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Today, talking about karma often means taking the risk of being considered exotic, eccentric or possibly Buddhist sympathizer, but what is it really? Buddhism, which was born from Hinduism, did not influence the latter in its fundamental relationship to karmic laws as they were expressed at the time of the Rishis (contrary to what some scholars tend to believe) , or much later (around 1300 BC) in the Mahabaratha, and therefore the Baghavat Gheeta. That there was subsequently a back and forth of influences is probable, but we do not find in Buddhism the importance given to the anagami state, or to pareksha prarabdha karma for example, because tri-karma is not mentioned there. We will therefore develop here the notion of triple karma which is only a formulation of the three aspects of the causal process (karma), accessible to human understanding and totally independent of the reincarnationist theses which are often attached to it.
KARMA & KARMA-VIDYA
The word karma has a general meaning of a process of action or action, a driving force linking effects to their causes, and the word vidya that of knowledge, penetrating vision, intellection, but in fact what in Hinduism is represented by karma or karmas is a causal field in infinite expansion, having the possibility of modulating its expansion according to more or less individualized forms and in various dimensions. Related to the human being, this field follows the curvature of time and space which define our existential conditions, but cannot in any way depend on it. Jyothisha (traditional Indian astrology which is also called karma-vidya) is in fact a science of karma as it is projected onto the movements of objects which mark time. In ancient India, the notion of expansion is that of a movement that is not linked to time as we know it. Likewise, karma expresses a causality which is prior to time, only the manifestation of which we are the observers includes time and space, and the great clock which allows us to measure this time, and therefore karmic developments, is the movement of stars, which reproduces by projection (in a harmonic, homothetic and analog way), the cycles defining the successive stages of this expansion.
We are therefore quite far from the idea of Madame Irma's karma-destiny or reincarnationist or spiritualist karma which triggers passions, even if there may be points of convergence...
But as man cannot conceive of anything that is not a projection of his five senses, he had to reduce to his own level what stood out and was no longer intelligible except in a paradoxical form. We will subsequently see what the non-intelligible can serve as an avenue for bringing man's life into coherence with his mind and his life function.
We will therefore discuss individual karma, since this is what concerns us directly.
INDIVIDUAL KARMA
The expansion-contraction which defines the movement of the universe takes place in an ordered manner according to an infinite program (indefinite, Guénon would say), which we could call "karma". This alternation of movement-non-movement is what characterizes each element of the universe: in fact everything that exists is subject to three states:
These three characteristics are found in the Indian Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva), in the Ayurvedic tridosha (vatha, kapha, pitta), the triguna (sattva, tamas, rajas), and in emergency (flight, tetany, fight). Both order and disorder result from these three characteristics. Disorder can itself be considered as one aspect of order; what makes the apparent contradiction, from a logical point of view, comes from its hierarchical position in the development of the causal process. However, this type of subject - fascinating in itself - is purely speculative, and what interests us in the first place is above all what concerns the individual, man; we will therefore follow Krishna's advice and concentrate on our swa-karma, the part of karma which underlies our individual function here on earth, with our feet firmly on Earth.
If we consider the hypothesis of an information field in constant movement of which we would be one of the manifestations, we will be able to evoke and work together on a "fiction", that of ancient India, but for a fiction, it must be said that it is well constructed and well informed. The Sanskrit words that will be used do not have linguistic equivalents, so they will be cited as they are. What can knowledge of karmic process bring us?
Living in awareness of the karmic process (and the karmic rebounce) brings about an integral awareness which is anagami and the real essence of dharma.
ANAGAMI means freedom from the links to SAMSARA, and then MOKSHA, the ultimate goal of a human life according to the four ashramas.
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