Karma & its fruits
The Hindu belief system attaches great significance to karma and the fruit of karma or karmaphal. It is said that whatever one achieves in life is the reward of the person’s deeds. One’s gain and loss, success and failure, joys and sorrows are decided by one’s deeds.
Yogavasishtam says good deeds of previous births definitely bear fruit in the present birth. No exertion goes without result.
A shloka from Tulsi Ramayana is proof of the staunch belief our ancient sages had in the concept of karma. In Ayodhyakand, Devguru Brihaspati tells Lord Indra about the ethical acts of Ram in this verse:
Karma pradhan viswa kari rakha
Jo jaskarai so thasa phala chakha
Kahu na kovu sukha-dukha kara data
Nija krita karam bhoga sub bhrata
(Deeds are of supreme importance in this universe. Whatever a person does, he is punished or rewarded accordingly. In this world, no one can give sorrow or joy to another. Everyone experiences the fruits of their own deeds.)
Virtuous deeds yield good fruit while sinful deed yield foul ones. Sins are of three kinds — sin by deed, word and sin by thought. Murder, stealing, adultery are sins by deed whereas telling a lie, speaking ill of others etc are sins by words. Conspiracies, finding fault with the virtuous people, false judgment of others etc are sins committed by thought or mind. Once a person commits any of these sins, he is causing problem to himself as well as others.
Karmaphal, the Markandheyapurana, says that a thorn causes pain at one point only, whereas the fruit emerging from sin keeps pricking both the body and mind constantly. Parashara Smriti warns us against concealing a sin. If it is not regretted and made amends for, its effect will keep haunting you for seven births. The sin committed should be confessed through a religious ceremony.
Lord Krishna helped Draupadi when she was publicly insulted in Duryodhana’s assembly. This help was, in fact, the reward for Draupadi’s one of the kind acts of helping a saint in the past. A saint’s clothes were washed away while he was taking bath in a river. Draupadi tore a piece of her own sari and gave it to the saint. The silent blessings of the saint later caused Lord Krishna to act when Draupadi was being publicly disrobed by the Kauravas. Her own karmaphal came to her rescue — Krishna was just a medium of its execution.
In the Brahmavaivartapurana, there is a shloka on the effect of karma.
“Namuktam ksheeyate karma kalpakoti satairapi
Avasyameva bhoktavyam kritam karma subhasubham”
(The effects of one’s karma do not wear out even aeons after a deed is done. Good or bad, one experiences its consequences.)
Dr Venganoor Balakrishnan is the author of Thaliyola, a book on Hindu beliefs and rituals
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