Rebith and Karmavada - 2

- But why has one to born again and again? The Hindu Shastras are very clear on this point. The divinity in man reveals itself only when the mind becomes spotlessly clean. But this takes a long, long time. One gross body cannot last long. Our lifetime is too short for this task. That's why we have to go through innumerable births before this task is done.

- There are so many things in this world that please our senses and so many that repel them. (The sense organs are ten: Five Jnanendriyas - organs of perception: Eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. Five Karmendriyas - organs of action: Hands, feet, tongue, organ of elimination and organ of reproduction). Hence, we desire to have certain things and to avoid certain others.

- Our minds are always full of such desires. To fulfil these desires, we exert ourselves. Our life consists of such exertions. Yet we can never exhaust our desires. They go on multiplying. When we fulfil one desire, the hunger of our senses for enjoyment becomes keener; and this gives rise to a crop of fresh desires. Thus we go on doing things for fulfilling our never-ending desires.

- Now, whatever we do in this way is sure to bring pleasure or pain as its effect. Each deed (Karma) is destined to bear a fruit (Karmaphala), sooner or later. A good or meritorious deed (Shubha Karma) brings pleasure as its effect and an evil deed (Ashubha Karma) brings pain. Men usually have both good and bad desires. These lead them to perform both meritorious and evil deeds and thus to pile up both pleasure and pain as their consequence (Karmaphala).

- During each lifetime, we exhaust only a portion of our past Karmaphala. This portion is called "PRARABDHA". The remainder that has to be tasted in future lives is called "SAMCHITA". The fruits of our present deeds will lie stored up as "KRIYAMANA". Hence for reaping the fruits of our own actions, we have to go from birth to birth.

- A child is born blind. His blindness is surely due to some physical cause. But his mental agony owing to his blindness, according to the Hindu Shastras, must be ascribed to some particular misdeed in any of his previous lives. When, inspite of our best efforts, we fail in any of our endeavors, we usually curse the fate (adrishta). Or, when without any effort we meet any unexpected success, we hail our luck (adrishta) with delight. This adrishta (unseen), is however nothing but the fruit of our own past actions, our own karmaphala. We need neither curse it or hail it. This comes as a matter of course, as a sure result of our past deeds. We cannot avoid the pleasure or pain caused by our own acts (karma) during the past lives. We have produced them. We have made the bed and we must lie on it. We have no right to curse anything or anybody for our griefs and ailments.

- But we can do one thing. We can make our future lives happy. That depends on our present efforts. We are the builders of our own future. If we avoid the evil deeds prohibited by the Shastras and go on performing good ones enjoined by them, then we shall surely have a happy future.

- This, in short, is what Hinduism teaches us about Karma (Karmavada). Our desires produce Karma, Karma produces its fruits as pain or pleasure, and to reap the fruits of our Karma we have to go from birth to birth. In this way our desires whirl us through the almost interminable round of births and deaths that we call "SAMSARA".