Q&A: What is Karma? Part II
The Middle Teaching: The root of Karma
Note: These next few articles will be devoted to answering questions asked by readers. If you have questions, please submit them by clicking the button below.What is karma?
Need a little detailed explanation about what it is, and how we should work on it.
Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Salutations to all the teachers.
This is the second of a series of articles on this question. The first one can be found here:
Karma is a complex topic, and - like much of Indic philosophy - is taught at three different levels, depending on the current capacity of the student.
Last week, we went over the basic teaching. Here, good actions lead to positive outcomes, and bad actions lead to negative outcomes, following the formula below:
Dharma → Punya → Sukha
Adharma → Paap → Dukkha
Said another way, pleasant experiences that occur in the present are the result of past “good” actions, and unpleasant experiences in the present are the result of past “bad” actions.
Normally, we are happy when pleasant experiences come our way. However, here, we can see that there is also a negative side to pleasant experiences - they extinguish our hard-earned punya, or merit.
The flip side of this coin is that there is a positive side to unpleasant experiences - they extinguish paap, or demerit.
Truly understanding this, the Yogi no longer blindly rejoices at positive outcomes, or laments negative outcomes.
For many, this teaching is sufficient. However, for others, it is not nearly enough.
Questions naturally arise, such as: How do I know if the action I am doing is “good” or “bad”? What is the mechanism by which karma fructifies? Where is karma stored, and what is it made of? How do we change our karma? Are there different types of karma? How do I know that karma even exists?
We will try to answer some of these questions in this and the following articles as we go over the middle teaching on karma, before moving on to the third and final level of the teaching.
How does karma work?
While seeing karma as a cosmic bank account of credits and penalties may be helpful at the initial stage, this view ultimately does not hold much water.
For example, we may ask how this karma is dispensed - how is it that good actions create good outcomes and bad actions create bad outcomes? What is the actual mechanism for this?
We may ask why bad things happen to good people, or why good things happen to bad people. We may even ask what “good” and “bad” really mean.
Then, if we don’t get answers to these questions, we simply brush off the entire idea of karma as superstition, and move on with our lives - usually diving headlong into trying to gain satisfaction from the world.
Instead, let us dive deeper into the question of karma, starting with its source.
What is the root of karma?
क्लेशमूलः कर्माशयो दृष्टादृष्टजन्मवेदनीयः।KleshaMoolah karmaAshayah drishtaAdrishtaJanmaVedaniyahThe storehouse of karma has the kleshas at its root. It is experienced in seen or unseen births.
- Yoga Sutra, 2.12
In order to understand this, we must revisit the kleshas.
The word “klesha” literally means “affliction” or “pain”, and can be conceptualized as a colouring on top of a vritti.
P: Wait, what’s a vritti again?
Vrittis - as a quick recap - are mental whirlpools, and are of five types - knowledge (including perception, inference, and trusted testimony), error, imagination, deep sleep, and memory. More here:
These vrittis can be uncoloured, or they can be coloured with one or more kleshas.
For example, if you like chocolate chip cookies, when you see a chocolate chip cookie, it is most likely coloured with the klesha of raag, or attraction. On the other hand, if you don’t like Brussels sprouts, if you taste a Brussels sprout, the taste-perception vritti will be coloured by the klesha of dvesha, or aversion.
There are five kleshas - The Primal Ignorance (avidya), which divides the world into objects, including the idea of “me” and “you”; “I am-ness” (asmitaa), which makes you feel like things are “me” or “mine”; Attraction (raag); Aversion (dvesha); Fear of Discontinuity (abhinivesha), which results in things like the fear of death, or fear of change.
The kleshas can appear in various levels of strength, and can also appear in combination with each other, to form complex emotions like greed, regret, disappointment, and so on. Kleshas ultimately always result in painful experiences - this is why they are called kleshas, or afflictions.
For more on the topic of kleshas, you can take a look at the article here:
P: Ok, I understand the kleshas. How are they related to karma?
All action stems from the kleshas.
Let us take an example. Say you open your favourite food delivery app. This is an action - karma. Why are you doing this action - what is the motivation? You need to eat. Why do you need to eat? Because you are hungry.
Let us dive deeper.
Just because you are hungry doesn’t necessarily mean you have to eat. Said another way, the feeling of hunger is not the reason that you are deciding to eat.
