Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 10

In the Vestibules of Karma
are released by wisdom.14 Some times Karma of the fore-fathers affects even their descendents.15
The doctrine of Karma is one of the most significant tenets of Indian thought. It has profoundly influenced the life and thought of the people in India.16 It is the basal pre-supposition of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, "One finds an unanswerable truth in the theory of Karma, - not necessarily in the form the ancients gave to it, but in the idea at its centre, - which at once strikes the mind and commands the assent of the understanding. Nor does the austerer reason, distrustful of first impressions and critical of plausible solutions, find after the severest scrutiny that the more superficial understanding, the porter at the gateways of our mentality, has been deceived into admitting a tinsel guest, a false claimant into our mansion of knowledge. There is a solidity at once of philosophic and of practical truth supporting the idea, a bed-rock of the deepest universal undeniable verities against which the human mind must always come up in its fathomings of the fathomless ; in this way indeed does the world deal with us, there is a law here which does so make itself felt and against which all our egoistic ignorance and self-will and violence dashes up in the end, as the old Greek poet said of the haughty isolence and prosperous pride of man, against the very foundation of the throne of Zeus, the marble feet of Themis, the adamantine bust of Ananke. There is the secret of an eternal factor, the base of the unchanging action of the just and truthful gods, devānām dhruvavratam, in the self-sufficient and impartial law of Karina."'17
As man sows, so does he reap. Our actions have their effects. These effects cannot be destroyed. They have to be experienced and exhausted. If we cannot exhaust the effect of our actions in this life, we have to complete the cycle of births and deaths to earn the fruits of all that we have done. No man inherits the good or evil of another man, The doctrine of Karma is thus closely associated with the reincarnation of soul. Every evil deed must be expiated and every good deed must be rewarded. If it is not possible to reap the fruits in one single empirical existence, it must be experienced on earth in a fresh incarnation. Plato lias made a reference to this theory in the Laws perhaps under the influence of Orphic mysticism, and refers to the tradition which is firmly believed by many, and has been received from those who are learned in the mysteries, 18 la Indian thought, the doctrine of Karma has been developed on philosophical and scientific
14. "Karmana badhyate jantum vidyayā tu pramucyate." 15. śānti Parva, 240 16. Cave (Sedney) : Living Religions of the East. p. 31 17. Aurobindo : The Problem of Rebirth, (Pondicherry, 1952), p. 84, 18. Ibid. p. 85