Analysis of Kāla and Karma (Time and Action)

Ānandarāya Makhin in his Jivānanda Nāṭaka–introduces Kāla and Karma as dramatis personae in the sixth Act. Their position on the stage is in the intermediate region (antarikṣa) between the stage floor and stage roof. Their presence is invisible to the characters on the stage but visible to the viewers.

(i) Suśruta says (com.p.294) about Kāla that he is the god, born on his own with no beginning, no present or no end.

He is with every living being right from birth till the death:

kālo hi nāma bhagavān svayaṃbhūranādimadyanidhanaḥ |
ātra rasavyāpatsaṃpattī jīvitamaraṇe ca manuṣyāṇāmāyatte ||

Kāla is a universal concept related to all times. Karma too is related to human beings in all the three periods of their life–past, present and future.

Only by Kāla, the inquiry into the causes of disease can primarily be done. A disease is also two-fold, either curable or not. All the medical treatment given as remedies in curing the disease are depending upon the time. Every step right from diagnosis, the total pathology is based on time concept. And Kāla,has many facets as seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years and yugas.

Hence Kāla, plays a vital role in human life (com.294):

kālena hi nidānaṃ rogatvena, rogaśca sādhyāsādhyādirūpatvena prayujyamānamauṣadhādikamapi rogaparihāraśaktimatvena ca pariṇamati tasmānnidānādikamapi kālamapekṣate; āto'tra nimeṣāhorātra-saṃvatsarādirūpaḥ kālaśca pātratvena ghaṭitaḥ |

Karma is the actions of every human being done by him every moment. Basically it is two-fold–previous action, (pūrva-karma) and action done long back in many births (prārabdha-karma).

When ‘karma’ is used in the sense ‘fate,’ it is defined as the certain consequence of acts done in a former life.

When karma, an action or work or deed is done by a human being, based on its quality of its righteousness or otherwise, that person undergoes either pleasure or pain in this life and ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ life after his death, (com.p. 293):

karmaṇāṃ dharmādharmamūlakānāmiha loke roga-bhogādirūpāṇi, āmutra ca svarga-narakādirūpāṇi sukhaduḥkhāvahāni phalāni saṃbhavanti |

The major diseases, with which, a human being undergoes unbearable sufferings are due to this concept only (com.pp.293-94):

karmavipākapratipādakaśāstrarītya mahāpātakasaṃbhavāḥ iti cāmananti śāstrajṣāḥ ||

If one human being does only good and very noble deeds, he enjoys the results with a comfortable and healthy life in this birth and heavenly and accomplished life after his death. It is vice-versa with wrong and sinful deeds.

Thus Karma has a key role to play in the life of human beings (com.p.294):

śobhanāni karmāṇi sukhārogyahetūnīha loke, āparatra ca svargāpavargahetūni bhavantīti matvā karmaṇo'sminnāṭake pātratvaprāptiḥ |

As Kāla is beginningless, and Karma is younger than him and the author brings in the affectionate bondage between them.

The sixth Act opens with an information about the vigorous attacks of the enemy team on the capital city of the hero and his minister’s right reactions in the form of suitable remedial medicinal applications, which both Kāla and Karma witness.

Here, Kāla’s charateristic features are presented by the author through Karma’s eulogy of Kāla, that Kāla is the refuge for even Karma as the activities (karmas) of the human beings depend upon the movement of Kāla in the form of the seasons (VI.3):

sumatibhiranumeyastvaṃ sahastrāṃśugatyabhavati bhavadadhīnaṃ madvidhānaṃ janānām |
pariṇamayasi puṃsāṃ dātumarthātmanā māṃ tvayi kṛtimati ṣoḍhā vikriyante ca bhāvāḥ ||

Kāla has three dimensions as present, past and future but is in reality only one without these three differences because Kāla is in continuous flow and can never be divided; Kāla is the very base of this entire Universe (VI.4-5):

traidhaṃ janaḥśaṃsati vartamānaṃ bhūtaṃ bhaviṣyantamahaṃ punastvām |
aikadhyamāpannamakhaṇḍarūpamādhārameṣāṃ jagatāmavaimi ||
nimeṣakāṣṭhe ca kalākṣaṇau ca muhūrtarātriṃdivakṣamāsān |
bhavattanū ṛtvayane tathābdaṃ yugaṃ ca manvantaramityavaimi ||

