest temptation and the greatest obstacle to the cultivation of virtues; and it can be removed only by discrimination and experience. Contemplation over the ultimate and permanent damage done to the very soul of man by the evil actions, and the harm he is causing to the entire society itself by his evil, ought to compel a man to desist from evil action - however pleasant it might appear superficially.

There is no short-cut to this really serious problem; the wicked heart will not yield easily. And therefore our ancients have exalted Satsang (association with the wise). Constant association with the wise and spiritually evolved persons alone can remove these wrong notions from the mind of the wicked one.

Jai Sai Ram

[Kavitaparna]

OM SRI SAI RAM

Some definitions of "Karma"

In Hindu belief where the term originated, it is the idea that the good and evil a person does will return either in this life or in a later one. Among Pagans, the theory is that whatever negative or positive energies one sends out will come back to the sender in like kind. The “Three Fold Law” is a version of this belief.
www.geocities.com/sorchagriannon/terminology.htm

a belief system that is similar to the saying "what goes around, comes around". Karma can be either good or bad. What you do in this life will determine whether you are rewarded or punished in the next life.
members.aol.com/fadeddragn/dictionary.html

in Hinduism, the total compilation of all a person's past lives and actions that result in the present condition of that person.
www.carm.net/atheism/terms.htm

in Hinduism and Buddhism karma is the force generated by a person's actions. Karma can have a positive or negative influence on the future and cycle of rebirth.
ias.berkeley.edu/orias/SEARama/RamaVocabulary.htm

The word "karma" originates from Hinduism and Buddhism. An action seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation.
mysticsmountain.tripod.com/glossary1.htm

The term denotes a highly complex system of actions and reactions weaving a ceaseless chain of cause and effect resulting from a thoughtless thought, an inadvertently uttered word or an unintended deed, for each of these has a potential to fructify, not only in this lifetime but even in lives to come; though one may in blessed forgetfulness, fail to find the link and call it a mere 'chance.'[ "Wheel of Life" in the book section, is an entire book on the subject of karma]
www.ruhanisatsangusa.org/gloss.htm

Karma is usually translated as the law of cause and effect. That we suffer at present because of past harmful or spiteful actions. Karma underlines the importance of all individuals being responsible for their past and present actions. When taking actions, it is best to look at what effect this will have on others, and why is it that we are taking these actions.
www.siamese-dream.com/reference/buddhist_glossary.html

[Kavitaparna]

OM SRI SAI RAM

Perplexed by the seemingly inexplicable, apparent disparity that existed among humanity, a young truth-seeker approached the Buddha and questioned him regarding this intricate problem of inequality:

"What is the cause, what is the reason, O Lord," questioned he, "that we find amongst mankind the short-lived and long-lived, the healthy and the diseased, the ugly and beautiful, those lacking influence and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, and the ignorant and the wise?"

The Buddha’s reply was:

"All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states."

He then explained the cause of such differences in accordance with the law of cause and effect.

Certainly we are born with hereditary characteristics. At the same time we possess certain innate abilities that science cannot adequately account for. To our parents we are indebted for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so-called being. They remain dormant within each parent until this potential germinal compound is vitalised by the karmic energy needed for the production of the foetus. Karma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of this being.

The accumulated karmic tendencies, inherited in the course of previous lives, at times play a far greater role than the hereditary parental cells and genes in the formation of both physical and mental characteristics.

Dealing with this problem of variation, the Atthasalini, being a commentary on the Abhidharma, states:

"Depending on this difference in Karma appears the differences in the birth of beings, high and low, base and exalted, happy and miserable. Depending on the difference in Karma appears the difference in the individual features of beings as beautiful and ugly, high-born or low born, well-built or deformed. Depending on the difference in Karma appears the difference in worldly conditions of beings, such as gain and loss, and disgrace, blame and praise, happiness and misery."

Thus, from a Buddhist point of view, our present mental, moral intellectual and temperamental differences are, for the most part, due to our own actions and tendencies, both past and present.

[Kavitaparna]

om sri sai ram

Refuting the erroneous view that "whatsoever fortune or misfortune experienced is all due to some previous action", the Buddha said:

"So, then, according to this view, owing to previous action men will become murderers, thieves, unchaste, liars, slanderers, covetous, malicious and perverts. Thus, for those who fall back on the former deeds as the essential reason, there is neither the desire to do, nor effort to do, nor necessity to do this deed, or abstain from this deed."

It was this important text, which states the belief that all physical circumstances and mental attitudes spring solely from past Karma that Buddha contradicted. If the present life is totally conditioned or wholly controlled by our past actions, then certainly Karma is tantamount to fatalism or determinism or predestination. If this were true, free will would be an absurdity. Life would be purely mechanistic, not much different from a machine. Being created by an Almighty God who controls our destinies and predetermines our future, or being produced by an irresistible Karma that completely determines our fate and controls our life’s course, independent of any free action on our part, is essentially the same. The only difference lies in the two words God and Karma. One could easily be substituted for the other, because the ultimate operation of both forces would be identical.

Karma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence in one sense, we are the result of what we were; we will be the result of what we are. In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we are. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the present of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future; so complex is the working of Karma.

It is this doctrine of Karma that the mother teaches her child when she says "Be good and you will be happy and we will love you; but if you are bad, you will be unhappy and we will not love you." In short, Karma is the law of cause and effect in the ethical realm.

[Kavitaparna]

OM SRI SAI RAM

A person's karma affects a person in 2 ways. The first is his disposition. If a person is an angry one, performing many deeds with anger, his mind will be imprinted with experiences and intentions of anger. Because of this imprint, in a similar situation, he would be more likely to feel angry. In a sense, the imprint creates and reinforces a sort of mental habit that causes a person's mind to react in a certain pre-disposed way.

The second and more important way karma affects a person is by affecting his experience. Our experiences, our feelings of joy or sufferings, come mainly from our reaction to perceptual inputs. Taking our angry guy as an example, in many situations, he feels offended, angry and that seriously affects his state of mind. He often feels the pain of anger, very little peace. But if that person practices meditation, develops his mind, etc etc, such that he develops peace and love. He may live the same life all over and he may not experience the anger or the pain of anger etc in those same situations. In a sense, his karma is one of the main determinants of his experiences. In this sense too, we may say that our sufferings comes from our karma and our states of mind.

The underlying factor in the formation of Karma is Intentions. What gets imprinted into one's mind is largly decided by one's intentions. If I accidently stepped on a spider, for example, squashing it to death, and let's say I didn't even notice, there was no intention, how can there be an imprint into my mind? But if say I stepped on it out of "fun", the desire to cause harm now gets imprinted. In later life, I may become less sensitive to the value of life, I may be bothered by this experience, I may find myself more likely to be hateful, etc etc. That, friend, would be my karma. In a similar way, let's say I lost $20 while touring the slumps of India. The money is nothing to me, so I won't even notice. But somebody found the money and fed his family for a month, saving a dying child's life. If I wasn't even aware that I lost the money, how can there be good karma for me?

[Kavitaparna]

om sri sai ram

Hindu scriptures divide karma into three kinds: Sanchita (accumulated), Prarabdha (fruit-bearing) and Kriyamana (current) karma. All kriyamana karmas become sanchita karma upon completion. 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. In this way, so 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 jiva cannot attain moksha until the accumulated sanchita karmas are completely exhausted.