14 Chapter Concerning the Two Karmas— Good and Bad (Iru Vinai Tiran)
- So long as one thinks ‘I, an individual, am existing’, it is proper to accept the theory that — on account of egoism, the attachment to the body - one certainly has to do [with a sense of doership] the two kinds of karma [good and bad] and to experience their fruits.
Sadhu Om: No one can deny the karma theory — the theory that everyone has to do actions [karmas] and reap [experience] their fruits — so long as there exists doership, which is the very nature of the ego. Refer also to verse 38 of Ulladu Narpadu in which Sri Bhagavan says, “Only if we are the doer of actions, will we have to experience the resulting fruit…”.
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God, the Lord of the soul, has appointed the ghost, the ego, as a strange gaoler [or sentry] to protect the body and extend its lifetime until the soul experi- ences, without missing a bit, all the fruits of karma allotted to it in prarabdha.
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It is only the results of one’s good and bad actions [karmas] done in the past that come in one’s present life as one’s pleasures and pains, and also as one’s friends and mighty foes, who are the instrumental cause for them [one’s pleasures and pains].
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Do not perform any good action [karma] through a bad means, thinking ‘It is sufficient if it bears good fruit’. Because, if the means is bad, even a good action will turn out to be a bad one. Therefore, even the means of doing good actions should be pure.
Michael James: From this verse, we have to understand that the popular saying ‘The end justifies the means’ should not be taken as a worthy principle to follow.
- Those alone are good actions [karmas] which are done lovingly and with a peaceful and pure mind.