Karma-Actions
The word karma (Devanagari: कर्म ISO15919: karma) is used in a couple of different ways
- Every action human beings perform is called karma. These actions bear fruits in present life and also carries over to future lives.
- The path of karma called karma marg (Devanagari: कर्म मार्ग ISO15919: karma mārga) for spiritual upliftment is also called karma. This path is referred to by many names like
- varnashram dharm
- karma dharma (Devanagari: कर्म धर्म ISO15919: karma dharma).
These two are interlinked to each other as well. So let us explore both of these and more about the science of karma.
Please note every action human beings perform is called karma. These actions are classified on different criterion and get a moniker. Those criterion are discussed below.
Trikarma
The karma are not a living thing. Yet, for the ease of understanding consider it to have a life cycle. In its life cycle karma can be in one of the three phases. These three phases are collectively referred to as trikarma (Devanagari: त्रिकर्म ISO15919: trikarma) .
Kriyaman Karma
Kriyamaan karma (Devanagari: क्रियमाण कर्म ISO15919: kriyamāṇa karma) is every action performed in wakeful state. In other words, when we choose to perform any action according to our present situation, that is called kriyaman karma.
Kriyamaan karma are like the arrows that are on the bow to be shot. We have the choice of deciding when, at whom and where we shoot them. All such actions bear fruits.
Only humans have the God-given right to perform fruit-yielding actions. These can be purely mental or mental plus physical actions.
We have to reap the consequences of our every action. We undergo consequences of some of them in this life for example eating food fills up our stomach. And some of the fruits are stored to be borne later.
Sanchit Karma
Sanchit Karma (Devanagari: संचित कर्म ISO15919: saṁcita karma) is the stock pile of fruits that we have not yet borne.
God is our real Father and is extremely merciful. He does not let us undergo fruits of all kriyaman karma right away. They are stored in our mind as Sanchit Karma.
We undergo consequences of some of them in this life while others are kept in the annals for other lifetimes (like the arrows in the quiver).
For these karma one will receive the fruits and any of the following lives.
Prarabdh Karma
Out of all the sanchit karma God selects a handful for which jeev has to bear the fruits in this lifetime. Those handful of karm are called prarabdh karma (Devanagari: प्रारब्ध कर्म ISO15919: prārabdha karma).
These are also called fate or destiny.
Thus, in a lifetime, we receive fruits of deeds performed in many of our previous lifetimes. In other words destiny is not determined by just one previous life or present life only. These are arrows that we had shot in past lives and they are hitting target the target in this life.
There are five things that are already decided for us according to our destiny. They are -
आयुः कर्म च वित्तं च विद्या निधनमेव च। पंचैत्यान्यपि सृज्यन्ते गर्भस्थस्यैव देहिनः ॥
हितोपदेश
āyuḥ karma ca vittaṁ ca vidyā nidhanameva ca। paṁcaityānyapi sr̥jyante garbhasthasyaiva dehinaḥ ॥
hitopadeśa
"Following 5 things are pre-determined
1. Lifespan: How long will one live
2. Profession: The occupation one will pursue to earn a living
3. Wealth: Amount of wealth one will have
4. Education: Highest degree attained. How much one learns while earning those degrees depends on the effort put into it.
5. Death: mode of death".
Apart from these 5 predetermined things, every human being is independent to perform any karma according to his own free will.
Above mentioned things are predestined. Still, since we do not know what our destiny holds for us we ought to always strive to do the very best in life.
When something is predestined we get it (or lose it) without any desire or expending any effort. A lazy person might do nothing to progress in life yet blame his destiny.
After knowing how the destiny is determined one has no one to blame and no reason to get upset for any loss or failure. As these are fruits of our own past or present actions we should perform good actions only for our own bright future.
However, if we objectively evaluate our life we might realize that most of the times most of the things in our life are quite satisfactory and only occasionally we encounter hardships. Yet many of us blame God and others for those times. In order to make our life happy and blessed, we ought to practise gratefulness to God for all the aspects. This virtuous circle further grows happiness and blessedness in our life.
Classification by Faculty Used
These karma can be performed by engaging various faculties. Based on faculty used to perform the karma they are divided into in three different categories namely -
Mental Actions
These are the actions performed mentally which means thinking is manasic karma (Devanagari: मानसिक कर्म ISO15919: mānasika karma).
