How Does Karma Operate In Animals.

[renuka]

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Today when I was driving to work I saw a dog dead by the side of the road.

It must have got hit by some car.
This dog had an unusual expression on its face..it looked very calm and almost a Mona Lisa smile.

It seemed very peaceful at one glance.

Then I started to think "How does Karma operate in animals?

Animals as we know are instinct based and their actions are with no motive.

They are programmed to 'survive" and will move in that direction thru out their lives.

For humans as we know 99.9999999% of actions are with motive..even praying and love for God is motivated for self gain.

So as long motive and desire is there the Karmic cycle kicks starts into action.

Now lets take a case of an evolving animal..just say 2 deer in the wild..Ok lets say in their previous births both were hyenas and this birth both are deer..One day both deer were walking in the woods one day and a tiger killed one deer and the other deer ran away.

Now so what determined which deer got killed by the tiger? Karma or just that deer was an easy prey due to circumstances?

Lets compare with humans..2 humans were in the jungle and one got killed by a tiger and 1 ran away.

Now for humans we would say it was the Karma of the person to die becos he had harmed many animals in his previous birth and the person who did not die had a good karma...we will make up some story for this.

Now back to the animal..in the case of the deer that died..was his death just an incident with no Karmic backup or is there some form of animal Karma that we do not know off?

If animals have no motives..technically there in no Karma for them..so how is their life's destiny determined?

We see some dogs suffer on the road and some dogs live like Kings in some mansion.

So what determines this difference?

Some might say that both dogs were humans in a previous birth and both were sinners but one was a lesser degree sinner hence born a 'rich' dog living in a mansion and the other a suffering street dog.

It seems impossible to explain the difference unless we assume that they were former birth humans.

BTW when 'Free Will' is absent as in animals...does Karma have an effect?

It seems as if Karma only comes in where there is awareness and 'Free will".

So it also goes to show that existence is still possible without Karma.

So is there really Karma or in reality everything happens by chance and with no specific reason?

 

[Raji Ram]

Dear Renu,

You are thinking tooooo much! :lol:

Do you remember the story of Vilwamangalam swamiyar, which I wrote sometime back? Here is the gist of the story:

He was born as a snake in his next birth and roamed around in the temple were he worshiped Lord Krishna, because he got his

stomach ache, which he was supposed to suffer in his life, cured with medicines. Later on, the snake was beaten to death but

one more of his bad karma of pushing Lord Krishna, was to be punished! So, his next birth was a Tulsi plant in the same temple,

near the outlet of abishEkam water. When the plant grew big and blocked the flow of water, it was plucked with force and it

had to suffer that pain. Ultimately, a pious girl made a Tulsi mAlA for Lord Krishna, using that plant!
So, the bad karmAs of humans are supposed to be suffered in the consecutive births, as animals and plants too! Scary, right? :scared:

 

[renuka]

Dear RR ji,

So it seems that to understand animal Karma we are still linking them to a past human birth. But what about an evolving animal that has not had a human life yet?

I am wondering why Hinduism does not talk much about the operation of Karma in animals/plants etc. without linking it to humans.

It will be a good topic for discussion.

Actually I did not think too much..that dog on the road really looked different.

I have seen so many dead dogs but this dog looked different in death.

 

[nachi naga]

animals,plants etc have karma.there is no gurantee,one will be born as human again.last birth before being human,is cows/buffaloe etc.

 

[tbs]

animals,plants etc have karma.there is no gurantee,one will be born as human again.last birth before being human,is cows/buffaloe etc.

hi nachi sir,

welcome back....after a long silence in the BHU LOKAM.....its ur location.....lol

 

[sangom]

animals,plants etc have karma.there is no gurantee,one will be born as human again.last birth before being human,is cows/buffaloe etc.

Hearty Welcome Sir! Long time no see!!

 

[sangom]

Smt. Renuka,

I believe that animals, plants, etc., are also affected by Karma. In plants, there is hardly any freedom for conscious action and so the plant life continues for very long time, but animals have more freedom and intelligence to do conscious action and so when they do good actions good results will follow. But I feel it is incorrect to link karma and karmaphalas with atmas/souls and individual entities with Aadhar card identification. If people do good karma, people will enjoy better lives, otherwise, the contrary; your good karma may benefit some XYZ to enjoy a happy life. It is because of this (lest we get discouraged in performing good karmas due to our innate selfishness) that we humans are unable to look beyond death and into the operation of the Karmic Law.

 

[Raji Ram]

animals,plants etc have karma.there is no gurantee,one will be born as human again.last birth before being human,is cows/buffaloe etc.

So, it seems to be a vicious circle!
Many births to attain the birth as a human; do some bad deeds; be born again as an animal! :bump2:

 

[prasad1]

Animal life, according to Hindu scripture, is but a karmic reaction to the way humans act. Embodied souls pass through many species of life, but only as human beings do they accrue karma, as only in that condition is one's free will fully manifest.


With that free will comes responsibility. Humans who misuse their free will have to loose it, at least for a time. Chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita describes such human beings as having to take birth in lower species of life. So some souls in human dress later wear the dress of an animal, and the degree of suffering or enjoyment they have in animal life is directly related to what they did in their past human life.


