I think this is a very relevant point. The Christian perspective which permeates our society causes many people to think of karma as a punishment that is imposed on us by some outside force – some sort of universal judge and law enforcer.

It is not God who is punishing anyone who does not follow His laws, or His command. Our actions can either bind us or liberate us. We are punishing ourselves, actions are sinful if they degrade the soul.

Should we judge an outcome as good or bad based on the material benefit to us? Does theft make us richer? Does giving charity make us poorer? It depends on your perspective and what you consider to be valuable. Judged from a material point of view, stealing money will give us more money, and giving charity means we have less money. But if our real wealth is found in the soul and not in our material possessions, theft will impoverish us and charity will enrich us.

Great reply!

The dynamics of karma from a jyotish perspective – practical rather than philosophical are, IMO:

a) you are constantly in the process of creating it – therefore you have capacity to alter your future

b) you cannot alter what you’ve already done in the past – there there are some punishments and rewards that you cannot escape or change.

c) you can ALWAYS change how you REACT to those punishments and rewards and thus the NEW karma / future you build.

On another angle….

i) Jyotish often identifies Karma as being adridha dridha/adridha or dridha. This is far more of a practical than a philosophical distinction. Sometimes we see only a few planetary combinations indicating a particular karmic result and we call that “adridha karma” or something which is rather weak and may not even tangibly manifest (may only be felt or sensed). Or sometimes we see more than a few yogas and etc. pointing to the same karmic result and we call that “dridha/adridha” – it is “fairly solid” that it will tangibly result in the predictable shape. Finally, we sometimes see lots of yogas etc. pointing in to the same karmic result and we term that “dridha karma” – it’s going to happen, and it will be obvious.

ii) some have said (not sure if i agree) that you can easily “change” adridha karma, it’s somewhat possible to change dridha-adridha karma, and it’s impossible save for a miracle to change dridha karma. I think I disagree only philosophically but not practically. I think what is philosophically happening is that it is easiest to REACT in a proactive and wise manner when the karma is weaker or more “adridha” and therefore it appears that this karma can be “changed” – philosophically speaking, previous actions are already done, they can’t be undone, it can’t be changed.

iii) BUT!!!!!!

The universe is not a MACHINE, it is a mother!

She takes personal care when you show personal care. And she allows you the wisdom to lessen the pain and negative impact of your karma when you show proactive desire to improve yourself.

Therefore I have found the prescription of planetary mantras to be particularly helpful and useful for my astrology clients.

Using this type of thinking we must conclude for example that Soviet and German concentration camps which exterminated millions of people happened for a good reason and had nothing to do with volitionary activities of certain people.

This type of misguided thinking reduces everything to reaction only and makes no provision for volitionary action on behalf of living entities.

Good illustration as to why such articles about karma are important for devotees to read and discuss.

Supposedly Srila Prabhupada chastised one of his disciples for being angry at something that looked like a clear case of bad behavior of one of his godbrothers by saying: ““Don’t be unhappy at the instrument of your karma” or something to that effect (I was never able to find an exact quote and context). That in turn led to all kinds of ‘justifications’ such as ‘the abused gurukulis (or women) had it coming, so we should not blame the abusers’.

Once people have a well formed approach to life they are happy with it is very difficult to change their faith. Still, it can be done by showing them the beauty of bhakti and the wonderful qualities of pure devotees.

Most of the devotees I met in life came from a Christian background, some were Jewish, but none were from a Muslim background. So perhaps your generalisation above is not based in real experience.