Karma to explain provident inequalities in life -- meaning of Karma
--Potter's view and Jung's interpretation analysed -- origin and
development of Karma theory -- Jaina theory of Karma -- types of Karma --
operation of Karma -- soul's entanglement in the wheel of samsara --
problem of the relation of soul and Karma analysed -- some criticisms of
the theory discussed -- a note on the theory of Lesya.
I. "O Gautama, just as a sprout has a seed for its hetu,
as there is a hetu for happiness and misery; since it is a karya. That
hetu is the karman."[1] We find in this life persons. having the same
means for enjoying happiness, do not get the same type of happiness.
Misery comes in unequal ways. This difference cannot be without any hetu
which is not seen. This very unseen hetu is karman.[2] Misery, in his
life, is too much of a fact to be ignored. It is also true that there is
abundant inequality in the status and experiences of individual men. which
is inexplicable by our empirical methods of enquiry. Good men suffer and
the evil prosper like the green banyan trees. It is necessary to explain
this provident inequality in the status and development of individuals.
Attempts have been made to refer this inequality to
man's first disobedience and the fruit of that forbidden tree. Others have
denied the existence of evil and the consequent inequality; still others
would like us to think of this world as training ground for perfection.
But life is not a pleasure garden and God a sort of a Santa Claus whose
main duty is to please his creatures. It is necessary to find a solution
on the bais of autonomous nature of man and his responsibility to shape
his own destiny. The Indian thought has found it in the doctrine of Karma.
II. The doctrine of Karrna is one of the most
significant tenets of Indian thought. It has profoundly influenced the
life and thought of the people in India. It has become the 'logical prius
of alt Indian thought '[3] It is the basal presupposition of Buddhism,
Hinduism and Jainism (of course with minor differences). As man sows, so
does he reap: our actions have their effects. These effects cannot be
destroyed. They have to be experienced and exhausted. If we cannot
exhaust the effects of our actions in this lifewe have to complete the
cycle of births and deaths to earn the fruit for all that we have done. No
man inherits the good or evil of another man. The doctrine of Karma is.
thus, closely associated with the transmigration of souls. Every evil
deed must be expitiated. and every good deed must receive its reward. If
it is not possible to reap the fruits in one single empirical existence,
it must be experienced on earth in a fresh incarnation. Plato has made a
reference to this theory in the Laws, perhaps under the influence of
orphic mysticism, and refers to 'the tradition which is firmly believed by
many, and has been received from those who are learned in the
mysteries.[4] In Indian thought, the Jainas have developed the doctrine of Karma on
scientific basis.
Karma etymologically means whatever is done, any
activity. It got associated with the after-effects of actions, both
physical and psychical. Every Jiva (living being) is constantly active,
expressing the activity in the three-fold functions of body. speech and
mind. It leaves behind traces of after-effects in the physical and psychic
forms. Every action, word or thought produces, besides its visible,
invisible and transcandent effects. It produces wilder certain conditions
certain potential energies which forge the visible effects in the form of
reward or punishment. As in the case of a bond which continues to operate
until, but loses its validity on, the repayrrlent of the capital sum; so
does the invisible effect of an action remain in potential form after the
visible effect has disappeared. Actions performed in this life would be
the causes of future life, and the present life is the result of actions
performed in the previous life. So is the chain of life connected in the
series of actions and their effects realized. The Karma doctrine involves
the idea of an eternal metempsychosis.[5] Kerl Potter in his
Presuppositions of India's Philosophies has tried to interpret Karma as a
form of habit. Human being faces challenges from many sides which have to
be met by birth, social action and by the application of scientific
techniques in order to be free from the bondage in life. But the more
subtle challenges lie underneath the surface, and 'arise from' habits
themselves, which continues after the conditions that' engender them have
been removed, and which engender new habits which in turn must be removed
somehow. This round of habits breeding habits is a part of what is called
in Sanskrit samsara, the wheel of birth, which is governed by Karma, the
habits themselves.'[6] Karma is described in the Jaina philosophy as a
kind of dirt which accretes to the otherwise pure Jiva by virtue of one's
actions. In the Bhagavad-gita the dirt is described as of three kinds.
"one may think of these as types of habits"2 I have not been able to
understand how Potter interprets Karma as a type of habit.[7] One must be
steeped in the Indian tradition in order to understand the nature and
significance of Karma.
C. J. Jung, while distinguishing, personal and the
collective unconscious, hints at the possibility of comparing the
archetypes of the collective Unconscious to the Karma in Indian thought.
The collective unconscious stands for the objective psyche. The personal
layer ends at the earliest memories of infancy, but the collective layer
comprises the pre-infantile period that is the residue of ancestral life.
The force of Karma works implicitly and determines the nature and
development of personality. The Karma aspect is essential to the deeper
understanding of the nature of an archetype. [8] Although it is possible
to say that Karma has essentially a reference to individual differences
and hence a personal acquistion, yet each individual has a common heritage
which he shares with the community and which shapes his being. The
archetypes refer to the common heritage. To this extent they refer to the
Karma aspect.
