Karma

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Fri, 12 Oct 2001, Shrinivas Gadkari wrote:

> Consider this, there are ants in the house. Consider three indiviuals
> M1, M2 and M3.
>
> M1 kills the ants, with the frame of mind that it is his dharma to
> maintain the cleanliness of his house. He feels he has executed his
> duty by doing so.
>
> M2 kills the ants, but has a guilt feeling associated with the act.
>
> M3 kills the ants while taking pleasure in his act.
>
> What I am saying is:
> M1 accrues no negative karma.
> M2 accrues some negative karma due to the guilt feeling.
> M3's action is perverse and accrues quite some negative karma.
>

All three accrue negative karma because for one thing all karma is
negative and secondly the end result is the same, the death of the ants.

In fact, this is why Manusmrti says a grhastha has to do panchamahayajnas
every day, to expiate the sin  of killing isects etc. which is inevitable
in day-to-day life.

> No, I think you are misunderstanding what I am saying.
> Suppose Arjuna (X) is attacking (act A) Duryodhana (Y). Further
> suppose that Duryodhana perceives this act of Arjuna as negative.
> If Arjuna is established in the Self and is unaffected by the
> perceptions of Duryodhana, he accures no negative karma.
> However, if influenced by the fact that Duryodhana is perceiving his
> act as negative or for some other reason, Arjuna develops a guilt
> feeling, then he accrues a negative karma. This what I understand of
> Gita.
>

The karmayoga described in the Gita, is still karma and is inferior to
karmasannyasa.  However it is the path to be taken when karma is
unavoidable as it was for Arjuna.  It is said in the Mahabharata that the
Pandavas did spend some time in Hell for their actions.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>