The ways of Karma

Welcome to the Karma series. In a series of blogs, I would try to brief on what Karma is as I understand it. This is the first post in the series. Hope you get something useful out of it. 

 The word Karma is more than popular in English language even though it doesn't have any linguistic background relevant to the word. "Karma" is a Sanskrit word (and so, obviously present in most of the Indian languages) which means "Action". Indian spiritual texts refer in their shlokas to the modern translation " One's life is one's Karma ". It means that a person's life is the way they make it. Be it joyous, depressed, or angry life or a cocktail of whatever proportions of each of them, it is still the making of the self. But, how can one make their own life miserable? Why would it* want to? 

*for the sake of gender neutrality, I refer to the person as 'it'

 It may seem pretty easy to accept that statement in circumstances where you make choices of your life like getting educated or getting married etc. But, when you are in situations where you would never want to be, you may wonder if that is your making at all. You may wonder if the death of your relative, a famine, or a pandemic like COVID-19 is still one’s own making. The situations may not. But how you respond to those situations is still your choice.

 Go carefully with the sentence… “Your life is your making” it is not referring to the making of the Situations* you are in. You can choose the way you want to live your life despite the external situations. You can choose to be conscious in making your decisions rather than going by emotions. External situations may not be controlled by an individual. But, the life… the way one wants to perform themselves, can absolutely be crafted in their own liking.  

*However, karma can also decide in what situation one would be, like, going to a movie of your favourite hero.

 How Karma works

 By Karma, I refer to all the actions performed both physically and mentally. Physical actions may include walking, eating, sleeping etc., while mental actions include every thought, conclusion, observation, emotion and everything related to the function of mind.

 Simplest cases of way of Karma are: You eat food you get nourished. You eat poison, you die. Which are very much visible to eyes and are all logically derivative.

 Some cases of higher levels of Karma are: You chose to be lazy and you may suffer from illness. You chose to study well and end up becoming a professor and so on. These are long term Karmic effects and are purely physical and are apparent. These effects can also be logically derived. But, the time gap between the Karma and effect is higher.

 Further moving, we can identify the ways of Karma in more complicated ways. To properly put forth the theory, I would use a real-life scenario.

 Assume a small boy of 10 years who is introduced to the TV for the first time. He happened to watch a cricket match. Assume that the sport mesmerized the kid. The kid will have performed a Karma of “thought”. A karma where he got a good impression on the Cricket sport. Starting that moment, the kid will start inclining towards Cricket. It would change the way the kid looks at a ball or a bat. He will develop a taste into cricket. He might or not end up becoming a cricketer depending on the Karma he performs thereafter. But it would influence the kid in every choice he makes. It would influence the kid with the dress choice, how he spends his time during the day, what he eats etc. 

  All through the process, he is unconsciously performing karma around the cricket. This could also determine the course of like for the kid. He may end up crying for the loss of a cricket match. In this scenario, the mood of the kid depends on how his favourite cricket team performs that day. It may end up buying a key chain for his cycle key that has an image of a cricketer.

 The scenario can be a completely opposite one if he develops hate towards the sport at his first sight. The situations will be even different if the kid had not watched the match at all in the first place. So, your likes and dislikes are shaped by the situations you encounter. That is not the absolute "you" as you might think.

There are still more complex ways Karma functions. All the conclusions that one makes in their life decides the course of their life. How one thinks currently is a result of all such Karmas. How one reacts to a situation is a reflection of Karma one makes. I urge you to make your own examples of this – How your own choices are dependent on the Karma from your past. The ways of karma are so complex that sometimes the effect cannot be identified at all. One may not even believe that they performed such karma. The way you eat, sleep or sit is all decided by karma. My own karma compelled me to write this blog in the first place. 

It also implies that you can, at any stage in your life, decide to act against your past Karma and be absolutely conscious of what you do. "One's life is one's making" is valid at any point in your life. So, try to be conscious and decide what karma you perform both physically and mentally to shape your future the way you want it.

 The question is: How much aware are you of your Karma and how conscious are you to bypass your past karma.

The next time you make any choice, just try to trace back to that karma that led you to this situation or decision. It will be fun and this way, you will be more conscious on what you do and how you respond. 

 So, this is a simple explanation of how karma works. Hope you understood the concept. Comment any contradictions or doubts.