Карма в индуизме: принцип причины и следствия и цикл перерождений.

Concept of karma in Hinduism

Karma is a concept of Hinduism which describes a system in which beneficial effects are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful effects from past harmful actions, creating a system of actions and reactions throughout a soul's (jivatman's) reincarnated lives, forming a cycle of rebirth. The causality is said to apply not only to the material world but also to our thoughts, words, actions, and actions that others do under our instructions. For example, if one performs a good deed, something good will happen to them, and the same applies if one does a bad thing. In the Puranas, it is said that the lord of karma is represented by the planet Saturn, known as Shani. According to Vedanta thought, the most influential school of Hindu theology, the effects of karma are controlled by God (Isvara). Prarabdha karma is experienced through the present body and is only a part of sanchita karma, which is the sum of one's past karmas, whereas agami karma is the result of current decisions and actions.

The earliest appearance of the word "karma" is found in the Rigveda. The term karma also appears significantly in the Veda. According to Brahmanas, "as his creations is born to the world he has made" and one is placed in a balance in the other world for an estimate of one's good and evil deed. It also declares that as a man is 'constituted' by his desires, he is born in the other world concerning these. The earliest evidence of the term’s expansion into an ethical domain is provided in the Upanishads. In the Brhadaranyaka, which is the earliest of the Upanishads, the Vedic theologian Yajnavalkya expressed: “A man turns into something good by good action and into something bad by bad action.” The doctrine occurs here in the context of a discussion of the fate of the individual after death. The doctrine of transmigration of the soul, concerning fateful retribution for acts committed, appears in the Rig Veda (Mandala 1, Sukta 24, Mantra 2), with words like "saha na mahye aaditaye punar daath pitharam drisheyam matharam cha" (You must also know that one God to be a giver of rebirth, non else can do this work. It is he who gives birth to emancipated persons also through parents at the end of MahaKalpa.) The belief in rebirth is, suggests Radhakrishnan, evident in the Brāhmaṇas, where words like punar mrtyu (re death), punar asu (coming to life again) and punarajati (rebirth) are used to denote it. Radhakrishnan acknowledges that other scholars interpret certain punar mrtyu verses of Rigveda to be discussing "repeated deaths"; however, he suggests that it might also be re interpreted to imply rebirth, as in "come home once again". The topic of karma is mentioned in the Puranas.

Everything that we have ever thought, spoken, done or caused is karma, as is also that which we think, speak or do this very moment. Kriyamana is everything that we produce in our current life. All kriyamana karmas flow into sanchita karma and consequently shape our future. Only in human life, we can change our future destiny. After death, we lose Kriya Shakti (ability to act) and kriyamana (do) karma until we are born again in another human body. Some believe that only human beings who can distinguish right from wrong can do (kriyamana) karma. Therefore, animals and young children are considered incapable of creating new karma (and thus cannot affect their future destinies) as they are incapable of discriminating between right and wrong. Tulsidas, a Hindu saint, said: "Our destiny was shaped long before the body came into being." As long as the stock of sanchita karma lasts, a part of it continues to be taken out as prarabdha karma for being enjoyed in one lifetime, leading to the cycle of birth and death. A Jiva cannot attain moksha (liberation) from the cycle of birth and death, until the accumulated sanchita karmas are completely exhausted. Unkindness yields spoiled fruits, called pāpa, and good deeds bring forth sweet fruits, called punya. As one acts, so does one become: one becomes virtuous by virtuous action, and evil by evil action.

Several different views exist in Hinduism, some extant today and some historical, regarding the role of divine beings in controlling the effects of karma or the lack thereof.

According to the Markandeya Purana, Shani (Saturn) is described as the son of the Sun god, Surya, and his wife Chhaya (shadow). Saturn is characterized as cold and dry due to its internal core structure made of ice. Internally, he is considered pure. The Purana also states that Shani was entrusted with the role of the Lord of Karma and Justice by the Trimurti.

In Vedanta philosophy, the creator Ishvara rules over the world through the law of karma. The various schools of Vedanta hold that karma cannot function independently on its own. Instead they think that God (Isvara) is the dispenser of the fruit (phala) of karma. This idea is defended in the Brahmasutras, a major scriptural source for Vedanta. The Brahmasutras (3.2.38) state:<blockquote>The fruits of action (phalam) come from Him (The Lord, Isvara), since this is reasonable (upapatteḥ). In a commentary to Brahma Sutras (III, 2, 38, and 41), a Vedantic text, Adi Sankara, an Indian philosopher who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, a sub school of Vedanta, argues that the original karmic actions themselves cannot bring about the proper results at some future time; neither can super sensuous, non intelligent qualities like adrsta—an unseen force being the metaphysical link between work and its result—by themselves mediate the appropriate, justly deserved pleasure and pain. The fruits, according to him, then, must be administered through the action of a conscious agent, namely, a supreme being (Ishvara). Shankara (8th century) comments as follows:<blockquote>Karma is insentient and short lived, and cannot therefore be expected to bestow the fruits of actions at a future time according to one’s deserts. We do not see any insentient thing bestow fruits on those who worship it. Therefore it is only from the Lord, who is worshipped through actions, that their results proceed. Thus, God affects the person's environment, even to its atoms, and for those souls who reincarnate, produces the appropriate rebirth body, all in order that the person might have the karmically appropriate experiences. In his Sri Bhasya, Ramanuja's interpretation of the Brahma sutras from a Vaishnavite theistic view, Brahman, whom he conceives as Vishnu, arranges the diversity of creation in accordance with the different karma of individual souls. Unreliable source: date=December 2014

