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=== Vaiseshika Darshana ===

=== Vaiseshika Darshana ===

Karma, is motion according to the Maharshi Kanada who gave us the [[Vaiseshika Darshana (वैशेषिकदर्शनम्)|Vaiseshika Darshana]]. But it is a deeper concept than mere physical displacement with respect to time.<ref name=":3">Prabhu, C. S. R. (2014) The Physics of Vaiseshika. Tirupati: Sri Venkateswara Vedic University (Pages 13-18)</ref>  <blockquote>एकद्रव्यमगुणं संयोगविभागेष्वनपेक्ष कारणमिति कर्मलक्षणम् । वैशेषिक-१,१.१७ ।  संयोगविभागवेगानां कर्म समानम् । वैशेषिक-१,१.२० । (Vais. Sutr. 1.1.17 and 20)<ref name=":1">[https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D Vaiseshika Sutras] </ref> </blockquote>The characteristics of motion are   

Unlike the usages of “karma” in other systems, karma in this school is taken to signify movement of a thing from one place to another. Karma, is motion according to the Maharshi Kanada who gave us the [[Vaiseshika Darshana (वैशेषिकदर्शनम्)|Vaiseshika Darshana]]. Karma is simply displacement of positions in space and it is with the help of karma that one thing reaches another place. But it is a deeper concept than mere physical displacement with respect to time.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">Prabhu, C. S. R. (2014) The Physics of Vaiseshika. Tirupati: Sri Venkateswara Vedic University (Pages 13-18)</ref>  <blockquote>एकद्रव्यमगुणं संयोगविभागेष्वनपेक्ष कारणमिति कर्मलक्षणम् । वैशेषिक-१,१.१७ ।  संयोगविभागवेगानां कर्म समानम् । वैशेषिक-१,१.२० । (Vais. Sutr. 1.1.17 and 20)<ref name=":1">[https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D Vaiseshika Sutras] </ref> </blockquote>The characteristics of motion are   

# एकद्रव्यम् । being dependent or pertinent to one single material entity (or substance)  

# एकद्रव्यम् । being dependent or pertinent to one single material entity (or substance)  

# It is said to be active when the substance moves from one position to another. In this process motion (Karma) is the common cause for any disjunction (Vibhaga or separation) of the substance (whole or part) from its previous position and conjunction (Samyoga or joining) with a new position. Motion is common cause of conjunction, disjunction and speed (or impetus) with which the substance moves.

# It is said to be active when the substance moves from one position to another. In this process motion (Karma) is the common cause for any disjunction (Vibhaga or separation) of the substance (whole or part) from its previous position and conjunction (Samyoga or joining) with a new position. Motion is common cause of conjunction, disjunction and speed (or impetus) with which the substance moves.

# Karma is not instantaneous. Vyomashiva clearly explains that motion is not instantaneous instead it is incremental. This is true even in a process like cooking the food where the food is neither cooked instantaneously nor does a change occur in its state until a minimum energy is expended. Such a minimum energy can be seen as similar to the threshold energy concept of today. The incremental nature of change in substances explained by Vyomashiva is what follows from today’s relativistic physics about no action being instantaneous.<ref>''Nyaya-Vaiseshika: The Indian Tradition of Physics'' by Roopa Hulikal Narayan </ref>

# Karma is not instantaneous. Vyomashiva clearly explains that motion is not instantaneous instead it is incremental. This is true even in a process like cooking the food where the food is neither cooked instantaneously nor does a change occur in its state until a minimum energy is expended. Such a minimum energy can be seen as similar to the threshold energy concept of today. The incremental nature of change in substances explained by Vyomashiva is what follows from today’s relativistic physics about no action being instantaneous.<ref>''Nyaya-Vaiseshika: The Indian Tradition of Physics'' by Roopa Hulikal Narayan </ref>

=== Vedanta Darshana ===

=== Vedanta Darshana ===

Depending on the context, Karma according to Vedanta could mean (a) any act, irrespective of its nature; (b) a moral act, especially in the accepted ritualistic sense; and (c) accumulated results, i.e., unfructified fruits of all actions. Underlying these senses is the idea that a person by doing, by acting, creates something and shapes his/her destiny.  

