Karma - the Suffering that ends Suffering

By Kandasamy Arunachalam

In this book the author contends that Karma, though understood as a cause and effect phenomenon, is really a process of cleansing through suffering rather than simply a tally of rewards and punishments. The concept of Karma as having a beginning and an end, its link with consciousness, and the process of evolution are presented in detail. Finall

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kandasamy Publications
• Release date: Feb 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9780645016512

Book preview

Quotes

To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books.

Science is the search of ‘known’ and religion is the discovery of ‘unknown’. Science aims at widening the circumference of happiness through worldly environment while religion is to lose the individual identity in ‘unknown’. That is why science is multiple and religion is one. Science is progressive and religion is eternal.

Acharya Sri Rajneesh

There are two kinds of suffering: Suffering that leads to more suffering and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. If you are not willing to face the second kind of suffering, you will surely continue to experience the first.

Ajahn Chah – A Still Forest Pool

"There are many who regard philosophy as irrelevant to life. It is said that philosophy deals with the changeless universe of reality and life with the transitory world of process. This view received plausibility from the fact that, in the West, philosophic speculation originated in the city states of ancient Greece, where there were two classes of a wealthy and leisured aristocracy indulging in the luxury of philosophic speculation and a large slave population devoid of the pursuit of the fine and practical arts.

Marx’s criticism, that philosophers interpret the world while the real task is to change, it does not apply to the authors of the Orient, who give us not only a philosophical interpretation, but also a practical program. Our world is not a spectacle to contemplate; it is a field of battle.

Only the understanding of the Karmic Law leads to the improvement in the individual nature and social betterment".

Bertrand Russell – History of Western Philosophy

Karma is the path of return governed by the law of necessity".

Monk Khantipalo, quoted by R.S. Bucknell – The Twilight Language

Karma Definitions:

Agami Karma: That which will be performed by the individual in the future.

Kamya Karma: Those intended for securing some special ends. Works accompanied with a desire for fruits.

Karmaphalatyoga: Renunciation of fruit of action.

Karmasya: A reservoir of all the karmas.

Karmayoga: The yoga of the renunciation of the fruit of action.

Matkarma: Service of the Lord, puja or worship.

Naiskarmya: A state where one is not affected by Karma. It is not total withdrawal from work. It is a state in which due to the total renunciation of the fruits of action any further action does not involve any form of Karma.

Naimittika Karma: Those arising on the occurrence of some special events.

Nishidha Karma: Forbidden rites.

Nitya Karma: Obligatory duties performed prior to the dawn of perfect knowledge.

Prarabdha Karma: That which brought the present body into existence.

Pratishiddha Karma: Those which are forbidden.

Prayachitta Karma: Expiatory rites such as Upakarma.

Punya Karma: Good deeds.

Sakama Karma: Is attained by the path of the fathers.

Sanchita Karma: The vast store of accumulated works done in the past, the fruits of which have not yet been reaped.

Sariram Karma: Work required for the maintenance of the body.

The Questions

Karma is simply and literally action, or rather an effect-producing cause. However, it has a quite a different meaning in its far-fetching moral effects. Is it the unerring LAW OF RETRIBUTION or THE LAW OF EVOLUTION?

Does it stand to reason that there is only one existence, and that this one existence is governed by the simple equation of cause and effect, when, upon death, the individuality is dissolved and lost forever? The individual therefore becomes extinct.

Can the continuity of the existence of an individual through many births and deaths, be considered to be governed by Karmic law, in that, if there is cessation of action (Karma) there is cessation of births? Is the need for continuity prompted by unfulfilled desires? What is meant by cessation of action? Is it Non-Action, if so, what is Non-Action?

Is Karma the result of action or the cause of action? (Action here is qualified as volitional action or action with intent). Volitional acts becoming