Preview

Karma and Reincarnation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3005 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Karma and Reincarnation
KARMA and REINCARNATION
Navigate: Ashram| Gurudeva | Newspaper
| Church | Temple | Resources | HHE |
Himalayan Academy Home Page
The twin beliefs of karma and reincarnation are among Hinduism's many jewels of knowledge. Others include dharma or our pattern of religious conduct, worshipful communion with God and Gods, the necessary guidance of the Sat Guru, and finally enlightenment through personal realization of our identity in and with God. So the strong-shouldered and keen-minded rishis knew and stated in the Vedas.

And these are not mere assumptions of probing, brilliant minds. They are laws of the cosmos. As God's force of gravity shapes cosmic order, karma shapes experiential order. Our long sequence of lives is a tapestry of creating and resolving karmas-positive, negative and an amalgam of the two. During the succession of a soul's lives-through the mysteries of our higher chakras and God's and Guru's Grace-no karmic situation will arise that exceeds an individual's ability to resolve it in love and understanding.

Many people are very curious about their past lives and expend great time, effort and money to explore them. Actually, this curious probing into past lives is unnecessary. Indeed it is a natural protection from reliving past trauma or becoming infatuated more with our past lives that our present life that the inner recesses of the muladhara memory chakra are not easily accessed. For, as we exist now is a sum total of all our past lives. In our present moment, our mind and body state is the cumulative result of the entire spectrum of our past lives. So, no matter how great the intellectual knowing of these two key principles, it is how we currently live that positively shapes karma and unfolds us spiritually. Knowing the laws, we are responsible to resolve blossoming karmas from past lives and create karma that, projected into the future, will advance, not hinder, us.

Karma literally means "deed or act," but more broadly describes

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    | My personal understanding of Karma is that for every positive or negative we put out in the universe, a positive or negative is given back to us. (e.g I volunteer my time to a local community center, and as a reward, I am given a job.)…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hum130 Hinduism Terms Map

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages

    | The definition of Karma is our actions and their effects on this life and lives to come.…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Module 3 Chapters 13 15

    • 1933 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Karma can be explained as reaping what you sow. According to multiple religions karma is…

    • 1933 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Religions Matrix

    • 811 Words
    • 3 Pages

    | The central belief of Hinduism is karma, which is if you do good, good things will come to you, If you do bad things, bad things will happen. The ultimate goal is to achieve moksha or liberation from the cycle of reincarnation through realization of the immortal Absolute.…

    • 811 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Karma – in Hinduism, all the deeds of a person’s life that affect existence in the next life.…

    • 4836 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Karvana Case Study

    • 1579 Words
    • 7 Pages

    We know karma to be a chain of causes and necessary consequences in the world of human actions. Karma is the urge we have of doing something based on our previous actions or behavior. I believe the world has negative and positive energy. For example; an individual soul consists of negative and positive energy, which for a normal person, is balanced out. Therefore, what goes around comes around. In life we choose whether to listen and act upon certain urges or ignore it. I do not believe karma predetermine our future. Karma is the reason why things occur in our lives, based on the actions we have done. Karma is not built upon a distinct action but the accumulation of our conduct and actions.…

    • 1579 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Reincarnation is a common belief in the eastern part of the world, with Buddhism as well as Hinduism, supporting the idea of rebirth. In Hinduism each person has an essential self which is called the Atman, and is eternal and seeks unity with God. At physical death, the Atman leaves the body and enters another at birth. The physical body is gone but the Atman remains the same. The status of the body that the Atman re-enters is depended on whether in the previous life the person was morally good or bad, if good it will be in a higher status body, and if bad will be in a lower status body. This cycle of rebirth, birth and death is called Karma which Buddhism also follows, except they do not believe in a soul, but instead the five skandhas which are woven together and make a person attract karma. These two religions are heavily followed in the eastern part of the world and so therefore it may be argued that because it is an accepted belief it is therefore normal to believe in such an idea, however in the western part of the world where religions such as Christianity are followed it is not as accepted. Some would also question the fairness of suffering in this life for something in a past life which they cannot remember and that punishment doesn’t have a value unless you understand what it is for; it needs to be associated with something. However, Hindus would argue that karma is not seen as a punishment; it is just bearing out the karmic fruits…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Part One: Hindu Worldview

