[Advaita-l] puNya for mentally challenged individuals

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

PraNAms

Not sure what scriptures say. However as a general rule, there has to be kartRitva bhaavam for punya or papa resulting from any action. The question is what extent the individual has that will depend on the mental state or maturity of that individual.

Hari Om!
Sadananda


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On Sun, 12/15/13, Raghav Kumar <raghavkumar00 at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: [Advaita-l] puNya for mentally challenged individuals
 To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 Date: Sunday, December 15, 2013, 4:18 AM
 
 Om
 
 Does a mentally challenged individual get the result of a
 karma like dAna
 or a pUja or other karma done in his name by some other
 person like a
 guardian. Is there any sAshtra reference to such cases. Or
 any purANic
 anecdote which clarifies this.
 
 (To elaborate: Performance of karma needs a sankalpa on the
 part of the
 individual. Even a yajamAna initiates karma by his own
 sankalpa and so the
 purohita who is appointed to execute vaidika karma does not
 get the karma
 phala - rather the yajamAna gets the karma phala. There the
 situation is
 clear. And Jaimini Dharma Sutras etc make this quite clear.
 
 But in the case of a mentally challenged individual (or even
 an infant for
 that matter), the situation is different. Will dAnam or some
 other karmas
 done in their name accrue to them - that is the question.
 Intuitively we
 may say 'yes.'.  But are there any clear sAshtra or
 purAna reference which
 deal with this question - specifically of dAnam done in the
 name of a
 mentally challenged individual or an infant. There is also
 another
 aspect,i.e.,  popular notion is that a child below five
 years does not
 incur any pApa for vidhi infringements. Does this have any
 implications for
 the question raised above.)
 
 I request your clarification.
 
 Thank you
 Raghav Kumar
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