Understanding of Karma For Counselling

            Understanding of Karma For Counselling

In Hinduism Karma may be understand as follows: 

a) As per Hinduism the role of karma to understand of self:

     It is indicated by Pap and Punya of soul to get moksha. In Hinduism the karma is the path of moksha and to know who am I? . Through Karma only one can know himself/herself. It says that all souls are the part of super soul ( paramatma)

 b) The role of karma to understand attitude towards life in Hinduism: 

    Tulsidas, a Hindu saint, said: "Our destiny was shaped long before the body came into being." As long as the stock of sanchita karma lasts, a part of it continues to be taken out as prarabdha karma for being enjoyed in one lifetime, leading to the cycle of birth and death. A Jiva cannot attain moksha (liberation) from the cycle of birth and death, until the accumulated sanchita karmas are completely exhausted. Unkindness yields spoiled fruits, called pāpa, and good deeds bring forth sweet fruits, called punya. As one acts, so does one become: one becomes virtuous by virtuous action, and evil by evil action.

 c) The role of Karma to their socialization: 

     It has also been argued that Karma has a role in Hindu society as a whole. When one abides by their caste duty good Karma is earned and vice versa; and the Karma one collects is reflected in the next life as movement within the Caste system. The promise of upward mobility appealed to people, and was made plausible through Karma. This effectively "tamed" the lower castes into passive acceptance of the status quo. Thus, the Karma doctrine discouraged actual social mobility.

 d) The role of Karma to coping with Stress: 

    Stress is one way to create human bondage. If one considers this, one can perceive how stress cultivates worry, frustration, procrastination and other aspects of negative energy for many. In doing this, we are choosing to create karma which, when it returns, will continue this cycle of negativity. We have landed in bondage because we do not understand that what is happening to us is because of us. The law of karma states that we're responsible for our fate. We also have the choice of generating positive energy to emit and return to us. But if we choose to succumb to the stress and react with negativity, we become a slave to it. By understanding that the law of energy is attempting to balance itself, we can see that what I have perceived as stress is really an opportunity for growth to occur and positive energy to flow. Worry, passivity and frustration are choices that will not allow that balance to be achieved, and thus they continue the cycle of stress.

In Jainism Karma may be understand as follows :

a) As per Jainism the role of karma to understand of self: 

    Karma is to know the Jīva or Atman. The jiva, according to Jainism, is an essential part of how the process of karma, rebirth and the process of liberation from rebirth works.

 b) The role of karma to understand attitude towards life:  

        Karma is the mechanism that determines the quality of life. The happiness of a being's present life is the result of the moral quality of the actions of the being in its previous life. A soul can only achieve liberation by getting rid of all the karma attached to it. In Jainism ayu-karma (life-span-determining) determines the duration of a being's life (within the limits of the species into which the jiva is reborn)

c) The role of Karma to their socialization: 

        In Jainism gotra-karma (status-determining) determines the status of a being within its species. Gotra karma has a definite role in socialization of Jainism.

 d) The role of Karma to coping with Stress: 

        The karma sticks to the jiva because negative characteristics of the jiva, passions like anger, pride and greed, make the jiva sticky. Karma can be warded off by avoiding these negative characteristics. Thus karma helps to coping with stress by avoiding negative characteristics.

            According to believer of Hinduism Karma is the universal principle of cause and effect. Actions of people, both good and bad, come back to them in the future, helping them to learn from life's lessons and become better people. Karma is one of the natural laws of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter. Just as God created gravity to bring order to the physical world, He created karma as a divine system of justice that is self-governing and infinitely fair. We create our own destiny through thought and action.  Karma is the totality of our actions and their reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determine our future. "Karma" literally means "action," and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction, which Hindus believe governs all consciousness.  Karma is not fate, for we act with what can be described as a conditioned free will creating our own destinies. Karma refers to the totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determine our future. The conquest of karma lies in intelligent action and dispassionate reaction. Not all karmas rebound immediately. Some accumulate and return unexpectedly in this or other lifetimes.

In Jainism doctrine of karma lies in providing a rational and satisfying explanation to the apparent unexplainable phenomenon of birth and death, of happiness and misery, of inequalities and of existence of different species of living beings. The theory of karma is able to explain day-to-day observable phenomena such as inequality between the rich and the poor, luck, differences in lifespan, and the ability to enjoy life despite being immoral. According to Jains, such inequalities and oddities that exist even from the time of birth can be attributed to the deeds of the past lives and thus provide evidence to existence of karmas. Karma is a physical substance that is everywhere in the universe. Karma particles are attracted to the soul by the actions of that soul. Karma particles are attracted when we do, think, or say things, when we kill something, when we lie, when we steal and so on. Karma not only encompasses the causality of transmigration, but is also conceived of as an extremely subtle matter, which infiltrates the soul—obscuring its natural, transparent and pure qualities. Karma is thought of as a kind of pollution that taints the soul with various colours. Based on its karma, a soul undergoes transmigration and reincarnates in various states of existence—like heavens or hells, or as humans or animals.

The process of action and reaction on all levels—physical, mental and spiritual—is karma. An architect thinks creative, productive thoughts while drawing plans for a new building. But were he to think destructive, unproductive thoughts, he would soon not be able to accomplish any kind of positive task even if he desired to do so. This is  karma, a natural law of the mind. We must also be very careful about our thoughts, because thought creates, and thoughts make karmas—good, bad and mixed.