However. Jung was primarily concerned with and
interpretations of dreams and fantasies in presenting his theory of the
collective unconscious. 'Had he developed the archetypes of the collective
unconscious. he would have reached the doctrine of Karma, the store-house
of the physical and psychical effects of the past.[9]
It is difficult to say when and where the Karma
doctrine originated in India. Some have traced the origin of Karma in the
principle of Rta. Rta is the cosmic principle. It prevades the whole
world, and gods and man must obey it. It is the anticipation of the law of
Karma. In the Rgvedic hymns the doctrine of Karma is yet in its infancy as
Rta. The doctrine does not appear in the old hymns of the Rgveda. The
Vedic seers were mainly interested in the good of this life, and when
death came they went the way of their fathers to the world where Yama, the
first to die, ruled. The doctrine must have developed against a number of
other doctrines about creation. Some regarded time as the determinant
factor of creation. Others believed in nature (svabhava) as the prominent
factor. There were other theories as well. The Jainas rejected these
doctrines and said that even time and svabhava are determined by Karman.[10]
Concept of Karma must have existed at least a thousand years before the
beginning of the Christian era, world has since become the basis and
centre of religious thought.[11] It is probable that Karma and rebirth
must have been pre-Aryan doctrines which were important in the Sramana
culture later assimilated in the Brahmana thought by the time the
Upanisads were clearly formulated. The Indian view of Karma was doubtless
of nonAryan provenience, and it was a kind of a natural law. [12]
Transmigration of the soul was perhaps one of the oldest forms in which
the belief in the after-life was held. Karma was closely linked with this
doctrine. With the gradual emphasis of asceticism under the influence of
the Sramana culture, came the awareness of one's responsibility to shape
one's personality here and here-after, However, the doctrine has been
widely accepted in ancient Indian thought, except for the Carvaka. In the
Samnyasa Upanisad we are told that the Jivas are bound by Karma[13] A man
becomes good by good deeds and bad by bad deeds; [14] and while thus we
live, we fetter ourselves with the effect of our deeds. In the
Mahabharata, the emphasis is on the force of Karma. Of the three kinds of
Karma, prarabdha, samcita and agami mentioned in the Bhagavadgtta, agami
and samcita can be overcome by knowledge In Buddhism, as there is no
substance as soul, that transmigrates is not a person but his Karma. When
the series of mental states which constitues the self resulting from a
chain of acts ends, there would still be some acts and their effects which
continue; and the viltiana projects into the future due -to the force of
the effects of Karma. The Buddhists distinguish acts accompanied by asrava
(impure acts) from pure acts which are not accompanied by asrava. Samsara
is the effect of Karrna. Our pleasant happiness and misery are the fruit
of what we have ourselves done in the past. Operation of Karma can be
considered as a principle of moral life, as force limiting and
particularizing personality and as a principle of conservation of energy
in the physical world.[15] But Buddhism maintains that involuntary
actions, whether of body, speech and mind do not constitute Karma, and
therefore cannot bring about the results accruing to Karma. It only means
that unwilled actions do not modify character.[16] Karma theory has been
expressed in a variety of ways 'from the most extreme realism which
regards Karma as a complexity of material particles infecting the soul to
the most extreme idealism' where it is a species of newly produced
invisible force, in its highest unreal. The Jainas give a realistic view
of Karma. It has existed from the preBuddhistic time. The idea of the
pollution of the soul due to Kamla has been largely allegorical in other
religious philosophies in India. while the Jainas 'have adopted it in the
real sense of the world' and have -worked out into an original System.[17]
The Jaina conception of Karma must have been completely developed after a
thousand years of Mahavira's nirvana. The Sthananga. Uttaradhyayana sutra
and the Bhagavatlsutra contain general outline of the doctrine, and the
details have been worked out in the KarmagranthaPancasamgraha and the
Karmaprakrzi. In working out the details, there have been two schools of
thought: Agamikas and ii) Karmagranthikas.
Jainism is, in a sense, dualistic. the universe is
costituted of the two fundamental categories: jiva (living) and ajiva
(non-living). Soul (jiva) has been described from the noumenal and the
phenomenal points of view. From the pure and ultimate point of view, jiva
is pure and perfect. It is characterized by upayoga the hormic energy. It
is simple and without parts. It is immaterial and formless.[18] It is
characterized by cetand. It is pure consciousness. From the phenomenal
point of view Jiva is described as possessing four pranas. It is the lord
(prabhu). Limited to his body (dehamatra), still incorporeal. and it is
ordinarily found with Karma.[19] The Jiva comes in contact with the
external world,-Ajiva. The Jiva is active. and the activity is expressed
in threefold forms the bodily, in speech and mental. This is called yoga.
Yoga brings in after-effects in the form of Karmic particles which veil
the pure nature of the soul. The souls are contaminated by the Karma which
is a foreign element, and are involved in the wheel of samsara. This
contamination is beginningless, though it has an end. It is difficult to
say how and when souls got involved in the heel of samsara. Caught in the
wheel of Samsara the soul for gets its real nature and the efforts to
search for the truth are obscured by the paissions. The inherent capacity
of the soul for self-realization is also obstructed by the veil of
Karma.[20]' It is subjected to the forces of Karma which express
themselves first through feelings and emotions, and secondly, in the
chains of very subtle kinds of matter invisible to the eye and the
instruments of science. It is then embodied and is affected by the
environment, physical and social and spiritual. We, thus, get various
types of soul existence.
