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Essay on Karma
What is karma essay
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The concept of Karma within Hinduism is applied to the overall idea of rebirth that each individual’s life cycle is driven by the course of actions they take. Furthermore, Karma serves to be a notion that determines each individual’s hierarchical position within each life that they obtain (Molloy 2013). I am highly familiar with the concept of Karma as growing up a Hindu myself and having been exposed to the moral law through cultural and religious understanding, Karma serves to hold a crucial place within how I practice my religion. Moreover, the conception of Karma consists of a spectrum, which serves as a form of orientation and guidance for humans and their behavior. For instance, one end of the spectrum determines if an individual will live a free, pleasurable life while the other end of the spectrum will determine if the individual will live an unpleasant life after rebirth based on his or her moral conduct within the past life (Molloy 2013). In addition, gaining an insight on the ideology of Karma from religious and moral teachings since childhood proved to be highly fascinating for me as I …show more content…
was taught that Karma is a cyclical notion of “what goes around comes around” (Molloy 2013). Further, allowing me to grasp the generalized idea of how morals and values are key factors for driving one’s deeds that influence their next life (Molloy 2013). Additionally, I agree with Molloy’s claims within the textbook regarding how karma is adjacent to the concept of nature (Molloy 2013) as that idea relates to the prior teachings I have received. The concept of nature coincides with Karma as the natural occurrences of particular things and actions serve as determinants for individuals and the life they will be granted as the cycle of rebirth continues (Molloy 2013). Overall, the concept of Karma holds a significant place within Hinduism as well as for my family and I as Karma serves as a guiding force for individuals within the contemporary generation today as morals, values, experiences and actions are the influential characteristics of an advantageous or a disadvantageous life forthcoming in the future (Molloy 2013). Another concept that I am particularly familiar with is the notion of Moksha also referred to as the idea of “freedom or liberation” (Molloy 2013).
As growing up a Hindu myself the conception of Moksha holds a remarkable importance within Hinduism as the belief is embedded within many cultural and religious teachings. Furthermore, moksha is considered to be the highest achievement a human can obtain within his lifetime according to the Upanishads (Molloy 2013) as moksha emphasizes on gaining autonomy from an egoistic perception (Molloy 2013). Moreover, moksha signifies the importance of obtaining freedom from materialism, desire and egocentrism in order to perceive the world within its true form (Molloy 2013). In addition, having gained knowledge about moksha since childhood always fascinated me to want to learn more about how achieving liberation can help an
individual
Hinduism is a broad and encompassing religion. Due to such, the study and answer of any specific question in this religion is difficult. In order to adjust for this, I am going to look at the gunas, the various life goals, life stages, and social castes and see the specific impact that each of these have on morality and ethics in Hinduism.
Karma is the moral law of cause and effect (Bowker 2006, 60-1). This law is one of the many bases of the Hindu faith, Buddhist faith,
Listening as the family spoke to me about what is important in their family I couldn’t help but refer back to Marcus and Conner’s idea of interdependence versus independence. As the family spoke to me on how important it is that the soul reincarnates itself, which is when all bad karma is out of the body, I kept referring to the independent self. But often again when they spoke of theologies and learning constantly from what they take from others around them, I found interdependence. Both selves balance each other out but do not reside on one more than the other. Adhita kept telling me the main goal of being a Hindu is “self-realization or just to be free from any type of suffering or hardship/bad karma,” (You achieve this through reincarnation) you have to acknowledge the simultaneous efforts that take place to achieve this goal. “You can’t just set a high sta...
As Buddhism spread from India to China beginning in the first century C.E., it was met with mixed results and reviews in the classes. The Chinese people in some dynasties preferred Buddhism’s philosophy and promise of the afterlife while others scrutinized Buddhism’s absence from past texts. Although the Chinese turned to Buddhism for its promises of external enlightenment during times of hardship and invasion, the period that followed the initial spread led to many attempts to reconcile the religion with the traditional religion of Confucianism, increasing the views that Buddhism was a barbaric invasion.
Buddhism saw its initial, but slow rise under the Han Dynasty, which lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE; however, the religion spread rapidly towards the end of the Han amidst political chaos and hesitance in Confucian principles. During the postclassical era, Buddhism’s spread in China was caused by the prospect of Nirvana, while it also gave way to both negative and positive responses.
