Karma Siddhantam

Ever since I started this channel, I have been flooded with mails every day, seeking
clarifications on various topics.
However, the highest number of questions focus on ‘Karma Siddhantha’. The queries
may be different but all of them are related to the same topic.
“I perform lots of pujas, visit temples, offer money in the hundis…. Why should I still
suffer;
while my neighbor who is always engaged in sinful activities leads a very happy life?
What kind of justice is this?”
" lots of people were killed in a temple stampede. Why was God silently witnessing
the tragedy? Why didn't He save them?
children are being kidnapped and brutally killed! Where is God?”
So many whys! We need to understand “Karma Siddhantha,” or “The Law of Karma”,
to get the answers for all these.
In this video let us talk about ‘Karma Sidhantha’, and what is ‘Karma’ and ‘Janma’.
We’ll also in the end of the video, discuss some frequently asked questions like,..
“ When even ant cannot bite us unless it is ordained by God, Why does He make
some people do good deeds and others evil ones?
Make the virtuous enjoy, and the sinners suffer?. Why all this?”
To understand ‘Karma Sidhantha’ we should first know about ‘janma’ (birth)
—‘poorvajanma’ (previous birth) and ‘punarjanma’ (rebirth).
Our immediate reaction is “How is it possible for a person to be reborn after he is
dead? No, it’s not scientifically proven.”
Let’s try to remember that we are not omniscient.
Nature is an ocean of knowledge. The science we’ve mastered so far is just a potful.
Imagine how much water is still left in the ocean.
There are so many secrets in nature yet to be unfolded. ‘PunarJanma’ is one such
aspect of nature.
Once a well-read American gentleman too was troubled with similar questions on
rebirths. He visited Kanchi Parmaacharya and humbly asked him,
“Do previous births and rebirths really exist? Is it possible to take rebirth based on
the ‘karmas’ of the past births?
The Aacharya just kept silent.
The gentleman visited him every day with the same question. Having realized that he
is a genuine seeker, the Aacharya said one day.
“Son, I am very busy right now, so I am not able to answer your questions. But if you
can help me in my task, I can gain time to clear your doubts”.
The man felt blessed to help him.
Aacharya said, “could you go and collect a descriptive data of the newly born babies
in the surrounding villages, during the last week days?
Within two days, the man returned to the Aacharya with the required data. The
Aacharya asked him to analyze it.
This many babies were born during the week. Xxx were born in rich households; xxx
in poor households; xxx are healthy ; xxx are beautiful babies;
xxx are just normal, xxx are born weak, xxx born with disabilities…
The Aacharya now said, think out, applying all your knowledge and logic and tell me
what could be the law behind such disparity in births?”
The Aacharya added, “Nature does its work perfectly. It never reacts unless we
meddle with it.”
The man thought deeply and finally said, “Perhaps the babies born with
disadvantages must have committed misdeeds in their previous births;and those
with all the advantages-- good deeds, to deserve such births.”
The Aacharya then said, “I hope you got the answer to your questions”. This is
‘Karma Sidhantha’.The American gentleman left the Guru satisfied.
This is the only answer to the many questions like, “why am I suffering in spite of
visiting so many temples? Why is God so merciless towards the disabled and the
disadvantaged? And so on.
We read about terrorists committing genocides most brutally and without any mercy-
locking them in cages and burning them alive, or killing them by drowning them in
water, and in more savage ways.
These barbarous sinners take rebirths to suffer for their bloody crimes.
Such people, with so much baggage of bad karma, cannot end their sufferings in
their present birth, by visiting temples, chanting stotras or offering money in the
hundies.
God cannot be bribed like humans. Besides, He never interferes with anyone’s
karma.You have to suffer for your own sins. This is ‘Karma Sidhantha’.
Recently, a woman in Andhra kidnapped little girls and dragged them into
prostitution.
Of course, the police had finally caught the woman and put her in jail.
But such a simple punishment is not enough for the heinous crime she had
committed? She deserves a very harsh punishment, and she will get it without any
mercy.
Software engineers and architects know pretty well that nobody can ever write a
flawless code.
But, ‘Nature’ has written a flawless algorithm millions of years ago. It exists even
now and will be there forever flawless.
This perfect ‘algorithm’ is ‘Karma Sidhantha’.
“Avasyam anubhokthavyam kruthaa karma shubhoshubham” says ‘Karma
Sidhantha’, which means whether you do good or evil you have to experience the
results of it.
This is what Newton later said in his third law. “For every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction”.
If you extrapolate this law to ‘Nature’, it is ‘Karma Sidhantha’. Everything in the world
happens in accordance with this law.
Now you may get the doubt, "Who maintains the account of every individual’s rights
and wrongs? Where is all this data stored?"
Through the Mahatmas of our ‘Sanathana Dharma’ we learn that the data is stored in
the invisible ‘Aakaashik Records’.
It is stored in a ‘chitra’ and ‘guptha’ manner. These terms mean ‘tricky’ and ‘secret’
respectively.
Chitragupth is therefore a ‘shakti’ of ‘Nature’ which is in charge of the data of all our
actions on earth.
