AvadhootaDatta Peetham

Sri Guru Datta

 

oṁ namo hanumate namaḥ

oṁ namo nārāyaṇa

hare krṣṇa

In this sookti, the fruit of our actions (karma phala), the discipline of actions (karma nishtha), and how fate is ordained by God are explained.

 

Fragrant flowers and sweet fruits bloom at their appropriate time without anyone’s help. Again falling on the ground, they follow their natural karma. So too the fruits of our good and bad actions enter our lives at the right time. Therefore, escaping karma phala is impossible.

Karmas are the actions we do. Eating, bathing, etc. are all also karmas. These are ordinary actions. There is no gain or loss from performing these actions. The actions that bear fruit in the next world should be called karmas. These can be of two types - satkarma or nishiddha karma. Satkarmas are of two kinds - nitya karma and naimittika karma. Nishiddha karma refers to prohibited actions. Satkarma refers to good actions. Nitya karmas are obligatory duties – doing them will not yield much fruit, but not doing them incurs great sin. The one who feeds his parents or children is not praised as a great donor. That is his duty. Serving parents or feeding family yields no merit, but starving and tormenting them will certainly send him to terrible hell where he experiences untold agony after which he gets a terrible birth and suffers again for those sins as a leper or one without legs or sight, or as a dog. This is because it is one’s duty to take care of family. Taking care of parents will not give you merit, but not taking care of them will incur sin.

In the Spring season, trees give fruits and flowers. No one needs to remind the trees to do so. As the immovable trees follow their season’s dharma, man too will experience the fruit of his karma at the appropriate time. The one who has done good deeds will enjoy life happily. The one who has committed sinful deeds will experience the suffering of hell on earth in the form of diseases and dangers. Some fools stubbornly argue that the ones who do good deeds get the scholarly priests to do sankalpas (during Pujas) so that God knows of their deeds; but since the sinners do not do sankalpas in advance of their misdeeds, how would God know of their misdeeds? In reality, just the thought of undertaking an action is sankalpa. God knows right away. That is why God has established five witnesses for every action we undertake. The sun, moon, air, earth, and sky are all witnessing our actions. When the time is right, these witnesses will tell God about our good and bad deeds.

Fragrance enters the flowers on its own. Sweetness in mango, bitterness in neem, sourness in tamarind enter on their own. So too, the results of good and bad deeds will be experienced by each person birth after birth. No one can escape the results. That is why it is said - ruṇānubandha rūpeṇa paśu patni sutālayā.

It is natural for children to serve their parents. But parents serving their children who can stand on their own is unnatural. The reason for parents serving children in this manner is the parents’ sins from previous lives. Parents serve children until the children can stand on their own. But after that, children must serve their parents.