Karma According to Hindu Astrology

How does karma work? Does karma carry over from one lifetime to the next? Karma is one of the causative principles of Hindu philosophy and mythology. It is the accumulated results of actions done as causative instruments for future blessing or punishments. In this wide-ranging mythology karma has both its hard and soft versions-as will be discussed further in chapter 2 in "Nimitta (Causality)": one quite mechanistic in its strict sense of justice and punishment, the other allowing for interventions such as divine grace. Hindu mythology never defines its usages of karma but appeals to its eternal law in every narrative.

There is probably no single myth that illustrates karma better than the story of Kamsa, the uncle of Krishna. This myth has a series of nested stories that go forward and backward in time to examine the changing relationships of the principle characters and their karma. Kamsa's karmic chain began at the beginning of a new cosmic creation, at the beginning of this kalpa. Kamsa was, in his first birth of this aeon, Kâlanemi, a son of Virocana, an asura (demon) and the brother of Bali. The brothers were famous demons, which would suggest that there had been a lot of bad karma in the previous kalpa. Kâlanemi had six sons, whose bad karma from a previous lifetime was explicitly stated in another myth. They had been the six sons of Marîci, a semidivine figure clouded in some mystery. Marîci was associated with Indra and was apparently a marut, with powers of storm and battle. Marîci's sons were so powerful that they rivaled the creator, Brahmâ. They openly mocked him and accused Brahmâ of marrying his daughter, Sarasvatî. Weakened by their own actions, they were victims of Brahmâ's curse-that they would be reborn as asuras. Thus, they were born the sons of Kâlanemi, the future Kamsa. The story goes back and forth to show good and bad actions of Kâlanemi and his six sons. Kâlanemi was later born as Kamsa, and his six sons were reborn twice before being born as Kamsa's nephews. At that point they were born to Devakî (mother of Krishna), and the Krishna nativity story tells how Kamsa killed each of them. (For a concise retelling of this karmic puzzle, see the entry on Kamsa in chapter 3.) After many lifetimes of opposing Vishnu's incarnations, Kamsa, or Kâlanemi, was finally redeemed, as his karma burned out in the presence of the Lord's grace. The final fate of the six sons also demonstrated this dissolution of karma by grace.