The law of karma (Re: sandhya etc.)

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

--- MSR <miinalochanii at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> Gravity will not distinguish between a 6 year old
> and 26 year old. It
> is a blind force and jaDa. Whether a 6 year old
> jumps from a tall
> building or 26 year old, it work the same. But karma
> phala is not given
> by such a blind force which is jaDa. Please see the
> commentary on
> karma-phala-pradaa of trishatii. Such an erroneous
> view is held by
> puurva miimaamsaka-s.

Thanks to Kartik for posting from the Dialogs with the
Guru. That makes things very clear.

It seems clear that I was mistaken about children and
karma. I also went through the Apastamba dharma sUtra
and it says the same thing which Sri Chandrashekhara
Bharati Mahaswaminah says.

That aside, I think the rest of my comments still
stands. BTW, this is not the first time this extract
from the lalitAtrishatI bhAshhya, supposedly composed
by sha.nkara, has been miscontrued. Long time readers
may remember that someone happily interpreted this
passage so as to mean that there is no "free-will" and
Anand Hudli had already pointed this out what this
passage means in clear terms.

The point bhagavatpAda makes against the mImA.nsaka-s
is that there is nothing called apUrva or adR^ishhTa,
but rather Ishvara, an intelligent being, is the
karma-phala-dAtA. He agrees with them on all other
things including importance of dailiy rituals, their
effects, their importance, etc. And the passage given
from the so called trishatI bhAshhya is nothing
contradictory to what I said.

Both the physical laws and the law of karma are
manifestations of Ishvara's will. "The sun shines out
of fear of him" says the veda. He is akhilAnDeshvara -
Lord of every part of the universe. Physical laws are
just another manifestation of Ishvaras will.

Please refer to brahma-sUtra-bhAshhya 3.4.26(?) and go
down for about 10 sUtra-s. I may be mistaken about 26,
but you should be able to find the relevant sUtra-s in
3.4 easily. Just see how much importance sha.nkara
gives to karma. If I get time, I'll try to post
extracts.

When the importance of karma is understood, it will be
clearly seen that that we cannot say that a person who
does karma properly is *also* a good bhakta, but
rather *only* a person who does karma properly is a
true bhakta.

Rama


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