These manasic karma are not accompanied by physical action.
Examples of manasic karma are sitting idly and thinking. While dreaming all the karmendriya are tucked way under covers. Gyanendriya are also inactive yet, the mind performs numerous possible and even impossible feats. The karma performed in dreams are also called manasic karma and these actions do not bear any fruit.
Mental plus Physical Actions
manasic karma plus sharirik karma (Devanagari: मानसिक के साथ शारीरिक कर्म ISO15919: mānasika ke sātha śārīrika karma) are when one is mentally engaged and physical actions accompany it.
These are performed in wakeful consciousness state for example, reading this article falls in this category.
Jeev has to bear fruits of these actions.
Physical Actions
Physical actions are those where one puts on an act while hiding one’s inner feelings. For example, you might abhor some person; yet motivated by some personal gain, you pretend to be happy to see him. You extend a warm welcome even though you were upset and unwilling to welcome him. In this case, welcoming the person is a mere physical action and the actual feeling for the person is the work of the mind.
God only takes note of the thoughts in your mind and disregards your physical activity. Thus, any physical action cannot deliver a jeev from Maya. Mind alone is the cause of suffering or liberation. We do not get any result of actions performed in our dreams or our physical actions.
Classification by outcomes
Human body has been given so that we can perform karm to attain the aim of life. Those karm can be broadly classified into 4 groups. The process and the outcomes vary greatly. So please pay close attention to the rest of this article.
Figure 1
Karmakand
The Vedas divide all human beings into four varna (castes) depending on their innate skills and four ashram, thus a total of 16 classes. Out of 100,000 Vedic hymns 80,000 hymns are dos and don'ts for 16 classes.
वेद प्रणिहितो ह्यध्र्मस्तद्विपर्ययः ।
veda praṇihito hyadhrmastadviparyayaḥ ।
Perfect implementation of these commands is called following karma dharma (Devanagari: कर्म धर्म ISO15919: karma dharma), karmakand (Devanagari: कर्मकान्ड ISO15919: karmakānḍa) or varnashram dharma.
There is no trace of Bhakti in karmakand. The goal of following karmakand is attaining swarg.
Karmakand prescribes four kinds of karma.
Nitya karma
Nitya karma (Devanagari: नित्य कर्म ISO15919: nitya karma) are mandatory for basic everyday living
Examples of this type of karma are Brahmin has to learn and teach Vedas, Kshatriya have to protect others etc.
Neimittik karma
Neimittik karma (Devanagari: नैमित्तिक कर्म ISO15919: naimittika karma) are causal actions, which are performed for some special purposes.
Examples of such karma are fire sacrifices to get absolved of a sin, for the purification of the house or environment.
For example, Prithu performed yagya to atone for killing the Brahmin couple.
Kamya karma
Kamya karma (Devanagari: काम्य कर्म ISO15919: kāmya karma) are actions performed to fulfill a desire.
For instance, performing yagya or fire sacrifice to bring auspiciousness to a new born child, or to have good crops.
Prayashchit karma
Prayashchit karma (Devanagari: प्रायश्चित कर्म ISO15919: prāyaścita karma) are the actions of atonement. In performance of any of the aforementioned karma if there was any errors then these karma of repentance are performed.
The main condition in Karmkand is that that there should not be slightest deviation from the method prescribed in Vedas and other Smritis. If a person perfectly abides by all the rules and performs all these types of karma then after death he is sent to swarg to enjoy the fruits of his good deeds for a finite time. Once fruits of virtuous deeds are exhausted he is bound to come back in the same cycle of birth and death.
Karma Yog
Karma Yog (Devanagari: कर्मयोग ISO15919: karmayoga) is also called akarma. In this type of karma one constantly remembers God while performing the righteous deeds depicted in the Vedas.
कर ते कर्म करहु विधि नाना । मन राखहु जहाँ कृपा निधाना ।
kara te karma karahu vidhi nānā । mana rākhahu jahām̐ kr̥pā nidhānā ।
In this category of karma total emphasis is given to devotion, yet a karma yogi performs actions in the world as long as long as they are not a hindrance in his devotion. Their reward is God-realization since they remember God only. This type of action is admirable.