If we investigate, we find that the reason you decide to eat is that you desire to no longer be hungry. That is, the cause of the action - of the karma - it is not the hunger itself, but desire.
This is the key to understanding the root of karma.
In this example, it is not the hunger that directly led to the action. It is conceivable that you could have remained hungry. Rather, it is the desire to not be hungry, or the aversion to hunger, that led to the action of ordering food.
The desire to not be hungry can be framed in terms of the kleshas as the klesha of raag (attraction) colouring the vikalpa-vritti (imagination) of being satisfied with your future meal and/or the klesha of dvesha (aversion) colouring the pratyaksha-pramaana-vritti (perception-knowledge) of the present sensations of hunger.
Notice, the perception of hunger, and the imagination of being satisfied are not sufficient conditions for the action - the karma - to arise. The kleshas were required in order for the karma to bubble up from the mind through the organs of action (aka the karmendriyas), eventually resulting in you picking up your phone and placing the order.
This is just a simple example, but the same principle applies to every single action that you have ever done, and will ever do. All actions - from things as big as choosing your next job, moving to a new city, getting married, and so on, to things as small as shifting in your chair or going to bed at the end of the day - have their root in the kleshas.
The kleshas further have their root in avidya - the Primal Ignorance, which is compared to a field from which all the other kleshas grow.
This is summarized beautifully in Shankaracharya’s famous formula on karma:
अविद्याकामबीजं हि सर्वमेव कर्म।AvidyaaKaamaBeejam hi sarvamEva karmaIndeed, avidya and desire are at the root of all karma.
- Adi Shankaracharya, commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, 18.66
Said another way,
Avidya → Kaam → Karma
The Primal Ignorance → Desire → Action
Here, desire is representative of all the kleshas, since all the kleshas can be framed as a desire, or a hankering, for a situation that is different from the reality in front of us.
P: That makes sense for attraction, aversion, and fear. But what about asmitaa? How can that be framed in terms of desire?
Jogi: Asmitaa is “I am”-ness, and manifests as the feeling of “me” or “mine.” When I see an object that I consider to be my possession, the perception of that object is coloured by asmitaa. The reality is that no objects belong to you. Ownership is simply a thought-construct. In this way, the asmitaa colouring the object is nothing but a desire for the object to fit into the thought-construct you call “mine.” Further, not only is asmitaa desire in itself, asmitaa also leads to desire in a more obvious form. If someone tries to damage or take away an object coloured with asmitaa, what happens? We get scared, angry, upset, and so on. Why? Because we desire for the object to not be harmed. What’s more, when something is coloured with asmitaa, we desire for the object to always remain in our possession - whether physically or mentally. In this way, asmitaa - like the other kleshas - is a form of desire or hankering.
Interdependence between karma and the kleshas
Actions result in consequences. Good actions result in good consequences, and bad actions result in bad consequences.
P: But what do we mean by good and bad?
Jogi: Good consequences are those which cause pleasure, or sukha. Bad consequences are those which cause pain, or dukkha.
P: What kinds of consequences cause sukha? Is it universal?
If we investigate, we can see that the consequences that generate sukha are not universal, but are dependent on the experiencing mind.
For example, one person may love to eat pizza with pineapple on it, while to another the very idea causes nausea. One person may enjoy a certain movie or TV show, while another may dislike it.
P: Are there some things that everyone likes?
Jogi: This is very difficult to prove and very easy to disprove (only one exception is required to disprove).
P: What about something simple like not being hungry. Doesn’t everyone like to not be hungry?
Jogi: Even here, there are degrees. For one person, not being hungry may be neutral - they neither like nor dislike it, while for another, they may gain immense pleasure from not being hungry.
P: What about being hungry? Doesn’t everyone dislike that?
Jogi: Not so, there is a great pleasure that can be gained from the feeling of hunger, especially if a person is actively trying to invoke the feeling through fasting.
The feeling of sukha and dukkha that come from an experience are not generalizable, but are dependent on the existing kleshas in the mind of the experiencer.
For example, if a person has a klesha of attraction (raag) to chocolate chip cookies, then if their karma provides them with the consequence of a chocolate chip cookie, it would be classified as a positive experience, and so be seen as a result of their good karma (ie. their punya)
On the other hand, if a person has a klesha of aversion (dvesha) to chocolate chip cookies, then if the karma provides them with the very same consequence, it would be classified as a negative experience, and so be seen as a result of their bad karma (ie. their paap).
