By Sanjib Mukherjee,
Karma is perhaps one of the most spoken about, yet least understood topics in the realms of spirituality. Here I would like to ask everybody’s views on whether karma alone can be blamed for any bad luck that one may receive in this lifetime?
a big yes.
“As is the effort so is the fruit, O Rama: this is the meaning of self-effort….” says sage Vasishtha. What we call ‘kismet’ or fate is nothing but the actions of past ‘karma’ or self-effort manifesting in our lives now.
BUT!!…But we needn’t stop there and resign ourselves to our ‘fate’!!– “…O, Rama…The present is infinitely more potent than the past….[we] should put forth GREATER EFFORT NOW…” See what we CAN DO *NOW*….move ahead and drop the past!
In a way, karma is fruit of our effort (or sometimes the lack thereof!). But Lord Krishna says in the Gita that all bad Karma can be wiped out by surrendering the fruits of our action to Him, and working without expectations or favorable results. I truly believe that is the best way to live. Plus any bad karma that we do face will get reduced with the Grace of Krishna.
Revathi
Hi Sanjib,
Thanks for bringing up this question !
“Yes”, I do believe in Karma. Otherwise why some people happy, some unhappy, some people rich and some poor this is all because of past karma. Karma brings people together and separates them. All the struggles in the World, whatever they may be, are the bondage of Karma. Its cuts across all logic and reasoning otherwise why two people born in same family with different kismat…. one is happy and another one is struggling with life !!!
But, yes, we Human has the ability to change our fate / karma. I strongly believe in that. If you think your luck is not favoring you, go ahead and do something about it / work on it… NOW… It is you, who has the power to change your luck from bad to good.
So do not blame only to your Karma…. I believe you have the ability to change your past karma at least some. Put positive effort and you will get the result !!! Some Kama can definitely be changed !!!
Fruit of “Karma” is must… Our Every Good-Bad “Karma” Decides our “Luck”…
we are said to believe it ……is there any option …….
Yes it is till we think it that way…..everything has an effect but again if we let it effect us….we can always change our karma’s by not just changing our actions but also by functioning our thoughts, everything is in our hands… If we are really determined we ourselves can change the script of our life….
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Karma, Determinism, Fatalism, Free will, Indeterminism are theories based on different calling. there are supportings for every theory. Google it for more details
If you look at the realistic side of what is happening around!, I’m sure you can find a lot is dependent on the external factors.
Serendipity: Support from these external factors Even when situations are uncontrollable but favoring the objective/person.
Whether one wants to define life proactively based on own actions or depend on Serendipity is just a matter of choice. “Stability” if dependent on own action, Thrill if “Serendipity”. Both are good from different point of view.
Stability and instability is required in a human life cycle for happiness.
I personally switch between both, in different situations and love it
SPEAKING IN TERMS OF CONJECTURE AND OR OPINION SUCH AS LUCK AND OR OTHERWISE IS CONTRARY TO THE TRUTH AND ONLY STRUCTURE OF VEDANTA………I PRAY ALL ABORT THE FALSITY OF RELIGIOUSNESS AND EMBRACE EVER AND ONLY THE TRUTH THAT SAT GURU KNOWS FOR SAT GURU IS OUR TRUE SELVES ALL ELSE IS FALSE…………KRSN AUM
i feel karma-s karm kiye jao-without thinking of the results n expectations-baaki leave it upto the almighty-wat will happen to u in the next life etc-bad luck or good luck all depends on the other circumstances too-and most important your own will power and the drive which pulls along with you like an engine -in this life!!human beings will be doing wrong doings too -and yes it effects the karma and recycle of life and rebirth etc—
Hi Sanjib !!! wishing you a beautiful morning!!!!
what an amazing question today..!!!
and really seeing the question sometimes i have to smile that wow how it is posiible that the answer of questions with which i struggle whole life becoming so simpler these days..as this question comes to everyone’ mind at different phases of life specially bad phases of life when we feel
why it all happens..why we suffer …why this happened to me..why not others..what wrong i have done that God giving me such hurt or pain or suffering…and we keep thinking and analysing ourselves or people around us…sometime cursing our luck sometime think okay may be it is our bad karma of last birth…may be knowingly or unknowingly we hurt someone and they gave us bad wishes and because of that only we geting bad luck…so it is mind how it takes things and what it thinks about whatever happens in life…
yes it is true that most of things that happen are result ot the KARMA…
or ACTIONS..as we always heard that whatever seed we wil grow we wil recieve such fruit only…so growing seed of NEEM (BITTER) wont give MANGOs ..so if we want to enjoy Mangoes we have to work for growing the plant of mango from the very beginning…as universe is so balanced that when we send negative energies we wil recieve back that only from others..when we send positive energy to others and in this process of circle of life it effect and helps others it comes back to us multiplied many a times…
but we all have to realise that karmas also have three kinds Prarbhada..means the karma that is already there but yielding n manifesting its effect now…we all have to go throught its positive and negative resulst we cannot change that or its effect…
2nd one is Sanchita karma…is gathered up’, or `piled up’ karma. It is latent or manifested in the form of a tendency.it is latent in mind but can be burned offf by spiritual practise before it comes and shows its results..
