Karma and Rebirth

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

Page 40

Karma-Its Operation and an Appraisal
Where destiny with men as pieces plays Hither and thither moves, and mates and slays; And one by one in the closet lays.
But determinism is here interpreted in a narrow sense as a mechanical operation of Karma to produce its effects, as does law of gravitation.
The question, now, is whether Karma theory implies determinism. We have seen that determinism emphasises that events are caused. An event is so connected with some preceding event that unless the latter has occurred the former would not have occurred. The principle of causality operates in life. This has been accepted by the Karma theory also. Our actions are determined by the Karma theory also. Our actions are determined by the Karma that accumulates due to the previous actions. The after-effects of action in the form of Karma have to be experienced and exhausted. In this sense, it is deterministic. But the choice of action is with us. In this connection we may mention the distinction drawn by some regarding the levels of judgement of action. On unreflective level a person's action is distinguished on the basis of the fact whether it is due to impact of emotions or imbalance of mind or that it has been acted in accordance of unimpeded rational desire. Yet considered from the plane of reflection, each rational desire is rooted and determined by the total character and personality of man; and the total character is formed by the total life and the environmental factors. In this sense, the individual is free. The individual's ability to be free is not impaired by the fact that his being is determined by Karma. And moral choice, like thought and act, moves on different causal levels. It achieves freedom just as they do, only when it is determined by its own appropriate necessity. We are determined by the past and we can determine the future. For the bondage we have so far suffered and for the kindly light of awareness of the power of self-realisation, we can say to God, with Omer Khayyam, 'forgiveness give and take."
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3. It is also said that the Karma theory is inconsistent with individual freedom of the will. It does not guarantee true freedom to the individual which is essential to his moral progress.36 And in the background of caste system, the boon of individual inequality becomes a curse; if Karma had not to work with caste, a varṇāšrama-dharma, a wrong idea of the self and transmigration, we might reconcile Karma with freedom. The charge of 'determinism' from the point of view of higher morality holds good. Older Buddhism and Jainism were much concerned to defend self-regulative character of Karma; salvation was essentially through self-reliance; and there was fear of the antinomian tendencies of the notion of reliance of other (e. g.
36. Paul (C. S.): The Suffering God (1932), p. 60.
37. Ibid. p, 60.