Ramanuja reiterates that inequality and diversity in the world are due to the fruits of karma of different souls and the omnipresent energy of the soul suffers pain or pleasure due to its karma. Unlike the Semitic religions, e. g., Abrahamic religions, which believe that God created the soul and the world out of 'nothing,’ Ramanuja believed that creation is an eternally recurring cyclic process; hence, God is free from the responsibility of starting it and causing the evils accruing from it. According to Ramanuja, all jivas are burdened with their load of Karma, which gives them only enjoyments and sufferings, but also desires and tendencies to act in particular ways; although the moral responsibility accrues only to the Jiva, as he acts according to the tendencies and deserts he has acquired by his karma, Ramanuja believes that God wills only their fructification.

Madhva, the founder of the Dvaita school, another sub school of Vedanta, on the other hand, believes that there must be a root cause for variations in karma even if karma is accepted as having no beginning and being the cause of the problem of evil. Since jivas have different kinds of karma, from good to bad, all must not have started with the same type of karma from the beginning of time. Thus, Madhva concludes that the jivas (souls) are not God's creation as in the Christian doctrine, but are rather entities co existent with Vishnu, although under His absolute control. Souls are thus dependent on Him in their pristine nature and in all transformations that they may undergo. Thus, God functions as the sanctioner or as the divine accountant, and accordingly jivas are free to work according to their innate nature and their accumulated karma, good and bad. Since God acts as the sanctioner, the ultimate power for everything comes from God and the jiva only utilizes that power, according to his/her innate nature. However, like Shankara's interpretation of the Brahma Sutras as mentioned earlier, Madhva, agrees that the rewards and punishments bestowed by God are regulated by Him in accordance with the good and sinful deeds performed by them, and He does so of out of His own will to keep himself firm in justice and he cannot be controlled in His actions by karma of human beings nor can He be accused of partiality or cruelty to anyone.

Sambandar of the Shaiva Siddhanta school, in the 7th century C. E., writes about karma in his outline of Shaivism. He explains the concept of karma in Hinduism by distinguishing it from that of Buddhism and Jainism, which do not require the existence of an external being like God. In their beliefs, just as a calf among a large number of cows can find its mother at suckling time, so also does karma find the specific individual it needs to attach to and come to fruition. However, theistic Hindus posit that karma, unlike the calf, is an unintelligent entity. Thus persons themselves perform good or evil actions according to their own inclinations as acquired in past creations, and in accordance with those deeds, a new creation is made for the fulfilment of the law of karma. Shaivas believe that there are cycles of creations in which souls gravitate to specific bodies in accordance with karma, which as an unintelligent object depends on the will of Siva alone.

Srikantha, another Saivite theologian and proponent of Siva Advaita, believes that individual souls themselves do things which may be regarded as the cause of their particular actions, or desisting from particular actions, in accordance with the nature of the fruition of their past deeds. Srikantha further believes that Siva only helps a person when he wishes to act in a particular way or to desist from a particular action. Regarding the view that karma produce their own effects directly, Srikantha holds that karma being without any intelligence cannot be expected to produce manifold effects through various births and various bodies; rather fruits of one's karma can be performed only by the will of God operating in consonance with man's free will, or as determined in later stages by man's own karma so the prints of all karma are distributed in the proper order by the grace of God Shiva.

In Chapter 1 of 10th book of the Bhagavata Purana, Vasudeva, the father of Krishna, exhorts Kamsa to refrain from killing his wife, Devaki, the mother of Krishna, by stating that death is certain for those who are born and when the body returns to the five elements, the soul leaves the body and helplessly obtains another form in accordance with the laws of karma, citing passages from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, IV:4:3. Moreover, he adds and states that the soul materializes into an appropriate body whatever the state of the mind one remembers at the time of death; i. e., at the time of the death, the soul and its subtle body of mind, intelligence and ego, is projected into the womb of a creature, human or non human that can provide a gross body that is most suitable for the dominant state of the mind of the particular person at the time of death; note that this passage is similar in meaning as Bhagavad Gita, VIII, verse 6. Other names of Vishnu alluding to this nature of God are Bhavanah, the 32nd name, Vidhata, the 44th name, Apramattah, the 325th name, Sthanadah, the 387th name and Srivibhavanah, the 609th name. Bhavanah, according to Sankara's interpretation, means "One who generates the fruits of Karmas of all Jivas (souls) for them to enjoy." The Brahma Sutra (3.2.28) "Phalmatah upapatteh" speaks of the Lord's function as the bestower of the fruits of all actions of the jivas. God created the law of karma, and God will not violate it. God does, however, give courage and strength if asked.

