SETTLEMENT WITHOUT PAYMENT - IS IT POSSIBLE?

With regards to ‘karma’, the usual explanation, which is given is that, you will have to bear the fruits of your past actions, what may come? In essence, this theory of ‘karma’ implies, that settlement of ‘karma’ is not possible without payment. Now, this really, means, that the only way to settle your past ‘karma’ is to pay the price in return i.e. to face the consequences – karamfal to bhogna hi padega, kyonki karamfal se koi nahi bach sakata hai. 

This is true because that’s why this body is. We get this body or we are in this body, so that we can reap the fruits (karamfal) of our past actions. Thus, the physical form or what we know as body and destiny are closely linked. Destiny is nothing but prarbdha karma, allotted for this life which one has to work out in this life. There is a body, because there is a destiny and because there is a destiny, there is an appropriate body or form to work this out. The moment the destiny i.e. current installment or pratbdha is fully worked out, you cannot stay in this body, any longer and the body will drop off, which we know as death. One can no longer be in the physical form, of any kind, if there is no destiny to work out. That is liberation, which we know as mukti, in the yogic tradition.  

Now, the point is that if, we go by this theory, then there is no way, that one can ever fully finish, his stock of ‘karma’. This is for the simple reason, that in the process of working out of your current destiny or prarbdha, you also end up creating lot more new ‘karma’ which in turn will get added to your existing stock of ‘karma’. And this is how, the life cycle will keep repeating itself, for you and you will, thus, never ever be able to go beyond this game of life cycle. 

Hence, prarbdha is really not the way of finishing one’s stock of ‘karma’. Further, even if we assume, for a moment, that one can do so but the question, which obviously comes up as how many lives or births will it take to finish the entire stock of ‘karma’ because, no one has any idea, as how heavy, is the load of my old or sanchit karma? Another related aspect is that, one may not want to wait, say, for another 10 lives and is, rather, in hurry and wants to finish his entire stock in one go i.e. in this life itself, then what? If one wants to get rid of this business of ‘avagaman’ (coming n going) in this life itself, then what? In that case, is there any other way out? Can one finish his entire stock in one go? 

Essentially, what I am asking is that, can there be settlement of karma without payment? Is dissolution (kshaya) of karma possible, without reaping the fruits or karmfal? Fortunately, the answer for such hopefuls is, ‘yes’. Yes, there exists a possibility. The traditional theory of karamfal, is okay for those who want to go in, for installments. But those who are in hurry and want to make it, in this life itself, then there is a better technology and name of that technology is meditation. Meditation comes handy, to those who want to stop this cycle in one go because, meditation hastens this process, to help you dissolve your entire stock of karma, in one go, instead of working out it in installments or by way of ‘prarbdha. In fact, the glory (mahima) of being a human lies in the fact, that our birth as human, is an opportunity which must be used for going beyond this game of life cycle and not wasted upon in coming and going. (“How meditation helps, dissolve your karma, in one go?” Please read in the next post.)