Karma and Reincarnation

[Guest guest]

Human suffering is one of religion's most compelling mysteries: Why

do the innocent suffer? Why does God permit evil? Is God helpless to

act or does he choose not to? And if He chooses not to act, does that

mean he is cruel? Or merely indifferent?

 

Vedanta takes the problem out of God's court and places it firmly in

our own. We can blame neither God nor a devil. Nothing happens to us

by the whim of some outside agency: we ourselves are responsible for

what life brings us; all of us are reaping the results of our own

previous actions in this life or in previous lives. To understand

this better we first need to understand the law of karma.

 

The word " karma " comes from the Sanskrit verb kri, to do. Although

karma means action, it also means the result of action. Whatever acts

we have performed and whatever thoughts we have thought have created

an impression, both in our minds and in the universe around us. The

universe gives back to us what we have given to it: " As ye sow, so

shall ye reap " as Christ said. Good actions and thoughts create good

effects, bad ones create bad effects.

 

Mental Imprints:

 

Whenever we perform any action and whenever we think any thought, an

imprint—a kind of subtle groove—is made upon the mind. These imprints

or grooves are known as samskaras. Sometimes we are conscious of the

imprinting process; just as often we are not. When actions and

thoughts are repeated, the grooves become deeper. The combination

of " grooves " — samskaras—creates our individual characters and also

strongly influences our subsequent thoughts and actions. If we anger

easily, for example, we create an angry mind that is predisposed to

react with anger rather than with patience or understanding. As water

when directed into a narrow canal gains force, so the grooves in the

mind create canals of behavior patterns which become extraordinarily

difficult to resist or reverse. Changing an ingrained mental habit

literally becomes an uphill battle.

 

If our thoughts are predominantly those of kindness, love, and

compassion, our character reflects it, and these very thoughts will

be returned to us sooner or later. If we send out thoughts of hatred,

anger, or pettiness, those thoughts will also be returned to us.

 

Our thoughts and actions aren't so much arrows as boomerangs—

eventually they find their way back home. The effects of karma may

come instantly, later in life, or in another life altogether; what is

absolutely certain, however, is that they will appear at some time or

other. Until liberation is achieved, we live and we die within the

confines of the law of karma, the chain of cause and effect.

 

Reincarnation

 

What happens at death if we haven't attained liberation?

 

When a person dies, the only " death " is that of the physical body.

The mind, which contains a person's mental impressions, continues

after the body's death. When the person is reborn, the " birth " is of

a new physical body accompanied by the old mind with the impressions

or " grooves " from previous lives. When the environment becomes

conducive, these samskaras again reassert themselves in the new life.

 

Thankfully, this process doesn't go on eternally. When we attain God-

realization or Self-realization, the law of karma is transcended, the

Self gives up its identification with the body and mind, and regains

its native freedom, perfection and bliss.

 

An Absurd Universe?:

 

When we take a hard look around us, the world doesn't seem to make

much sense. If we go by appearances, it would seem that countless

people have escaped the noose of fate: many an evil person has died

peacefully in bed. Worse, good and noble people have suffered without

apparent cause, their goodness being repaid by hatred and torture.

Witness the Holocaust; witness child abuse.

 

If we look only on the surface, the universe appears absurd at best,

malevolent at worst. But that's because we're not looking deeply;

we're only viewing this lifetime, seeing neither the lives that

precede this one nor the lives that may follow. When we see a

calamity or a triumph, we're seeing only one freeze frame of a very,

very long movie. We can see neither the beginning nor the end of the

movie. What we do know, however, is that everyone, no matter how

depraved, will eventually, through the course of many lifetimes and

undoubtedly through much suffering, come to realize his or her own

divine nature. That is the inevitable happy ending of the movie.

 

Karma=Fatalism?

 

Doesn't the law of karma make Vedanta a cold and fatalistic

philosophy?

 

Not in the slightest.

 

Vedanta is both personally empowering and deeply compassionate.

First, if we have created -through our own thoughts and actions-the

life that we are leading today, we also have the power to create the

life that we will live tomorrow. Whether we like it or not, whether

we want to take responsibility or not, that's what we are doing every

step of the way. Vedanta doesn't allow us to assign blame elsewhere:

every thought and action builds our future experience.

 

Doesn't the law of karma then imply that we can be indifferent to our

fellow beings because, after all, they're only getting what they

deserve?

 

Absolutely not. If a person's karma is such that he or she is

suffering, we have an opportunity to alleviate that suffering in

whatever way we can: doing so would be good karma. We need not be

unduly heroic, but we can always offer a helping hand or at least a

kind word. If we choose not to do whatever is in our limited power to

alleviate the pain of those around us, we're chalking up bad karma

for ourselves. In fact, we're really hurting ourselves.

 

Oneness is the law of the universe, and that truth is the real root

of all acts of love and compassion. The Atman, my true Self, is the

same Spirit that dwells in all; there cannot be two Atmans.

Consciousness cannot be divided; it's all-pervasive. My Atman and

your Atman cannot be different. For that reason Vedanta says: Love

your neighbor as yourself because your neighbor IS yourself.