Depending on the context, Karma according to Vedanta could mean (a) any act, irrespective of its nature; (b) a moral act, especially in the accepted ritualistic sense; and (c) accumulated results, i.e., unfructified fruits of all actions. Underlying these senses is the idea that a person by doing, by acting, creates something and shapes his/her destiny.

 

 

== कर्माणि भेदाः ॥ Types of Karma ==

== कर्माणि भेदाः ॥ Types of Karma ==

== Vedantic Perspective of Karma ==

== Vedantic Perspective of Karma ==

Most Indian thinkers seek to establish karma on logical grounds. The two familiar arguments are that in the absence of such an order, there would arise the twin fallacies of phenomena that are not caused and that which do not produce any effect. This idea of necessary causality requires, better yet, demands, that every event has a cause and that every event must produce its effects. It is worth noting in this context that the idea of causal necessity that is applied is modeled after empirical and natural order best exemplified in scientific laws and philosophically captured in Kant’s Second Analogy of Experience.5

Karma is based on the single principle that no cause goes without producing its effects, and there is no effect that does not have an appropriate cause. Since many of our actions seem to go unrewarded in the present life, and many evil actions go unpunished, it seems reasonable to suppose that such consequences, if they do not arise in this life, must arise in the next.<ref name=":0" />

The resulting understanding of karma/rebirth then becomes a super science, a science that not only comprehends the natural order and the human order but also all possible worlds, each world corresponding to one birth. The order that is being posited in the karma/rebirth is not a natural order, and what is called a “theory,” if it is a theory, is neither a scientific theory nor a super science. Many Hindu and the Buddhist enthusiasts wish to see it as a scientific theory, though it does not share any features of a scientific theory. Then, there are those who regard it a “convenient fiction,”6 which would imply that the entire pan-Indian culture, both the Vedic and the Buddhist, is based upon a fiction. Again, where must we position ourselves as critics in order to hold such a view of these ultimate presuppositions? As thinkers, we have no ground to stand upon from which we can pass such a judgment.

Karma carries the belief that differences in the fortunes and the misfortunes of individual lives, to the extent they are not adequately explicable by known circumstances in this life, must be due to unknown (adrsta) causes which can only be actions done in their former lives. These two concepts of karma and rebirth are interlinked and together form a complex structure.  

A plausible philosophical move would be to say that karma/rebirth encapsulates Indic peoples’ understanding of a transcendental ground of the human life and the world. It is not an empirical or scientific theory, it belongs to a different order, neither natural nor supernatural (the supernatural being understood as another natural). The transcendental, usually construed as the domain of subjectivity, selectively isolates an area of human experience and grounds the totality of the empirical in it. Many thinkers have rejected this conception of ground and prefer that the ultimate ground be ontological, some principle of being. Karma and rebirth encapsulate a fundamental understanding of that ontological ground, of our relationship to the world, which cannot be adequately accounted by the metaphysic of nature or metaphysic of subjectivity. Both the Advaitins and the Buddhists postulate beginningless ignorance (avidya¯) and argue that this principle accounts for our inescapable experience of obscurity, darkness, and failure to completely understand this ontological ground. And yet, both the Hindus and the Buddhist philosophers have sought to throw light on it in different ways and have assured us that though we do not quite understand it, wise individuals do, because they have a direct experience of this ontological ground. It is worth noting that in Advaita Veda¯nta, this beginningless avidya¯ is not simply non-knowledge, i.e., not knowing; it is also a positive entity, the source of all creativity, indeed, of entire mundaneity. In Indian thought karma rebirth, no matter how shielded from us, no matter how inviolable in its operations (even gods cannot escape it), gives to humans the possibility of escaping from its clutches, becoming truly free, and realizing one’s essence, which is moksha.

Relationship between Karma and Karmaphala (results of action) are well discussed in the Upanishads

== References ==

== References ==

[[Category:Vedanta]]

[[Category:Vedanta]]