In the earlier chapters we saw, how The Law of Karma appears to be on an universal scale. We also understood the 3 super-imposed layers - MAHAT (where souls are embedded), Sukshma layer (the 3D-spatial-canvas that holds the ghost bodies of living beings) and the Sthula layer (the 3D-spatial-canvas that holds gross bodies of living beings).
I also liberally assumed that MAHAT may be the embodiment of dark matters and dark energies in which souls are embedded. Thus the composite structure held in position by MAHAT (with souls), is seen to have the sthula Prakruthi and sukshma Prakruthi as stages and the related sukshma bodies and sthula bodies as actors.
The actions of gross bodies(and therefore ghost bodies) will have an imprint on the soul in an outside to inside manner. The imprints of past actions of the soul will also have an force on the gross body of the soul in an inside to outside manner.
One of the definition of Karma is as follows :
Karma is the sum of a person's actions in current and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in current and future existences.
Some of the ideas related to karma are -
The Karma generated by the actions of the souls is stored for release later.
The Karma can be generated by the individual(e.g. act of ploughing in the field) or a group (e.g a country going to war) or from a part of Prakruthi itself (e.g. like star formations)
The stored Karma can be released later and it can enforce the kind of skin/stage that an individual will acquire.(e.g. the soul is now a cow in the planet Earth)
The stored Karma can be released during the journey of the soul and thus affecting his choices in the life (e.g. will he become rich or will he lose a limb etc.,)
The stored Karma can be released to form a new group and set its direction (e.g. birth of a country)
The stored Karma can be released to erase a group (skins/stages) (e.g. mass extinctions on planet earth).
What appears to be sacrosanct is the finality of the Law of Karma - no actions go without repercussions - as you sow, so shall you reap !
We may not know the intricacies of how the Karma of a soul is stored. But it is interesting to imagine how the dark matter, dark energy and Karma interact and produce and effect upon a soul/souls or a group.
The reverse is also interesting to imagine -how the actions of the soul travels to inside layers and produce an effect on the Karma of the soul and the dark matters and dark energies immediately surrounding the soul effecting some kind of storage (Karma as potential karmic energy).
It appears as if, the souls bounce as nodes in a lattice diagram in a sea of dark matter/dark energy called MAHAT whose intelligence (from the great divine energy) governs the law of Karma.
There is a term in Sanskrit called - ADHRSTA describing the law of Karma (Wiki: The Sanskrit term, Adrishta (Sanskrit: अदृष्ट) or Adhrsta, as an adjective means - not seen, unseen, unobserved, unforeseen, unknown, invisible, unexpected, not experienced, destiny, fate, luck, not permitted or sanctioned, illegal, virtue or vice as the eventual cause of pleasure or pain.). Thus anybody is free to assume a model of their own at this inner layer and wait for the blessing of the divine energy for their eureka moment !
A Karma can generate a result which can be good (green colored arrows in the below diagram) or which can be bad (red colored arrows in the below diagram).
If you do an action - without expecting to partake of the result, then such actions will not generate Karmic loads (e.g. a soldier going to war and killing an opponent as it is his duty as imposed by the country (as a group))
The types of Karma is given in the below diagram:
Some further clarifications on Karma are taken from the references mentioned in the bibliography section of this article.
Karma can be classified into 2 types in a broad sense.
We can consider the different types of Karma and visualize it as the journey of a set of arrows taken from a quiver and shot at its target. The difference in this allegory is that, the maker of the arrows, and the receiver of the arrows is the same soul. The launcher is the Law of Karma at its own time of determination. !!
Since we firmly believe that 'Justice delayed is justice denied' , as much bad karmas (from past lives or current life) as possible should be set on a wrongful/erroneous/criminal person by the law of karma in his/her current life, and the corresponding punishment should manifest swiftly for him/her, to reinforce the faith of the good people of this universe.
Anarabdha Karma
Anaradbha Karma is akin to results of Karmas - those which have not yet begun to bear fruit. Again this can be of 2 types.
Sanchita Karma
This is akin to the arrows waiting in the quiver.
When the Law of Karma considers setting a soul in a stage/skin, it probably may consider all the large karmic loads (green and red) into one bundle to set the skin/stage for the soul and give it an directional indicative push called fate/destiny (and also it is a 'cow' and not 'horse'). It is possible that there may be some unspent karmic load of the soul from the past that is not yet relieved in the current/new journey of the soul. These are still in storage and will be used in the next cycle of life-death of the soul.
Or in case of any breakthroughs in the journey of the soul in the current life, these unspent Karma may take effect in the current life itself.
What we can only feel awe at is the infinite scope of evaluations done by this great divine energy on countless souls in various skins/stages without making any accounting mistake in packaging the Karmic load ! So, if our suffering is seen endless, we can hope that all our negative Karmas of the past is being vacated and by doing good in thought and deed, we can improve our life and remove the sufferings ! That is why we have to strongly advice/counsel, those who have suicidal thoughts , to remove that self harming thoughts and think positive. I believe that if a soul commits suicide it is only pushing the sufferings to the next skin/stage in some form instead of exhausting it with a positive outlook. Besides, one of the best skins to have is the human form, in which (with the help of its intelligence), one is expected to remove big negative loads of Karma effortlessly (e.g by prayers). It is prudent to imagine that the Karmic effect can be felt as short-time/high-magnitude impact or as a long-time/less-magnitude impact. Thus, it is safe to assume that, your free will, aided by good thoughts and deeds, can deflect/attenuate high impact negative karmas in a variety of ways.
We also considered the role of free-will over the fate in our earlier articles(s).
Sanciyamana Karma
This is akin to the arrows in the making.
Sometimes, by the efforts of free will ,these arrows can be expected to not only be completed but also set in its path immediately. (to take care of the problems like - 'Justice delayed is justice denied')
One should make sure that we collect/make more green arrows and no red arrows in the soul's journey !
These are the Karmas in making in the current life as we do our duties as guided by our free will and intelligence. This is where our focus should be to be in pursuit of excellence and becoming a gentler and caring soul.
2. Prarabdha Karma
This is akin to the arrows in the flight.
Thus this arrow cannot be recalled (as we are born already !). We can only hope to make it useful.
We saw how the infinite and divine energy resolves the karmic load of a human form or a blade of grass or any other of the countless souls as the souls pursue the excellence path. There is saying in a Tamil literature that - It is extremely rare to be born in a human form. Even rare is to be born without any bodily defects ! Fortunately we are blessed with this human form and thus we should strive our best to get out of the life-death cycle using our free-will guided by our intelligence and good heart. We should be afraid of causing harm to anybody in mind or in deed.
We have an indicative destiny which is being course corrected by our free will. Aided by our good deeds, thus we may be able to remove most of our past negative Karmas in this journey and aim to accumulate good Karmas that will relieve us from the cycle of life and death.
Bibliography:
1. Satishchandra Chatterjee & Dhirendranath Datta , An Introduction to Indian Philosophy (Rupa Publications 2016)
2. Pandit Rajmani Tigunait , From Death to Birth, Understanding Karma and Reincarnation (Himalayan Institute Press)
Hari Om!