Karmas

I have heard that Gyaan (True knowledge)  burns away all the 'Sanchit karmas'.

Now what is 'Sanchit karmas'?  Sanchit karmas' are all the  karmas from various lifetimes that one has accumulated and one has to pay for in subsequent life incarnations. However much 'gyaan' you possess you still have to go through your 'Prarabdh karmas'.

Now what is 'Prarabdh karmas'?  'Prarabdh karmas' are those karmas that have already started to fructify during this lifetime. These karmas whether they be good or bad one has to go through. This is the reason why you sometimes see terrible things happening to very good people.

The 'gyaanis' (Enlightened Souls)  however are not very much affected by these 'karmas'. They consider them like a hot flame burning, its nature is to give out heat.

So what do you do? Just stand aside and watch. You might just get to enjoy the colour and the majesty of the flames. Is this too difficult to understand?

Feedback from Readers on the topic of Karmas :

From V

You wrote :

Dear Shaku, 

Dinner conversation last night was that in Hinduism we believe that we can come back as animals, and someone said that Dr. Weiss says that he has never regressed anyone who was an animal in a past life. My reply was that as our karmas, so we return on the ladder of spiritual progress, but i could not explain who returns as a cockroach! pls. explain. 

Love, V

My reply :

There are 2 schools of thought in Hinduism.   One professes that we do not regress as an animal. The other that we do. 

In the Shrimad Bhaagvad, there is a story where a great personality regressed as a deer because he died being attached to one. Also another personality became a worm as he died yearning for a fruit. It is clearly stated that if you think of wealth at the time of death you come as a snake. I believe that you do regress. It may be for a very short life span to learn an important lesson and sometimes the soul learns that lesson better as a weak animal, because it cannot really retaliate and thereby make fresh karmas.