The word Karma has become very popular in Russia lately: in the 1990s, S. N. Lazarev's book "Diagnostics of Karma" was published, followed by people who "cleanse karma," in general, the word karma is manipulated in different ways, giving it a very different meaning. But this word came from Sanskrit, so in order to understand this concept, I think it is worth turning to the Indian tradition.
I would like to draw the attention of readers that despite the fact that I turn to the writings of the Hindu Guru for an answer, the concept of karma is not a religious term, although it is used in religious teachings. Karma is a philosophical, metaphysical, and physical concept. Yes, it is physical, because karma is what any European knows as 3 Newton's law “the force of action is equal to the force of reaction”, it's just that the Eastern worldview is not as discrete as ours.
How do Hindus understand karma?
Karma literally means action, or deed, and more broadly - the universal principle of causation, action and response to it, which is the basis of our life. Karma is the natural law of consciousness, just as gravity is the law of matter.
Karma is not destiny, since a person acts with freedom of choice and creating his own destiny. The Vedas teach us that if we sow good, we will reap good; and if we sow evil, we will reap evil. Karma presupposes the totality of our actions and the corresponding reactions to these actions in the present and past lives, and all this predetermines our future. It is the interaction of experience and how we respond to it that makes karma either destructive or empowering. Overcoming karma requires intellectual action and a dispassionate response. Not all karma is overcome immediately. Some karmas accumulate and return unexpectedly in the present or in other births. There are several types of karma: personal, family, community, country, planet and universe karma.
The Vedas teach: “It is said that a person consists of desires. And what his desires are, so is his will. What is his will, so are his actions. And he will reap the actions that he does."
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Are there good and bad karma?
In the highest sense, there is no good or bad karma. Every experience provides opportunities for spiritual growth. Selfless action creates positive, uplifting conditions. Selfish actions create negative conditions and delusion.
Karma itself is neither good nor bad, it is a neutral principle that governs the energy and movement of thought, word and deed. Every experience helps our growth. Actions based on goodness and love give birth to love in us. Low, selfish actions bring us pain and suffering. Goodness produces sweet fruits called punya. Evil bears tainted fruits called pope. As we evolve over all lifetimes, we experience pain and joy. Actions that are in harmony with dharma help us on our path, while adharmic actions hinder our progress.
Divine law says: whatever karma we experience in our life at the moment, it is exactly what we need at the moment, and nothing can happen that we would not have the strength to resist. Even bad karma, if taken wisely, can be a powerful catalyst for spiritual development. By doing daily sadhana, associating with good people, making a pilgrimage to holy places, helping others in need, we release high energies, direct our consciousness to useful thoughts and avoid creating new karmas that can bring troubles.
The Vedas explain: “A person becomes as he acts. He becomes virtuous as a result of virtuous actions and bad as a result of bad deeds."
Karma is:
1) Any action or deed.
2) The principle of cause and effect.
3) The consequence or "fruit" of the action, which sooner or later returns to the acting. What we sow we will reap in this or future lives. Selfish or unkind actions (papakarma or kukarma) will bring suffering. Benevolent actions will return love.
Karma is a neutral and self-sustaining law of the inner cosmos, just as gravity is the impersonal law of the outer cosmos. Actually, gravity is a small, external manifestation of a more global law of karma.
Karma has three aspects: sanchita, prarabdha and kriyaman.
Sanchita Karma, “accumulated actions,” is the sum of all the karmas of this and past lives.
Prarabdha-karma, "actions begun," is that part of sanchita-karma that bears fruit and formalizes the events and conditions of our current life, including the nature of our bodies, personal inclinations and attachments.
Kriyama-karma, “doing now,” is the karma that is created and added to the sanchita in this life by our thoughts, words and actions, or in the inner worlds between lives. Some kriyamana karmas bear fruit in the current life, while others persist until future births.
Each of these types can be divided into two categories:
arabdha ("begun, undertaken" - karma sprouting) andanarabdha ("not begun, dormant", what is called "seed karma").
In a popular analogy, karma is compared to rice at different stages of plant development. Sanchita Karma, the accumulated consequences of our past actions, are like rice compressed and poured into a barn. From the preserved rice, a small part was taken, peeled from the husk, processed and eaten. It is prarabdha karma, past actions that give shape to today's events. In the meantime, new rice, mostly from the very last crop of prarabdha-karma, is being sown in the field; it will give the future harvest and will be added to the bins. This is kriyamana-karma, the consequences of current actions.
In Shaivism, karma is one of the three main fetters of the soul, along with anava and maya. Karma is the driving force that brings the soul again and again to human birth in the evolutionary cycle of transmigration called samsara. When all earthly karmas are resolved or "dissolve", the soul is freed from rebirth.
This is the goal of all Hindus. Each of the three types of karma has its own dissolution method. Detachment from the fruits of action, as well as daily rituals of worship and strict adherence to the laws of dharma, stops the accumulation of kriyamana.
Prarabdha-karma dissolves only by experience and living.
Sanchita karma, usually inaccessible, is burned out only by the grace and diksa (initiation) of the sadguru (spiritual master), who prescribes sadhana and tapas for the benefit of the shishya (disciple). The heat of the Kundalini, sustained by this radical atonement, dries up the seeds of non-germinated karmas, and they will never germinate in any life.
Personal or personal karma is influenced by the broader context of family karma, community karma, country, world, and universal karma.
Fragments of the book "Dance With Shiva" Shivaya Subramuniya Swami