This example may seem simplistic, but it applies to all actions and all consequences. Even certain things which may seem obvious to us as “bad” - such as disease, death, or natural disaster - are only seen as “bad” due to the presence of kleshas. One is afraid of death, and averse to all things which are related to it, due to abhinivesha and dvesha.
In this way, what we consider to be “good” or “bad” consequences of our karma, and therefore what we consider to be “good” and “bad” karma in the first place, is entirely dependent on the kleshas in the mind, and not on the event itself.
This point is demonstrated beautifully with the following story mentioned in a previous article, linked below:
Once upon a time, there was a farmer who lived in a small village with his son. One day, while roaming the nearby land, the son found a beautiful, strong horse, and returned to the farm with the horse in tow. Together, the father and son began to take care of the horse, and it was very useful for their day to day work on the farm. Seeing this new horse, the neighbours approached the farmer and said, “What good fortune you have - your son has found this stallion!”
The farmer smiled and responded, “Maybe.”
A few days later, the horse jumped over the fence and ran away. Soon enough, the neighbours approached the farmer and said, “What bad fortune - the horse you had been tending to has now run away!”
The farmer smiled and responded, “Maybe.”
The next day, the son went out to the nearby land, and found the horse with two other stallions. Thinking that they would be useful, he brought all three horses back to the farm. The neighbours approached the farmer once again, saying, “What good fortune you have, you have found three beautiful stallions!”
The farmer smiled and responded, “Maybe.”
The next day, the son was riding one of the new horses, and fell off its back, breaking his leg. The neighbours came by and said to the farmer, “What poor fortune, your son has broken his leg!”
The farmer smiled and responded, “Maybe”
The following week, the kings soldiers came into the village with a message of war. All the young and able-bodied men were to be conscripted into the army. Since the farmer’s son had broken his leg, he was not called up to go to war. Sure enough, the neighbours came by and said to the farmer, “What good fortune you have - your son does not need to go to war!”
The farmer simply smiled and responded, “Maybe.”
This dependence is not one-way, however. The kleshas are themselves dependent on the feelings of pleasure and pain. In fact, raag and dvesha are defined in this way:
सुखानुशयी रागः।SukhaAnushayee raagahAttraction (raag) follows (ie. is preceded by a memory of) sukha.
- Yoga Sutra, 2.7
दुःखानुशयी द्वेषः।DukkhaAnushayee dveshahAversion (dvesha) follows (ie. is preceded by a memory of) dukkha.
- Yoga Sutra, 2.8
We are attracted or averse to things because of the tendencies in our minds.
Tendencies, as we know, are formed through experiences, or more specifically, through our perception of our experiences.
In this way, our view of our experiences creates tendencies, which result in the kleshas, which then result in us viewing our future experiences as sukha or dukkha.
It is ultimately this “view” of our experience that we are concerned about. We don’t want to suffer, and we want to be happy. We do actions not for the consequences themselves, but because of the way that they make us feel.
Ultimately, we are not running after consequences, but after the feeling of happiness.
Through this analysis we can more clearly see our predicament - we seem to be stuck in an infinite loop. Our kleshas are at the root of our karma, but that karma is also the cause of the kleshas in the first place!
TL;DR
Let us summarize what we have discussed thus far.
Last week, we went over the basic teaching of karma:
Dharma → Punya → Sukha
Adharma → Paap → Dukkha
In this first level of teaching, good things happen when you do good things. Bad things happen when you do bad things. When good things happen, merit is extinguished. When bad things happen, demerit is extinguished.
However, this teaching is too simplistic for many.
Given this, in this article, we began a discussion on the middle teaching on karma, which is also the most complex. Specifically, we discussed the root of karma - the kleshas, and even deeper, avidya. Then, we discovered that the kleshas and karma are, in fact, interdependent. Karma is caused by the kleshas, but the kleshas are also caused, and strengthened, by karma. What we define as “good” is based upon what we are attracted to, and what we define as “bad” is based upon what we are averse to.
Additional questions will likely still persist. For example, where is karma stored? In what ways can it fructify? What are the different types of karma? How does reincarnation fit into all of this?
More on these questions next time as we continue our exploration of the middle teaching of karma.
Once again, thank you for your question, and feel free to reach out with any further questions, clarifications, objections, or comments by clicking the button below:
Next time: What is karma? Part III: More on the middle teaching