Theory of Karman in Indian Thought

SR No.: 011109
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Koshelya Walli
Publisher: Bharat Manisha
Publication Year: 1977
Total Pages: 377
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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karma unless it is liquidated somehow is stored up and kept in reserve in the mind to be released when the proper time comes. For this reason, the human mind is the storehouse of infinite karmas accumulated from the beginningless past. Technically these karmas fall under the category of sancita karmas. These contain all sorts of karma-good, bad and neutral gathered during the long process of transmigration through human bodies in the past. In this storehouse we have karmas which have the potentiality of bearing fruit in the enjoyment of pleasure in heaven as gods and other superhuman beings or in suffering pain in hall and similar dark regions as hell beings or other subhuman creatures or in having human beings on earth. Karmans which fructify in the bodies and lives of subhuman earthly beings (beasts, birds etc.) are also present. In the process of transmigration, a soul passes through all forms of life sometime or other and saṁskāras of these lives as a rule are present in the mind in the subconscious and even in the unconscious region. It is also believed that it is not necessery that a particular soul in its transmigration should be confined to a particular world region ( Brahmānda ).
It is believed that there are numerous islands in every Brahmāņda and that on rare occasions transfer of a soul from one island to another actually takes place. We have a clear statement of this belief in the mantra which a Hindu householder is supposed to use in his annual tarpana and it is not unlikely that such transfer does happen in the Brahmánda also, for there is an infinite number of Brahmāndas in the cosmic system. I
As the individuality of the soul remains intact, changes of life and death, its Sañcita karma is infinite in number and infinite in kind. In fact from a higher point of view, the Sañcita karma represents the basis of a soul's individuality. . .
RELATION BETWEEN KARMA AND JANMA
It is stated that karma is the cause of birth in a new body (Jati ). But the question is whether a single karma is sufficient
1. Refer to Kusumaõjali by Udayana, Section 2.