Let us contemplate on good merit and bad merit, papa and punya. Good merit and sin, we can say.
We perform transactions in the world with a different mindset such as ‘I will do something good for others’, or ‘I injure and cause harm for others’. As per the law of karma, whatever you do to others, will come back to you. So, what you do to others, if you do something good then good will come back to you. This is called ‘Punya’. If you some harm to others or injure others, then, something bad will come back to you. This is what is called ‘Papa’, or sin.
This is in the transactional world. It is not just another being. It can be animals, it can be plants, it can be anything, any living being. Then, there is another type of activity. Something, which you do, for uplifting of ourselves, Self-realization, God-realization. This comes under the category of ‘Sukarma’, or good karma. Something where we deny the existence of higher Consciousness, higher reality, inner Self, it comes under the category of ‘Dushkarma’.
So, papa and punya, has to be experienced in this world. I have some relationship with somebody. I give something to somebody. I give something good or bad to some person. Then, something will come back to me. This has to be experienced in the physical world. This will require a repeated cycle of births and deaths to settle the transactions.
If you think that this papa and punya is a transaction, then it is not so. Really, it is a mental or subconscious impression. Whenever I do something to others, there is a deep impression in us. It is like a record in an accounts book. I have to give something to somebody. I have to receive something. It is like a double entry, account book. Something receivable and something to be given. You can call it debit and credit. It is equivalent to that. This type of entry is there in our subconscious impressions. This is actually what we call papa and punya. This entry is what makes us take repeated births and deaths to settle the account.
I remember a story from one of the popular authors. He is one of the popular authors who has written a book called ‘Past lives and future lives’. He is a psychiatrist, who does hypnotherapy for the recording of the past lives of the people. And it is a therapy.
He interviewed a couple of patients who came to him for therapy. He found two patients had a related past life. In the current life, they are not related. But, in the past, two/three lives, they seem to be closely related to each other. In one life, one of the persons was a Master and the other person was a slave. It was a goldsmith’s factory, where the gold ornaments were made. The Master is the goldsmith, and the servant is the worker there.
The Master ties up the servant with a chain so that he doesn’t run away and go from there. He puts a lot of pressure on the servant to complete the work. If the servant doesn’t complete the work quickly, he brands the servant with a hot iron. So, he tortured the servant like anything. Looks like in the next life, the roles are reversed. The servant becomes the Master, and the Master becomes the servant.
The servant is a farmer, in the next life, as a Master. The former life Master becomes a servant now. This farmer ties up the servant for working in the field. Instead of buffalo or bullock. He uses the servant for ploughing the field. He beats him with a whip. In the past life, the Master had tortured the servant. So, in this, this farmer, as a Master, torturers the servant. Looked like, this continued for three lifetimes.
The psychiatrist noted the records of both the people over many sittings. He found this similarity to persist. It took about some two to three lifetimes for these two people to get over their karmic debt. It is like a debt. I will give you something, you give me something back. This is what is called papa and punya.
Whereas Sukarma and Dushkarma are what you do as spiritual sadhana, seva, service, for your upliftment. This is not a debt to somebody. This is just for your own upliftment. There is another kind of work which we do, the dharmic acts. It is not generally for one person but you do it as a part of your dharma, or your essential duty. This dharmic act will qualify for Heaven, the joys of Heaven.
The joys of Heaven are temporary. After experiencing Heaven, you have to come back. Whereas, the adharma, which you do, not as to any specific person, but, overall, as you do, as part of duty, when you don’t perform, rightfully, then, it becomes adharma. In which case, it can qualify you to Hell.
The earthly transactions have to be settled on the earth. The dharma and adharma have to completed in the Heaven and Hell whereas, Sukarma and Dushkarma, have to be settled or will continue in the earthly plane, as your sadhana. If you do Sukarma, you will take birth in a place, to continue your sadhana, and get uplifted. If you have done Dushkarma, you can fall back in your sadhana, or you can possibly take animal life form. This is the papa, and punya, Sukarma and Dushkarma.
Q: Supposing that I am doing service to somebody. So, you are saying, I am getting punya. Am I receiving punya, or settling my account? May be, they have done something good to me?
A: Service can be of two types. Service with a desire that something has to come back to me and Service which is desireless or nishkama. This is called Kamya karma and nishkama karma. Kamya karma is with desire and nishkama is without desire. So, if you do kamya karma, with desire, something will come back to you. So, when you are doing something to somebody, with a desire, it leaves an impression in you.
Q: Even then, it is a good karma?
A: Yes. It is a good karma.
Q: If it is done as nishkama, then, it becomes sukarma?
A: Yes, if it is done as nishkama, as a service, for the upliftment, then, it becomes Sukarma.
Q: No. I am saying, if I am doing some seva to somebody, may be my relative or somebody, why will I get good karma? if I am just settling the account with them, they have done to me, in some of my past life. I am just returning it back. So, there is no good karma there?
A: Yes, that’s possible. But then, we don’t know, whether it is settling or returning back, we don’t know. We can only say, with reference to you. If you get something, which is not expected, it is only some good karma coming back to you. If you get something, which is not expected, as painful or sorrowful, it is only bad karma for you. This is with reference to you. With reference to another person also, same thing. So then, when you are doing something to somebody, if there is an expectation of return, that means, you are again initiating a karmic chain.
Pranams
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SelfKnowledge_T14_KARMA(5.Sukarma-Dushkarma)_12Apr2016