Animals cannot create new karma because they are completely controlled by their nature. Similar to criminals incarcerated by the state, souls wearing animal bodies serve out their karmic sentences until they again are eligible for a human form of life, in which they will be given another chance to act responsibly and progress toward liberation.
Swami B.V. Tripurari answers questions about animal karma - Beliefnet.com

 

[tbs]

hi

i think ..karma mainly for human beings...becoz ONLY HUMANS CAN BREAK THE LIFE CYCLE.....animals just follow the natural rule....

 

[renuka]

Animal life, according to Hindu scripture, is but a karmic reaction to the way humans act. Embodied souls pass through many species of life, but only as human beings do they accrue karma, as only in that condition is one's free will fully manifest.


With that free will comes responsibility. Humans who misuse their free will have to loose it, at least for a time. Chapter 16 of the Bhagavad Gita describes such human beings as having to take birth in lower species of life. So some souls in human dress later wear the dress of an animal, and the degree of suffering or enjoyment they have in animal life is directly related to what they did in their past human life.


Animals cannot create new karma because they are completely controlled by their nature. Similar to criminals incarcerated by the state, souls wearing animal bodies serve out their karmic sentences until they again are eligible for a human form of life, in which they will be given another chance to act responsibly and progress toward liberation.
Swami B.V. Tripurari answers questions about animal karma - Beliefnet.com

Dear Prasad ji,

I had read this article sometime back..somehow it did not really seem to talk about the Karma of animals without linking it with a past human life.

So yet again no one talks about an animal Karma alone...just say an evolving animal and the destiny of its life.

There is not enough coverage of Non Human Karma is Hinduism...everyone assumes an animal is a suffering former human.

 

[biswa]

One Keralite Christian woman told me that animals don't have souls. Maybe that is it? No soul, no karma?

 

[a-TB]

There is no proof for Karma theory. Humans want to explain injustice in the world and want to instill complete responsibility for our actions which leads to such theories. It is meaningless to extend this theory to animals, plants, virus, bacteria and cells.

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

In my view when effects of karma when interpreted as a reaction to an action are of two types. One gets freewill only when he becomes predominantly spiritual , that is sattva. Till then he is under the control of maya just as a child is under the control of its parents till it reaches adulthood. Thus even though a child cannot think on it s own but is punished and rewarded by its parents to make it learn, the same happens to one when under the control of maya. Then as freewill is acquires a different type of karma begins to operate.

So the answer to your question is karma of the first type operates in the animals.

 

[renuka]

Dear Sravna,

How many people are truly Sattva?Hardly! Even the Vaagmi gene theory is not yet conclusive on this.

So why do you say that only Sattva individuals have free will?

Does that mean the rest of us humans are merely puppets on the string?

So if non Sattva individuals do not have free will that makes them technically NOT responsible for their actions and where does Karma play a role here?

 

[Jaykay767]

Our Vedic philosophy is very clear, human soul re-incarnates as human or animal based on the Good or Bad karma gained in this life. So if someone gains a lot of bad karma in this life, they will be born as animals in the next life. Human life is a gift & hence only Souls with some good Karma are born as Humans.

Prarabhdakarma is the Karma that carries over from the previous life & that determines how one is born – whether in a good, richor poor family etc…

My current view is - there is a Good Karma & a Bad Karma for every individual Soul that exists all the time & this complex interplay is what leads to people to have some good things & some bad things co-existing all the time. If the Good Karma is more than the Bad Karma,then this individual will prosper with a lot of hard work, problems, struggles (due to the Bad karma), etc… on the other hand, if the Bad Karma is more than Good Karma, this person will suffer overall even when he gets some good fortune in life.

So one has to do penance, prayaschittam, struggle in life etc.. to reduce the effect of Bad Karma& then do good to people - charity to the needy, etc… to increase the Good Karma in life.

When one is enjoying life – based on our great western concept – life is to enjoy crap, then they are consuming the Good Karma… & when one struggles in life, they are reducing the Bad Karma.. & when one does good to people, & follows the path of Dharma, they are adding to the Good Karma…

So ultimately this life & universe is a dance of the Good Karma & Bad Karma like the ying & yang of the Chinese…

 

[sravna]

Dear Sravna,

How many people are truly Sattva?Hardly! Even the Vaagmi gene theory is not yet conclusive on this.

So why do you say that only Sattva individuals have free will?

Does that mean the rest of us humans are merely puppets on the string?

So if non Sattva individuals do not have free will that makes them technically NOT responsible for their actions and where does Karma play a role here?

Dear Renuka,

Spiritual existence is not bound by space and time. So only something that is not bound by space and time has free will. Sattvic reality is the only reality in the space-time bound reality that is spiritual since mind can be in sync with the spiritual and so can possess free will. The number of sattva individuals depend on the yuga. In the satya yuga the world is predominantly sattva people.

As you say non sattvic individuals are not responsible for their actions in the same way a child is not responsible for its actions. But even a child gets rewards and punishments from its mother so that it learns and grows up. It is in this way I think one type of karma operates.

 

[sadasivam.sridharan]

Swaadhanthreeyam or freewill is the gift that Lord has given only to human beings.He is free to use this freedom either to remain as human being in the ensuing births or janmas or do good karmas and elevate himself to a higher state where he transcends the cycle of birth and death and attain Moksha or in the worst case he may misuse his free will to do paapa karmas and attain the birth of lower beings like tree.worm, animals etc.etc.Animals don't have karmas and as animals they have to spend their lives till the effects of bad karmas are exhausted . and in effect they lose the the time to get liberated from this cycle of punaravi jananam punaravi maranam.