G. Alagar Ramanujam & Uma Vethathiri
(This paper was presented to Indian Philosophy Congress, Tirupathy, 2007)
The Traditional Concept of Karma
Karma is a radical and central concept featuring in three major religions of India: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Sri Vethathiri Maharshi, a Mahan of our time who hailed from Tamilnadu, brought out a radical definition of Karma in itself and its nature of existence and function within humankind.
As usually defined, karma is the aggregate of tendencies within an individual-the term Karma is usually used with reference to unwanted or negative tendencies that are said to be the root cause of individual suffering. Though ‘Karma’ literally means ‘action’ it is generally used as a collective noun that indicates not only a single tendency, but also action produced by that tendency and the result of one’s actions-both the short and long term.
The Hindus believe in the doctrine of karma more than anything else. ‘Kar’ means organs of action and ‘karma’ is that which is done with ones organs of action. According to this commonly understood and accepted concept of karma, the present and future state of an individual depends upon what he does or does not do with his life. His actions (karma) and the consequences of his actions shape his life in all ways and determine the course of his personal evolution. Put simplistically, good deeds lead to good results and bad deeds to bad results. (1)
The Gita’s classic advice is to live in a spirit of renunciation, and rather than egoistically considering oneself the doer, it is recommended to dedicate all one’s actions to the Supreme. In this way, if one is not acting out of personal desire nor attached to results, there would not be any karmic penalties for his actions.
From the Buddhist perspective, any kind of intentional actions whether mental, verbal or physical is regarded as karma; it covers all thoughts, words and deeds. All good and bad action constitutes karma, but only that which is intentional. “I declare, O Bhikkhus, that volitions is karma. Having willed, one acts by body, speech and thought”, according to the Anguttara Nikaya. Unconscious or unintentional action does not constitute karma because the volition is the determining aspect that makes karma. Buddhist philosophy emphasises that one is free and is the soul responsible agent for his karma: in addition to the karmic burden that is inherited or due to external circumstance,one’s actions determine one’s life. Buddha stated, “We are the heirs of our own actions”. He indicated there are effects of past karmic effects on an individual’s present state and circumstances, but specifically stated that the human is a free agent and all is not pre-determined by karma. Thus he was clearly against a fatalistic attitude. (2).
The Jain concept is materialistic in that karma is not a mere effect but is a real substance. It is called ‘dirt’, as it is subtle, microscopic particles. It is a kind of subtle matter or flowing mass of energy that readily enters a living body with each activity and this material accumulates to form the ‘karmana sarira’. This sarira is gross and dark and surrounds the jiva to prevent its liberation, keeping the soul in bondage so long as it exists in the body. Its influences is interpretated only negatively; liberation is possible only through elimination and purification of this ‘dirt’ as karma hides the true nature of the soul and obstructs spiritual advancement. (3).
The Vethathirian concept of Karma
Now we come to the Vethathirian interpretation. Vethathiri Maharishi began to investigate at the point where tradition leaves as: we are under the influence of hereditary karma (sanchita) and karma acquired in this lifetime (prarabdha) and the combination of these is what brings about one’s present state (kriyamana, or akamya). Shri Vethathiri could never rest with uncritical acceptance of traditional knowledge; he examined everything from the combined angles of his rational intellect, his intuitive sense and personal observation. He found it evident that there is no physical organ as such were one’s karma is to be found in the body, yet there is no denying that each person inherits ancestral traits – obviously the physical, and apparently mental as well. Even the modern gene there is not so complete that it can explain the mechanism of carrying over traits from one generation to the next. If genes are the biological material that somehow encodes our traits, what is the means of carrying over these traits to be expressed in an embryo?. Shri Vethathiri pondered this question and arrived at an explanation: only something non physical – a magnetic wave complex – could be the retainer, conveyor and releaser of one’s characteristics into thought, leading to words and deeds.
From his youth Vethathiri sought to arrive at a clear understanding of god and life. Over decades of dedicated research and contemplation, he realized nature as the Unified Force with four attributes: Plenum (inexhaustible stock, fullness), Force (self -compressive, surrounding pressure), Consciousness (order of function), and Time (4). He found that the surrounding compression acting on each thing – animate as well as inanimate – creates a centripetal effect. Consequently there is a center in each of us that comprises the intensified: 1). sexual vital fluid, 2). life force particle and 3). bio magnetism. The sexual vital fluid is the chemical base of the life force particles; the life force particles give out the bio-magnetic wave by their spinning. Due to the centripetal effect these three are intensified at the ‘genetic center’ i.e. based, at the physical center of gravity, at the root chakra traditionally called ‘Mooladhar’.(5).
“Just as every celestial body by its centripetal force attracts everything on its surface towards its center, all the waves of pressure, sound, light, taste, smell and mind are attracted by the Genetic Centre and stored in the living body. In this way, all the waves of sensory, psychic and physical experiences (e.g. movements of the body, desires, decisions, discoveries, etc), are compressed into infinitesimal dots and received and stored by the Genetic Center. This entire collection of waves of experiences characterises one’s personality”.(6).
One’s prarabdha karmas are those characters accrued in the biomagnetic wave complex of the genetic center from the date of birth up to the present; the sanchita karma is those characters that one is born with, having been accrued through countless previous generations. Every living being is of both hereditary and present life effects and these precisely condition its physical structure and spiritual values.(7).