Basing on this data, Nature decides where a person should be born, in what
conditions, and what sort of karma s/he has to undergo in the next birth.
People personify this shakti and call it Chitraguptha. ( However, It is a great sin, to
show him as a clown in the movies, with a funny getup and cheap dialogues. )
But how can this shakti witness a man’s secret sins committed inside closed doors ?
The whole mystery of ‘Karma Sidhantha’ can be unfolded if we can understand this.
There was once a mahatma in a town. People called him a manifestation of God, and
thronged his ashram. He had a disciple who had been serving him for over thirty
years.
A crippled beggar sat at the gate of the ashram and begged. His condition was very
pathetic.
He had no legs, had only one hand just up to the elbow. He could not speak clearly.
Added to these woes he was almost blind.
A generous man made him a wooden seat with wheels, which he pushed with his
crippled hand, to move from one place to the other.
Whenever the mahatma passed by him, he cried pitiably-- “save me swami, save me”.
But the mahatma always just smiled and went his way.
One day the disciple could no longer endure his guru’s indifference towards the poor
beggar.
He asked him, “Swami people call you the manifestation of God, you save so many
people, why don’t you pity this wretched beggar, suffering and crying for help for so
many years at your door?
If you don’t show mercy on such a destitute how can you be called divine”. The
mahatma just stayed silent.
One day, the Mahatma was reading a news paper. He suddenly exclaimed, "Oh god"!
The disciple anxiously asked him what had happened.
Then the guru narrated what he had read. It was about a brutal murder of a man by
his callous wife.
She had an affair with a lorry driver whom she invited home whenever the husband
was away on camps.
This continued until one day the husband came home unexpectedly; and there
started a feud between the two men.
Suddenly the wife hit the husband on his head from behind, and killed him.
Then they put the body in the lorry and drove it to a deserted spot. There they found
he was still alive.
They lay him in the middle of the road; the wife held his hands tightly, and then asked
her lover to mow him down with his lorry.
The body got horribly crushed, with the limbs scattered in pieces. They threw them
away in different places, left the lorry, and fled off, and escaped the police.
The disciple was horrified to hear the story. He excitedly asked the guru if the police
caught her and she was punished.
The guru asked him, “If it were you, what punishment would you give the woman?”.
The disciple became very furious and said, “I would torture her, then cut off her
hands and legs and throw her on the road and then punish her without mercy”.
Well, of course, that's how she was punished. The crippled beggar at our gate is none
other than the wife in the story, who is reborn to suffer for her bloody deeds.
Shocked, the disciple got up and looked in the newspaper. It was just a blank paper.
He became curious to know if the story really happened. So, he went to the village
his guru had mentioned in the story and enquired about the woman.
The villagers told him it was true. The incident had happened years ago, but nobody
saw them again in the village. The police could find only the blood-stained lorry.
The disciple now realized how great his guru was. He returned to the Guru and fell at
his feet.
This is ‘Karma Sidhantha’
Since we are ignorant of such truths, we blame God for not showing mercy on the
disadvantaged. God is silent because he is omniscient.
Now coming back to the question, “Who watches all these actions of individuals?”
God has arranged 18 CC cameras to record every action of an individual. This data is
collected in the Aakashik records, processed by Chitraguptha; and Nature decides
the karma one has to carry with him in the next birth.
Now let’s know about these 18 CC cameras. 12 of these are familiar to us. They are:
Our conscience (1) Pancha bhootas (5) The Sun and the Moon (2) Night and day (2)
Dawn and dusk (2)
There are 6 invisible cameras: Dharma (1) Truth (1) Vedas (4)
18 is a significant number. The Mahabharata has 18 parvas; the Kurukshetra war
was waged for 18 days; 18 ‘akshohinis’ of army fought in the war;
the Bhagavadgita has 18 chapters. 18 is the symbol of the 18 divine energies of
nature.
The mighty evil characters of the Mahabharata--Duryodhana, Dussaasana and their
brothers committed grievous sins considering might as their right. But they were duly
punished. This is the significance of 18; and the message of the Mahabharata.
Some people foolishly think they can do crimes in secret and escape from
Chitrgupta's view. Nothing can be hidden from the ken of the five elements of nature.
A more foolish person may argue, "what if I use technology, and hide my crime from
the pancha bhootas"? Such persons should remember that god has kept a CC
camera within us too – our conscience. Nobody can escape from it.
Even the most ruthless person has it, that pricks him one day.
Now let’s see what is the rationale behind our karmas:
Karma is categorized as ‘sanchita karma’, ‘praarabdha karma’ and ‘aagami karma’,
represented by the three red heaps or piles on the screen.
‘Sanchitha karma’ is the repository of the entire karma collected by an individual,
over all his births and rebirths so far.
‘Praarabdha karma’ is its subset—the portion of karma from the total mass, an
individual gets along with his birth, to go through during his lifetime.
Here we may get the doubt. Why only a portion of the karma? Why shouldn’t the
individual clear off the whole mass in a single janma?
Blood thirsty sinners like the terrorists mentioned before, amass so much bad karma
that their huge repository of sanchita karma cannot be cleared off in one life. They
need countless wretched janmas to clear their karma.
