Four Kinds of Karma

Four kinds of karma are recognized in Hinduism:

< Sanchita karma : All the karma we've accrued from all our previous lives.

< Prarabdha karma : That portion of our total karmic backlog destined to play out in our present lifetime.

< Kriyanan karma : The fresh karma we're producing in this lifetime.

< Agama karma : Our plans for the future on which we have yet to act. The karma produced by our thoughts.

Sanchita karma is all the debits and credits in our soul's entire karmic portfolio. Parabdha karma is the debits and credits we have to deal with in this incarnation. Kriyaman karma is the store of merit and demerit we're adding to or subtracting from our karmic credit account right now.

Agama karma is more subtle. This is produced not by actions we've done but by our intentions to commit an action in the future. If we seriously want to hurt somebody, our Karmic account gets docked even if we don't actually do it.Though not as much as if we take action!

Most human souls have an immense amount of karma built up from many previous existences. Due to the constraints of time and space, only a small portion of it can manifest in any one lifetime.  In a previous life, we may intensely desired to live on Mars, for example. But in this life, only our karma to be a soft drink distributor may play out. The space colonizer karma will have to wait till another lifetime. That's the distinction between sanchita and Prarabdha karma.

Now, when we're not busy filling vending machines with cans of Pepsi and Sprite, we may spend all our free time studying about outer space and visiting Cape Canaveral to watch Space Shuttle launches. This karma we're creating now is adding to our total account. In a future life, we may be born as a child who desires to travel in space so intensely that she actually grows up to be an astronaut.

What's My Karma?

The process of reincarnation is driven by karma. Karma, to borrow from St. Paul in the Bible, means "As you sow, so shall you reap". Where, when, and in what circumstances we next incarnate is due, in large measure, to our thoughts, words, and actions in the past and present.

To be reborn into a human body is a great blessing. Human bodies, far more so than animal and plant bodies, are capable of devoting themselves to spiritual life. Most animals answer primarily to dictates of nature, but humans have a capacity for self-reflection rarely seen in animals. Vistas of unlimited spiritual growth lie spread before the men and women who turn their attention to inner life.

The capacity to make decisions for ourselves rather than automatically doing what our natural drives tell us to do gives humans our special status : We have free will. With free will comes responsibility, however. you can't blame a tiger if it kills a deer. But if one man kills another out of greed, delusion, or hatred, very serious karmic consequences ensue. Then again, if a person selflessly helps others, superb karmic results will ultimately follow.

We can lose our human status, Hindu sages warn. If we don't take advantage of our human birth but continue living like animals, we may return to an animal body in our next life. ( Perhaps some people would be more comfortable in animal bodies anyway . Then they can just eat, sleep, have sex, and never have to fill out tax forms). Particularly pernicious people, one holy text warns, could even be reborn as " flies, gnats and biting insects"!

Presence of Mind

I'm guessing your next question is, "Well, then how did Shanti Devi remember her past life?" This gets interesting.

You may have heard about the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Perhaps you've even heard of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Numbers of ancient, spiritually advanced cultures carefully trained people so they would know how to go through the process of death consciously. Often- as in the Egyptian texts and in some Gnostic Christian books, too- this involved memorizing lots of key phrases and detailed imagery.

The point in all these traditions is that if you don't want to lose yourself, if you want to attain the type of immorality that comes from the ability to hang on to your present identify from life, then during the process of death you must keep your presence of mind!

All those elaborate memorizations and visualizations in the variations in the various Books of the Dead are designed to help newly deceased soul stay focused and conscious.

Lugdi Devi, Shanti Devi's previous self, had been using an old trick recommended by yogis for thousands of years. During her Lugdi life she had kept repeating the name of God constantly, with full devotion, day and night. At the time of her death, her mind stayed with the divine name. It helped her remain calm and alert through a process where most people lose consciousness. As she was being reborn, her awareness remained with the name of God rather than locking into her new physical brain. So she didn't forget her previous identity. Shanti Devi actually describes this procedure in Lonnerstarnd's book.

