This book is literally a reproduction of my thesis, for which I was awarded the doctorate degree by the University of Madras, in 2010. During my growing years as a teenager, one term which I often heard, i.e. karma, bothered me a lot. I found, the society consisted of people, some being very strong believers and some non-believers. That was because, I got to know, that the word karma was used in various contexts to provide various meanings. In Sanskrit, the word karma is spelt as karman to mean, work, action, deed, performance, religious rights (daily or routine, special or occasional, and for fruits desired) and religious duties performed as prescribed in the karma-kanda of the Vedas. It is also used to mean effect, fruits, object of an action, fate and consequence of actions performed earlier.
Listening to different acaryas, I understood that karma was classified as prarabdha, agamī and sancita. Another interesting concept was karma-phala (result accruing out of any action or karma). This principle of getting a result as a reaction to every action, though scientific, as mentioned by Newton in his "Third Law of Motion", should be considered pertinent when karma is used to mean action. If so, is the result immediate, then and there, or is it effective at a later date? Further, many questions arise here. When does the result come into effect and who decides as to what should be the result? What are the actions (karmas) that produce immediate results and what are the actions that produce delayed results? If the results are delayed, where and how is the original karma recorded and who decides on the appropriate result, as a consequence? If this law is true in all circumstances, what happens if a person performs a karma during the last moment before one's life comes to an end? When would that person have the effect of the karma performed and will he know that the result is because of his own earlier action? Can a commoner get convincing answers for these questions?
I found that there was no magic mantra to get to bottom of all these queries. One needed to understand the fundamental phenomenon governing this process. Perception (pratyaksa) and inference (anumana) are not enough to produce the answers. In the absence of answers through these two pramanas, one should depend on testimony like Sastra particularly the Sruti. Knowing that self-study of Sruti pramanas is not in the realm of, particularly the uninitiated, I decided to follow the conventional route, namely formal education either through academic or traditional (kālaksepa) study.
Vedas (1207)
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Goddess (510)
Bhakti (248)
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Shiva (383)
Journal (181)
Fiction (61)
Vedanta (372)
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