the power of naughts: karma, free will & rebirth

 

while trying to decode the power hidden within a naught (or zero, represented by a circular figure - 0), my mind often turns towards the theory of karma, free will & rebirth. I find the continuous circle of naught eerily similar to this karmic cycle of life and death. so let's try to simplify this concept below, and see the various facets it presents.

karma is a sanskrit term, implying any physical work (or deed) performed by a human being as well as his/her mental thoughts & intentions. this essentially means that since the time we are born until the time of death; we are involved in creating karma at every moment as the human brain cannot remain without a thought (except meditation where the purpose is to achieve a state of trance where no thoughts exist).

the karmas performed by us during a life are classified into three categories:

- sukarma (good actions and thoughts),

- vikarma (bad karma), and

- akarma (cancellation of bad karma by good karma).

with these three types in the karmic account of our soul, we undergo the rotation of life and death eternally. after the initial birth, the soul carries forward a negative karma balance (more vikarmas than sukarmas) enabling it to take birth again. this signifies that every soul is born & reborn multiple times to nullify its karmic debt. once the soul has achieved neutralization of its karmas (conversion of all vikarmas to akarmas), it is said to have achieved moksha or nirvana (emancipation from the circle of life & death).

another point to be noted here is that any action or thought can be good as well as bad at the same time. therefore, the soul’s purpose is to execute karmas which are more good than bad.

at the time of birth, we have the following kinds of karma:

• sanchita, or the accumulated karma, earned by the soul during previous lifetimes. it represents the person’s qualities & inadequacies.
• prarabdha, or that part of sanchita karma, which is given to the soul at the start of its present life. it effectively destines (but does not decide the results of) the experiences & interactions the soul has to encounter through the present body.
• kriyamana, or the karmas created by the soul during its present life. these karmas have to be answered in upcoming lives.

therefore, a soul cannot actively determine its sanchita or prarabdha as human beings, by and large, do not have recollections of their past lives. so how are we to control our destiny if everything is predestined? - through our free will; thereby affecting the kriyamana karma.

while we are provided with a predestined set of events at various births, our free will or the freedom to choose an alternative plays the most important role, ultimately deciding the future during an individual lifetime as well as that of the soul’s journey. therefore, while the events are destined to happen, the outcome is left to the soul’s freedom to select its own path. and thus, our decisions determine our respective destinies.

take an example of a multiple-route multiple-checkpoints car race to understand the whole cycle. all the cars (souls) who have qualified for the race (karma evaluation) begin their journey from start point (birth), striving to reach the various checkpoints (education, job, marriage, enjoyment) ahead of each other by taking their own preferred routes (individual choices – free will) as well as their own preferred time to rest or recuperate (recreation, trainings & skill upgradations, medical & therapeutic treatments, even death). sometimes, they are penalized (accidents, dismissals, expulsions, imprisonment, etc.) for breaking the rules or cheating (vikarmas). and the one who consistently makes the right choices (sukarmas) reaches the finish line first (moksha). whereas, others continue to race (rebirths) until they reach the finish line.

and just like a zero, this series of rebirths and karmic evaluation keeps going, until the soul becomes mature enough to counterbalance its karmas, thus leading to salvation.

having understood the sequence, we may feel that it’s quite a simple cause-and-effect relationship. but there are many considerations to ponder upon, primarily:

1. at the time of a soul’s initial birth, how can its karma account be negative?
2. if it’s account is not negative at the first instance, then what propels the soul to take human birth at the start?
3. even though the free will allows the soul to take different alternatives deciding their respective destinies, the multiple scenarios are still restricted by the number of choices we can possibly make. so does that make it a preordained destiny in a way?
4. above all, what actually is the purpose of the soul’s journey? why does it have to go through the whole cycle? does it go back to taking birth again after emancipation? or is the karma race restricted to starting with initial birth and reaching moksha?

nonetheless, this theory addressed many basic concerns when I was looking at astrology as a science.

• reason for birth: it tells us why we are born at a certain date, time and place; with a given set of planetary configurations – to address & offset our prarabdha karmas via the kriyamana karmas.
• individuality: the theory also explains why two persons born at the same time in the same place may have different life-cycles – as they are at different stages of their personal karmic phases.
• karmic connections: moreover, looking back at our lives, we often observe that some people seemed extremely familiar even during the first meeting, or that some people kept coming back despite going their separate ways many a times. what makes such interactions possible? – the interplay of their karmic relationships carried by the souls through several lifetimes.
• grouping of victims: another issue it attends to is the one raised by many critics of astrology: despite their individual differences; what brings together all of the victims of a particular natural disaster, blast, riot, and religious or ethnic purging (crusades, holocaust) at the time of the calamity? – their respective karma account balances.

such a powerful circle, and yet we choose to apply it only when it can explain inexplicable circumstances. at other times, either we are too proud of our achievements, or perhaps too busy internalizing the pains of this earthly shell. can we observe & treat these troubles instead as simple naughts allowing us to remain positive, hence alleviating the ill-effects of such aches? perhaps that’s how & why the human body has been crafted the way it is – to suffer, learn, adapt and progress – and through many such endless rounds, perfecting the soul to finally accomplish salvation.

on a closing note, I do believe the closer the soul is to attaining nirvana, the more pain it endures in that particular human life (to neutralize the karmas). and death is just another checkpoint in this journey.

so for lesser mortals like myself, there is still hope…and possibly, our free will…

this is just one of the many influences of simple naughts, and your thoughts are always welcome.

~ vinnz

note: the attempt via this post was neither to teach nor to preach, but to simplify the layers while sticking to the essence, and discuss. additional information on this theory can be found by searching online for ‘karma, free will and rebirth’.