Sambodhi 1972 Vol 01

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 47

In the Vestibules of Karma
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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 bas profoundly influenced the life and thought of the people in India 18 It is the basal pre-supposition of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism "One finds an unanswerable trutb 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 solutlons, find after the severest scrutiny that the more superficial understanding, the porter at the gateways of our mentality, has been decer ved into admitting a tinsel guest, a false claimant into our mansion of know ledge There is a solidity at once of pbilosopbic 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 wbich 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 Adapke There is the secret of an eternal factor, the base of the unchanging action of the just and truthful gods, deanam dhrupaura. tam, in the self-sufficient and impartial law of Karma "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 bave to complete the cycle of births and deaths to earn the fruits of all that we have done No man inberits 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 explated and every good deed must be rewarded If it 18 not posable to reap the fruits in one slogle empirical existence, it must be experienced on earth in a fresh incarnation Plato las made a reference to this theory in the Laws perhaps under the influence of Orphic mysticism, and refers to the tradition which la firmly believed by many, and has been received from those who are learned in the mysteries 19 In Indian thought, the doctrine of Karma has been developed on philosophical and scientific
14 16 16 17 18
Karmana badhyate jantum vidyaya tu pramucyate" Santi Parva 240 Cave (Sedney) Living Religions of the East p 31 Aurobindo The Problem of Rebirth, (Pondicherry, 1952), P 84 Ibid p 85