Karma Yog: The Doorway To Break The Karmic Cycle
On the Law of Karma:
We get what we deserve is the Law of Karma. Humans have the freedom to perform actions, but the results are not in our hands. The results are bestowed based on numerous factors—our efforts, destiny, the will of God, the efforts of others, the cumulative karmas of the people involved, the place, situation, etc.
There is a famous statement, “Without the will of God, not even a leaf can move.”
On why the Law of Karma exists:
If God were the doer of all our deeds, all of them would be perfect. The statement implies that God provides us the power to perform actions, and we use that power to perform actions through our free will. In this way, we incur karmic reactions to our deeds determined by our discretionary use of free will.
On why crime exists in the world:
We possess free will, i.e., freedom to choose our actions. That said, we have the option to either choose God or the world of Maya. The problem is that we have utilised our independence to turn away from God and towards Maya. Consequently, Maya has overcome us and put us in ignorance. It is because of the covering of ignorance that we make mistakes.
On destiny:
Destiny is not something that descends from the heavens, nor is it in horoscopes. The actions we performed in our past lives created our present destiny—prārabdh karma. It is fixed for the present life and predetermined. However, we have the free will to make choices and perform works in the present moment—kriyamāṇ karma. This type of karma is in our hands to be changed as we wish. We created our current life destiny through our actions in past births. By exercising our free will prudently in the present, we can create a bright future for ourselves.
On the karmic cycle:
While performing good deeds is beneficial, they still keep us bound to the cycle of karma and its fruits. To break the cycle of karmic reactions, we must adopt a superior principle of working—the science of 'karma yog'. In the Gita, Shree Krishna asks Arjun to keep performing his duties as a warrior but detach himself from the fruits of this works. In this way, bondage-creating karmas would transform into bondage-breaking karmas.
