Astrology and the
Doctrine of Karma Part - 1
Dr.
Shanker Adawal
Grief is the substance of
which life is made of. Everywhere one looks, one sees people unhappy for
various reasons. Separation from near and dear ones, disease, debts, poverty
persecution of any one of many other things keep people in distress. People
often wonder why they are the victims of a cruel and merciless fate when they,
seemingly, have done no wrong. Good people seem to suffer much more than bad
people. Morality becomes irrelevant because of the purposelessness and
unfairness of life. And the universe becomes nothing more than an aimless
chaos.
The ancient Maharishis
speculated long and deep on this dichotomy of suffering and happiness seemingly
happening at random, and came up with the idea of Karma. They defined Karma as
the energy generated by the summation of all our physical, mental and spiritual
actions. And that all our unhappiness or happiness was nothing but an
expression of this Karmic energy.
Sage Kapila elaborated
further. He said : “Man’s existence is a Karmic repetition of his previous
existences and his present existence is but a link in the chain of eternal
existences connecting the past with the future.” Einstein echoed this when he
said that time ultimately wrapped around itself causing a finite infinity – a
meeting of the Kaiplarian past with the future. Was there any escape from the
shackles of space and time or was man doomed to cycle through eternity in this
way? The Maharishis answered this question with yes. And that was when past,
present and future blended together to annihilate space and time – an
Einsteinan E = mc2 as it were. The goal, therefore, of all Hindu philosophy
was to find a way to go beyond the confines of space and time and thus overcome
Karma.
Karma theory teaches us
that the soul enters the life, not as a fresh creation, but after a long course
of previous existences on this earth and elsewhere, in which it acquired its
present inhering peculiarities and that it is on the way to future
transformations which the soul is now shaping. It claims that infancy brings to
earth, not a blank scroll for the beginning of an earthly record, nor a mere
cohesion of atomic forces into a brief personality soon to disintegrate again
into the elements, but that it is inscribed with ancestral histories, some like
the present scene the most of them unlike it and stretching back into, remotest
past. These inscriptions are generally undecipherable, save as revealed in
their moulding influence upon the new career, but like the invisible
photographic images made by the Sun of all it sees; when they are properly
developed in the laboratory of consciousness, they will be distinctly
displayed.
The current phase of life
will also be stored away in the secret vaults of memory for its unconsciousness
effect upon ensuing lives. All the qualities we now possess in body, mind and
should result from our use of ancient opportunities. We are indeed the heirs of
all the ages. For these conditions accrue from distant causes endangered by our
older selves, and the future flows by the divine law of cause and effect (Karma)
from the gathered momentum of our past impetuses. There is no favouritism in
the universe, but all have the same everlasting facilities for growth. Those
who are now elevated in worldly station may be sunk in humble surroundings in
the future. Only the inner traits of the soul are permanent companions.
The wealthy slugged may be
the beggar of the next life, and the industrious worker of the present is
sowing the seeds of greatness. Suffering, bravely endured now, will produce a
treasure of patience and fortitude in another life, hardships will give rise to
strength, self denial must develop the will, tastes cultivated in this
existence will somehow bear fruit in coming ones and acquired energies will
assert themselves whenever they can be the less parsimonies upon which the
principles of physics are based. Vice versa, the unconscious habits, the
uncontrollable impulses, the peculiar tendencies, the favourite pursuits, and
the soul-stirring friendships of the present descend from far-reaching previous
activities.
Overcoming Karma meant
understanding it. And to simplify the problem they identified three categories
of Karma, viz., (a) Sanchita, (b) Prarabdha and (c) Agami.
Sanchita is the
accumulated Karma that is latent and will fructify in a future life. Prarabdha
is the operative part of Karma comprised of thoughts, words and deeds whose
seed has already germinated and whose machinery has been set in motion for
fruition in this life. Agami is the Karma that will be done in future.
Continuation...
Dr. Shanker Adawal
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