(ii) Similarly Karma’s special features are also presented by the author through Kāla’s statement that only by understanding the rules of Karma, the human being is able to perceive such concept as soul and God as depicted in the Vedas (VI.1 cd):

kiṃ cāyaṃ samanuṣṭhitena bhavatā cittasya śuddhiṃ gata-stattvaṃ veditumātmanaḥ prabhavati śrutyantasaṃdarśitam ||

Moreover, Karma after dividing itself into three as nitya, naimittika and kāmya, has bestowed many benefits upon everyone including Indra, Vidhi (creator) and Hari (VI.2):

tvaṃ nityanaimittikakāmyabhedāt sthitvā tridhānekaphalāni datse |
indratvamindrasya vidhervidhitvaṃ harerharitvaṃ ca phalaṃ tvadīyam ||

Kāla had been witness to the estrangement between Jñāna and Jīva due to the manouverings of Vijñāna. Kāla is also aware that Jñāna and Vijñāna are both complementary and contradictory to each other.

Kāla also explains to Karma (and also to the reader/audience), that Jñāna by advising Jīva to seek the path of liberation is only showing him the reality of life. Though the enemy team is trying to make use of the situation that arises out of Jīva’s disinterest (due to Jñāna’s advice) in keeping up the body in good health, it is not the intention of Jñāna to let Jīva be their vicitm. His intention is only to make Jīva understand that deha is not ātman. Through this speech of Kāla, the playwright gives in nutshell the Advaita philosophy.^[1]

Kāla reports the reaction of Jīva on the advice of Jñāna, i.e., becoming virakta (VI.16cd):

koṣe bale ripuvadhe ca babhūva sadyo jīvo viraktahṛdayo vigatābhimānaḥ ||–

And hesitant to continue the war; Vijñāna Śarmā brings him out of this mood, and engages him in supervising the war-front. Kāla and Karma in the antarikṣa and Jīva, Vidūṣaka and Vijñāna Śarmā on the stage, report the various activities taking place at the war-front.

Kāla, periodically, explains to Karma, the nature of the diseases attacking and the potency of the medicines employed to obviate them.

At the end of sixth Act when all the warriors on the side of Yakṣmā except a few have been vanquished, Kāla and Karma, are portrayed here as quite human as they are not able to withstand the wailings of the enemy king and queen on the loses of their children. They exit on this observation.^[2]

Kāla is heard (not seen) again in the VII Act as announcing from nepathya the complete eradication of the enemy army including king Rājayakṣmā, on Jīva’s procurement of all Yogic powers bestowed on him by lord Śiva (VII.30):

jīve śivaprāpitayogasiddhau kalye janāndhyena samaṃ tamovat |
pāpo viṣūcyā saha rājayakṣmā gadairasādhyaiḥ saha nāśameti ||

The dramatist records this as the favour shown by Kāla through the mouth of Vijñāna Śarmā (com.p.477):

mantrī–(ākarṇya) priyaṃ na priyam | bhagavān kāla eva evaṃ naḥ priyamācaṣṭe |

And the commentary explains this as (com. p.477):

kālo'smākamanukūlaḥ saṃpannaḥ; ātaḥ sākṣāt kālapuruṣaḥ svayamevaṃ priyaṃ naḥprāheti mantrī jṣāpayati |

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

VI.29/30:
kālaḥ-na hi vipakṣānukūlamiti na ca tadīyopajāpa iti vā pravṛttiretasya | kinta vastutattvamupadeṣṭavyamityeva tasya svabhāvaḥ | jṣānamadvaitasanmātraṃ vipakṣastatra ko vada | svarūpasthitiretasya smāritā pāramārthikī || 30 ||

[2]:

VI. 94:
putrapravilayādduḥkhaṃ na soḍhuṃ śakyate janaiḥ |
vasiṣṭo'pi mahān yena vavāṣcha patanaṃ bhṛgoḥ ||