Karma Vipaka - The result of our actions - A brief Introduction

As the title of this compilation says, Karma Vipaka means the results experienced by us on account of the actions that we performed, be it in this life or the past life. This compilation might throw some light on the problems that we are facing now both individually particular and also collectively in general owing to the present day life-style and social set-up. The awareness and appreciation of this subject might help us to choose our actions with more care and consideration. When I first read this I was both shocked and scared and after a thoughful consideration I began to accept this and appreciate its usefulness in understanding the dymanics of human interactions in general and our own actions in particular, more clearly and deeply. At at some point in my introspecion I could see the commom sense of this concept particularly if I looked at the various reasons given by the medical faternity of present age for various illnesses and ailments spoken of in this Karma Vipaka texts. The negative actions and the resulting diseases seemed directly connected and if one sees this in the light of the fact that these have been given at the time when the causes of diseases were not spoken of in terms as we do in this time and age.

Read on ….....

1. One Source says : Lurking in the shadows of the dazzling Vedas, Upanishads, epics and yoga sutras, is yet another gem of the rich Hindu scriptural tradition, Karma Vipaka Samhita (KVP). Unlike its awe-inspiring cousins, even a cursory reading of KVP can send a chill down your spine. The all-pervading law of karma that underpins all Eastern thought, takes centre stage here, chilling you with its implacable causality.

Not only does it state that all your diseases have their roots in your past life, but it also pinpoints the specific cause of each illness.

Sample These:• Dysentery: Forsaking a good wife who has no means of subsistence.• Dyspepsia: Stealing others’ food and eating beef.• Rakta pitta: Prescribing wrong medicines with bad intentions.• Jaundice: Stealing a devotee’s money.• Tuberculosis: Land-grabbing, eating meat, killing a Brahmin.• Asthma: Ingratitude and harming one who has helped in need.• Paralysis: Humiliating parents.• Heart disease: Seducing another’s wife and breaking hearts.• Diabetes: Seducing a virgin.

• Cancer: Union with a widow or widower.• Blood pressure: Union with a widow or widower.

You could be excused for dismissing this as rubbish. However, my study of yoga, meditation and alternative therapies have brought me close to this ultimate realization: all physical suffering is due to disconnecting from the Energy in thought and deed, and all natural therapies work by taking you back to the point from where you drifted or transgressed. Negative emotions such as anger, envy, lust, lack of forgiveness and hostility are the real killers, preparing, as KVP and modern consciousness research would both suggest, the karmic breeding ground for illnesses of all hues. Right living with moderation in whatever you do physically and mentally is the key, then, to avoiding today’s lifestyle diseases. KVP emphasizes as much, by suggesting specific acts of prayer, atonement and charity for a complete cure. – Sri Deepak Kashyap

There is not only a grim picture but also a rosy picture for us to consider and acions to choose from:-

2. The Vimnavatthu commentary of Dhammapala (AD 5th-6th Century) says: "By giving a seat (to a person) one gets a very high position, by bestowing food one secures health and wealth, by the gifts of clothes one acquires good complexion (varna) and property, the gift of conveyances procures for the giver special happiness and that of lights begets powers of vision, by giving a house one gets all sorts of property."

The causes of vipka are all types of actions, violence, non-violence, dna (charity), truthfulness etc.; they produce results in the form of the length of the life span (ayuh), caste status (varna), wealth (aisvarya) etc. These in turn are the results of fruition, vipdka-phala.

The Jainas made an elaborate classification of Karmas: they are of eight types: jnanayarnizya (obscuring knowledge), darsandvarnzya (obscuring right faith), mohan-ya( causing delusion), vedanzya( caus-ing pain or pleasure), ayuh (Karma which determine the life span in planes of existence, heaven, hell etc, on rebirth), nama Karma which determines individuality (species, body etc), gotra, the social status and antara-ya(w hich is a hindrance to doing good karma).

The Jainas also believed that the duration (sthiti) or the time for ripening and fruition and the period for which the Karmas remain dormant (abddhdka-la)ar e different for different classes of acts. Thus thejnadnavarnzyaka rmah ave a minimum time span of 48 mts (muhur-ta) and a maximum of 30 koddkodi sagaropamas (an extremely long period); the period of dormancy (abadhakala) is 30000 years.

'Good and bad actions are independent and do not balance against one another.'

'Two individuals who have done the same deed but with entirely different consequences: one who does some slight deed of wickedness (appamattakam)g oes to hell (nirayam);a nother in-dividual who does the same slight deed of wickedness and expiates it in present life (ttadi samyeva, which is to be experienced in this very life) treating it as serious, is saved from hell.'

'The Buddha explains this apparent disparity-inequality before law-on the basis of an analogy: a certain quantity of salt added to a cup of water makes that water undrinkable; but the same quantity of salt added to the waters of a big river like the Ganga will produce no effect on its drinkable quality.'

'Milinda explains that evil Karma has limited potentiality and therefore matures quickly whereas good Karma is vast (vipula) and matures in a long period of time: "Vice by its meanness dies quick-ly away. But virtue by reason of its grandeur, takes long time to die". Consequently whereas, generally speaking, both good and evil deeds fructify in subsequent lives of an individual, evil deeds may fructify in this life itself.'

. Veda Vyasa in his bhasya explains that Karmas ripen or become vipdka in this life itself due to intense austerities (tapas), concentration (dhyana) or devotion to the lord (Isvara). Again Karms ripen quickly in respect of evil results if a person treats another person with contempt, when he is terrorised, sick and wretched or is undergoing penance (tapas). Secondly Yogasutra iii. 22 refers to upakrama (ad-vancing, quickly maturing) and nirupakrama(n on-advancing, slowly.

Veda Vyasa specifically avers that "A single mass (samuhin) made of merit destroys evil (mass)".

"Just as an instrument is under the control of the blacksmith, likewise Karmas through the agency of Kala, Time, endow universe with life". – Mahabharatha

It would be evident from the above that Karma vipdka is depen-dent upon Kala and puru-sdratha;it is not automatic either in this life or in the life hereafter.

It would be abundantly clear that Karma vipdka was a very fluid, nay nebulous, concept.

No wonder that the Bhagavadgita IV. 17 proclaimed: gahan karmano gatih: the working of Karma is mysterious; Nyayavaisesikas called Karma as adrsta. Veda Vydsa in Yogabhsya , says that Karma is mysterious and not easily descernible;

From an article by: Sri. Y. KRISHAN