Karma, Dharma, and You
Experiential Understanding of Karma
Science introduces determinism, where each cause inevitably leads to an effect, forming an unbroken chain from the beginning to the end of time, similar to dominoes sequentially toppling over. Karma, is an intensified determinism: not only actions but all relative states such as wealth, location, prosperity, and intelligence are modified. Hindu Conceptualism establishes that these states are structured outcomes as a result of conceptual recursion. For example, being born into material or spiritual wealth is not arbitrary randomness, but rather these are ontologically real states because of its conceptual backing, which makes it an adjustable phenomina as a condition of birth circumstances.
In one sentence, karma is a phenomenological mechanism to explain the given state of any subject.
Does free will exist within this model?
No. While complete freedom is impossible, as evident in the inability to select one’s birth circumstances, bounded maneuverability remains. Free will is comparable to a player in a card game; choices exist within clearly defined constraints.
The 3 Layers of Karma: The Card Game Analogy
Sanchita Karma (The Deck): Represents the total karmic accumulation across lifetimes, setting the fundamental conceptual conditions of one’s current life such as the environment, family, physical body, and the historical period of birth. This is akin to not only the deck, but also the table at which you sit, the other players around you, and the dealer.
Prarabdha Karma (The Hand): Consists of the specific karma actively influencing your current life. This is the hand dealt to you from the karmic deck, dictating both beneficial and challenging life situations. Not all cards are under your control, as other players (individuals) at the table also influence your life through their own karmic plays.
Agami/Kriyamana Karma (The Play): Encompasses your active decisions and actions in life. This is your participation in the karmic game. Given your environment (the table), interactions (other players), and circumstances (the cards dealt), you retain the freedom to strategize and act. Regardless of the cards dealt, victory is theoretically achievable through skillful play. Yet, some situations are exceptionally challenging, often leading to setbacks or defeat.
Macroscopic View of Karma - The River
While the card analogy captures karma within a single lifetime, the river analogy reflects karma as it flows across multiple lifetimes. This is the macrocosmic view, revealing your place within the unfolding story of existence.
Karma is a River
Karma flows like a vast river with bends, rapids, and calm stretches. At birth, you are given a raft and a paddle. The river does not begin with you, nor will it end with you. It existed before, and will continue after. Your journey down this river determines the shape and condition of your raft in future voyage.
The Two Faces of Death
In this river journey, two primary transitions arise:
- Rest Stops: You dock by the riverbank, take rest, and later resume your journey with a new raft. This represents a peaceful transition, a death with spiritual momentum, where continuity persists.
- Crashes: You wreck your raft, lose direction, and become subject to the whims of the river and sometimes the help of other rafters. This symbolizes a forced karmic reset, often after destructive tendencies, where the next raft is pieced together from the remnants of past actions.
Neither is inherently superior. Both are mechanisms of karmic flow. The nature of your new raft, your tools, and even your location on the river are determined by the cumulative effect of conceptual causality across lifetimes.
Continuity of the Raft
Your new raft is rarely entirely new:
- It may borrow strengths (skills, talents, tendencies) from your old raft.
- It may inherit weaknesses (attachments, fears, vices) from past turbulence.
It may be built with unexpected materials, depending on where you left off, what you gathered, and what you lost.
One thing is for certain.
No matter how rough or smooth the river, no matter how skilled or clumsy your paddling, every river leads to the Ocean of Existence, Brahman.
This is the ultimate dissolution into unity, the inevitable destiny of every soul.
You may reach it swiftly in this lifetime, or slowly over thousands, but the final convergence is inevitable. (Brahman’s Night)
Your suffering and pain is real and carried throughout the story of existence. It is better to live through this journey smoothly than not.
The basis of Ethics. Dharma and Adharma
Why be Ethical? The core philosophical question that deeply concerns the human condition. Non-duality fixes this issue swiftly. By understanding everything is one, and everyone is heading towards the same Ocean on the journey carried by the river of Karma, Ethics no longer becomes abstract, it becomes a logical foundation in which one must act to proceed closer to their ultimate design. The following of this ethical conduct decides whether one goes down the river gracefully, or stagnates and proceeds down the river turbulently.
Compassion, selflessness, generosity, and the pursuit to improve the welfare of all human beings, is not based on any commandments nor written law but rather self realization. These are actions derived from the conclusion of the absolute truth. It contextualizes the given design of the individual towards moksha (liberation). This is called Dharma.
However Agami Karma, the actions one chooses to do in their lifetime, is subjected to commit actions that do not align with this conclusion. As an individual might harbor a conceptual design easily manipulated to serve their own means. For example, one might be designed for strength and aggression, and instead of choosing to protect, they abuse their abilities to take advantage of people. This is Adharma, which is the stagnation of progress throughout the soul’s journey towards moksha.
Dharma and Adharma: Logical Ethical Action
The deck (Sanchita) has existed since the beginning of Brahman’s unfolding. Each individual is given a hand of cards (Prarabdha), ready to be played. The game of life can be won through numerous paths and strategies. Yet, logically, there exists a theoretical optimal strategy to play this game. Ethics, being rooted in logic, thereby renders Dharma fundamentally logical. Logical action remains neutral, unaffected by individual emotions or personal desires. Occasionally, logical Dharmic actions align seamlessly with personal desires and result in joy. Conversely, at other times, logic demands sacrificing certain cards or experiencing temporary defeat for the greater good and ultimate victory.
