Query on Karma

[Guest guest]

Namaskaram Narasimhaji and all others as well,

I had a very elementary question on Karma for which I have not been able to get

a satisfactory answer so far. Request you to kindly answer them for me. I have

read books on Vedanta and Advaita but the answer still eludes me or may be I am

not able to comprehend the hidden meaning because of my limited knowledge.

 

1) Karma as defined in wiki " Karma (Sanskrit: & #2325; & #2352; & #2381; & #2350;

k¨¢rma (help¡¤info), k¨¢rman- " act, action, performance " [1]; Pali: kamma) in

Indian religions is the concept of " action " or " deed " , understood as that which

causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called

sa & #7747;s¨¡ra) "

 

If the soul is in the garb of an animal, lets say a Dog or a cat or any other

non human entity , what karma can it do so that it can progress to the next

level. I mean We humans can understand what is good and what is bad, but animals

lack the sixth sense (or atleast we think so) fail to differentiate this and

hence what is that they are supposed to do so that they perform their karmas to

the best to go forward?

 

2) If my actions are already governed by my past karmas then how do I justify

the good and bad that I do? I mean whatever good or bad that I do is already

predefined . In such a case how can I be held accountable for a good or a bad

deed? Because its the karma that is driving me to do something. So this becomes

a infinite loop. as Adi Shankara says in Bhaj Govindam , " Punarapi jananam ,

punarapi maranam " ... there seems to be no way out of this

 

Please forgive me for my ignorance but I felt I need to get this very elementary

query clarified .

 

Thanks and Regards,

Girish Sundaram