Aagami karma is that amount of additional karma that we earn in the present life in
addition to the already existing praarabdha karma. This is finally added into the
repository. In such case the pile of our sanchita karma goes on increasing.
Quite confusing? Let me explain using a simple analogy.
Suppose we take a loan of Rs. 70 Lakh from a bank. Let it be considered as our
sanchitha karma.
Our life begins with an EMI of Rs. 70 thousand a month, which is our praarabdha
karma.
If we are wise enough, we pay off the EMI out of our monthly earning, say, Rs.1 Lakh.
The total loan amount will gradually decrease.
Instead, if we foolishly take more loans, from other sources, we cannot pay the EMIs
in time and it gets added to the total loan amount. It may increase to RS.72 Lakh and
the EMI we have to pay increases Rs.72 thousand. This is aagami karma; of our own
making in the present janma.
If you are clear about the total loan, the EMI, the increase in EMI due to our own
making, the resulting increase of the total loan, we can easily understand about the
three karmas.
The same analogy applies to good karma as well. Indiividuals have a repository of
good karma as well. They bring a portion of this with them; and may earn additional
good karma in this life with good deeds. This is represented in the green structures
on the screen.
But I have not mentioned about this so far because, nobody has ever asked me “why
am I so happy?”. It’s natural that we remember only difficult times.
How can we reduce bad karma? We can lighten bad karma in two ways. The first way
is through repentance and atonement.
If we honestly repent for our misdeeds, and make sincere efforts to make amends,
our sufferings will surely soften.
Let me narrate a recent experience: A mother and her son, a software engineer came
to me one day. They looked very worried. His wife left him because of some discord
in their marriage
She filed a case against him on false charges and won the case. He lost his job due
to her and had to pay her a huge amount.
I felt sorry for him. I advised him to do some rituals and prayers. He followed my
advice sincerely, but still found no respite.
Then one day I asked them. “Try to remember and tell me, if you or any of your family
members had committed any big sin in this life.” 00:22:45 The mother reacted to this
and said that theirs was a very noble family, and wouldn’t harm even an ant.”
Then I said “I am sorry then, I am not able to understand why God is making you
suffer."
One day, the boy came alone. I asked him why only his mother came with him and
enquired about his father.
He hesitated a bit, but told his story. “My mother had an affair with another man,
when my sister and I were kids. She wanted to live with him permanently.
So, she subjected my father to a lot of torture and finally drove him out of the house.
My father is a very soft man. He had left the house but still lived in the same town.
But my mother never allowed us to meet him.
We’d lived along with our step father until he passed away recently.
Now my father is seriously ill. My sister and I have arranged a helper for him; and we
visit him secretly.
I was shocked to hear all this. Do you know that your mother had committed a
grievous sin and you are suffering the consequences of her misdeeds?” “why have
you hid all this from me? Can you hide it from God?
“Unless she atones for her misdeeds, your problem will not be solved”. Tell your
mother to go to her husband immediately, beg him to forgive her, and then serve him
with penitence. The woman hesitated a bit, but followed my advice.
The father spent his last days comfortably in the care of the family, and breathed his
last peacefully, after a few months.
The son performed all the rites due to his dead father.
You might be surprised to hear this! Just a couple of days after all the rites were
completed, the boy’s wife returned.
She too was penitent. She asked him to forgive her, promised to withdraw all the
cases and be a good wife thereafter.
This is how penitence and expiation can work miracles on even our hard karmas.
You may get a doubt, “why should the son suffer for his mother’s sin? This is ‘Karma
Sidhantha’.
God works in such a way, that a sinful person who had separated couples or broken
the families in the past life is born in another sinful family where he can undergo his
praarabdha karma.
Now let us talk about the second solution for reducing bad karma.
People ask me. We know about the sins we have committed in this life, so we can
make atonements. But what about the sins of previous births? How do we know?
We haven’t committed a single sin in this life. How can we make amends when we
do not know what sins we'd committed?
Our mahatmas have shown us a wonderful way to reduce such karma. "Do selfless
service to the suffering and the needy; sweat for them; see God in them;
sincerely pray for their well being; don't crave for name and fame". Even the most
hardened karma is automatically softened by such good acts.
During Guru pujas, for example, people forget their position and status, and do all
kinds of service. No work is below their dignity.
Our mahatmas have recommeneded such selfless service as the surest route to
reduce karma. These are the only two ways to melt our karma. Repenetence and
atonement; and selfless service.
Now most of you must be confused, "Are all our poojas, yatras, prayers and rituals of
no value then? That's a valid question.
Besides, as I have mentioned at the beginning of this video, there are a number of
other questions concerning karma and janma, like:
Do 'heaven' and 'hell really exist? Is it not better to undergo the punishment for our
sins then and there, instead of piling them up and made to go through in the next
births?
Can a person commit suicide and thus clear off his praarabdha karma? What are
'punya', 'paapa' and 'moksha'? How does devotion to God help us reduce karma?
Let's talk about all these in the next video. Sri Matre Namaha.

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-xhxqKlHKo