Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are some born in wealthy, healthy conditions while others are born in poverty and sickness? The Vedas answer these questions through the science of Karma.
In Sanskrit, Karma simply means "action." As a universal law, it is the spiritual equivalent of Newton's third law of motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every choice we make, every word we speak, and even every thought we cultivate sends out a wave of energy that eventually returns to us.
The Three Kinds of Action
The Bhagavad Gita categorizes human actions into three distinct types:
- Karma (Pious Action): Actions performed in accordance with scriptural guidelines and moral principles. Helping others, practicing honesty, and performing charity are examples of pious karma. These actions generate positive reactions, bringing future happiness, prosperity, and good health.
- Vikarma (Impious Action): Actions performed against the laws of nature and spiritual guidelines. Lying, cheating, violence, and exploiting others are vikarma. These actions generate negative reactions, bringing future suffering, anxiety, and disease.
- Akarma (Transcendental Action): Actions performed in pure Krishna consciousness, without any personal, selfish motivation. When we perform our work as an offering to God (devotional service or seva), it produces no material reaction (neither good nor bad). This is the topmost state of action because it frees the soul from material entanglement.
Karma and Reincarnation
Our current circumstances are the harvest of seeds planted in our past lives. Similarly, the seeds we plant today through our thoughts and actions will determine our future life and body. The law of karma is perfectly just; no one is punished or rewarded arbitrarily. We are the creators of our own destiny.
How to Transcend Karma
Pious action (good karma) is compared to a golden chain, and impious action (bad karma) to an iron chain. Both chains keep the soul bound to the cycle of birth and death. The goal of human life is not just to get good karma, but to transcend karma altogether and attain spiritual liberation.
We can transcend karma through the practice of Bhakti-yoga:
- Perform Seva: Dedicate the results of your work to Krishna so they produce no karmic reaction.
- Eat Prasadam: Eating food offered first to Lord Krishna cleanses us of past sins and karmic debt.
- Chant the Holy Names: The chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahā-Mantra is a powerful fire that burns away past karmic reactions.