Well, you may believe this story or you may not. But now you know how it's explained in the Hindu tradition.

Why Don't I Remember?

You don't have to say it. I know you're thinking, " If we lived before, how come we don't remember?" Shanti Devi may have recalled her previous life, but most of us sure don't.

Actually we do, according to the Hindus. The very fact that we're drawn to certain people and certain places is a reflection of the dim memory of previous lives we all possess. The fact that most of us don't remember our last life in detail like Shanti Devi is due to the nature of the soul.

In the West, those of us who believe in a soul at all think of it in a very straightforward way. There's the body. it dies. There's the soul. it lives forever.For Hindus the topic is not so simple. Hindus believe the universe is multidimensional, and so is the soul. What the soul is for anyone who wants to understand Hinduism. I'll go into it in a lot more detail in Chapter 8, " Turning on Your Inner Light".

Now to answer your question about why we don't remember our past lives. At the moment of rebirth, Hindus believe, the infant takes its first gulp of air and becomes a breathing being. This jolts the brain and subtle body, causing a force called Vaishnava Shakti to act. In most people, it cuts off detailed memories of the past life.

In fact, it also cuts off detailed memories of this life, which is why most people don't remember much of current life either. The soul is still completing its "hook up" to the new physical brain, and not all the data from the previous life is downloaded. It's still there though, preserved in an internal drive called the karmashaya, a storage brain previous thoughts and actions that' s a little hard for us to access because it's buried deep in the subtle body, not the physical brain.

" This Is Not My Real Home!"

Shanti Devi, a young girl growing up in Delhi in the 1930s, spoke very little till she was four years old. When she did start talking, she alarmed everyone in her family. " This is not real home! I have a husband and son in Mathura!I must return to them!"

This was India, so instead of taking their daughter to Psychiatrist for a dose of Ritalin, her parents told her, " That is now. Forget your past life. You're with us this time".

But Shanti Devi wouldn't give up. She talked about her former to anyone who would listen. One of her teachers at school sent a letter to the address Shanti Devi gave as her " real home" in Mathura, inquiring if a women had died there not too many years ago. To his astonishment, he soon received a reply from Sahnti Devi's previous husband, admitting that his young wife Lugdi Devi had passed away previously, after giving birth to their son. The detail's Shanti Devi had given about her old house and members of her previous family were all confirmed.

This launched the most thoroughly researched investigation of a case of reincarnation in modern history. Everyone got in on the act, including Mahatma Gandhi and several prominent members of the Indian government. A team of researchers, working under stringent condition to ensure that Shanti Devi couldn't possibly be getting her information from any other source, accompanied the little girl to Mathura. On her own, she was able to lead them to her previous home, and correctly described what it had looked like years earlier before its recent refurbishing. She was also able to relate extremely intimate information, such as extramarital affairs of family members, that no one outside the family could possibly have known.

The award-winning Swedish journalist Sture Lonnerstrand spent several weeks with Shanti Devi later in her life, recording her story and verifying information about the famous government investigation. If you have any interest in reincarnation at all, I highly recommend his book, I have lived Before : The True Story of Reincarnation of Shanti Devi. In it this remarkable woman describes what it's like two lives at once-the one going on now and another that's supposed to be over. She also describes her experiences in the transition period between her death as Lugdi Devi and her rebirth as Shanti Devi.

Caught in the Spin Cycle

" The supreme Being is present in everyone's heart, Arjuna", says Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. " He directs the comings and goings of all living beings. It's as if they're strapped into a spinning machine. That machine is the material universe".

Imagine a gigantic Ferris wheel. Only the top half of it is above ground. It rotates upward from beneath the earth: a child is born. It reaches its zenith: full adulthood is attained. It starts to turn downward: old age kicks in. It disappears beneath the earth: death.

The cycle doesn't stop there, It continues through afterdeath expriences that those of us still standing on the  surface of the earth can't see. Then it swings back up again from beneath the ground: the soul is reborn in another body.

We meet a person we've never laid eyes on before and instantly we feel like we've known her forever. We meet another person and immediately we distrust him. Why?

