Hindu Karma and Fatalism(or not?)

Question 1

Sankara’s view of Karma

Answer 1

• Karma is simply an element of Prakriti, automatic but crucial

Question 2

Ramanujah’s view of Karma

Answer 2

• Will of God and eternal, like God

- Because God is great and has control over everything

Question 3

What does Karma literally mean?

Answer 3

• Action

Question 4

Difference between Karmas and Kriyas

Answer 4

• Karma is a completed action

- Kriya is an occuring action

Question 5

What happens when a Kriya becomes a Karma

Answer 5

• The act itself no longer exists as substance, but will manifest itself later as a consequence and creates an impression in the unconscious mind

Question 6

Why do Westerners misinterpret Karma?

Answer 6

• See it exclusively as negative, and see it purely as consequence
• Karma can be negative or positive, and Karma is the action first and foremost

Question 7

The Cycle of Karma

Answer 7

• Action–> Impression –> (Impression strengthens) –> Action

Question 8

Why is it fruitless to ponder the origins of Karma?

Answer 8

• The cycle of Karma is ‘beginingless’
• History dictates that no one has yet been born outside of the cycle. In being born, you are immediately initiating a chain of events
• The only way to know the origins of Karma are to access consciousness, where our Karma impressions are stored
• Better to focus on achieving this than to consider in other ways how Karma started

Question 9

Sanchita Karma

Answer 9

• Literally means ‘stored’ Karma
• Dormant Karma will become active once the conditions are right
• Liken Sanchita Karma to corn stored in a silo

Question 10

Prarabdha Karma

Answer 10

• Karmas that are producing ‘fruits’
• Like real fruits, their performance is dependent on the ‘climate’ and from the time they are ‘planted’ they therefore take on a life of their own

Question 11

What is the relationship between Prarabdha Karma and destiny?

Answer 11

• Prarabdha Karma is our destiny. We have acted, and the Prarabdha Karma are the fruits of our actions
• From the moment we act, we have no control over those fruits and we are destined to be impacted by them
• The only control we have is over what we do with the fruits:
  (i) Do we store them?
  (ii) Do we renounce them?

Question 12

Kriyamana Karma

Answer 12

• Potential Karmas, literally ‘Karmas yet to be performed’
• These Karmas are not yet fully formed, but the necessary structural elements are there
• Our circumstances in life may create Kriyamana Karmas. C.f. Nature

Question 13

Karma: The plant analogy

Answer 13

• Sanchita Karma is like the seed of a plant stored in a bag or silo. It will be planted when the time is right
• Prarabdha Karma is like the fruits produced when the seed is planted. Its growth depends on external conditions that we cannot control, but we created it and can decide what to do with it

Question 14

Why is the plant analogy for explaining Karma not entirely effective?

Answer 14

• Breaks down when one considers Kriyamana Karma
• Plants are entirely dependent on nature for growth, but we are not. Our circumstances (parentage, socioeconomic status, geographical location) effect our behaviour

Question 15

Archery analogy for explaining Karma

Answer 15

• Arrows have a purpose. The same reason for firing them compelled us to make them, meaning more will have to be made
• Kriyamana Karma are arrows not yet formed, though all the materials are present
• Sanchita Karma are arrows stored in the quiver
• Prarabdha Karma are arrows in flight
• Weapons can either be used or surrendered. History dictates that a weapon has never been made but not used

Question 16

Why might people not want to access their consciousness?

Answer 16

• May not want to face up to their Karma
• May be content to live under the illusion that everything is fine, but eventually your Karma/Destiny will catch up with you

Question 17

American Evangelical’s view on Karma in Hinduism

Answer 17

• “The idolatrous religion of Hinduism is a dismal and fatalistic philosophy…misguided believers in a benighted faith”

Question 18

Mahabharata as a case study on fatalism vs free will

Answer 18

• Duryodhana and Yudisthera are rival cousins who play a game of dice
• Yudisthera loses everything: his four brothers the Pandavas, himself, Draupadi (joint wife)…
• Dice is a game of chance, the outcome is beyond our control, this is a metaphor for fate
• All of them defy Dharma in one way or another, all who try to manipulate fate to their advantage, all who are tied up in Samsara, except Draupadi
• Draupadi is, in the short term, disadvantaged, but when she is dragged before the men of the court her clothes cannot be stripped from her

Question 19

Lipner on free will and muted fatalism

Answer 19

“dharma requires rationality, responsibility and free will. But the exercise of these criteria entails an awareness of and allowance for ‘cosmic’ forces beyond one’s control, represented by fate ‘daiva’

“fate protects those who attend to dharma, but sometimes at serious cost…this is fatalism at bay, not fatalism rampant”

Question 20

Klostermaier on Western misunderstanding of Karma

Answer 20

• “Karma is often understood as fate, especially by Westerners; they might also relate it to the Greek Moria”

Question 21

The Ajivikas: A case study in Hindu fatalism

Answer 21

• Makkhala Gosala (leader) advocated the doctrine of niyati (fate/destiny)
• this dictated every occurence and no human action could disrupt it
• Karma therefore seen as a fallacy
• Nivarna/Moksha only achieved after a number of lives automatically unwinding, the last being lived as an Akivika monk
• Coupled rigid determinism with asceticism. Fasting and living without clothes ect

Question 22

An advaita perspective on fate and free will/God’s omnipotence and free will

Answer 22

• All (Brahman, Prakriti, Atman) are one
• We have no individuality
• God either created the world or is the world, so we cannot act without his consent
• Under the influence of maya (illusion) we feel free to act and are responsible for our actions
• Because of this we become bound up in the cycle of births and deaths
• Only when we renounce this individuality and accept God as the real doer can we escape this cycle

Question 23

Hindu fatalism as an etic discourse -

Answer 23

• People so immersed in ideas of cycles of birth and death that they are unable to view it impartially
• People surrender themselves to inevitable life circumstances (born a Sudra, always a Sudra)

Question 24

Dharma as evidence of fatalism

Answer 24

• Dharma of humans to be humans, more specifically defined by varnashramadharma
• Humanity has duty to tackle the moral maze of dharma in prakriti
• The only way to advance spiritually is by adhering to dharma
• Therefore it is that person’s fate to do their duty or they are trapped

Question 25

God’s omnipotence and free will

Answer 25

• God is omnipotent and omniscient

- All we can do is surrender (prapatti) to God. C.f. Srivaishnavism

Question 26

Bhagvad Gita quote, Krishna to Arjuna (advocating fatalism)

Answer 26

” The Lord dwells in the hearts of all creatures and whirls them around the wheel of maya. Run to him for refuge with all your strength and peace profound will be yours through his grace”

Question 27

Bhagvad Gita on fatalism and the gunas

Answer 27

Gunas are darkness, energy and harmony (Tamas, Rajas, Sattva
“No creature, whether born on earth or among the gods in heaven, is free from the conditioning of the three gunas…social order [has its] roots in this conditioning (18:40)

Question 28

Ramanuja’s Srivaishnav school as evidence of free will

Answer 28

• God is creator, sustainer, destroyer
• Jivas are part of God
• Yet, worshippers are to find God their own way, through a combination of bhakti, jnana and karma yoga

Question 29

Vishishtadvaida as evidence of free will

Answer 29

• Rejects theory of maya, and says we suffer from avidya but that the world/ individual souls are truly real
• Our impact on the world is therefore free, but more importantly meaningful rather than simply giving us a false impression of individual freedom that traps us in the cycle of karma
• Undermines idea of Hinduism as a fatalistic religion