3rd one is Agami karma..or Future karma that wil affect us of the karmas we do in present but its results wil effect us in future..as sometime we do some wrong or ccrime no one knows about that but stil we feel guiitly about that and there are chances of our getiing caught later and we wi recieve its punishment later on in life…
so though karma effect us but in all threee forms of karma..
there is remedy KNOWLEDGE CAN ERASE KARMA ALSO..
there are three forms of things that can help us like reading of scriptures knowledagle books ….being in company of good people means SATSANG….company of Holy that gives knowledge and wisdom that helps us to shield us from karma
and SELF EFFORTS ..or SADHNA doing meditation sudershan kriya etc whatever form we like to do and reach our inner self and know ourselves more and because of that we get help to change our attitude and save us from doing karma further wisely…
so all three of these can minimise prarabhada karma effect and Sanchita can be remove and Agami can be prevented..
so keeping this knowledge in mind we can say that bad luck is what we think is a phase of life and i believe if we compare ourslef with more people we wil see that no phase is bad…and we can feel how lucky we are…why we always think that wow if it could have happende we would have been lucky …and when something bad happens why we cnat take it as what if something worse happened…like i got hurt yesterday i got pain but for the first time thought how lucky I AM…it was just a little suffering wil be okay in some days what if i would have broken my leg..or more my head how much problems it would have created for me or my closed ones..so i am thankful to God that his blessings and my dear ones blessing saved me from a bigger loss…so same hurt is pleasant and sweet just because of thinking of mind that i have decided to take it positively ..so that thought of bad luck or bad incidents or accidents itself brought beautiful thought of thankful ness to god ..so everthing that happens bad or good we can take it as we want to ..it is all upto us how we take it…cursing others or time or god…for everythng..or by knowledge thinking that
HOW BEAUTIFUL IS OUR LIFE HOW LUCKY WE ARE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN US LIFE BEAUTIFUL SENSES TO FEEL EVERY EMOTION…INNER SIXTH SENSE TO ANALYSE US…beautiuf HEART and beautiful SOUL .
Thank you so much Sanjib writing in the coments i feel my all my confusions of life are dissolving by themselves as for writing i have to read my mind feel my heart and have to look deep into my soul…and all this makes a realy beautiful experience and journey while sittng at home only and feeling whole world and heaven all same times…
love and regards and care…Rekha…
Hey folks!! put your comments on the site too!!!
Karma is of our own doing.Its ,Sowing the seeds and reaping accordingly!!Once we realize this ,we can also start clearing the impressions through A Beutiful course of the ART OF LIVING!!and create lots of Good luck!!:-)Smile always
Himadri Sankar Roy Choudhury
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm NICE ARTICLE ABOUT KARMA
As rightly said we r architects of our own fate….
there is nothng like bad luck…or good luck…a man gets wat he deserves as the consequences of his deeds.
Good luck or bad luck is just an excuse…… but Karma is what we sow we reap……..
of course ..!! itz more than obvious…!! wot else can be resposible for it..!! one more thing..whatever any spiritual guru or saint says nobody ever has change his destiny ,and nobdy will ever be able to change his fate.This iz Fixed…i have experienced of it..
Rekha di thnx
Karma is not root of any thing. it is just realization of your thoughts. if you think good you are attracting good luck and if you think selfish way you attract bad luck. you can not avoid karmas so let them happen now but at present moment do not plan for long future it may forces you to create bad karma hidden inside your greedy thoughts.
Try to create minimum karmas necessary to keep body alive.
Simply pray God for prosperity and peace of world.. you will see then bad luck disappears and your karmas gets purified very soon for sure.
Never pray for yourself …. God do not put attentions to beggars.
Since it is not possible for us mortals to go back n verify if our past is indeed responsible for d present, then maybe d Law of Karma holds…… I too attribute most things to Karma…… blindly !!
But then Karma is nothing gr8 a concept 2 not b able understand I guess…. if u do d karma of getting onto a bus, u hav to do the karma of buying a ticket also …
So Karma is plain action which is harmless to urself and the others … If however, any wrong deed is done, then naturally it wil evoke a reaction which can be violent orally or physically ….. n this in turn churns the
cycles of good and bad actions, reactions … n then as per what the wise sages have told that some imprints are left from our previous births and carried forward, so it must be so …
But KISMET is indeed different from Karma …..i believe its effortless ……
I heard this from a AOL teacher…” if you think you are the doer, then the Karma will be attached to you, if not, there isnt any Karma”. Again, with that being said, its easy to manipulate this line of thought and become fatalistic
Hello Sanjib, a beautiful question.
I think Karma should not be blaimed alone for our bad luck….
The ultimate knowledge is to get to know the answer of this question in the form of experience/s which is beyond words..
However, if it has to be discussed in the realm of the limited knowledge that I have acquired so far, I can not say it is the “Root Cause of all Bad things in life” but yes, Karma does have their effects in one’s life.
