KARMA
Another metaphysical principle, Karma, is explained in Chapter IV of the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad. We learn that when the body becomes weak and unconscious, the self completely withdraws from the organs and the ‘vital breath’ (soul or self) is enfolded in a new body where it reaps “the fruits of its past action.”5 This includes the knowledge and experience of the prior lifetime which “help in initiating new actions as well as bringing past work to fruition.”6
This is utterly important to the surviving self as “Without past experience we cannot understand how anyone can proceed to accomplish any work or to enjoy the fruit of past actions.”7 Moreover one should strive for “good knowledge, good work, and good experience, so that one may obtain a desirable body and desirable enjoyments.”8 And “In the new body, the organs, under the control of the person’s past karma become active and co-ordinated…”9
But a key corollary metaphysical concept is not to be missed: “…the performance of good and evil deeds under the impulse of desire, anger, etc. is the cause of the ātman’s identification [with those deeds] and of its undergoing the process of rebirth. Impelled by this identification, the self takes one body after another. Therefore good and bad deeds are the cause of its rebirth.”10 However, this cycle or rebirth and death can be avoided because “…good and bad deeds prompted by desire, etc. are the cause of rebirth…When desire is absent, a deed does not lead to the accumulation of merit or demerit…desire alone is the root of transmigration.”11
Here we come upon the second great discovery of Hinduism, karma terminates with Brahmātmaikyan (the identity of Brahman and atman) through a single focal point – desire. The lesson of this text is stated unambiguously: “the man who does not desire – who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied whose only object is the Self – his organs do not depart. Being Brahman, he merges in Brahman.”12
Utterely beautiful and utterly simple!
(further continued next post)
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5Nikhilananda, Swami, The Upanishads Volume 3. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1956. Page 286.
6Ibid., page 290.
7Ibid., page 291.
8Ibid.
9Ibid.
10Ibid., page 293.
11Ibid.
12Ibid.
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