What is Karma? : The Science of Karma

1. It is only through intent and not through action that karmas are bound. The external actions may be good or bad. That does not bind karma. What causes bondage of karmas is the inner intent. Therefore be aware of the inner intent and do not spoil it.
2. Effect karma is when although you try to control your anger, the anger occurs. To become angry is your effect karma, but it is your internal intent that is important. If from within you feel you had a right to be angry, this will create a new account for you to become angry again in your next life. But if your internal resolve is never to become angry, even though you do, you will not bind anything for the next life.
3. Effects will follow naturally, like flowing water. The water does not say, "I am going down." Even then it travels a great distance to the ocean. Humans on the other hand, have ego and so they bind karma. If a lawyer wins a lawsuit he will say, "I won the lawsuit." Claiming doership is the ego, and this binds karma; the ego creates a cause. In return, the fruit of this cause will come as an effect.
4. At the present time you are binding karma, even in your sleep, because you go to sleep believing that you are Chandubhai (*replace your name here). The Lord says that the biggest karma of all is to shove the Self into a sack before sleeping, with the belief, "I am Chandulal."
5. It is ego when one believes, "I am Chandubhai (*your name here),", because here one identifies himself with his name and body. "I am this body, I am her husband." In reality, one is the Pure Soul, but he is not aware of this real identity.  This belief is ignorance and it is because of this ignorance that karmas are bound.
6. When you have no abhorrence towards the one who curses you, and no attachment towards the one who garlands you and takes care of you, then karma will not bind. Raag is attachment. Dwesh is abhorrence
7. If you do pratikraman for any of your actions, seventy five percent of the effect of that act is dissolved. The other twenty-five percent remains like the image of a burnt rope. In the next life, it will disintegrate easily. Every cause has an effect. By doing pratikraman, karmas can be shaken off in the next life.
8. New karmas are not created as long as one remains the Knower and Observer of the karma that is unfolding. But if one becomes involved ("I am the doer, I am the sufferer."), then he will bind new karma. It is only after you attain Self-realization, that you cease to bind new karmas.
9. The message of the Vitarags is that it is not the karmas that obstruct our liberation; it is our ignorance. Ignorance of what? The ignorance of the Self. As long as there is a body,
   karmas will continue to happen, but when ignorance is gone, the binding of new karma stops.
10. All karmas are charged because of the union of the living (chetan) and non-living (jada). It is the seed karma (cause or charge karma), which gives the fruit of karma (effect or discharge karma) in the next life.

1. If you plant a cactus, you cannot expect it to bear mangoes. You get the fruit of the tree you plant. In the same way, the consequence of the karma you have to suffer depends on the type of karma that was bound in the first place. If you hurt someone, that person will bear a grudge against you and will vow to take revenge when the opportunity arises. People will take revenge, so do not do any karmas that make people unhappy. If it is happiness that you seek, then you must give happiness and not sorrow to others.
2. All these miseries are the result of our mistakes. Once the mistakes are gone, the misery will be over.They are all karmas that we had created, which is why the mistake is our own. No one else is at fault. Others are only 'instruments' (Nimit). The misery is all yours, but it comes your way through your 'instruments'. Would you hit the postman (instrument) if he were to bring you the telegram informing you of your father's death?
3. No one else can give the fruit of karma. No such person has yet been born. If you were to drink poison,you would die. No one is needed in the middle to bring the results. If someone were needed to deliver karma-fruits, then he would have to have a gigantic office. Everything runs scientifically. There is no need for a middleman. When the time is up for maturation of karma, it automatically comes into effect. Just like these mangoes that ripen automatically.
4. What do our people call karma? According to people in general, karma means going to work, performing meritorious deeds, charity, and religious activities. The Self-realized however, call these 'karmaphala' (resultant karma) instead of karma. The gross karmas, which can be seen and experienced through the five senses, are all karmaphala or discharge karmas. That which was charged in the past life is being discharged in this life.It is manifested and becomes visible. The karmas performed at the present time are done at the subtle level. The charging point is very difficult to grasp or recognize.

Questioner: What can one do to prevent the creation of karma?

Dadashri: If you have bad thoughts or negativity, you should immediately confess them to God. The thoughts will linger as long as there is an account. Just confess to God that you have had bad thoughts and that you are asking for forgiveness (pratikraman) and vow never to do it again.

On a June evening in 1958 at around six o'clock, Ambalal Muljibhai Patel, a family man, a contractor by  profession, was sitting on a bench on the busy platform number 3 of Surat's train station. Surat is a city in south Gujarat, a western state in India. What happened within the next forty-eight minutes was phenomenal. Spontaneous Self-realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. During this event his ego completely melted and from that moment onwards he became completely detached from all Ambalal's thoughts, speech and acts. He became the Lord's living instrument for the salvation of mankind, through the path of knowledge. He called this Lord, Dada Bhagwan. To everyone he met, he would say, "This Lord, Dada Bhagwan is fully manifest within me. He also resides within all living beings. The difference is that within me He is completely expressed and in you, he is yet to manifest."

Who are we? What is God? Who runs this world? What is karma? What is liberation? Etc. All the world's spiritual questions were answered during this event. Thus nature offered absolute vision to the world through the medium of Shree Ambalal Muljibhai Patel.