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    5. The Question of Destiny – In a Hindu Worldview one would believe that one’s karma determines how you will return in the next life. If a person has good Karma they will reach a higher level upon rebirth. If one has bad Karma they will return to a lower level, or as an animal upon rebirth. The goal is to reach Nirvana.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The question of condition, or problem, mainly focuses on what is wrong with the world and your surroundings or with yourself. In the Krishna and Hinduism world view, the problem is the illusion, or Maya, that people tend to build about themselves and what surrounds them. Maya is when people see themselves as something separate instead of the common Hindu belief that all things are connected. Maya brings ignorance, attachment, and reincarnation into the lives of people. People start thinking that they are the most important thing around and do not think about the harm that they may bring to others and mainly their own souls. They start betraying and killing for simple desires instead of for ones own good. By being this ignorant, the karma of a human being just begins to keep on piling up, like it is mentioned in the Gita, "Your own karma, born of your own nature, will drive you to do even that which you do not wish to do, because of your delusion" (18:60 p.60). Being caught up in this delusion and all the surrounding bad karma that floats around leads to being stuck in the endless cycle of reincarnation and having no enlightenment in the person's life because the Lord "whirls them [the creatures] round upon the wheel of Maya" (Gita 18:60 p.60). If one is locked into reincarnation, it keeps him or her from having or achieving peace, the biggest problem that a human being can have in their lifetime.…

    • 1397 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hinduism and Buddhism, both ancient Indian major belief systems, were instrumental in shaping the everyday life as well as a life span of ancient Indians. More of progressive enlightened philosophy than a religion, Buddhism illuminated the path to righteousness, good heartedness, honor and virtue through the Eight Fold path and the Four Noble Truths. Hinduism emphasizes asceticism (refraining from the “wants of life and its worldly pleasure”) and reincarnation, or rebirth of an individual in the hopes of the ascension of one’s soul based on the results of the past lives and the attempt to be released of the “wheel of life” cycle.…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The moral consequence and determiner of the direction of one’s reincarnation is called karma. The concept of karma can be found in Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism, Jainism,…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Emily Beesley PR1 ROUGH

    • 995 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Do not repeat them in the future.” -Swami Sivananda. In the poem Itinerary, speaker Eamon Grennan demonstrates the ways in which individuals deal with the uncertainties of the past. The past has the ability to influence an individual to either move on despite the uncertainties and worries of the unknown, or to not move on at all. However it is important to do your best to move on and focus on the present and the future. This is also true in my own life. When faced with uncertainties of the past, an individual may choose a method of isolation because they are frightened to move on. They also may try to relive certain moments from the past in an attempt to find comfort in anything familiar to them. The individual will attempt to do so until they let go of the past and look at a broader perspective on life, which will assist them in moving on to see what the future holds.…

    • 995 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hinduism Paper

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Hindus also uphold the ideas of karma, reincarnation, and nirvana. The laws of karma state that good begets good, and bad begets bad. Every action, thought, or decision one makes has consequences , either good or bad, that will return to each person in the present life, or in one yet to come. Reincarnation is known as the “transmigration of souls,” or “samsara.” This is a journey on the “circle of life,” where the spiritual self undergoes a series of…

    • 768 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every karmic obstacle and every karmic reward, once formed, are tied to you on one end and affinity on the other. Figuratively speaking, karmic obstacles emit black threads which trigger obstruction and are attached to your karmic creditors; while karmic rewards emit white threads which generate support and are derived from your karmic debtors. This, in essence is the Law of Karma. The greater the karmic obstacles or karmic rewards, the thicker the threads will be, and the respective obstruction or support will be greater too. Prior to our birth, our parents who are tied to this 'karmic net' start repaying their debts. After we were born, this 'karmic net' is then attached to our siblings, friends and relatives, and teachers and classmates when we start schooling, and subsequently friends, spouse, children, colleagues and so forth. Each of them repay or claim their karmic debts one after another. This 'net', in fact represents the worldly entanglements. Humans' souls are trapped right in the middle of the karmic net that are bound by affinity, which takes control of the direction forward, thereby resulting in ups and downs of life. Everyday, in every moment, we have been creating or connected to new affinity/karmic relationships. Affinity is arised from our heart. Bodily actions,…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the fundamental Hindu principle that one’s moral actions have unavoidable and automatic effects on one’s fortunes in this life and condition of rebirth in the next. Karma Yoga originally focused on varnasrama-dharma which focus on the performance of actions in accordance with the duties associated with one’s caste and stage of life. By acting in accordance with the principles of varnasrama-dharma, one gradually worked through the four major stages of life who are the student, the householder, the forest-dweller and the renunciate towards ultimate release from the cycle of rebirth also known as moksha though the process might take many lifetimes to complete.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics