Auspecious results (Punya)
PUNYA AND PAP
Why are some people live in
more favorable situations than the others? Why are some rich, while the
others struggle? Why do some suffer more sickness than the others? Why is
science unable to explain all these questions? The answer to such a
disparity lies in the understanding of the punya and the pap. What are the
punya and the pap? A punya is earned when our activities are good and
comforting to others while a pap is earned when our activities are bad and
cause suffering to the others. When the punya mature or give the result,
it brings worldly happiness and comfort, and when the pap mature or give
the result, it brings nothing but the worldly suffering.
Now, it would be obvious
that what we see in the world is nothing other than the result of our past
actions. Knowing this would remind us that our activities should be
wholesome if we want happiness and comfort in life, otherwise we should be
ready to accept the unhappiness and discomfort. When talking about the
activities, people mostly think of physical activities, but we should not
forget that verbal expressions, and mental thoughts are also considered
the activities. For this reason, not only our physical activities be
wholesome, but our speech and thoughts should also be pure. We should also
remember that we accumulate punya and pap (karmas) by asking someone else
to do something for us or by encouraging someone else to do something.
Lord Mahavira’s message
is "Live and let live". Everybody desires to live and enjoy the
comforts of life. Therefore, we should not come in the way of anyone
seeking the same. If we can properly understand the implications of this
message, it will go long way in molding our attitude towards other
creatures. But, around us we see and hear that many people hunt or fish
and they eat meat, chicken, fish, eggs, etc. Some meat eating people argue
that they do not actually kill animals or these creatures were created for
our food. Therefore, eating meat or other animals foods would not affect
them. However, they do not realize that by eating meat or other animal
foods they are directly or indirectly instrumental in killing animals,
birds, fish, etc., The more they eat, the more killing there will be. They
are not realizing that their direct as well as indirect actions bring pap
or punya. Unfortunately, because most of paps do not show their results
immediately, the people do not care about the consequences.
We also hear about the
riots in which people plunder, hit, and kill the others and set fire to
the shops, the homes, and buildings. By doing so, they put a lot of people
through unnecessary suffering. These people undertaking such heinous
activities may think that they are getting even; however, they fail to
realize that by causing suffering to others they themselves will have to
suffer the consequences of their evil acts at some point, if not in this
life, then in coming lives.
Consequently, our actions
should not involve disturbing the comforts of other living beings, hurting
or killing them in any way, directly or indirectly. By providing comfort
and security to others, we gain punya. Punya brings happiness during this
life or following lives. On the other hand, if we cause suffering or
unhappiness to the others then we acquire Päp. Such Päp brings the
unhappiness in this or future lives. Let us understand from the following
examples how we accumulate the punya and the pap.
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A long time ago a poor
widow had a young son. She had to work hard to provide for herself and
her son. Once, there was a day of a great festival and neighboring
families prepared the tasteful pudding of milk and rice called kheer
in order to celebrate. The neighborhood kids were enjoying the kheer,
and seeing this the poor boy went to his mother and asked her to make
the kheer for him too. He did not realize that his mother did not have
enough money to buy the milk, rice, and sugar needed for making the
kheer. The mother tried to explain the situation, but the boy started
crying for the kheer.
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The mother could not
tolerate his crying, so she said, "Don't cry, my son, I will make
the kheer for you." She went to the neighbors and borrowed some
milk, sugar and rice and made the kheer. She served the kheer in an
earthen plate, and told him to wait until it had cooled. Then she left
to get the water from the well.
-
While the kheer was
cooling, a monk came to the boy’s home to ask for the alms (to get a
food). The boy felt very happy and invited the monk to come in. While
he was serving the kheer, all the kheer slipped into the monk’s
bowl. The boy did not regret this, but instead felt very happy to that
he could offer the food to the monk. After the monk left, he ate
whatever kheer was stuck to the plate and the pot. His thoughts did
not change. He had offered the kheer to the monk willingly; therefore,
he earned tremendous punya. As a result of this punya, in his next
life he was born into a very wealthy family with all luxuries. His
name was Shalibhadra. Shalibhadra during his life realized what life
is all about. He renounced the luxuries of life, and uplifted his soul
by becoming a monk of Lord Mahävira.
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There lived a butcher
in Magadha city. He enjoyed his job. One day, King Shrenik decided
that there would be no more killing in the city. All the killing in
the city stopped except for this butcher’s killing. When he was
asked why he did not observe King Shrenik’s order, he said he loved
killing and could not stop. King Shrenik decided to put him in a dry
well so that there would be nothing for him to kill. To everyone’s
surprise, the killing did not stop there either. The butcher made
animals from wet clay and then pretended to kill them. Since, he was
enjoying killing so much, he accumulated pap (bad karmas) that gave
rise to a situation where he has to suffer again in his next life.
From these two stories, we
learn that if we want happiness and comfort, then we should offer comfort
to others. As the saying goes you reap what you saw.
The following is a list of
some activities that can bring comfort to others and can ultimately
provide the same for us. They are:
1) offering food to the
needy (only vegetarian food)
2) offering clothes to the
needy
3) helping the sick
4) helping others to
acquire knowledge
5) giving charity (be sure
that the money is used for a good cause)
6) helping parents,
brothers, sisters, grandparents, and others in need
7) helping animals or
organizations that help animals
8) studying religion and
following its precepts in our daily lives
9) worshipping Tirthankaras
like Lord Mahävira.
Here is a list of some of
the activities that can cause discomfort to others and can ultimately
cause discomfort to us. They are:
1) being cruel or violent
to the others including the humans, animals, birds, bugs, etc.
2) killing the humans,
animals, birds, bugs, etc.
3) showing disrespect to
parents, teachers or others
4) speaking harsh words or
planning violence
5) not following the
religious principles in the daily life
6) being angry or greedy
7) being arrogant
8) to be deceptive.
