Friday, 24 April 2015

Read the Gita according to Gandhi. Karma means what?
The very definition of Karma that Gandhi imports , speaks volumes that his own treatise is contained in an abbreviated form.
Karma is not just an action, as many believe.
Karma has twin meanings. Besides an 'Act', Karma also means its consequence.
This definition constitutes the very foundation of the ancient belief systems of which the Gita is just an abridged version, whereas Gandhi's own thoughts are peripheral excerpt, so to say, thereof.
The Karma principle is more substantial than just philosophical or ideological. Why not test it scientifically? One takes a jump into a river in spate. That action by one's personal volition might be an individual Karma. Its consequence is imperative. The consequence does not end up necessarily in death. Consequence of the Karma triggers further actions, in the shape of fight or flight. Each action, either in fight or in flight or whatever, would constitute further series of Karmas, each predicting consequences in its minutest nuances. What ultimately results , would appear in the firm of rescue or death of the original Karma, constituted by the jump in the river , but it is for the researcher, not bereft of scientific temper, to trace back that element constituting Karma which originally prompted the jump that we are talking about.
Gandhi being a practitioner, neither a researcher in this field nor an adept , has gone as far as words could permit the practitioner addressing followers having limited receptivity.

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