Some of us are born with exceptional talents. We may be gifted singers, musicians, scientists, business people. We're attracted from early childhood to fields in which we already seem to have notable abilities. How can this be?

This Western scientists answer would be that at some point in our embryonic development the molecule in am unidentified enzyme shifted slightly and shaped our brain chemistry a certain way. Hindus offer an alternative answer that makes at least as much sense as that. They say we're attracted and repelled by new people we meet because we've met them before, and at some level of our awareness, we already know whether they're friend or foe. We have skills in certain areas because we developed them through plain hard work in previous lives.

Born Again!

You've heard about Hindu history. You learned about the holy books that define the Hindu tradition. You read a whole chapter on the fundamental Hindu attitude toward religious life, a view based on tolerance and mutual respect. Now it's time to get down to the nitty-gritty : What Hindus really believe.

The elements of Hindu faith can be summarized in two words : Karma and reincarnation. We are all born again.

" Come Lord"

Since proof that Jesus visited India would have enormous historical implications, I've looked into the issue in far more detail than I have space to outline here. I would love to tell you the evidence is strong. But when I look at it clearheadedly, I can't honestly say that's true. Still, I haven't completely closed my mind to the possibility.

A colleague of mine, the president of the Himalayan Institute, pointed out that the oldest Christian Prayer (used by St. Paul in I Corinthians and by John in the Book of Revelation) is Maranatha, which in Aramic means "Come, Lord".

In Sanskrit, Marantha means " Lord of Love".

Oh, and one more thing. The name of the area near Srinagar, Kashmir where Jesus is supposed to have lived is-Amaranatha.

A Tomb in Kashmir

Other evidence has been brought forward, such as a tomb in Srinagar, the capital city of Kashmir, where legend claims Jesus is buried. Another tomb near Taxila  in Afghanistan (Taxila is near the border of Kashmir) has long been recognized by locals as the final resting place of "the Mother Mary".

The Acts of Thomas, an astonishing early Christian text, describes how Jesus commanded his disciple, the famous Doubting Thomas, to sail to India to teach. Then it suggest that Jesus himself visited Thomas in north India.

That Christian missionaries established a church in India not long after Jesus' crucifixion is an uncontested historical fact. But we need to approach the rest of the evidence presented here very cautiously. The resting places of saints have always been big business, and what is now called the tomb of Jesus might just as well have been called the tomb of Mohammed a few centuries ago, depending on what pilgrims were passing through town and how much they were willing to pay to see the tomb.

A Doubting Thomas myself, at the back of my mind is the nagging concern that the famous Tibetan manuscript could be a modern forgery. Or, to put it more generously, a well meaning work of historical fiction. It's extremely unfortunate that the manuscript has vanished, so we'll probably never have an opportunity to examine it more closely.

The Tibetan Evidence

In the late 1880s, a Russian explorer named Nicolas Notovitch was cared for by Tibetan monks in a monastery in Ladakh after being thrown from a horse. While he was there, a sympathetic Buddhist monk translated for him a fascinating Tibetan manuscript that described a visit to Kashmir in northern India by a young man from the land of Israel. The man's name was Issa (very close to Isha or Yeshu, the Indian pronunciations of Jesus' name).

According to the text, Issa ran away from home at the age of thirteen. He made his way along the well-traveled Silk Road to India, where he spent twelve years studying with both Hindu and Buddhist teachers. By the time he completed the long trek back to Palestine, he was 29 years old. The manuscript gives various fascinating details about Issa's stay in the east.

In 1922, Swami Abhedananda, an Indian monk from the Oriental Seminary in Calcutta, visited Tibet and saw the manuscript. He brought back a translation he worked on with the help of a Tibetan lama.

Before Western scholars heard about the stunning find and could reach the monastery to examine it for themselves, the Chinese army invaded Tibet. During the devastating destruction of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries that followed, this amazing manuscript disappeared.

Did Jesus visit India?

Recently, independent investigators have raised the issue of whether Jesus might have studied with the sages of India. Since this question has caught the attention of many New Agers, you and I might as well deal with it here.

