The Gita’s Ethics (A Critical Study)

by Arpita Chakraborty | 2017 | 59,351 words

This essay studies the Ethical Teachings of the Gita, as presented in the Mahabharata in the form of a dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna. Ancient Indian ethics as evolved from the Vedas developed through the Upanisads, the Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana and finally reached the Dharma-Shastras such as the Manusmriti. As the means to liberation, the e...

2. Law of karma

< Previous

Next >

It is the universal principle of cause and effect, applied to as an ethical principle to action and their result. It states that as we sow, so we reap. This law assumes that cause and effect are co-related with each other. The law says that all things in the world are causally connected. The universal law of causation applied to action is called the Law of karma. Law of Karma is universal principle of action and result that governs life. The law refers to totality of our actions and their concomitant reactions in this and previous lives, all of which determine our future. The Law says that it is by action that human beings create their own destiny. Human life process is determined and guided by this doctrine of karma. Good results come out of good karmas. Good result is called virtue or dharma. On the other hand, demerit or vice is produced from evil deeds. Man enjoys happiness, prosperity etc by dint of virtues. In contrast to it, man goes through pain, suffering etc because of vices. Happiness, pain etc. of human life are the results of man’s own karmas. Accordingly, the present situation of life is the result of past activities that may have extended past life. As the present situation is the result of past actions, the future is determined by the present actions. There is no escape from the consequence of actions performed. Their fruits must be reaped in this life or if this life is not sufficient then in future life. There is no destruction of the fruits of actions [krtapranasa]. Conversely, one can never reap the fruits of actions not performed [akrtabhyagama].It only says that every act is the inevitable outcome of the preceding conditions.

Karma has a cosmic as well as a psychological aspect. Every deed must produce its natural effect in the world; at the same time it leaves an impression on or forms a tendency in the mind of man. It is this tendency or samskara or vasana that inclines us to repeat the deed we have done.So all deeds have their fruits in the world and effects on the mind.

If one sows wheat, one will harvest wheat, not rice. Snow feels cold and fire feels hot. This is the law of nature. Just like these physical and metaphysical laws Law of Karma holds that as one performs, so one gets the results. The Gita believes that entire phenomenal world is set on the Law of Karma. It is found as claiming that good activities give rise to good results and not-so-good to not-so-good results and bad actions give rise to bad results.

karmanah sukrtasya'huh sattvikam nirmalam phalam
rajas as tu phalam dukham ajnanam tamasah phalam (xiv,16)

“The fruit of good action is said to be of the nature of “goodness” and pure; while the fruit of “passion”, of pain, of the fruit of “dullness” is ignorance”.

The Carvaka School of Indian philosophy does not believe in the Law of Karma. The Carvakas do not believe in any power or cause to be behind all the diversities in the world.They say that this world is quite natural and is going on automatically. The sharpness of the thorns, the colourbeauty of the peacock all such diversity of the world is to be understood as coming out in a natural course. They are not the results of any papa or punya or good action and bad action. But this concept of good and bad action is present in the Gita. According to Carvaka to hold that good actions yield pleasures and the bad actions result in pain, all is baseless. Everything is continuing and will be continuing in its natural course. There is no doer and no cause behind.

In the Mahabharata also we find that the development of the doctrine of karma has taken place in its all aspects. As regards the fruits of action, the Mahabharata admits that every action will bear fruits. A good action will be rewarded with good result and bad action will result in bad consequence^[1]. “With eye or thought or voice or deed, whatever kind of act one performs, one receives that kind of act in return^[2]. The doer has to experience the results of his past actions. In experiencing those results he again performs actions which again produce results. In this way he is bound in the chain of actions and their results. His getting birth is the result of his such actions performed by him in his past life. His present life will bring him his future life.