He defines the perennially mysterious concepts of ‘soul’ as the wave domine of the genetic center; it is the repository of the characteristics that result from all the experiences accrued through the evolutionary process of the life form up to the present. All one’s accumulation of karmas as a whole constitutes the characterized wave domain based at the center of the physical body that is constantly being added on by external factors as well as one’s internal state; our thoughts, feelings, food, movements etc.(8).
At conceptions each individual soul is the aggregate of his parents’ karma, which they acquired from their parents, and so on back throughout evolution. In this way, each of us contains all the characters of the genetic centres of the living systems we evolved from. The acquisition karma (characterization of the wave function) after conception is due to one’s every action and thought and the influence of the external environment. Hence, one’s karma at every movement is a wave function of incredibly large number of frequencies that functions in him or her, effectively pervading the entire body and based in the genes. This wave functions is their repository, retainer and reflector of all our experiences, and this itself emerges as the mind.
Vethathirian concept expressed through Science
These qualities of karma as explained by Shri Vethathiri are characteristic of all wave phenomena. It is common knowledge that the operating energy within a mechanical system (e.g. TV, radio, cellphone) is a wave function having the characteristics of being conditioned (modulated), a repository of information, and reflecting the information through an appropriate mechanism. By this similarity we are lead to the concept that the karma of every living system is purely a characterized wave function of several frequencies characteristic of that system.
We have found an interpretation of the Vethathirian philosophy using quantum perturbation technique, by which the character of one’s present (akamya) karma can be expressed as a set of probabilities that emerge from the sum of the sanchit and prarabdha characteristics that jointly comprise the possibilities.
We have identified karma (with mind as one of its resultant features) as a wave function and used the perturbation techniques of quantum mechanics as a possible tool to study the dynamics of the wave function. Each change in the composite wave function of a living system can be said to be the result of a perturbation that has come from within the system or from external sources.
The individual’s wave function at conception is a composite of many frequencies, each characterized in a particular way. This represents the ‘sanchita karma’. From this movement the wave function is continually perturbed and thereby characterized; this cumulative characterization due to the perturbation is the ‘prarabdha karma’. Here the quantum perturbation, is anything and everything that affects the living being. (For example, simple life forms like plants are affected by other nearby plants, climatic changes, etc. Higher life forms such as humas, are affected by a greater variety of input of all kinds, live environmental changes, psychic inputs such as conversation, though processes, interaction with other living beings etc). As a result of every perturbation, each frequency in the karmic wave packet is modified. In this way, every living system is continuously characterized to act and react, moment to moment, with a fresh set of probabilities. The set of probabilities is emergent from the set of possibilities and this set of probabilities ‘collapses’ to a particular state at at every moment. This collapses to a particular probability is one’s ‘akamya karma’. (9).
Conclusion
Here we have considered the individuals karma in its entirety as a wave packet and suggested that this interpretation by Shri Vetahthiri Maharishi lends itself to the application of quantum perturbation theory as s possible scientific technique to discuss sum of its aspects. The discussion presented here may help us to understand the wave nature of mind as a reflection from the genetic center wave complex, its continues characterization and probabilistic functioning.
The Vethathiran identification of the nature of karma as a wave complex in its function and results offer new material to philosophy. There is clearly a general concordance with the traditional doctrine of karma in the Indian religions, but there are points of difference, refinement and distinction. As Hindu thought says, Shri Vethathiri agrees that karma is acquired by actions and such karma become one’s sanskaras.
As presents karma is not determined but rather a set of probabilities, the Vethathirian theory reconciles karmic tendencies with freedom of will and personal responsibility. Hence, as the Buddhists emphasize, the importance of free will and individual responsbility is agreed.
The Jain doctrine of accumulation of a material nature is refined in the Vethathirian view to state the karmic accumulation is not material but rather an ongoing modulation of the wave domain. The Vethathirian view is that there is a broad spectrum of potential in each of us. One’s personal wave domain has been characterized by deeds through all the ages of evolutionary development up to the present. The most egoistic person and the enlightened sage differ in the developed quality of their wave complex; hence karma is not an issues of purity or masking reality, but of characterization.
To conclude it is gratifying that the topic of karma that is so important in Indian thought has been researched anew and we have been given a profoundly rational explanation by Shri Vethathiri, a great philosopher of our age. We are equally gratified that, with this clear exposition of the nature of karma in itself, one of the supposed unbridgeable gaps between science and philosophy could be closed and the age-old concept of Law of Karma can be discussed using a modern technique like quantum mechanics. When the existence of karma and its functioning principles are understood it would definitely show the way to a better life for all through ethical and productive living.
References
1. Hinduwebsite.com,article “Karma in Hinduism”
2. www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm
3. www.hinduwebsite.com/jainism/karmainjainism.asp
4. History of the Universe a and Living Beings, Vethathiri Publictions, 2004
5. Mind, Vethathiri Publications,1999
6. Ibid
7. Ibid
8. Genetic Center, Vethathiri Publications,2000
9. G. Alagar Ramanujam and Uma Fitzcharles, “Universal Magnetism and Transcendental Communication”, Paper presented as Invited Lecture at National Conference on Signals, Systems and Communications, Anna University, Chennai, 2005.
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