Exploring Karma

Words are like rocks, losing their nuanced meanings over a period of time, just like the sediment that chips away. There are several examples of how we cherry pick and propagate the most convenient or the simplest meaning there is for a word. In many cases, the dominant meaning remains, with the nuances lost to lack of use over time. Interestingly enough, popular usage can also help re-discover (and perhaps recover) the same lost nuances, just like the way rocks can pick up stuff and grow.

Take, for instance, the word Karma. Various cultures have borrowed this word from Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism), and have added it to their lexicon. The word has made it to most commonly used English dictionaries world over. Meanings commonly attributed to Karma are as follows:

• what goes around comes around
• our past actions (cause) will determine the future outcomes (effect)
• action predestined, a product of compounded influences across previous births and the present one

Like other terms that are borrowed freely from Hinduism, Karma is a victim of reduction, which is the unfortunate outcome where a complex phenomenon is boiled down to a label that seeks to only diminish but not educate. Somewhat similar our reduction of political ideologies to mere left and right, which has resulted in polarization rather than dialog. In the case of Karma, the reduction is to a meaning indicating a sort of cosmic revenge, or immediate payback.

Perhaps the most important treatise about Karma comes from the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna makes a proclamation about doing one’s duty without laying ownership claims to results, which goes on to become the Gita’s centerpiece. Several Hindu Gurus over the past millennia have written about Karma and have helped extract valuable nuggets from this vast mine.

One such nuance is revealed by Madhwacharya, one of the principal Gurus of Hindu Dharma from the 13th and 14th centuries whose commentaries helped bring a multi-layered approach to understanding the the Vedic texts. Karma, per him, is one’s duty towards one’s society and community. Etymologically, Karma contains the syllables kara (कर - Sanskrit), indicating duty. Interestingly enough, the word duty, in addition complementing right, also means the dues owed to the tax authorities. Somewhat like the debt we owe to our society, and which is not an optional repayment.

While diverse cultures explore and soak in the concepts of Karma into their social fabric, we should continue to dive deeper to discover new nuances of this term. Whether Karma turns out to be the steering that directs our lives, or if that position will be held only by our worldly pursuits, only time will tell.