This is the cycle of births and deaths in which he is bound to his own actions.

yam-yam va’pi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaram
tam-tam evai ti kaunteya sada tadbhavabhavitah (viii,6)

“Thinking of whatever state (of being) he at the end gives up his body, to that being does he attain, O Son of Kunti, being absorbed in the thought thereof” .

The second verse is, however, not to be understood as saying that it is the dying thought that determines the nature of the future life. It is not causal fancy of the last moment but the persistent endeavour of the whole life that determines the future. The soul goes to that on which its mind is set during the last moments. What we think we become. Our pasts thoughts determine our present birth and our present ones will determine the future^[3].

But Law of Karma, as an ethical principle cannot be applicable to all karmas as understood in Gita. The actions that cannot be termed as moral do not come within the purview of this law. And the Gita has reference to actions that are amoral. According to Gandhi, karma is the Gita can be understood as any action, any bodily activity or motion. He holds that in the Gita’s definition of the word, karma includes even thought. Any motion, any sound, even breathing, are forms of karma. Some of them we cannot be avoided performing while others are performed as a matter of necessity^[4]. Such activities cannot be said to be ruled by the Law of Karma. Karma is also said to be the name given to the creative force that brings beings into existence (viii.3) Radhakrisnan interprets it by saying that karma is the creative impulse out of which life’s forms issue. The whole cosmic evolution is called karma^[5]. Sankaracarya understands this karma as the sacrificial act which consists in offering cooked rice, cakes, and the like to the gods (devatas) and which causes the origin of all creatures, for it forms the seed as it were of all beings; it is in virtue of this act that all beings, animate and inanimate, come into existence, after passing through rain and other regions of life.^[6]

Karma understood in above senses cannot be put under the moral law of karma. To be moral they have to be performed. Karma as ‘performed’ in the Gita can be divided in the following way.

1. Nitya Karma:

These are the daily sacrifices, such as the morning, afternoon and evening prayers like sandhya meditation on the using Gayatri mantra. Again, actions that are performed everyday, such as bathing and offering prayers at twilight, is called nitya karma.

In the Gita Krishna says,

yajnadanatapahkarma na tyajyam karyam eva tat
yajno danam tapas cai’va pavanam manisinam (xviii, 5)

“Practice of worship, gift, and austerity should not be given up; it is quite necessary; worship, gift, austerity are the purifiers of the wise. The obligatory (nitya) action should be performed without attachment”.

Aurobindo interprets the niyata karma of the Gita as karma by the Vedic rites, it is kartavya karma or work that has to be done as the Aryan rule of social duty, and work done as a sacrifices and fixed social duty performed disinterestedly and without any personal object.

2. Naimittika Karma:

Nitya and naimittika both are obligatory duties. But one is ordinary while the other is extra-ordinary. (xviii, 2)

Obligatory actions come under the ethical Law of Karma. This becomes obvious from the fact those different results come out from different kinds of these actions. Nitya and naimittika actions are not called by these names in the Gita, but appear as the familiar triad of sacrifice, (yajna), liberality (dana), and austerity (tapas). Of these yajna is the most important, and takes the foremost place among obligatory works, whether in its narrower sense of sacrifice.

Certain actions have to be performed because some occasion necessitating them has arisen, such as, the pacification of inauspicious stars, penances etc. If that occasion for which we perform this pacification or penance, had not come into existence, there would be no necessity for performing this action.

3. Kamya Karma:

These are actions prompted by certain desires like a yajna performed in order to get something. The kamya karma becomes the cause of samsara by producing a body. There are certain other actions which we very often perform because we desire a particular thing and for acquiring that thing, as enjoined by the scriptures. These actions are kamya (desire-prompted) actions, e.g., sacrificial ritual for causing rain or for obtaining a son.

