Karma - A Perspective

What is good Karma and what is not? Is there a standard?

Answer is Yes. Karma that is abided by rules of Dharma laid out by Vedas, experts on Vedas. Manu Dharma Sastra is considered best book which laid out human dharma. If we are deviating from it, we are not doing good karma. Sastra has laid out the dos and donts for each varna and each asrama (like brahmachari, grihasta etc.,) If we are violating these we are not doing good Karma.

True realization is when you do all karma with out attaching yourself to fruit and not emotionally bonding yourself to the karma itself. King Janaka attained it. To wise men like him happiness and sorrow are one and the same. He was childless for long but he was not sad. At the same time he did not sit idle stating that it is vidhi. Instead he did all yagnas, homas for getting a child.(Karma) When he got Lord Rama as his son-in-law he did not go overboard with his joy. When his daughter had to go to forest with Rama he did not doom in sorrow. He was simply unattached, neither to sorrow nor to joy.

Ravana did lot of good deeds and tapas. How ever he did some wrong deeds like falling for other persons wives. Lord Rama had to wait till his bad karma dominates his good one so that he can kill Ravana. When he had Goddess Lakshmi in form of Sita in his Lanka, he looked at her with kama and that kept nullifying his good karma. In fact Hanuma said after Rama killed Ravana “Sita killed Ravana by staying in his Lanka for 9 months. Rama merely shot an arrow on the corpse left”

Eg

1. Actin sought here would be to correct the individual, if possible. If someone is not willing, it makes sense to do inevitable. If one lets his emotions here it is going to be tough to do “good karma”

2. Donating money is good karma. Doing it for sake of increasing bank balance of punya is deed of ordinary. Real wise man helps for sake of helping not for punya or fame. Helps because helping someone in need is dharma.

3. Some one cheated you by doing a bad karma. There is no unique answer here. Revenge definitely is not a right answer. Nor giving the person taste of his own medicine is recommended. Ideal way would be not to bother about it and continue doing what is dharma. When we are not doing Dharma ourselves what right do we have in pointing out fault of others? (This something that haunts me most of the times)