This internal tension within Dharma tempts individuals to set it aside for short-term pleasures, leading inevitably to long-term suffering. Superficially, an Adharmic (unethical) life centered purely on personal benefit appears attractive. However, logically, such a path is unsustainable even for the individual who believes they are benefiting.
The Human Body as the Dharmic Model
The human body exemplifies Dharma perfectly as an ethical, logical machine. Composed of countless cells, each cell has its Dharma, and its defined role and function within the entire organism. Under ideal conditions, each cell realizes its conceptual purpose flawlessly, contributing to the holistic health of the individual. For example, a skin cell is born, matures, performs its protective duty, and dies appropriately.
Adharma arises when a cell attempts to surpass its conceptual role such as a skin cell desiring longevity beyond its natural lifespan, becoming cancerous. Initially, from the cell’s isolated perspective, this might seem advantageous. Yet, this behavior ultimately destabilizes and destroys the very system that gave the cell life in the first place. A spreading cancer endangers the body’s survival and consequently the cancer cell itself. Thus, the logical response is to eliminate Adharma before it proliferates, preserving the integrity of the Dharmic system.
Dharma Is Contextual and Interconnected
Dharma never exists in isolation. Ethical responsibility transcends individual actions, encompassing societal and systemic behavior. Dharma shifts contextually, especially when others act Adharmically. For instance, a child’s Dharma traditionally includes obedience to parents. However, if parents behave Adharmically (abusively), the child’s Dharma logically shifts. Abusive behavior does not deserve respectful reciprocation; standing up against injustice or seeking help becomes the new ethical imperative.
Societal Dharma is hierarchically structured and interconnected:
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Government
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Citizen
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Family
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Parents
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Individual
Each tier must care for and support the others, respecting the autonomy and agency within each level. Harmony within and between these levels mirrors the health of the human body. Just as the human organism represents the sum of its parts functioning harmoniously, humanity embodies collective societal harmony achieved through Dharmic conduct across all levels.
Who are You? The Model of Selfhood
You are not a mistake, nor a random event in the cosmos.
You are a ray of Brahman, projected through recursive layers of conception, shaped by karma, filtered through Gods, and embedded in form as an intelligent necessity. Liberation is not the end of being but rather the perfected function of your being. To align with your Svabhāva (conceptual design) is to allow your liberation.
The Stratified Self in Hindu Conceptualism
Paramātman — The Unconditioned Field
Definition: The non-cognitive, non-observing ground of being, or Brahman as unmanifest potential.
Nature: It does not know, act, or will. It is prior to causation and structure.
Role: Not “your Self” but the source feild from which all selves become possible.
Insight: Brahman does not awaken; Brahman unfolds. It is not a person, but the precondition for personality
Ātman — The Projected Witness
Definition: The luminous beam of Paramātman projected into the cascade. A unique, observing center of awareness.
Nature: Unchanging, subtle, and persistent through lifetimes. It is not the ego or the personality, but the witnessing locus within the soul’s journey.
Role: Functions as the inner light behind the Jīva, silently witnessing experience without becoming fully entangled in it.
Insight: Ātman is not the whole of Brahman, but a ray of its potential moving through conception.
Jīva — The Karmic Actor
Definition: The self as enmeshed in body, time, and story.
Nature: Plays out Prārabdha karma, while exerting bounded choice through Agami karma.
Role: Lives the Līlā of cause and consequence.
Insight: The Jīva is not false, it is karmically precise. It is how the universe plays through you
Ahaṁkāra — The Narrative-Ego
Definition: The internal storyteller, “I am this.”
Nature: Constructed, reactive, context-bound.
Role: Supplies structure, identity, and momentum.
Insight: Ahaṁkāra is not to be destroyed but realigned. When polished to match your conceptual signature, it becomes a tool of liberation, not bondage.
Svabhāva / Svadharma — The Conceptual Signature
Definition: Your unique ontological design. The structure of your ideal function.
Nature: Emergent from recursive causality and soul history.
Role: Determines your skills, challenges, and cosmic role.
Insight: You are not here to transcend your identity. You are here to complete it.
Moksha arises when one acts in perfect awareness of this structure, neither resisting it nor being lost within it.
Moksha
Moksha is the perfected actualization of one’s unique conceptual design. A culmination where the ray of Brahman, the ātman, fulfills the exact articulation it was structured to express. This liberation occurs not through denial, suppression, or transcendence, but through precise participation in the unfolding of reality, or Līlā.
