482. I need to be sure there is no recurring deposit to my Account!

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/i-need-to-be-sure-there-is-no-recurring-deposit-to-my-account

“Punya Phala Prapthirasthu” (May you be rewarded for the good deeds) says an elderly person while blessing an youngsters. This Punya (virtues) and Papa (sins) which are due to my Agami Karma* accumulate to will increase the account balance of Sanchita Karma Phala*. The maturity of which is very tactfully put on to my next birth. To relish the matured returns I need to come back and along with the opportunity of enjoy them, I make more deposits and this cycle goes on and on and on. 

When I was discussing this with a friend of mine he said, “I do not believe in this Punya and Papa business.” That is how he felt I thought, but in Hinduism that is how it works. Just as my friend did not believe in rebirth there was this foreigner working for a T.V channel who met the 68^th pontiff of Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham His Holiness Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swamigal (fondly called Maha Periyava) to get his doubt cleared. When he did get the opportunity he put forth his question.

“Swamiji, I understand the values that your religion preaches are commendable but your ideology of rebirths, punya and papa brought forward from past life and carried our again to the next life I do not feel comfortable with that thought. What we understand is that we get the rewards of what we do in this life itself. Good deeds bring in good benefits and so do the bad deeds get us miseries in this life itself.

Maha Periyava Swamigal who was getting ready for the sandhya pooja at this point asked the foreign journalist to do a favour of collecting some statistical information within Kanchi. He said, “Go to 10 to 12 maternity centers and collect the data of children born 2 days back. I am looking for the gender, health report, parents name, occupation, educational qualification and time of birth.”

The journalist had a car and with the help of a local person he went around and collected the details of 15 new born from 10 hospitals and returned back to the Kanchi mutt. Mahaswamigal asked the gentlemen how many were male and female.

“Swamiji, eight female and seven male” said the gentleman.

“What about their health?”

“Nine of them have no health problem, one is premature is in incubator, three have malnutrition defects, two have jaundice.”  

“What about their parents?”

“Two were the first child of rich couples while 4 were born to laborers and rest middle class parents.”

Now Maha Periyava Swamigal looked at the gentleman and asked him one simple question: “Gentleman, do you feel that this new born had gained punya or papa in the span of two days to experience so much difference?”

The Journalist did not talk.

Swamigal continued, “Now let us momentarily believe that there is no punya and papa and there is no rebirth, in that case all these new born should have been born exactly identical, instead some are healthy while few have health problems. Some are born to rich parents and some to laborers. Even if we adopt them all and give them identical environment and education they grow up to be different according to their IQ. We have to remember all are born in the same day, longitude and latitude is same and they share the same horoscope yet they grow up to be different individuals professionally as well as personally. It is here the concept of rebirth, punya and papa gets its relevance.  We all have taken birth according to our past deeds (karma) and the resultant punya and papa which we have assimilated in our previous births is the driving force behind this birth.”

Journalist started to contemplate on what he had heard and left the room.

“When we depart from this body, our mind should not waver; it should remain like a mountain” says Lord Krishna to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita. It is possible only if there is no fear of sin and rewards of virtues. If I do any work either of them gets attached to it and increase my account balance, is there a means to get redemption from these two? Yes, the one and only way is to do work without doer-ship by just surrendering the outcome to Him.

Now my friend asks me, "While accepting the above said "concept" do you say i need to stay neutral neither doing good nor doing bad?" 

I said, "Do not do bad but do good always, as we all know that as you sow so you reap the resultant of reaping the fruits of the good make you become the "Enjoyer"  simply because you did those action as a "Doer".... A doer always enjoys the resultant fruit. If you do not want your recurring deposit to swell in your account, just shun that Doer-ship."

"How to shun doer-ship" asked my friend.

"By channelizing the resultant fruits towards the Absolute. Hence we say "SRI KRISNARPANAMASTU" ( May this be an offering in dedication to Sri Krishna)."  I said. 

*

Interestingly the word "KARMA" has two meaning "Action" and "Resultant Fruit". Sanatana Dharma recognizes four types of karma operating in our lives simultaneously. They are:

1. Sanchita Karma - (here it is resultant fruit.) Accumulated resultant fruit from past several births. The burden in the account of individual which contains the fruits of both Good and Bad doings in the past lives which has to be exhausted in some point of time in this life span or in those which has to come in future.

2. Prarabdha Karma - (here it is resultant fruit) A part of Sanchita Karma Phala which has been activated in this present life and influencing the course of the life. Though the point is to exhaust them the nature of the actions performed now will decide if it is been exhausted or rekindled to create more to add to Sanchita Karma. 

3. Agami Karma - (here it is action) Karma which is done in this life span which gets accumulated to Sanchita Karma.

4. Kriyamana Karma - (here again it is action) Karma which is done and the resultant fruits is experienced in this life span itself.