Inevitable Karma Cycle

Since the beginning of the world, it has been clear that karma is a game that has all possible endings but no possible escape. In Dwapar Yug, Lord Krishna dies of an arrow that was originally made to hunt the pigeons with, all because he had mistakenly killed a pair of pigeons. During the Mahabharat, queen Ghandhari gives a curse to Lord Krishna as all of her sons were killed in the war leading to her generation's end.

She curses Lord Krishna; the same will happen to him, and no generation of him will remain, resulting in the submerge of Dwarika. This topic of karma has been discussed a lot in many scripts of Gita, Mahabharat, Ramayan, and so on the list goes. Not only the Hindu religion, but Buddhism and Jainism also have faith in this, along with many others. In Sanskrit, karma denotes 'action'. It is linked to being a key factor in rebirth.

If your Karma Rekha has not gotten to an end, it leads you to another life. In where you try to meet your end and hope the process not to repeat again. There is a story about lord Jagannath and his follower where he falls sick and lord himself goes to pay him a visit, then he gets healthy again but dies ten days early of his actual written date. Then he questions lord why, and the Lord replies, "You had ten days of karma left to suffer, but I took it to myself," hence leading it to today's ritual of lord Jagannath getting sick for ten days.

As in a gist, we may say karma is the luck following a person's negative or positive deed that leads to their fate. In Hinduism, we believe karma has no escape; hence, everything you have done in your life leads it all back to you. Karma can be seen as a teacher that consequently, sooner or later, brings back your deed with a certain time interval, whether it be in your rebirth or the same birth.

Your next birth also depends according to your karma. According to Buddhist philosophy, there are 6 types of rebirth: gods, demi-gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells. As for the spirits we speak of, when the term "paranormal" comes, we think of some horror movies like 'The Conjuring' series, 'The Grudge', 'Lights Off,' and many others, but can the ghosts of those movies fall under the hungry ghost rebirth? Karma raises a lot of questions; among them there are some that have no answer, or maybe it is just the answers being very further away from human understanding of life and death and karma.

Life and death are described as a natural phenomenon and are spoken by everyone normally until it falls under their roof. A life, if born, everyone is happy, but if a death is to take place, the gloomy faces and heavy hearts fill out the void. Karma may only be a spiritual belief, but as per the famous Newton's third law of motion, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

This law matches with the law of karma, stating, "Every action we take has a consequence, whether positive or negative." A consequence always follows. 

There is also a belief that during cremation, if a person's funeral pyre burns with a very great fire, or, in simple words, burns in a very calming or sophisticated manner, the person is said to have been freed from the cycle of life and death and hence karma. Pashupati temple in Kathmandu has played a very significant role in this just the way India's Haridwar has played. It is believed that people burned in these places are very lucky. If they are burned in some certain places like these consisting of very great respect in Hindu religion. Those who are cremated here are also said to have been freed from the cycle of karma.

"The cycle of karma is so long and broad that even God's cannot survive it," said by in a poem. Now in depth about karma. During the war of Mahabharat, Lord Krishna said, "Without Karma, no life is possible," to Arjun. He elaborates further, "You have rights only to your actions, never to the fruits. Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to your inaction."

If someone were to kill a bird, they would have full allowance upon their gun, the bullets, but not to the bird that is about to be killed by that bullet. Karma is a very interesting topic, but "The more you know, the more you realise you don't know." This famous quote applies to karma as well; the more knowledge that you get about it, the more you realise that you don't know anything.

Grade XII (Humanities) Golden Gate International College, Battisputali, Kathmandu