Even Lord Krishna said in the Geeta that Karm is the destiny but then, just to be the witness in any of the actions or karmas and then to surrender it to Him.. as we say Krishnarpanam, sets one free of the Karmanubandha. Practically it is not possible to be free from Karmas but the only way to be free from its effect is not to be in a “doer”ship mode.
My understanding of the Bhagvat Geeta says that When we just let all the Karmas happen and we witness it being a third party, i.e. not this body or emotions or even a mind.. then, it does not affect us. practically that is what we say Surrendering Karmas to the divine.
not only bad luck, its the root of all good luck also. no karmas no life.
# karmanaya vadhikaar astay ma faleshu kadachana…#
we have every right on our karma or acctions what we can do or what we should do or what we want to do and how we can resist ourselves from doing the karmas that directly or indirectly effect not only us but the surrounding people society or nation…so whenever we do something or plan to do …something we should take a look on every aspect of it…every side as sometime we do what we wish to do but its effect reach somewhere very far away…as when we do someihng actions that may increase polliutions..or we are not taking care of trees..or not taking care of what else going on around us..we dont care we using things tthat harmful when we try to dispose them or we are not alert enough towards global warming or pollution of rivers by factories or miilions of othr things are there that we do either for our self interest or we not doing anything but this action and non-action both in a way affecting the whole system as we think what if we not do anything for society when everyone else can do…why we would suffer or how does it matter to us…so all these things may not be accounted for but if everyone start tinking like this..then who is responsible for the bad effect on society that is more or like bad luck for whole society nation and universe
..so not only our actions but our non -actions when we need to do work also affect us…so KARMA OR NON KARMA EVERYTHING SHOULD BE TAKEN CARE OF…do it when you need to do some work…and leave it if your actions having bad effects on others…
had a nice day hearing all people’s views on this..and enjoyed learning a lot from all of you…thanks to all…”
hi Sanjib..!!this is something i have always wondered about….& have til now not understood…!!people who have never done anything wrong…never hurt anyone.. are honest…simple beings…somehow always go thru lots of hardships in life!is it past karma??to any question of doubt- this is the easy answer given…past karma..!!!but who has seen or known their past karma..?the only people who believe in karmas…are the ones who have been thru the grind of life….they earlier were also humane..god fearing…& being thru the grind also are humane & god fearing..!!!!
Nothing Happens with out gods will, he has written our pages in life and we just move as per that, everything is invetiable.
karma is basically ‘ action ‘…
having a begining and an end… somewhere in time…
it is impossible to live without action… and the complex nature of action is even more impossible to escape from…
what is possible is neither attachment or detachment to action…
if bad luck has to blamed on action, such blame itself is another action – which in turn may create a beleif that fate and destiny are already programmed and what is the next action to escape from such preplanned action itself…
Adi Shankara says just two words ‘ akarmaiva mokshaha ‘
well like to know some scientific facts about it
I think that reality is much more complex than that.
My opinion is, that karma is just one – but a big one – of those “attributes”, which we have to deal with during our lifetimes.
- The circumstances of one’s birth process can determine one’s life quality very much. So it matters when, where and HOW were you born.
- The so called ‘family constellations’ – the issues that come with your biological family – can be a huge resource of so called bad luck.
However, I’m not really sure whether these two things are the part of the karma system or not. Good news is that both can be eased with special meditations and other methods.
And as much as I understand karma, it is not just about what we have done in our previous lifes… our world goes fast enough, that I can say: karma works instantly. U get back what u give – or had given. All the good & bad things.
Saying goes for both..bc we say in good luck/time/achievement..oh we must have done some good karma..and similar with bad luck/failure..oh must have done some bad karma..!! And when we really believe in..we try our best to do good karma??(BTW what is that??) ha haha!
In continuation of my prev comment of action and non action..
one more thought i would like to share is when we are on good and knowledagle or spiritual path then we need to do more karmas or actions…becuase our karmas are affecting people making their life better
….but if we are on bad path of evil nature like terrorist or anything like that …we need to do less karma or actions as here our actions wil do bad for world so here not doing or non actions or less actions will be more beneficial…
so ACTIONS OR NON-ACTIONS BOTH ARE BENEFICIAL DEPENDING UPON THE NATURE OF WORK AND INTENTIONS BEHIND THAT…:)”
The only Karma that is beyond our control is Prarabhtha Karma, according to which the body which is chosen to be born is not under its control. Choice of parents, the environment of the home, physical condition of the new born are the result of the sum total of favorable and unfavorable acts of previous life. Time of death also is predetermined.
Samchita Karma is the accumulated karma of all our previous births which gives us our characteristics, tendencies, aptitudes and interests. This is why two children born of the same parents and given the same environment, turn out to be very different in their capabilities and characteristics. Samchita Karma is changable. With wisdom a man can change himself, improve habits and get rid of evil thoughts and desires, and so it is alterable by man.
Third karma, Agama Karma consists of the actions in our present life which determines our future in the later years of this life and in the next. Man can not change his past or birth, but he can mould his future.
By purity of thought, compassionate words and deeds, righteous action without thought of the fruits thereof, we pave the way for a better life for all our tomorrows in this birth and the next.