We know absolutely nothing about most of Jesus' life. His entire teenage years and young adulthood are missing from the historical record, investigators have pointed out. Could this be because he was absent from Palestine all those years, perhaps on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas?

The question intrigues people because so many of the miracles attributed to Christ- healing the sick, materializing objects like extra food to feed large crowds, controlling the weather, clairvoyance, and mastery over death-are identical to the powers attributed to the greatest of the Hindu masters even today. Could Jesus have learned these techniques from Hindu gurus?

A number of surprising pieces of evidence have been well publicized.

What Missionaries Are Missing

Christian missionaries have often complained about the intractability of Hindus. They're very tough to convert. Hindus may listen with great interest and enthusiasm to the story of Jesus' life and then go home and lovingly place a picture of Jesus on their home altars, right next to the pictures of Shiva and Krishna and the Goddess! They have a hard time grasping that Jesus supposed to be only God whose picture is on the altar!

Hindus worship God not only in temple images but in special trees and stones and rivers. For Hindus, God is literally omnipresent and his grace is literally limitless . Divine being never turns away from any soul who turns to It with sincerity, no matter whether they call It Isis or Allah, Rama or Jesus.

And if Jesus really blesses and protects as the missionaries say he does, then by all means, Hindus feel, put his picture on the altar, too!

The Radiant Stranger

One day another visitor to the temple started telling Ramakrishna about Isha, as Hindus call Jesus. Ramakrishna was tremendously inspired by the story of Jesus' life, and felt his commitment to Hinduism slipping away. From now on he would be a Christian! He sat in front of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Isha in her lap and went into ecstasy.

One day shortly after adopting this new religion, Ramakrishna was astonished to see a foreigner with a face glowing radiantly coming directly toward him. " This is Jesus Chirst!' he realized. The radiant man walked right up to him and then merged into his heart, throwing the master once more into unspeakable states of bliss.

Ramakrishna resumed his duties as a priest of Kali, but now he also told people, " Christianity is a true faith, too. If you practice Christianity sincerely, it will take you to God".

In his life, Ramakrishna tested three great faiths, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. He found, through direct experiential practice, that although each religion differed drastically in doctrine, all of them were legitimate spiritual paths. Any one of them could do the job of bringing us home to God.

Trying out Islam

To the unrestrained horror of his family and friends,, Ramakrishna refused to even come near the main temple. He started dressing like a Muslim, performed Islamic prayers while bowing toward Mecca five times a day as Muslims do, and wouldn't even look at the image of a Hindu god.

Ramakrishna insisted he was going to eat like a Muslim, too. This meant eating beef, which to a Hindu is a virtual equivalent of eating human flesh. . This was just too much. His disciples hired a Muslim cook who prepared a vegetarian meal cooked in the Muslim style. Ramakrishna, who had no idea what beef tasted like, ate the dish in all good faith.

After three days of total commitment to Islam, Ramakrishna had a vision of Mohammed. He saw the Muslim prophet, shinning with spiritual luminosity, dissolve into God and then God dissolve into the Absolute Reality. Ramakrishna went into such ecstasy his disciples were hard pressed to bring him back to this plane of reality.

When he did return, the master announced, " Islam is a true path. I experienced the highest reality by practicing it". Then to his family's immense relief, he went back to being a good Hindu. But more trouble lay ahead.

Ramakrishna Samples Religions

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, one of the greatest saints of the modern era, was born into a brahmin family in the tiny village of Kamarpukur in Bengal in 1836. As he entered young adulthood, he was handed a plum of a job. He would be a priest at the new temple complex in Howrah, on the opposite bank of the Ganges directly across from Calcutta.

Ramakrishna soon distinguished himself as a saint of the highest order. He was able to spontaneously enter high states of consciousnesses it usually took yogis a lifetime to master. His ecstatic devotion to the goddess Kali chanted visitors and soon created a community of disciples who loved to be near the Goddess-intoxicated master. 