Sankara while interpreting kamya karma said that they are interested action, which becomes the cause of samsara by producing a body. Good one is nitya or obligatory action which includes evening and morning prayers (sandhyapasona).^[7]

In Gandhi’s interpretation that kamya karma seems to mean all karma. For every karma, Gandhi says, has some motive behind it. That we may be unattached to it is a different matter, but the motive is bound to be served. The existence of the body itself means karma. Total renunciation of all karma is not possible.^[8]

In the Mimamsa school of Indian philosophy also karma is divided into nitya (daily), naimittika (occasional), kamya (desire prompted), and nisiddha (forbidden). Out of these, if any one fails to perform the daily actions like sandhya (worship or twilight) etc, one incurs sin; and occasional actions have to be performed whenever the occasion arises. Therefore, according to Mimamsa school, both these kinds of actions have to be performed. That leaves the kamya and the nisidhha (forbidden) actions, and as by performing the kamya (desire promted actions), one has to take birth after birth to suffer their effects, they too should not be performed. When a man, in this way, mentally balances the effects of actions, and gives up some actions and performs others according to the prescribed rites, He must automatically obtain release; because the prarabdha karma is exhausted by its being suffer for in this life, and by performing the daily and the occasional actions and eschewing the forbidden ones in this life, one escapes perdition, and by giving up desire prompted actions, there does also not remain the necessity of enjoying heavenly happiness. When the suffering in this world and in hell and in heaven has thus been exhausted, no other state is possible for the Atman except release. This doctrine is known as ‘karma-mukti’, or ‘naiskarmya-siddhi’ (salvation by absistence from action). The state in which in spite of performing an action, one is in the same position as if one did not perform it, That is to say, in which the doer does not suffer the bondage of the sin or the merit of the action, is known as the ‘naiskarmya state’.

According to Buddha metaphysical questions are futile and shift the worship of God to the real working of the concept of karma. Buddha saw no reason in dragging unnecessary any extra mundane God in the affairs of mankind. Man himself responsible for the position in which he lives, whether of misery or of happiness. If man is good, it is due to him, if bad due to him.He found karma to be the controller of the world; not any other power like God. This was what he had seen at the time of enlightenment.^[9]

Buddha adopted a critical attitude towards life. He wanted everyone to be very critical and reflective. He did not accept this world or the karmas of people as creations of god. According to him the world exists through karma and the people live through karma. Karma operates in its own field without the intervention of an external, independent ruling agency. Since there is no hidden agent directing or administering rewards and punishments. In Sankhya philosophy also, as it is a dualistic system the two terms of which are prakriti and purusa and there is no recognition of any higher unity in which the dualism is overcome. In the Gita on the other hand god is recognized as Supreme over all, standing above both purusa and prakriti, the creator. As it is said in the Gita “abandoning all laws, come to Me alone for shelter. Be not grieved, for I shall release thee from all evils (xviii, 66).

In Buddhism karma is divided into three categories as act of mind, act of speech, act of body and it is said that all these karma produce their fitting results according to their nature. The karma can be related to body, speech and mind, but the prominence is attached to those related to mind. Karma relating to body and speech are in fact the external outcome of the karmas of mind. Buddha is reported to have explained the same sense of karma. He explains that it is by intention that a man performs action through body, speech or mind.Thus karma can be defined as ‘cetana’ or volition. The Buddhist philosophers therefore tried to define karma on a rational and practical basis. Volition determines the will to do.This will co-exists with these mental properties and has a power to them.It is due to its influence that all our activities in deed, word or thought take place. So in Buddhism karma is related with the Gita. If mind is distracted no karma can be performed.He whose mind is untroubled in the midst of sorrows and is free from eager desire amid pleasures, he from whom passion, fear, and rage have passed away, he called a sage of settled intelligence (ii, 56). Again it is said in the second chapter of the Gita (ii, 58) “He who draws away the senses from the objects of sense on every side as a tortoise draws in his limbs into shell, his intelligence is firmly set (in wisdom).It indicates that when the person learns to withdraw the senses from the sense objects, than the lamp of knowledge become lighted and one perceives the self-effulgent Supreme being within it. The wise always keeps vigilance over the mind because the mind can never be fully trusted. It is ever ready to deceive and play tricks. Therefore, discipline, constant vigilance and sadhana are needed. One develops attachment to sense objects by thinking about them. Desire for sense objects comes from attachment to sense objects and anger comes from unfulfilled desire (ii, 62).

