‘Karma & Reincarnation’
‘Real players don’t play.’
Most people do not struggle with reincarnation because it is mystical. They struggle with it because it feels unfair.
Why would life repeat? Why would suffering recur? Why would effort seem to reset at death?
But look closely at your own life before worrying about eternity.
Patterns repeat.
Relationships repeat.
Mistakes repeat.
Desires repeat.
The scenery changes. The script does not.
You leave one job only to meet the same personality in a different uniform. You exit one relationship only to encounter the same dynamic in a different face. You swear off an old habit only to rediscover it under stress.
Repetition is not superstition. It is observable.
Vedanta names this pattern Samsara — the cycle of births and deaths. But before it becomes cosmic, it is psychological. It is the looping of unresolved tendency.
Samsara is not merely the wheel of reincarnation. It is the wheel of attachment.
You act from desire.
Desire creates impression.
Impression creates tendency.
Tendency creates action again.
This is happening now.
Reincarnation, then, is not fantasy. It is continuity. If impressions and tendencies are not resolved within one lifespan, why would they vanish simply because the body fails? The conditions that shaped them have not dissolved.
Karma is not punishment. It is the record of momentum.
You do not escape gravity by closing your eyes. You do not escape consequence by dying.
This is not moral threat. It is structural law.
The dilemma is Samsara. The solution is Moksha — liberation from the obligation to return.
But liberation does not come through good behavior alone. And this is where misunderstanding begins.
Western spirituality often reduces karma to a credit–debit system. Do good to cancel bad. Donate to erase damage. Accumulate merit like currency.
This is spiritual materialism.
It keeps the ego alive.
If karma were transactional, the self would remain the accountant. The doer would remain central. Liberation would be achieved by performance.
But karma is not erased by balancing the ledger. It is dissolved by ceasing to identify as the doer.
Action generates karma only when it is owned.
Desire is the adhesive.
Attachment is the binding agent.
It is not the act that traps you. It is the claim upon the fruit of the act.
This is why Krishna teaches Karma Yoga — the path of action without attachment.
Perform the action.
Relinquish the fruit.
Offer the result.
Not symbolically. Structurally.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that even deception, even warfare, even destruction, remain within law. He reveals a form so vast that Arjuna sees all warriors already consumed within him. Not because Krishna delights in slaughter as cruelty, but because as the source of all action, he alone stands beyond partiality.
He is called the supreme enjoyer of all karmas.
This is disturbing if you imagine God as sentimental.
It is liberating if you understand scale.
When Krishna says, “Offer me a leaf, a flower, a drop of water,” he is not asking for ritual. He is redefining ownership. The act is not yours if it is given in joy.
Everything can become Yajna — sacrifice — when performed as offering.
That includes designing a shirt.
Writing a blog.
Serving food in a restaurant.
Leading a company.
Cleaning a floor.
The modern mind separates sacred from mundane. Vedanta does not.
Karma Yoga is not about heroic deeds. It is about orientation.
I practice this daily. Not because I am advanced, but because it works.
If I design something, I design it as if I am doing it for God. Not metaphorically. Practically. I give full attention. I give skill. I give care. The reaction to it — praise, criticism, profit, failure — is not mine to cling to.
If I serve someone food, I serve as duty, not performance. Whether I like the person or not is irrelevant. Attachment to liking or disliking is the source of karma, not the task itself.
This is what it means to be a man of deeds — a karma yogin. A rajan must act. A king who refuses action is negligent. But a king who acts for personal gain is bound.
Attachment is the real source of karma. Desire is the engine of reincarnation.
You do not reincarnate because you acted. You reincarnate because you wanted.
The other path Krishna describes is Sankhya Yoga — philosophical discrimination. Through meditation and inquiry, you observe that attachment produces suffering. You see clearly that greed is intensified attachment. You recognize that the personality clings to gold differently than to clay, but the Brahman sees both as matter.
Scale the mountain through action or through inquiry. The summit is the same: Vairagya — detachment.
Vairagya is not indifference. It is mastery.
It is the ability to act fully without psychological residue.
When that state stabilizes, karma ceases to accumulate.
And without accumulated karma, Samsara loses its fuel.
This is Moksha.
It is not reward. It is release from obligation.
Now consider time.
Vedanta does not view history as linear progress but cyclical decline and renewal. The Yugas describe ages of consciousness. In Satya Yuga, truth dominates. In Treta and Dvapara, fragmentation increases. In Kali Yuga — the current age — attachment, confusion, and ego intensify.
Kali is not a cartoon villain. It is the age where speed outruns wisdom. Where information exceeds discrimination. Where desire multiplies faster than discipline.
In such an age, Karma Yoga becomes essential. Action is unavoidable. Complexity is unavoidable. The only question is attachment.
We live in an age of transaction. Everything is measured. Even virtue is marketed. Even outrage is monetized.
Karma-as-bank-account fits Kali perfectly. It allows you to perform goodness while preserving ego.
But Moksha requires relinquishment of ego.
Durydhona was a competent warrior. A ksatriya. But he could not renounce the throne. Kingship for him was benefit first, duty second. He was bound by attachment. Yudhishthira, flawed though he was, understood kingship as burden and obligation. Renunciation at the proper time aligns with Dharma.
The throne tests the king.
The modern equivalent is power, platform, status, influence. Can you relinquish them when Dharma demands it? Or do you cling?
The three primary paths — action, meditation, devotion — converge.
Action without attachment.
Inquiry without arrogance.
Devotion without sentimentality.
When all three integrate, devotion emerges naturally. Not as emotional excess, but as recognition. Recognition that the self you thought central is derivative.
At that point, spreading Krishna consciousness is not propaganda. It is inevitability. Alignment radiates. Clarity influences without coercion.
Relief comes here.
Not relief from consequence. Relief from confusion.
Karma is not a cosmic judge.
Reincarnation is not fantasy.
They are operating principles.
Action carries consequence across time.
Unresolved attachment creates return.
Ownership binds.
Offering liberates.
The cycle of births and deaths is not punishment. It is opportunity for evolution — mastery over matter, especially personal matter.
You are not asked to withdraw from life. You are asked to refine your orientation within it.
Every act can bind.
Every act can liberate.
The difference is attachment.
Samsara continues until understood. Moksha dawns when obligation dissolves.
Liberation is not forgiveness. It is comprehension.
When you truly see that clinging perpetuates return, letting go becomes rational.
This is not mystical.
It is clean.
‘Karma’ by Annie Besant
‘Reincarnation’ by Annie Bessant
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(written with the assistance of ChatGPT)