Karma Sanyas
Karma Sanyas (Devanagari: कर्मसन्यास ISO15919: karmasanyāsa) is a kind of action in which one remembers only God, regardless and totally gives up observing the commands of the Vedas. Thus he also gets liberation from Maya and receives Divine Bliss. This kind of action is also regarded as admirable.
Vikarma
Vedas advise on two things DOs and Don'ts. DOs are like speak the truth or honor others. Don’ts are like stealing, hurting others etc. Vedas have 80,000 hymns describing the dos of a virtuous life. When one ignores the DOs and instead performs prohibited actions then they are called vikarma (Devanagari: विकर्म ISO15919: vikarma). So vikarma means NOT abiding by the Vedic rules aka following the path prohibited by the Vedas.
This kind of karma is reprehensible. The performer of this kind of action is called vikarmi and goes to narak (see Figure 1).
Having read about the outcomes of the various karma if you are a little confused, let me tell you "You are not alone". In our formative years many of us led to believe that performing Vedas prescribed karmkand is virtuous deed called punya karma. But reading this you might have figured out that doing karmkand is extremely difficult and it increases the karmic bondage. So you might now be wondering then "Which actions are virtuous actions?"
Good question. Please continue to read the next section
What are the virtuous karmas?
Karmkand gets jeev more entangled in the karmic bondage. Hence, though karmkand is not derogatory yet this karma is not acceptable to a wise person.
Karma yog and karma sanyas are both praiseworthy. They cut asunder the bondage of karma and enable us to attain permanent peace and happiness.
On the other hand, Vikarma is considered deplorable as it not only grows the baggage of karmic bondage even the current life becomes full of restlessness and chaos.
Karma yog is regarded as most acceptable for the house-holders. It specifies performing all your material duties while keeping the mind engrossed in the divine thoughts. Thereafter, even if your mind is absolutely absorbed in the Divine and you become totally oblivious of the external things, including the presence of your own body, you need not worry as God Himself assumes responsibilities of all your duties.
As Shri Krishna said in Gita
अन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां, ये जनाः पर्युपासते। तेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां, योगक्षेमं व हाम्यहम्॥ गीता 9.22
anyāścintayanto māṁ, ye janāḥ paryupāsate। teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ, yogakṣemaṁ va hāmyaham॥ gītā 9.22
Any karma, outwardly spiritual or material, cannot provide any spiritual result, without having sincere attachment to God. God notices only the disposition of the mind. One can worship God all the time, but if the mind is wandering in the area of the world, the worshiper will not attain any benefit of his worship. On the other hand, if someone is always occupied in household chores or business, yet his mind is constantly thinking of God, he will attain full benefit of his devotion.
Actually devotion means love, and love is not the subject of senses. Total and complete attachment to God is devotion or surrender or bhakti. Any deed that is bereft of wholehearted devotion is a mere physical exercise and gives no spiritual benefit of peace, happiness, and divine grace. Rather it makes one egoistic as it creates a false sense of pride and one may think of oneself as a great devotee. Having ego is the main obstacle in ones devotion. Humility is the opposite of ego and false pride. Mahaprabhu Chaitanya says -
तृणादपि सुनीचेन तरोरपि सहिष्णुना।
अमानिना मानदेन कीर्तनीयः सदा हरिः॥
चै. महा.
tr̥ṇādapi sunīcena tarorapi sahiṣṇunā।
amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ॥
cai. mahā.
One cannot even start devotion without "being more humble than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree and being respectful to others, while having no desire of self respect". Blade of grass bends under the weight and then comes back upGrass when trampled on bends and then again stands up. Similarly devotee needs to be humble yet stay steadfast on the path of bhakti; no matter how many people oppose him. A fruit laden tree bends downwards. When a person pelts stones on the tree , the tree drops the fruit.
A tree laden with fruits, bends under its own weight, even when pelted with stones, it drops fruits. Our physical devotional activities positively help in practicing devotion. But one should not be confined to the physical actions only. Our mind has to be involved as well; otherwise it will wander off elsewhere in the material world. Therefore, it is best to engage both the mind and the senses in devotion. Only then an aspirant can get the best results of his devotion.