The obligatory actions of the Gita are further decided on the basis of dominance of gunas. In the Gita, in chapter xviii threefold nature of action is mentioned.

The following verses state the nature of actions as determined by the gunas.

niyatam sangrihitam aragadvesatah krtam
aphalaprepsuna karma yat tat sattvikam ucyate (xviii,23 )

“An action which is obligatory, which is performed without attachment, without love or hate by one undesirous of fruit, that is said to be of ‘goodness’ .It is not an action done by one impelled love or hatred”.

yat tu kamepsuna karma sahamkarena va punah kriyate bahulayasam tad rajasam udhartam (xviii,24 )

“But that action which is done in great strain by one who seeks to gratify his desires or is impelled by self-sense, is said to be of the nature of “passion”.

Doing unpleasant things from a sense of duty, feeling unpleasant all the time is of the nature of passion, but doing it gladly in utter unself-consciousness, with a smile on the lips is of the nature of goodness.

It is the difference between an act of love and an act of law, an act of grace and an act of obligation.

anubandham ksayam himsam anapeksya ca paurusam
mohad arabhyate karma yat tat tamasam ucyote (viii,25)

“The action which is undertaken from delusion, without regarding the consequence, loss, injury, and ability, that is declared to be tamasik”.

Gandhi interpreted that a sattvik person does not go seeking work. A rajasik person is engaged one day in inventing an aeroplane and is busy the next in discovering how to reach India from England in five hours. Such a person sets apart half an hour out of twenty-four to decide his atman, and devotes the remaining twenty-three and a half to his body. Whatever an action is sattvik, rajasik or tamasik, according to Gandhi, that is decided by the spirit behind action. To take an example, if the person plies the charkha merely for the sake of money, his work is rajasik, but it will be sattvik if he does so for the good of the world, in the spirit of a yajna. In tamas a person plunges into work without thinking of the consequences^[10].But whether we give importance to the spirit behind the action or the action itself, such karmas bring about their own results.

These different kinds of karmas give rise to different results.

sattvam rajas tama iti gunah prakritisambhavah
nibadhnanti mahabaho dehe dehinam avyayam (xiv,5)

“The three modes (gunas) goodness (sattva), passion (rajas), and dullness (tamas) born of nature (prakriti) bind down in the body, o Mighty-armed (Arjuna), the imperishable dweller in the body. What leads to the appearance of the immortal soul in the cycle of birth and death is the power of the gunas or modes”.

It becomes clear that the Gita definitely accepts the Law of karma as the above verses suggest. As is the nature of the action, so is the nature of the fruit of action.

“Thus we seen that pleasant, unpleasant, and mixed-three fold is the fruit of action.”(xviii,12)

The following verses further makes it clear where Krishna says that He throws the individual to wombs to which he is best suited by virtue of the action he has performed:

asuram yonim apanna mudha janmani-janmani
mam aprapyaibva kaunteya tato yanty adharmam gotim (xvi,20)

“Entering into demoniac wombs, the deluded ones, in birth after birth, without ever reaching Me, O son of Kunti, pass into a condition still lower that that”.

tan aham dvisatah kruran samsaresu naradhaman
ksipamy ajasram asubhan asurim eva yonisu (xvi,19)

“These cruel haters, worst of men, I hurl these evil doers forever in the worlds into the wombs of the demons only in this cycle of birth and death”.

