By Nikhil Gangoli
The topic of this article is the concept of Karma, which iscommon to most Eastern Philosophies be it Hinduism or Buddhism.
It is said that in the second watch of the night when the Buddhaattained enlightenment he gained a different kind of knowledge,which complemented his knowledge of rebirth The Law of Karma.
Karma is mistaken in the West as a doctrine of Fate orPredestination. It is not so. The word Karma literally meansaction and the Law of Karma is the infallible law of cause andeffect, which governs the Universe.
The doctrine of Karma has many implications as to how we maylead our lives. In the first place it means that all our actionswill lead to its natural consequence. We may not know what theconsequence will be and in fact it may be delayed for manylengths of time but the consequence will follow inevitably. InTibetan Buddhism the inevitable retribution, which however isnot obvious, is compared to the shadow of a kite or an eagle asit searches for its prey. When the eagle is high in the sky itsshadow is not to be seen. However when the eagle swoops to theground to catch hold of its prey the menacing shadow appears.Similarly we are not aware of the consequences of our actionsfor most part but they will appear just as the shadow of theeagle suddenly appears.
The law of Karma is not confined to individuals there isfamily karma, national karma, International Karma, the Karma ofa city. All these are mixed with the Karma of the Individual,and thus it happens that people lives are influenced by eventscompletely beyond their control. All these Karma's areinter-related and can be understood in its full complexity onlyby an enlightened being.
The law of Karma gives us guidance as to how we may lead ourlives. When misfortune strikes we know that it will not lastforever but will pass in time. And we now know through the lawof Karma that these are consequences, which have inevitablyfollowed from our past actions. The attitude to have whendifficulties befall us is this That this, which is happening,is the coming to fruition of our past Karma. We do not see thesuffering as a punishment- or do we blame ourselves and indulgein self-hatred. Tibetans say that suffering is the broom, whichsweeps away our negative karma. We can even be grateful that onekarma is coming to an end.
Eastern philosophy is full of stories of how bandits andmurderers have overcome their bad karma and gone on to become monks and even saints. Angulimala is an example. He had killed999 people in his previous life as a bandit. But he was won overby the Buddha and went on to become a monk and a sage. Similarlyin Tibetan Buddhism the story is told of Milarepa. He was asorcerer who killed many people with his black magic for revengeor profit. Yet through his remorse and hardships and penancesthat he underwent he went on to become to become enlightened afigure of inspiration to millions.
These are some brief remarks about Karma.
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