"Kausika the brahmana, who is now
roasting in hell, set his heart on
Virtue, and in all his life never told
a lie, even in jest.
   Once having seen their helpless
victim run past him and hide,
Kausika sitting where the rivers
meet answered the thieves: "That
way."
So be as the swan, who drinks
 from milk and water mixed
together, whichever one he choose,
leaving the other behind."
*from William Buck's Mahabharata

Dharma and Karma

It was from Kausika's previous lives that he acquired these tendencies.  These tendencie allowed him to adhere strictly to the truth.  He lived in a pure state and became the "well-wisher" of the world.  Thus, Kausika became a Brahmin approved by the Vedas.  It is through his story we can see that despite his virtue of telling the truth, he fails at being pure and ends with bad karma.

Lord Arjuna tells the story of Kausika. 

There was a Brahmin named Kausika.  He lived on the edge of a forest near a village and a river.  Kausika was well known to the town as having vowed to tell the truth.  His truthful nature was admired by the town until one day:

While he was living in the forest, some people entered the forest.  These were innocent people who had fled the village for fear of robbers.  These robbers had heard of Kausika's vow.  They used this to their advantage and questioned him.  The robbers knew he would have seen the people who had fled into the forest, and they approached him.

"Did you see people fleeing into the forest?" the robbers asked.

"Yes, I must tell the truth.  They went that way, around the bend and down the river to the giant oak tree." Kausika pointed them in the direction with these specific instructions knowing full well that these were evil men chasing after innocent people.  

Despite this knowledge, Kausika thought it more important to hold to his vow and told the truth.  Upon doing so, he led the robbers directly to the innocents.  By this action, Kausika aided in the death of these innocent people.  These people had only fled into the forest for safety.  It was this horrible aid in the murder of these innocents that sent Kausika to a horrifying hell.

 Analysis:
This story portrays an interesting concept when dealing with and understanding Karma.  Karma is often defined as what goes around comes around.  When analyzing this story, one can begin to understand that Karma goes much deeper.  When dealing with Karma one cannot neglect the concept of dharma.  Dharma is not an easy concept to explain and has no precise definition.  For our definition we must use something related to virtue and morality, keeping in mind that I am only attempting to deal with it insofar as it affects one's Karma. 

We see here that because of his lack of moral understanding and dharma, Kausika thought it more important to have the appearance of being moral by telling the truth.  He failed to recognize that the virtuous thing in this situation was to protect the innocent. 

 The complexity of life causes tension between the idea and the real.  Always telling the truth did not make Kausika's actions moral.  Kausika failed morally even when upholding what is normally considered a virtuous trait.  His Karma was affected directly by his lack of concern for his dharma.  His Karma was also bound up with the actions of others.  His word led to consequences.   

The morality Kausika believed he was upholding was trivial compared to the innocent lives he helped the robbers take.  It was this superficial and selfish view of morality that caused Kausika to have bad Karma.  Morality and Dharma is what keeps firm the course of things.  It grounds the way of life for one to live.   

 Kausika's karma was affected because of his attempt to keep his vow selfishly above serving those around him.  In this way, we see that Karma and Dharma, connectedness and truth, are intertwined deeply and cannot be separated.

Bibliography:

Buck, William. Mahabharata. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. between pg 190-192

"Appearance and Intention" Chakra Discussions (February 9, 2005) Hrdayananda das Goswami
Available online: http://www.chakra.org/discussions/GenFeb09_05_two.html

"Colour and Caste?" Sathya Sai Baba (May 17, 2000)Sathya Sai
Available online: http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/sathyasaivahini/sathya090.html

Image Information:

Picture of Kausika
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