LORD KRISHNA'S MURPHY'S LAWS = KARMA YOGA vs MURPHY'S LAWS = KARMA YOGA MORE SCIENTIFIC

LORD KRISHNA’S

KARMA YOGA vs MURPHY’S LAWS

(POST.2)

In Post.1 on Murphy’s Laws – we had affirmed that Murphy’s laws were in existence from the beginning of the world. Over 5000 years ago – in Dwaapar Yug (according to Hindu calendar), Lord Krishna told his disciple Arjuna – all about Murphy’s Laws – and he called them Karma Yoga – as part of his sermon called the Bhagavad Gita.

He said – “you have every right for Action. Action is both your right and your responsibility. You cannot forsake action, for any reason, especially in performance of your duties. But, the results of your actions are not entirely determined by you. While you have all the right to your actions, you have no such rights in respect of their results.”

He has explained his Karma Yoga theory, which is in fact an expansion of the Murphy’s Laws, in many places in the Gita Sermon – which can be summarized approximately as below :

1.   Every man can choose his actions. He has every right in the choice of his actions. 

2.   But, he remains responsible to bear the brunt of the ”results of his actions.”

3.   While he can choose his actions – the results cannot always be chosen by him. He has no absolute right in the choice of the results of his actions.

4.   It is not that – you or I will perform an action – without a specific end result in view. We will and we are entitled to have some end result or some goal or purpose, in view while performing all of our actions. Krishna’s sermon to Arjuna also had its specific PURPOSE - i.e., to urge him to kill all the opponents in the war. So, an action always has a purpose or a result in view.

5.   But, the actual results of our actions are determined by the natural forces and natural laws which are always at work in the Universe. You and I are not the sole deciders of the results of our actions.

6.   While these natural forces and natural laws actually go by the “cause-and-effect principle” – none  of us can assume himself to be the sole cause of any effect.

7.   Many forces of nature are simultaneously at work on our action – and they produce the results of our actions - which may or may not be the ones – we desired for.

8.   Let us take a simple example. You see a ripe mango on a mango tree. You want it. You take a stone, aim at the mango and hurl it. You have taken the aim very correctly and hurled it with the required force. Ordinarily, the stone should hit the mango and mango should fall to the ground. That is your expectation; the result you are aiming for.

9.   But, after you hurl the stone, the mango is moved from its position by  the air passing by it. So your stone goes past it in its own trajectory. There is a bald headed man passing on the other side. It hits his head. 

10.                Naturally, he is annoyed and comes for a quarrel with you. What follows next, depends on your further actions and his further actions. This simple example only shows that – you don’t get your desired results – all the time. But, there is some result, for sure.

11.                For any action by you – you actually reap two types of results. One is called Drisya phalam, or the immediately experienced result. The second is called adrisya phalam, the result which is given to you in a distant future, or even a future birth. You cannot see this adrisya phalam of an action immediately after the action. You cannot therefore connect the adrisya phalam you are receiving now - with its connected, original action which you performed some time in the distant past.

12.                Drisya phalam or the immediately experienced Result is the one you can connect with your Action. But, this result may be of 4 different varieties.

13.                (a) The result may be exactly equal to the one you aimed for through your action.

14.                (b) The result may be much more than the result you aimed for through your action

15.                © The result may be much less than the result you aimed for through your action

16.                (d) The result may be entirely different in shape, content, quality and direction from the result you aimed for through your action.

17.                Let us look a simple example. You prepare well for an examination – aiming for, say 80 % marks. In the examination, you may get 60%, or 80% or 90% - all of which are possible – though not expected by you. Some people who expect to get 90% - may be caught in a traffic Jam and may not be unable to write the exam itself.

18.                You can see all these happening all through your life. Therefore – expect a result. But also, expect the unexpected. Be prepared for the unexpected. The Drisya phalam is what most of the western writers are concerned with. Drisya phalam depends on current action.

19.                This example is a simple example known to all of us. Yet, we must answer the question – why did you not get the 90% you aspired for? We all can give several reasons for that. We know instinctively that – we do not know the questions that will actually appear in the exam. So, 90% expectation is not an exact result aimed for. If the questions are all known ones, you may get 100% also. If most questions are tougher than you thought, you may get much less than 90%. If the valuer of your Papers is in a bad mood – your answers may receive lesser marks. 

To take care of this, of late, objective questions are set mostly – and valuation of them is done by computers. You have written all of your answers correctly – but you may have written the roll number wrongly – and no one has noticed. Go on imagining the things that can go wrong – between the effort and the result. You can write ten more at least. Like your car, bus or train may get stuck in an agitation or a traffic jam – and so on. So, even the immediate drisya phalam can vary significantly from your expectation. But, Drisya phalam can be made more and more accurate - by our concentrated, accurate actions. Yet, not EXACT. A train's punctuality can be controlled significantly. But, never 100% exact and not all the time.There are other forces acting on your action all the time.