Though both Hinduism’s moksha and Buddhism’s nirvana are more or less synonymous, they both hold distinctive differences in the path that leads followers to the end goal of enlightenment from samsara. In Hinduism, “letting go” or releasing from samsara by way of the realization that “atman is Brahman” is what moksha is defined as. Contrastingly, Buddhism involves extinguishing feelings that cause suffering and thus, achieving
Karma and rebirth were used to reinforce the responsibility of each caste. When Arjuna had uncertainty about whether or not to fight against members of his family, Kṛṣṇa attempted to persuade him that “No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul” (2.17) because “For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time” (2.20). The Hindu religion believes that the body is just temporary for t...
"In Hinduism, salvation is achieved through a spiritual oneness of the soul, atman, with the ultimate reality of the universe, Brahman. To achieve this goal, the soul must obtain moksha, or liberation from the samsara, the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. As a result of these basic teachings, Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is influenced by karma (material actions resulting from the consequences of previous actions), and dharma (fulfilling one's duty in life)"(Teachings and Beliefs, 2004, par. 1).
In south Asia, it is well accepted that a person’s action determines his or her own personal destiny. This idea that actions have repercussions in life is known as karma. Karma is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as, “the total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.” Karma is called las rgyu-bras in Tibetan, where las can be translated to “work” or “actions” and rgyu-bras translates to “fruits.” Combined, las rgyu-bras can be translated as the fruits of one’s actions (Keyes 232). If a person performs a good action in life, Tibetan Buddhists believe that good things will occur later on in life as a result, and they expect the reverse for bad actions. By understanding this concept and trying to live a l...
Moksha is a common belief in the Hindu religion and it describes a state where one’s soul connects with God’s soul. In the Hindu religion, achieving moksha removes one from the cycle of life and death, which is the state of reincarnation as one moves from one life to the next. In essence, moksha is a state of unification of one’s soul with that of the creator, therefore achieving oneness of atman and Brahman. This essay discusses the various similarities and differences that exist between Buddhist Nirvana and Hindu Moksha. It can be noted that Buddha was raised in a rich family and he lived through the riches up to some point in his life when he realized that he wanted to discover something different.
In Hinduism, people are born into their respective caste, determined by parentage. The four main castes are: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (common people), or Shudras(servants). Each caste has its own duties to attend to, and each is expected to do so without regard to personal thought or choice. If duties are not attended to in the way befitting one’s caste, it is thought that the individual would suffer from bad karma. If an individual responds to situations in a way befitting of their caste, they are likewise rewarded with good karma. This insinuates an easy way to manipulate people into behaving in ways that they might not otherwise behave.
Some people believe that karma means action and reaction, this is not strictly true, karma actually means " `act', `action' or `activity' "(Fowler. 1997. p11). It can be said, however, that for every action there must be a reaction. Karma is not confined to physical actions, mental actions also count. So Hindus believe that everything a person does or thinks is an action and depending on whether the action is good or bad that person receives good or bad karma as a reaction. "So, if some are happy then they must have done good in the past; if others are suffering they must have done something bad." "This is not fatalism; the law of karma says that we alone - not God or the Devil - are responsible for our fate" (Prinja. 1998. p36). Karma returns to us through everything we do. If a person does something good, with the sole intention of bettering him or herself, they will receive bad karma. Good karma is only received when a person commits a good action without thinking of himself or herself. Most Hindus will spend their entire lives attempting to accrue more good than bad karma. In the case of someone who has accrued sufficiently high levels of bad karma, the said person's spirit may not return after reincarnation as a human. It is possible for a spirit to return as an animal " in order to reap the results of bad karma until it is used up sufficiently to allow reincarnation as a human being once more." (Fowler. 1999. p208). This karma builds up inside a person in the form of the jivatman or personality.
The moksha word is often translated as salvation or liberation. In Longman Dictionary, liberation is defined as the act of freeing prisoners, a city, a country, etc. According to Hinduism, moksha, mukti from the cycle of suffering and rebirth (samsara) is the supreme goal of human existence. Much has been written about the nature and path of release. True liberation means freeing of an individ...
Karma, also known as Karman is a basic concept common to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The doctrine of Karma states that one's state in this life is a result of actions both physical and mental in past carnations, and action in this life can determine one's destiny in future incarnations. Karma is a natural, impersonal law of moral cause and effect and has no connection with the idea of a supreme power that decrees punishment of forgiveness of sins. Karmic law is universally applicable, and only those who have attained liberation from rebirth, called mukti (or moksha) or nirvana, can be transcend it. (The Columbia Encyclopedia)
The other source has been Puranas which are eighteen in number and contains information about the creation and dynasties of god, sages and kings and detailed description of yugas. All the sources are on the same footstep and no one has supremacy over the other.