As ‘kartā’, we are the doers and as ‘bhoktā’, the enjoyers. But our experiences show, not every action of ours leads to enjoyment; also, not that everything we enjoy is based on our effort. At least it is how this seems! Why do some get greater opportunities than others! Why sometimes, without any effort on our part, we get rewards! What about those mishaps, which are no fault of ours! As cause and effect seems to be a very rational concept, how do we explain such disparities! Can these all be purely random?

Veda tells us that for every karma (or action), there is a ’karma-phala’, an impact of performing the action. It is very fine point to note. For every action, there is an outcome or result. Although ‘karma-phala’ literally means the ‘fruits of action’, the impact of the outcome on the performer is what concerns the most.

The karma-phala can be of two types. One is ’drishta-phala’, meaning that which is seen. More correctly, seen as the direct result of the action, and therefore occurs at the same time and space of the action. The other is ’adrishta-phala’ or the unseen impact, which occurs at a different point in time and space, giving an impression that it is ‘Good luck’ if it is a good impact or else the ‘bad-luck’. There is no concept of luck in our scripture. Everything that we achieve is the result of actions; the impact of our actions may occur now and then or at any unknown time in the future.

There is lot to inquire on these concepts, but right now, we recognize the value of this concept as it helps to take control of our life and treat our actions to be the sole determinant of our enjoyments.

Now we can define ‘punyā’ as the deposit of our good ‘adrishta-phala’. The opposite is called ’papā’, the deposit of our bad-unseen impact or simply ’dur-adrishta-phala’. How does the purushārtha ‘dharmā ’ help us in accumulating punyā ?

(to be continued – Mee. Rajagopalan – 21/5/2017)