20.                Adrisya phalam – results essentially from your Intentions in performing your actions. These intentions are also an integral part of your actions. While your actions are visible to all - your intentions are invisible to others. The result of your intentions comes to you at a time that is decided by the natural forces in a peculiar manner. The intentions and their connected results are stored in an invisible baggage and delivered to you in some random manner at a random time. There is a method for this. But, this process makes it difficult for you to connect this adrisya phalam with the original action.

21.                The intention behind an action is what makes it a “virtuous” deed or a “evil” deed. For all virtuous deeds, you accumulate what is called punyam and for all evil deeds, you accumulate what is called papam. You will receive the adrisya phalam of all your intentions, in store in this baggage of punyam and papam – at some future time. But if the baggage is too much, and cannot be fully spent in current life, you will carry it along with you into the next birth.

22.                In the overall analysis – the eternal rule that - every action will be met with an equal and opposite reaction – stands in this case also. This law holds good very, very strictly in this Karma theory.

23.                Look at the equation :- Intention + Action ->(leads to)  Adrisya phalam + Drisyaphalam. 

24.                This equation is to be understood with greater clarity by us, since Adrisya phalam of a previous action (of a long time past, or of even a previous birth) usually accompanies the drisya phalam of the current action. The adrisya phalam of the current action will accompany the drisya phalam of a future action. This is because of the huge invisible baggage of adrisya phalam (of punyam + papam) that we always carry on our head.

25.                This means that the Natural forces that there are – have no independence  in giving you any thing which you do not deserve. If you get some thing – that is what you deserve as the adrisya phalam of some past action of you plus the drisya phalam of your current action.

26.                Let us look at an example :

27.                X murders Y and takes away his bag of  $1 million. The drisya phalam for his planned action is obviously the $1 million that he got from the slain man Y. The adrisyaphalam in terms of “Papam” is immediately added to his invisible baggage. The natural forces may award him this adrisya phalam immediately or at a later date. For major acts of “Papam”, the result may be immediate, overtaking the entire baggage pending. The adrisya phalam is not awarded strictly in the order of committing the actions, but, in some other random logic, of the natural forces. Therefore, the murder may be found out either immediately, or a little later, or never by us. The murderer may later even become a member of legislature or Parliament also or a famous man in the society. But, he will face his adrisya phalam when he least expects it - from a least expected source. He may face a more cruel death or a prolonged suffering.

28.                Another example. Who gets the winning lottery ticket for say, $1 lakh? The one whose baggage of adrisya phalam deserves it. It is not that these things are happening in a random manner in the world. The cause-and-effect theory is absolute and is in operation. There is a cause behind every effect. The cause may be one or many.

29.                Another example. Why are some people poor and some are rich? Nature is not very particular about this aspect. What you call as riches or poverty, fame or anonymity, positions of power and of no power, glamour and its lack, are nothing in the eyes of nature. Of course, they are also the drisya phalam and adrisya phalam of various actions.

30.                 The proper question to be asked is – why are some people very happy most of the time, and why are some people suffering most of the time?

31.                A pauper may actually be very happy most of the time. There are no trappings around him which are the sources of unhappiness. His invisible baggage is also light and is full of virtuous deeds of the past. But another pauper may be in all sorts of misery, all the time – for just the opposite reasons.

32.                A rich man may be mostly unhappy and suffering, even with all the comforts provided by his riches. But, another rich man may really be enjoying his life very well – his invisible baggage may be full of virtuous deeds of the past (including past births).

33.                There are special circumstances in which there is no adrisya phalam for one’s actions at all. A liberated / enlightened person, who performs his actions with NON-ATTACHMENT does not carry any invisible baggage for such of his actions.

34.                Now – we have to draw the Karma theory from many other sources  - apart from the Gita. Lord Krishna himself has said that he is not telling any thing new – but that all this is coming from the most ancient scriptural wisdom which has always been there. He says, he himself (in a previous birth) had taught this knowledge in Kritha Yug (several lakhs of years earlier) to some great liberated wise men. He doesn’t carry any baggage – but is reborn as Lord Krishna for a purpose. He says, his purpose is “dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge”. I take birth in any period, when I need to bring virtuosity back to an even keel.

35.   So, we have seen the operation of Karma Yoga in case of ordinary persons like us, liberated persons (like Adi Sankara, Buddha etc), special purushas (or incarnations) like Lord Krishna who decide their actions and their fruits.

36.   If we believe that every cause must have its effect – we must accept the Karma Yoga theory (or karma theory).Our actions are in three shapes – Intentions, words and deeds. All these are rewarded in different ways. When you look at the world – this theory explains every action and its result quite efficiently.

37.   It is up to you to carry whatever invisible baggage you want to. Remember – for your thoughts, words and actions – you are responsible. For awarding you the results – a more unbiased, impartial invisible force is responsible.

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