Theory of Karman in Indian Thought

Author(s): Koshelya Walli
Publisher: Bharat Manisha

Page 17

[ 3.]
; "The doctrine of. Karma accepts the following assumptions :
(a). The stress of life and consciousness as revealed": in mundane existence is without beginning. No absolute beginning of this stream is conceivable. For, from whatever point we start we are compelled to assume under logical necessity that it has an earlier history without which no rational understanding is possible. Whenever, we find any reference to the beginning of
creation, it inevitably means the beginning of a particular cycle ' of time and not the beginning of creation itself. .
In India we generally believe in the periodic destruction of the world and its reappearance in a new cycle. There are of course schools of thought which do not believe in Pralaya i. e. annihilation, and for them the entire series is an eternal stream without any beginning or end and has no break in the middle. ;
(b) The soul assumes a body due to its past Karma. The quality of the body, its term of existence and the experience of joys and sorrows through the body are also due to prior Karma. Varieties of planes of life and consciousness are also due to Karma,
(c) It is generally believed that Karma has in its background an element of ignorance or some such dark cosmic power.
(d) Destruction of Karma as thus understood is believed to lead to a state of freedom from joys and sorrows which are the inevitable concomitant or resultant of Karma
These views in a general way reflect the usual trend of Indian thought, though in one of its features only.
The Karmic aspect of Indian cultural study does not seem to have been as elaborately expounded by modern Indian scholars as it seems to me that it deserved. The Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jainas have equal respect for this doctrine in each of the systems of thought and a general survey of all the view-points on a comparative basis, seems to have been a great desideratum of the time.