Fare Evasion Karma – Instant and delayed
Found this interesting poster by Public Transport of Victoria. The poster says, if you commit fare evasion, you get a fine. If you are able to pay on the spot, the fine is $75 and if you want to pay it later i, e once you receive the infringement by post to you, it is $217.00.
Let me take this Analogy and explain the process of Fare Evasion KARMA.
OK, initially there is the seed or BIJA or the point of origin. Bija refers to desire to do a sinful activity – I don’t want to buy a Myki and travel for free. So this thought enters the mind, and its just a matter of time before the act manifests. The person starts enjoying his sinful activity or Papam and nothing happens. This is called Aprarabdha karma, or the not-yet-manifest consequence of a particular activity. Everything we do carries with it a specific karmic reaction, some of which we are currently enjoying or suffering, and others which will come to full fruition at some future date..After few joy rides and fare evasion, sometimes on the very first time, the ticket inspectors catch the person and they issue a ticket. This is Prarabdhakarma, or the manifest consequence. This leads to Duhkha, or suffering and lamentation. Oh, why did I not buy a ticket? I might have saved $10 or $15 but, I am paying so much. Duhkha is the cumulative result of karma, the final consequence.
Further interesting reference from scriptures below,
aprarabdha-phalam papam kutam bijam phalonmukham
kramenaiva praliyeta visnu-bhakti-ratatmanäm
“There are different stages of dormant reactions to sinful activities to be observed in a sinful life. Sinful reactions may be just waiting to take effect [phalonmukha], reactions may be still further dormant [kutaa], or the reactions may be in a seedlike state [bija]. In any case, all types of sinful reactions are vanquished one after another if a person engages in the devotional service of Lord Visnu.” (From Padma Purana)
These sinful actions are divided into three categories — pātaka, mahā-pātaka and atipātaka — and also into two divisions; prārabdha and aprārabdha. Prārabdha refers to sinful reactions from which one is suffering at the present, and aprārabdha refers to sources of potential suffering. When the seeds (bīja) of sinful reactions have not yet fructified, the reactions are called aprārabdha. These seeds of sinful action are unseen, but they are unlimited, and no one can trace when they were first planted. Because of prārabdha, sinful reactions that have already fructified, one is seen to have taken birth in a low family or to be suffering from other miseries.
When one takes to devotional service, however, all phases of sinful life, including prārabdha, aprārabdha and bīja, are vanquished. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.14.19) Lord Krishna tells Uddhava:
yathāgnih susamriddhārcih
karoty edhāmsi bhasmasāt
tathā mad-vishayā bhaktir
uddhavaināmsi kritsnaśah
“My dear Uddhava, devotional service in relationship with me is like a blazing fire that can burn to ashes all the fuel of sinful activities supplied to it.
(Excerpted from the purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 6.1.15, by A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada)
