Have you ever wondered why good people face bad things? Why do we experience suffering? Why somebody is rich and somebody is poor? And if there is a God, why does He seem silent about it? The answer to these questions lies in karma. In literal terms “karma” means “activity”. The quality of our life, encompassing factors like health, wealth, intelligence, physical appearance, and inclinations, is the result of our past karma, actions. Basically, our good or bad actions determine our good or bad future. Our present life is affected by our actions taken in previous lives, and our future existence will be determined by the actions we perform in present life and how we deal with situations in present life.
Law of Karma
The law of karma states that every action has a reaction and whatever we do to others will later return to us. The karmic reactions of our actions may not be immediate. But, they are always stored in our hearts and unfold in due course.
The law of karma locks us into an endless cycle. Each action leads to a reaction which in turn leads to another action, and so on. This increases the chain of material activities, keeping the performer in material bondage. And each lifetime in a material body means unavoidable miseries, such as diseases, old age and death.
However, there is a method to liberate oneself from the consequences of karma, which is through transcendental knowledge and its application. By diligently practicing spirituality, one can gradually break free from the cycle of karmic reactions and attain the spiritual world for eternal life of knowledge and bliss.
Types of Karma
The Bhagavad Gita defines three Types of karma
1.Karma: Actions which Elevate
2.Vikarma: Actions which Degrade
3.Akarma: Actions which create neither good nor bad reactions and thus lead to liberation.
1. Karma
Karma is those activities that scriptures prescribe. Good deeds like social work, helping someone, donations etc. all comes under this category. These activities benefit us in the future.
2. Vikarma
Vikarma refers to the actions that are considered negative or bad. When one’s Vikarma account is high it takes the person down to the lower forms of life. As per Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.17.38) the four main vikarma activities are intoxication, meat-eating, gambling and illicit sex. These four lead to severe karmic reactions, which come both in future and in present lives. In this life, illicit sex leads to a variety of diseases; meat-eating leads to heart problems, cancer and other diseases; gambling causes people to lose their self-control and eventually everything else. Intoxication, which people think is very enjoyable, is actually a ritual of self-torture. Under the spell of intoxicants, people act in ways that cause them to lose their self-respect, their bank balance, their families and sometimes even their lives.
3. Akarma
Akarma, which translates literally as “no activity” doesn’t mean inactivity, but activity that brings no reaction, activity that frees us from the cycle of birth and death and takes us to spiritual world.
As Krishna explains in Bhagvad Gita, a wise person knows how there can be action in inaction and inaction in action.
“One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities.” (Bhagavad Gita 4.18)
What are those activities which bring no karmic reactions?
Lord Krishna says in Bhagvad Gita “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer and give away, and whatever austerities you perform- do that as an offering unto Me. In this way you will be freed from bondage to work and its auspicious and inauspicious results. With your mind fixed on Me in this principle of renunciation, you will be liberated and come to Me.” (Bhagavad Gita 9.27-28)
In this passage, Lord Krishna instructs Arjun to perform all actions as an offering to him because when we work for Krishna there is no karmic reaction generated by that work and if we eat food that have prepared with love and devotion and offered to Krishna that food becomes sanctified and spiritually charged therefore does not generate any karmic reaction. Such activities clear the mirror of the mind and the person gradually makes progress in spiritual realization.
Conclusion
Vikarma is those activities that the scriptures ask not to be done and karma is those activities that scriptures prescribe. In both cases we get the reaction to our sinful or pious activities for which we have to be born in this material world again and again to suffer or enjoy. Akarma is what the wise prefer. Those who are engaged in devotional service to the Lord, in the more mature stages, are working, but without future consequences. Their action is karma-free.
Karma FAQs
1. How long good karma last?
Consider having a bank account where you keep spending without checking the balance. Eventually, you find yourself in trouble when the funds run dry. That’s what happens with good karma. If you’re not continuously accumulating good karma, one day your good karma will run out.
In the material world, everything, whether good or bad, is temporary and eventually comes to an end. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita (5.22)
The pleasures which are due to contact with the material senses are sources of misery. O son of Kunti such pleasures have a beginning and an end, and so the wise man does not delight in them.
2. How can we get out from the bondage of Karma?
In this material world we are bound by the laws of Karma. It is the fundamental mechanism of our existence. However, there is a way out. In the human form we can acquire transcendental knowledge and through the practice of it we can attain spiritual realization. By this way, we will be released from the bondage of karma and further rounds of birth and death. This is considered to be the most important achievement one can accomplish in life. This is why Vedic Scriptures encourage people who want freedom from earthly existence not to hanker for material attachments or sensual enjoyments which bind them to this world, but to work towards what can free them from the bondage of karma and further cycles of birth and death.