By: Krishan Lal, Advocate

Death is only a special kind of variation. It is a mere dissolution of the elements of which the mortal coil is composed. The real man, the soul, never dies.

He Jivas  when embodied (embodied souls) are subject to the Law of Karma or the Law of Causation. All beings must reap the consequences of their actions. No action goes in vain. No effort is lost. As one sows, so one reaps.

Our actions are our only property, out only title deeds of which we can not be disinherited.

Consequent on death, when the soul gets liberated from embodiment, it does not travel alone to the beyond. It is not correct to imagine that it carries nothing out of the world. Our actions follow and accompany it beyond the grave.

Karma  is aggregate of our acts, both in the present life and in the preceding births. It covers our present, out past and out future.

Actions have full weight in the balance of eternity. The balance sheet of good and bad actions determines the destiny in the life to come. Destiny is thus the net product or effect of the actions in the previous birth. It forms only one limb of the Law of Karma.

Man is what he is because of his past actions. His present status is caused by his past. If he has lived a life of dignity, purity and nobility, he will reflect these virtues. But if his conduct had been vicious and immoral, he will project these vices.

Conceding that man is the product of his past actions, called Karma, it does not mean that he is a helpless victim of his destiny over which he has no control. Such thinking will make the Law of Karma an inert philosophy.

If it were so, there will be no new action which will determine the future destiny, and man will be no better than other living creatures who are blindly yoked to the destiny to live a life of ‘Bhog Jeuni’, run-of-the-mill existence, meekly put up with and perforce, insensibly (lacking-Chetanta) and passively bear all that is meant for them .

The Law of Karma, on the other hand, is a vital force that gives man the faculty and spirit of dynamic thinking to achieve the aims of human existence. Unlike other creatures, he is gifted with the highest intelligence, ability, reason, wisdom and will-power to act in exercise of his judicious discretion and measure up to the challenge of destiny. As such, he is rightly acclaimed as "Ashraf-ul-Mulhlukat" (highest being of God’s creation).

Man has the capacity to choose his actions. He has the faculty to discriminate (Vikeka) between right and wrong and adopt the path of his choice. Through self-effort (Purshartha), he is in a position to contain, modify or change the influence of destiny, the effect of his past actions. Right thought and right action can reduce and disarm the effect of destiny. The freedom to modify the past and create a future, good or bad, better or worse, lies on man’s self-effort.

What man meets in life is destiny; how he meets it through self-effort becomes Karma. This leads us to understand that man can act to shape his future by regulating and channeling his self-effect in right or wrong directions. Time spent in the company of wise and noble leaves an edifying impact on man’s thought-force: he is more than likely to reflect similar virtues in practical life. On the other hand, a person who seeks and keeps company of the vicious is bound to be influenced by evil tendencies. it is up to the man himself to opt and decide upon the course he likes to adopt. Man has the liberty to engage himself in self-effort, which, in turn, helps him to make or mar his destiny. In other words, destiny is of man’s own making.

The self-effort of today, becomes the destiny of tomorrow. Man’s duty is to act and perform true actions by resolutely turning the mind away from antagonistic forces. Destiny yields to consistent application of self-effort. But man has got to develop a new judicious vision, undaunted spirit, strong determination, unbending will-power which equip him with integrity, character and right thoughts that materialise into right actions. It is not proper to grumble that Karma has brought about all this and that. Virtuous deeds of past life do help do help to be born in/foster good environment in the present life. Exert and concentrate on self-effort and change the unfavourable into favourable possibilities.

The wise and the noble have ever emphatically exhorted human beings to be good and do noble deeds. This presupposes their faith in the capacity of human spirit to act and perform righteously irrespective of what the destiny provides.

Man has got to pay for all his deeds. This explains why a person, leading a noble and chaste life for years, is suddenly punished for something he did earlier, though he may be ignorant of his crime. But his ignorance cannot prevent the operation of the Law of Karma.

Relevantly, it may be asked to why spiritually rich holy men, seemingly from worldly point of view, meet with hardships at the hands of destiny and even sacrifice their lives for the good of mankind. Such exceptional holy luminaries appear on the earth as trusted apostles of God Formless and appointed to willingly carry out and cheerfully fulfil His Mission to lighten the burden of the ailing humanity and to show light to the ignorant stumblers with their voluntary spirit of submission, self-effacement and humility. They serve as light-houses to guide human beings groping in the prevailing darkness. And possibly there may have been some causes too in the past of which even the spiritually advanced have no knowledge but have shaped the present state.

The Law of Karma  is governed by cause and effect . The effects experienced in the present must have had their cause in the past life, and the causes of the present shall become the effects of the future.

The Law of Destiny refers only to our past actions making man its victim. But the Law of Karma infuses the spirit of action, the urge to work and progress by focussing attention on a better future through self-effort. It is a basic formula for right and purposeful living. Man should,however,remain warned that his duty is to act but the consequences of action are beyond his reach, control and competency. Fruit of action is entirely in the hand of Paramount Adjudicator, Supreme Rewarder and Sole Benefactor.

"Thou hast a right to action or work alone, and never to its fruits; let not the fruit of work be thy motive, let not thy attachment be to inaction."

(Gita 2:47)