Happy new year to all!
First class in 2022 after a long break. We tried to recap our class summary since this session started. We started with Hindu Culture (and what it means), then we talked about the Law of Consequence, and then how our scriptures help us. Our duties and dharma follow the guidelines that are provided for us in our scriptures.
One way to categorize Vedas is Karma Kanda, Upasana Kand and Jnana Kanda. The duties we have to follow is to understand what kind of actions (Karmas) there are. They are broken down as follows:
Nisiddha Karma - Condemned by the scriptures
Kamya Karma - Prompted by personal desires
Nitya Karma - to be fulfilled by every individual at their stage of life
Naimittika Karma - for special situations
Niyata Karma - Nitya + Naimittika
We listed down different scenarios where we asked students to map some general tasks to the above types of Karma. There was some good debate in the class about these tasks. One of the students quipped humorously when there was a question of why one of the tasks was classified as Nisiddha Karma - "Is this task listed in Bhagwad Geeta as Nisiddha Karma? "
We then covered a few "thought" questions:
Duties fall upon us by birth. True?
Can we not take up someone else's duties?
How does our inner makeup help?
Is the environment thrust on us by a blind fate?
We asked one of the students to present their view and asked if anyone else in the class either supports it or disagrees with it. There was good debate in the class on these topics too.
By following the tasks we can either be doing Paapa or Punya. Paapa is the demerit you gain by doing wrong tasks. Punya is the merit you gain by doing good tasks. The results (paapa/punya) come by doing the Karma and by the motive behind doing the tasks. We discussed a few short examples -
Is it wrong to kill animals?
Is it wrong to intentionally collide into another car?
There may be situations where it may be ok to do these seemingly violent acts depending on the Dharma of the person and the motive behind doing these acts.
The results (paapa & punya) accumulate. The accumulated punyas (merits) and paapas (demerits) from previous births come to fruition in due course of time. This store is called Sancita Karma.
The actions that give results in the present body in the form of happiness or misery, and which can be destroyed only by enjoying or suffering them , are called Prarabdha Karmas. The human body is a result when punya is predominant and other forms like animals are the result when paapa is predominant.
The result of actions good or bad performed by a wise man after the dawn of Knowledge are known as Agami karma. Wise men are not affected by them.
We chanted Bhagwad Geeta shlokas Chapter II. v 54-54. We will be trying continuously to improve on class participation.
Regards,