Karma-Vipāka
Karma means action, and every action bears fruit sooner or later. Karma-vipāka means the “ripening” of karma: the exact results a jīva (individual soul) meets after death. These results come as time in svarga (the higher, happy worlds), time in naraka (the worlds of punishment), and particular animal births that match the kind of actions the person did.
The Garuḍa Purāṇa gives a detailed account of this. It describes the jīva’s journey through the realm of Yama (the ruler of death and judge of the dead), how piṇḍa-tarpaṇa (offerings of rice balls and water) feed the jīva on the way, and a list of which wrong deeds lead to which rebirths. The list runs from the person who steals entrusted money and becomes a worm, to the person who steals flowers and is reborn poor.
The Journey After Death
After the jīva leaves the body, it takes 12 days to travel to Yama’s realm. During this time it lives on the piṇḍa-tarpaṇa offered by its descendants. The offerings of water, sesame and rice feed the subtle body of the jīva as it travels along the path of the pitṛs (ancestors). If the descendants do not perform these rites, the jīva suffers hunger and thirst on the way.
When it reaches Yama’s court, Citragupta reads out the full record of everything the jīva has done. Based on this record, Yama gives it the fitting experience:
- Svarga: for those whose karma is mostly good
- Naraka: for those whose karma is mostly pāpa (wrongdoing)
- Rebirth: once the karma has been used up in svarga or naraka, the jīva is born again according to the tendencies that remain
From Seed to Womb
Rebirth follows the pattern of creation itself. From the Unmanifest, the jīva enters aṇḍa-sṛshṭi (creation from a seed), then enters the garbha (womb), where it grows for nine months. At the moment of birth, Vaishṇava-māyā (the power of illusion of Vishṇu) comes down and wipes away the jīva’s memory of its past lives and of the suffering it went through in Yama’s realm. This forgetting is part of the plan, so that the jīva can take up its new life fresh.
Which Deeds Lead to Which Births
The Garuḍa Purāṇa goes into rare detail, linking particular wrong deeds to particular animal births. These are not meant as symbols; they are given as the actual results of karma-vipāka:
| Wrong deed | Rebirth |
|---|---|
| Embezzling or misusing entrusted money | Kṛmi (worm, intestinal parasite) |
| Jealousy | Rākshasī (a female rākshasa) |
| Betraying trust | Matsya (fish) |
| Stealing grain | Mūshika (rat) |
| Stealing another man’s wife | Vṛka (wolf) |
| Wronging a co-wife (with reference to the wrong done by Kauśalyā’s co-wife) | Kokila (cuckoo) |
| Killing an unarmed person | Gardabha (donkey) |
| Stealing food | Mārjāra (cat) |
| Stealing flies, or petty theft | Maśaka (mosquito) |
| Stealing sesame | Mūshika (mouse) |
| Stealing ghee | Nakula (mongoose) |
| Stealing meat | Kāka (crow) |
| Stealing honey | Araṇya-bhramara (forest bee) |
| Stealing sweets | Kṛmi (worm) |
| Stealing water | Kāka (crow) |
| Stealing firewood | Harilāpiṭṭa (a particular bird) |
| Arson, setting fires | Baka (crane) |
| Stealing vegetables | Mayūra (peacock) |
| Stealing a rabbit | Śaśa (rabbit) |
| Stealing the performing arts or other people’s artistic work | Klība (eunuch) |
| Stealing flowers | Daridra (born into poverty) |
The Fruit of Good Karma
Those who do good deeds, follow dharma and grow in sattva (purity and goodness) reach svarga. They are then reborn in good circumstances: in good families, with health and intelligence, and with access to sacred knowledge. Those who have built up both good karma and sādhanā (spiritual practice such as yoga, jñāna or bhakti) may, by the grace of Paramātmā, reach moksha, complete freedom from the cycle of rebirth.
The Garuḍa Purāṇa also offers an encouraging promise. A yoga-bhrashṭa, a person who falls away from the path of yoga, is reborn in a pavitra and śrīmān home, a pure and prosperous family, so that the practice cut short in one life can be taken up again in the next. No good karma is ever lost:
Kalyāṇa-kāryaṃ kurvāṇo / na kadācid durgatiṃ vrajet
“One who has performed auspicious deeds never attains an inauspicious destination.”
Sources
- Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 225