In Hinduism, more particularly the Dharmaśāstras, Karma is a principle in which "cause and effect are as inseparably linked in the moral sphere as assumed in the physical sphere by science. A good action has its reward and a bad action leads to retribution. If the bad actions do not yield their consequences in this life, the soul begins another existence and in the new environment undergoes suffering for its past deeds". Thus it is important to understand that karma does not go away; one must either reap the benefits or suffer the consequences of his past actions. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states, "According as a man acts and according as he believes so will he be; a man of meritorious acts will be meritorious, a man of evil deeds sinful. He becomes pure by pure deeds and evil by evil deeds. And here they say that person consists of desires. And as is his desire so is his will; and as is his will, so is his deed; and whatever deeds he does that he will reap". The doctrine of karma dates from ancient times and besides the above author is mentioned in the Gautama dharma sutra, Shatapatha Brahmana, Kathaaka grey sutra, Chandogya Upanishad, Markandeya Purana , and many others. The shastras written about karma go into some detail about possible consequences of karma. There is often talk about coming back as a variety of different objects when it comes to reincarnation and pasts lives. In this case, it holds true, or at least insofar as the texts state. The Kathaaka grhya sutra states, "some human beings enter the womb in order to have an embodied existence; others go into inorganic matter (the stump of a tree and the like) according to their deeds and according to their knowledge". More extensively discussed is the consequences of karma in relation to sin. "Karmavipaka means the ripening (or fruition) of evil actions or sins. This fruition takes three forms, as stated in the Yogasutra II. 3, i. e., jati (birth as a worm or animal), ayuh (life i. e. living for a short period such as five or ten years) and bhoga (experiencing the torments of Hell".

In Vedantic literature, there is an analogy. The bowman has already sent an arrow and it has left his hands. He cannot recall it. He is about to shoot another arrow. The bundle of arrows in the quiver on his back is the sanchita; the arrow he has shot is prarabdha; and the arrow which he is about to shoot from his bow is agami. Of these, he has perfect control over the sanchita and the agami/Kriyamana, but he must surely work out his prarabdha. The past which has begun to take effect he has to experience. There is another analogy also. The granary represents the sanchita karma; that portion taken from the granary and put in the shop for future daily sale corresponds to agami; that which is sold daily represents prarabdha.

According to Swami Mukundananda's interpretation of Gita, Chapter 18, verse 63, he states that "[t]his free will to choose between available alternatives has been given to the soul by God. The freedom of choice is not infinite. One cannot decide, “I choose to be the most intelligent person in the world.” Our choices are limited by our past and present karmas. However, we do possess a certain amount of free will, for we are not machines in the hands of God. Sometimes people question that if God had not given us free will then we would not have done any evil. But then we would not have done anything good either. The opportunity to do good always comes with the danger of doing evil. More importantly, God wants us to love him, and love is only possible when there is a choice. A machine cannot love for it does not have any freedom of choice. God created us with free will and provided us with choices so that we may choose him and thereby exercise our love for him. Even the all powerful God cannot force the soul to love and surrender to him; this decision has to be made by the soul itself. Here, Shree Krishna is calling Arjun’s attention to his free will and asking him to choose."

According to a theistic view, the effects of one's bad karma may be mitigated. Examples of how bad karma can be mitigated include the following virtue, or living virtuously; performing good deeds, such as helping others; yoga, or worshiping God to receive grace; and conducting pilgrimages to sacred places, such as or to get the grace of God. In another example, Ganesha can unweave his devotees from their karma, simplifying and purifying their lives, but this only happens after they have established a personal relationship with Him.

Shvetashvatara Upanishad 7 and 12 aver that the doer of the deeds wanders about and obtains rebirth according to his deeds but postulates an omnipotent creator, i. e., Isvara and the doctrine of grace. Isvara is the great refuge of all and a person attains immortality when blessed by Isvara or at Isvara's pleasure.

According to Charles Keyes and Valentine Daniel, many Hindus believe that heavenly bodies, including the planets, have an influence throughout the life of a human being, and these planetary influences are the "fruit of karma." The Navagraha and planetary deities, including Shani (Saturn), are considered subordinate to Ishvara (i. e., the Supreme Being) and are believed by many to assist in the administration of justice.

Other uses include such expressions such as "ugra karma", meaning bitter, unwholesome labor.