Explaining Karmic Repercussions

ITRPAKSH is currently underway, from September 7 to 21. It is an annual event in the Indian calendar when Hindus pay homage to their pitris, or ancestors, both known and unknown, with oil lamps and offerings.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

Since their core text, the Bhagavad Gita, and generations of Indian names come from the Mahabharata, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit that timeless tale during this solemn period of remembrance.

Everyone has presumably read the Mahabharata by Vyasa in some form or another. As it is one of India's two major epics, the other being the Ramayana, it's virtually a karmic duty to have read it. Vyasa's craft as a master storyteller keeps it racy, pacy, and unputdownable through the Mahabharata's eighteen parvas or sections. He delights in setting people up for a big fall, and the tension never abates. In fact, you need nerves of steel to stay with the story; it is so intense when read in close detail.

Having said a few things to frighten you off the book, let me share why I feel it is so relevant, moving, and necessary to re-read it. Across Indian epics, the concept of karmic repercussion is the explanation for why bad things happen. There are too many external variables to control. So, what can one actually control in this out-of-control existence except one's own response to situations and relationships?

Of these responses, anger is consistently identified as the worst destabiliser through story after story. Therefore, by removing oneself from anger, one's karmic consequences may be reduced and may even be nullified, to break free of the endless cycle of birth.