DESTINY AND KARMA

DESTINY AND KARMA

The will and grace of God is absolutely essential for the success of any endeavor of man! But the will of God is governed by your Karma or action, good or bad. Hence to that extent God is inhibited from granting results! Providence cannot provide results independent of the individual Karma! Bhartruhari, therefore points out that it is destiny that directs all Devas! This Destiny is dependent on Karma! The vicissitudes people experience in samsara are purely the result of their own karma in their previous births! The poet questions why one should praise and worship God and other Devas who cannot grant desires independently! Let us worship Karma as even God cannot violate it. In short Bhartruhari says that God grants requests of people according to their individual karma-- good and bad deeds!

What made Brahma work tirelessly like a potter and create the universe and all that inhabit it? Why should Lord Vishnu come down to earth in his ten avatars and suffer? Why should Lord Siva beg with a skull in his hand? Why should the Sun speed in the sky without respite even for a second? It is all because of their Karma! Bhartruhari offers his salutations to the omnipotent  Karma! Good karma can turn the bad into the good; the foolish and the stupid into scholars; enemies into well-wishers and reveal what is  hidden! It can even transform the deadly poison,  “Halahala” into  “amrita” or nectar! There is no point in following other paths to attain one’s desires! Devote yourself to performing good karma! It is entirely because of man’s previous good karma that he enjoys palatial residence, luxurious life, company of beautiful damsels and even kingdoms and unassailable​ power! The moment the effect of that good karma is over, all the objects of his enjoyment are shattered in different directions like the pearls from the garland whose thread has given way!

What is it that bears fruit in the life of man? Bhartruhari says that it is not his beauty or birth in a noble family; nor is it his good nature or his scholarship in the Vedas or his service under the king. It is the karma or penance done in the previous birth that fructifies like a tree at the opportune moment! Whatever man attempts to achieve, he is destined to get that if only he is eligible for it through his past karma! He may drown himself in water but he will not die! He may do business but he will not prosper!  Whatever is not destined shall not happen!

An individual having ‘purva punya', will come out unscathed from all his difficulties and dangers because of previous karma! He may be stranded in the dense forest or he may be involved in war, or caught among his bitter enemies or surrounded by water or fire or in the midst of the ocean or on the top of a mountain or when asleep or careless, his good karma or 'purva punya’ saves him in one way or other! Evil cannot happen to such an individual! To such a person, the dense forest with wild beasts like the lion and the tiger, becomes a prosperous capital where he can enjoy! All people would like and love him and the land would yield dazzling diamonds and precious stones!

What Bhartruhari has described about destiny and karma is quite valid even today!  We find air crashes where hundreds of passengers die while miraculously a lone person survives! In accidents, the person dies as help arrives very late! Many observe, but nobody volunteers to save the person! On the other hand, in some cases, some good Samaritan immediately takes the victim of the accident to the hospital in time and a precious life is saved! There are many incidents like this in all fields of activity! Why should all die in a plane crash except the lone survivor? What made the eyewitness to take the accident victim to the hospital in time so that he could be saved? It is all the effect of their Destiny arising out of their previous good karma! None can escape their destiny. What is destined to happen shall surely happen! What is not destined shall never happen!