Then a disaster of unimaginable proportions occurred. Ramakrishna converted to Islam! During a conversation with a Sufi who had come to see the temple, Ramakrishna was so impressed by the beautiful teachings at the heart of Islam that he decided, " Islam is also a way to reach God. I must practice this path".   

The Smartas: Intelligent Faith

One of the most famous Hindu sages of historical times, Shankaracharya, was so disgusted with the petty disputes of the different Hindu sects that he formed his own denomination, the Smartas. The Samrtas, he directed, would worship all the major gods of both North and South India! To this day, Smarta swamis honor Hinduism's great gods : Vishnu (the one who keeps the universe in good running order and incarnates on Earth from time to time to deal with special emergencies), Shiva (the one who sits in meditation all the time), Devi (the Mother of the Universe),Ganesha (that's the one with the elephant head), Murugan (the young warrior god of the Tamils), and Surya (the sun god).

Shankaracharya was an advanced yogi who believed that in reality God is beyond all form. Yet he was wise enough to recognize that the tremendous faith simple people had in their beloved deities, like Krishna or the Divine Mother, could be mobilized to their spiritual benefit if it was directed intelligently. Directed away from squabbling about whose god was the greatest of all and toward the actual experience of the unity of all gods and all beings in the one Supreme Being.

Shankaracharya founded four great monasteries at the four corners of India : Puri in the east, Badrinath in the north, Dvarka in the west, and Sringeri in the south. Down through the centuries the heads of these institutions, called Shankarachrayas after their founder, have emphasized the need for tempering enthusiastic devotion with mature intelligence.

Enough Miracles for Everyone

Again and again Hindu scriptures repeat the same point. Rama, before he rushes off to save his wife from her abductor, worships Durga, the warrior goddess. However the members of different sects may feel about the superiority of their own deity, the Hindu gods themselves worship each other!

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna- the voice of the Supreme Being itself- assures us, " To whatever god you direct your prayer, by whatever name you call the Supreme, your prayer immediately comes to Me". Call God Harry if you want. If your prayer is sincere, it goes right to the heart of the universe and God responds. This is why miracles don't only happen in the lives of Roman Catholic or only for Sunni Muslims or only for Hindus. People everywhere experience miracles because God attends to the prayers of all.

Who the Gods Worship

At this juncture in history, the god Vishnu was incarnating on Earth in the form of a prince named Rama, who was wandering in the forest with his wife, Sita. This seemed like a good place to catch up with Vishnu, who is otherwise quite busy running the universe.

So Narada teleported to the forest where he wound up having to wait several hours to get Rama's attention. Rama was in the middle of making offerings into the sacred fire, an age-old religious ritual. When he finally finished, he ran over to Narada and apologized. " Sir, I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting! I was performing my daily worship of Lord Shiva".

Narada was delighted! Here was his answer without his even having to ask. Rama, who is the embodiment of Vishnu, considered Shiva a greater god than Vishnu himself!

Narada immediately teleported to heaven to tell Shiva the exciting news. But there he found he also had to wait. Shiva doesn't run the universe (that's Vishnu's job). Shiva is the transcendent reality who sits away from the world, always engaged in meditation. Finally the Lord opened His eyes, and looked up and saw the rishi. "Oh Narada, I'm sorry I kept you waiting!" Shiva apologized. " I just couldn't tear myself away from meditating on the lotus feet of Lord Rama!"

The Vedic Vision

Yet religious tolerance is more the norm. A man may be devoted to Lord Vishnu, but when his wife moves into the household, she may place her image of Lord Shiva on the family altar. Their daughter, however, may be more attracted to the goddess Lakshmi and place her image in the family shrine. And no one blinks an eye!

In fact, this open attitude can be traced all the way back to the Veda itself. Still, throughout the centuries, Hindu saints and even India's famous divine incarnations had to make the point over and over again : " God is one. Men call Him by various names".

In one very well-known story, the deva rishi Narada got so fed up with the devotees of Shiva and Vishnu squabbling with each other about which of their gods was higher that he decided to resolve the question for once and for all.