Definition
At the risk of oversimplification, Karma can be summed up by the old English maxim – We reap what we sow
OR
Stated simply - Your deeds and actions (both and physical and mental) impact your life and beyond.
What ever deeds you perform, both good and bad, influence your life in quite a few ways and are the underlying cause of various events, twists and turns in the course of your life.Your bad deeds will bring you distress and suffering i.e. - unhappiness, while your good actions lead you to bliss and delight i.e. happiness and ultimately spiritual success.
Two questions immediately spring to mind when one understands this concept
First is a classic example which all of us observe during the school years –
Many a times, notwithstanding the genuine,sincere intentions and the virtuous and hard work that follows , the opposite effect may happen viz. A student prepares well for his or her examination and still ends up with a poor grade. However, a student who has immoral intentions and cheats on the test may end up with very high grades.
If we go by the usual cause and effect logic we can not justify the above but that’s where the concept of Karma comes in.
As per the previous paragraphs, your actions have effect in this life and beyond so it follows that the events in our current life need not be determined by our actions in this life, but also by the actions that we did in our previous lives. This explains why an immoral person sometime seems to be successful, while a virtuous and moral soul may be confronting a hardship or a series of misfortunes.
Second question is what happens if we try to be diplomatic in our actions – as we all know that it is not always feasible to perform moral and good deeds, we should stop all action because every action will have some negative effect at some level
The answer to this is that even if you want to stop all actions, it is impossible to live without doing something because living itself is an action oriented process and just by living you are undertaking so many actions like thinking, breathing, digestion etc. so by inaction we cannot break the chain of Karma’s cause and effect, however in certain situations intentional inaction may produce negative and harmful effects .
How are we affected and What to do?
There is no exact timeframe in which your karma will bear fruit. The effects may be obvious instantaneously or after an indeterminate time period (may be in this lifetime or in some future one) .
A soul carries the load of its own karma and the load keeps growing during our existence on this earth. When a person of predominantly good deeds dies, (s)he goes to heaven. When his/her good karma is completely exhausted, he/she returns to the earth to continue his/her life again.A person of evil deeds on the other hand goes to the hell and stays put till he exhausts his bad karma and returns to earth - this cycle of births and deaths continues for every individual soul.
As per the ancient Hindu texts, the main purpose of a soul is the liberation from this cycle of births and deaths, but the usual Karma (good or bad) does not liberate a soul. All it offers is a temporary reprieve but still keeps a soul restrained to this illusive material world.
According to the Bhagvat Gita, the way out is to undertake actions without cravings and attachments because actions performed with desires and self-centeredness would lead to suffering, while actions performed without desire, altruistic actions and those which are offerings to God, would lead to deliverance from the cycle of births and deaths.
So just get out from your selfish, passive and irresponsible life, become more sensitive and mindful to what you are doing and perform every action with the understanding that every occurrence and circumstance in your life is your own creation.
What Good Will this do for you ?
Well for starters, you will be living an ethical life , staying on the right side of the Karma spectrum and will end up doing things that are good for one and all .
Secondly you will not be feeling like a victim and will not blame others for your problems or expect some one else to come and rescue you. Also you will not victimize any fellow human being because you know the consequences .
Though there is nothing much you can do about the past but you can counterbalance the effects of your previous negative karma and create a new future for himself through the present good deeds, thereby feeling more optimistic about the future .