That our actions give rise to different results depending on quality can also be seen from the following verses.

sattvat samjayante jnanam rajaso lobha eva ca
pramadamahan tamaso bhavato’jnanam eva ca (xiv,17)

“From goodness arises knowledge and from passion greed, negligence and error arise from dullness, as also ignorance”.

uchavam gaccanti sattvastha madya tisthanti rajasah
jaghanyagunavrittistha adho gacchanti tamasah (xiv,18)

“Those abiding in sattva rise upwards, those in rajas stay midway, those in tamas sink downwards”.

Those who follow the course of sattva guna will be born in the region of the devas or the like. The rajasik will dwell among men; the tamasic–those who follow the course of tamas, the lowest guna -will go down, i.e., they will be born in the wombs of cattle and the like creatures We find the same sentiment in Sankaracarya’s interpretation that is deluded creatures are born, birth after birth, only in tamasik wombs and pass into lower and lower states. Without ever reaching the Isvara, they fall into a condition which is still lower. In Sankaracarya’s explanation evil is naraka, the animal kingdom, etc. Good, is the devas. Mixed is good and evil mixed together, i.e., the humanity^[11].

The Gita repeatedly says that it is the gunas of prakrti (samsara) that do the work but the egoistic man thinks that he does it himself.(s.k-p-101-105, Gita-III,5,27).

The Gita also says that this samsara accounts for the difference of tastes, temper and all other idiosyncrasies of man; no two men think alike. The samsara is changing every moment due to new thoughts coming in and destroying or reinforcing the old ones.

The Gita develops the guna idea very completely. It is the gunas born of prakrti (iii,5,xiii,19, xviii,40) that compel all creatures to act, they are themselves sole agents,(iii,29,vii,12-14) and bind him in the body(xiv,5)., character and duty depend on them and vary according to their proportion in each being (iv,13). The wise mans aim is to rise trough and beyond them. (ii, 45).

The Gita and all the systems of Indian philosophy whether Buddhism, Jainism, Sankhya, Yoga, or Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta, Sruti, Purana all without exception aims at happiness.But the happiness sought by the Carvaka is to be condemned because it based on promiscuity. It is therefore, so censurable that can be called worse than that of animal world.

According to the Gita no external thing can give to man permanent happiness. Man’s mind is ever restless and is always in search of permanent and all knowing bliss.

But Mahabharata says:

“A person becomes unhappy due to his own misbehavior; he should not blame God or time for it”^[12].

According to Law of karma, every action performed with some aim or other and even a desire for action must bear corresponding result. It is for experiencing the fruits of such actions or desires for that matter, that one has to take birth and rebirths. There is no beginning of the creation and as such of birth; thus, no one can say what amount of past actions (sancita karma) is lying hoarded for the fructification of which one has to be born and reborn. So, in the ordinary course, the chain of births and rebirths may never come to an end and final emancipation may be simply impossible. But if this is true, the goal of Gita’s ethics, liberation, which is liberation from the chain of birth and death, become impossible. However, Gita says that freedom is possible. In other words, the Gita claims that the cycle of birth and rebirth can be stopped. The Gita says that actions with desire and desire itself have to bear fruits. It is basically desire which is responsible for bringing the individual to the world of birth and death again and again.

The Gita says.

karmajam buddhiyukta hi phalam tyaktva manisinah
janmabandhavinirmuktah padam gacchanty anamayam (ii,51)

“The wise who have united their intelligence (with the Divine) renouncing the fruits which their action yields and freed from the bonds birth reach the sorrowless state”.

vihaya kaman yah sarvan pumams carati nrisprah
nirmamo nirahamkarah sa saantim adhigachatis (ii,71)

“He who abandons all desires and acts free from longing, without any sense of mineness or egotism, he attains to peace”.

Man of renunciation, who entirely abandon all desires, goes through life content with the bare necessities of life, who has no attachment even for those bare necessities of life, who regards not as his even those things which are needed for the mere bodily existence, who is not vain of his knowledge -such a man of steady knowledge, that man who knows brahman, attains peace (nirvana).