Re Vl-IV: Chapter 10 - Krishna

[Robin Landseadel]

	From: "Understanding the role of Karma in Hinduism"
	by V. Kumar

	THE ORIGIN OF KARMA

	The philosophy of 'Karma' originated in ancient India, as a
	sermon of KRISHNA, considered to be an incarnation of the
	almighty god. It all happened a few thousand years ago, in the
	battle of KURUKSHETRA, when Arjuna, a famous warrior and
	friend of Krishna refused to take arms against his brethren on
	the ground that he was not ready to kill his relatives for any
	wealth in this world. On seeing this great warrior losing his
	strength in the confusion between what is wrong and what is
	correct, his friend and guide, Krishna gave him a lecture that
	was penned down by the famous poet Ved Vyas in what is
	today the largest ever epic written in human history. Titled
	'Mahabharata', this epic consists of over 100,000 couplets in
	Sanskrit. The lecture itself, a small part of this epic, is called
	'Bhagvadgeeta' or 'Geeta' in short.

	What Krishna told, came to be known as the 'philosophy of
	karma', and has been the backbone of all schools of thoughts
	pertaining to Hinduism and Buddhism ever since. This mother
	of all philosophies, Bhagvadgeeta, retains a very important
	place in the large volume of Indian mythology and mystical
	philosophies.

	KARMA - THE ACTION vs. THE DESTINY

	Krishna told the great warrior 'Arjun' that it was his duty to fight,
	not because he was greedy and wanted to gain power or
	wealth, but because having committed himself to being a
	warrior and having given himself to the principles a warrior
	must follow, fighting this war was his 'karma' now, from which he
	could not escape, even if fighting against his relatives was
	unpleasant. Going against his 'karma' would lead him to worse,
	Krishna told Arjun, because it will make him responsible for the
	death of all those who have joined him in the belief that he will
	fight with them, and it will also lead to despise and insult from
	his opposition who will only laugh at him as a coward.

	Since Arjun was not ready take the blame of death of his
	relatives on his head, Krishna told him something that is the
	essence of 'karma'. He said that the people he will fight in this
	war will not be killed by him, but by their own karma. Then
	Krishna went on to tell him that even while killing them, he will
	only be acting a 'means' in the fulfilment of the destiny of those
	persons, whose karma has destined them to die in this battle.
	One who sins will get punished and he will be punished
	because of his own sins, not because of the person who inflicts
	the death blow.

	Just like bad karma brings disaster, good and pious karma
	brings glory and fulfilment. That is a law of nature. The
	philosophy of karma suggests that the result of all karma may
	not be completed in this life only. Hinduism believes in life as a
	cycle that every human soul goes through till it acieves
	MOKSHA, or salvation - the process of getting merged with the
	almighty Lord. The karma of one life can have a positive or
	negative impact on the subsequent lives too.

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