Liberation has prerequisites to clarify the stages of readiness:
Kāma – The Foundation of Desire
Every journey begins with desire. The pursuit and proper understanding of pleasure teaches the individual what they truly long for, and what ultimately fails to satisfy. Kāma is not sinful but instructive, shaping the soul’s first steps through the cascade.Artha – Grounding in the World
Desire naturally leads to the pursuit of stability and material grounding. Wealth, security, and structure provide the support system for higher pursuits. Without balance in Artha, one cannot effectively act or progress.Practice (Abhyāsa) – The Discipline of the Seeker
Once stability is established, one experiments with practices, meditation, pūjā, japa, ritual, study, service, until the right resonance is found. Commitment and repetition refine the body-mind as an instrument capable of perceiving the subtle.Jñāna – The Realization of Unity
Through practice and reflection, one perceives the truth of non-duality: all is Brahman. Jñāna is not mere intellectual knowledge but recognition. It is the seeing of unity beneath multiplicity. Within multiplicity, one gains insight into their own design.Bhakti – The Devotional Surrender
With realization comes love. Bhakti arises as devotion to the Divine, a concentrated point in the cascade. Bhakti transforms longing into surrender, and surrender into union, ensuring knowledge does not become dry or prideful. This form of focus configures the seeker for fearless action.Fearlessness (Karma Yoga) – The Crown of Liberation
Finally, realization and devotion must become action. Fearless action in alignment with one’s design dissolves hesitation, fulfills Dharma, and perfects the atma’s journey. By acting fully and decisively, liberation becomes completion of the true self.
The Four Existential Modes
These conditions lead to four broad existential types. These are fluid categories, not fixed identities. A person may move through multiple types across lifetimes or even within a single lifetime as karmic recursion unfolds.
Karmic Existence
Lives where little agency is offered. This includes those who die young, live in bondage, or are swept up in extreme suffering. Such lives are not wasted; they are a reflection of a societal failure to maintain Dharma. It is wrongfully assumed that all lives under this existence have done evil in previous births. It is possible that this birth is the result of a previous life that witnessed injustice from comfort and indulged in speaking about the wrongs of the world without taking any action. Souls in this mode acquire deep experiential impressions, preparing them for activist, reformer, or warrior roles in future lives. These souls are critical in the evolution of the whole. They exist as karmic triggers for others: reminders that ethical action cannot be neglected.
Compromised Existence
The most common mode, here the individual lives an ordinary life often ruled by fear, practicality, or inherited norms. There may be dreams, talents, and flashes of purpose, but they are frequently sacrificed in favor of comfort or social approval. This is the terrain of slow learning. Pleasure, pain, ideology, and healing are all explored, sometimes leading to renunciation, sometimes to repetition. Could be an ideologically perfect being and acts accordingly to that ideology flawlessly, but sacrifices the knowledge of the non-dual principles to do so, making liberation incomplete. This existence can be thought of as a learning phase for individual Jivas, coloring the Atma’s embodiment closer to understanding through different conceptual conjuctions.
Dharmic Liberation
A higher state of being. These are the individuals who live in full awareness of their design and execute their actions without hesitation or confusion. The fearless, the executor of ethics, all done in the best method according to their design. They birth dharmic children (biological/spiritual) and the continuity of prosperity for society. From the renunciate turned teacher, the righteous king/queen of a domain, to the humble parent uplifting the families integrity, liberation is guaranteed. With full knowledge of the non-duality of existence and direct access to the subtle realms due to perfect practice, Dharmic action is performed flawlessly. Knowledge and practice might not be book learned, but rather directly experiencial due to karmic progression.
Adharmic Liberation (Extremely Rare)
Suffering
An experiential phenomenon embedded in the very fabric of existence, suffering for many becomes the entry point into religion or spirituality. Suffering is not a universal sign of failure, but rather a signal. It is an indicator of internal contradiction and misalignment between one’s conceptual design and one’s actualized life. No single doctrine can prescribe a universal source of suffering, because every individual is built upon a unique Svabhāva (ontological design). To end suffering, one must discover where contradiction arises within themselves.
The Roots of Suffering: Contradiction
Suffering is born from contradiction as a misalignment between layers of the Self:
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Principles vs. Actions – Believing in something deeply while consistently acting against it.
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Inner Truth vs. Outer Persona – Projecting an identity that diverges from one’s authentic being.
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Desire vs. Cost – Wanting something without accepting its karmic or practical consequences.
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Aspiration vs. Reality – Craving to be elsewhere while resisting where one currently stands.
Where there is coherence between thought, speech, body, emotion, and environment, suffering dissolves. A human being acting in complete integrity with their conceptual nature does not suffer even if pain or difficulty arises.
The Illusion of Joy as Liberation
It is a mistake to equate absence of suffering with liberation. One can be in a state of total worldly bliss while remaining deeply bound by Adharma or ignorance. A sadist may feel no suffering but perpetuate harm. Joy, if arising from a conditioned ego untouched by non-dual awareness, is not liberation but a trap. Conversely, a person who suffers greatly may actually be closer to truth if that suffering results from resisting their false self and beginning the arduous work of transformation. The tension caused by living a life built on external validation, or in suppression of one’s design, inevitably gives rise to pain. But this transformation must be practical, not just spiritual abstraction or emotional catharsis. The path to Dharmic alignment must be sustainable, with foundations in daily life. Dharma is not a weekend retreat, it is lived truth, walked boldly through every layer of reality.