Karma Theroy - The Law Of Action And Reaction

"Karma"!!! This word has gained a lot of popularity in recent days. Of course, many of Sanatan Dharma theories have influenced people throughout the world, especially the west. Can we say that the karma theory also just among the one?? If we take a moment and think, No!! is the answer, While the other theories talk about a certain path or a certain way of practice or a certain measure of control to keep your life in peace, "karma" is part and parcel of life. Breathing is a karma. Whether you wish or not, you breathe!! Every living thing in the universe is bound to do karma, whether they wish or not!! You cry, you laugh, you love, you hate, you think, you sit idle, you talk, you read, you walk, you stand, you sleep!! everything is karma!! every single thing!! In simple terms, "karma" is nothing but action. 

But what makes karma really special is, there is a result for every single karma!! Remember the third law of Newton, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction"! Newton restricted his law only to this material universe. The law of karma is not like that. For an action, you do here, you might get the result at some other world, some other place, some other birth and so on. This is the underlying beauty of karma.

This might seem funny to some people, especially atheists. They don't believe in God, reincarnation or afterlife. They believe only what they see with their mortal eyes and supported by scientific proofs. This article is not intended to make those people believe in karma!! But even such atheists can't stop doing karma (action). Hence, let us proceed with a theist point of view!!

"What goes around, comes around" is a famous saying. Be it a word you uttered, a deed you did or even your simple silence towards someone. It will return with the same intensity!! Every karma (action) you perform creates imprints on your soul. These imprints are carried forward to many many lives (rebirths) until you finally reap the results of that karma.

Once a foreigner asked the following question to the great sage of Kanchi. "Dear Sage!! Can you show me one convincing proof that rebirth exists?" He smiled and told the foreigner to take a visit to the nearest maternity hospital. After he returned, the following conversation took place between the two :

Sage : What did you see in the hospital?

Foreigner : I saw a poor baby and a rich baby ; I saw a normal baby and a physically challenged baby ; I saw a beautiful baby and a deformed baby".

Sage : Do you agree that God is full of love?

Foreigner : Yes!

Sage : If God is full of love, then why should he be so biased and cruel towards these babies! Why should he give one baby wealth and the other one poverty? Why should he give beautiful face to one baby and not to the other one? Why should one baby be healthy and not the other one?

(The foreigner was stunned!! He could not give any convincing answer for the above question)

Swami replied "It is certain that God is full of love. Beings create their own fate by their actions. These actions decide the future births of beings and what you saw in hospital is a perfect example of that. Do you need more convincing answer for rebirth?"

The foreigner got fully convinced and left happily.

The above story is a clear example that we live over and over again and our karma decides who we are going to be, in the future!!

Just close your eyes for a minute and think. You would find many examples from your own life for karma!! Have you ignored someone in your life? You would have noted that you were ignored by another person. Cheated someone?? Ill treated anyone?? Spoken harsh words towards a person?? you would have experienced the same pain by someone else at some other time. It holds good for noble deeds as well. There is a famous saying in tamil "தர்மம் தலை காக்கும்", which means you will always be protected by the good deeds you did!! But the secret is, no one can clearly say, when will you reap the effects. That is the underlying mystery of karma. It could be immediate or somewhere far in the future, even in the next lifetimes.

People might ask ; "If karma is so powerful which decides your destiny, then what is the use in praying?" Yes, karma is powerful but at the same time, bad effects of karma can be minimized through prayer. Remember, it cannot be completely eradicated, but only minimized. If you really repent for your mistakes and feel sorry for what you have done and pray your heart out, such prayer will never go unanswered. It doesn't mean that you can do sins continuously and repent for it to minimize the effects. That is not the point. When you repent it from your inner heart, you should never commit that sin again and make every effort to consciously avoid doing that.

It goes without saying that, until you have balance in your karma account, either positive or negative, you will be taking births again and again to reap the results. So when will you exit from this cycle completely?

This is where Bhagavad Gita comes into picture. It outlines a very simple fact to nullify karma completely. Though it sounds simple. it is one of the most hardest practice to incorporate in our everyday life. Here is the famous quote from Gita!!

Doing work for the sake of work itself and not attached to results, is the only way to get out of the cycle of karma and it is not so simple to practice.

Here is a classic example given by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa :

"Once a king ordered one of his servants to go to a distant place and bring a scholar to the king's court. The servant traveled for several days but heard that the scholar was no more in that city and no one had clues of his whereabouts. He traveled back and told the king about it and then performed his regular works as usual. He was never bothered about his efforts which went in vain. The reason was because, he undertook the task for his master and not for himself. If this had been his own task, he would have been really disappointed. As long as you live in this world, you should also do your works as assigned to you by your master (God). This is the only way to keep disappointments away!!"


This clearly shows that we get happy/sad just because of the fact that we are attached to the results of our work. Even before we start doing something, we have some expectations within ourselves and that is the cause of all our problems.

But how do we get rid of this???

Only by attempting to follow the above quote. Little by little, in our everyday activities, we need to consciously think that whatever we do, is an offering to God. This comes slowly when you sacrifice the "I" - "Ego" that you are doing the deeds. When you replace this thought by thinking that "You are only a medium" and the ultimate power is the one which is performing everything, then all your miseries/sorrows will come to an end. Let us take the little step today towards this humongous task and let "Shri Krishna" guide us through this process. AUM Shanthi!!!