karm pradhaan bisva kari raakha
jo jas karahin, tas fal chaakha
The Lord has made the world action-bound. Hence what one gets is only the reactions of one's own actions.'
The result or fruit of actions performed in unconscious state or stupor, and actions performed by minors (children), birds, animals and the Enlightened ones, without the sense of doership, are not stored up that are to be worked off or to bear the consequences of in future. Similarly the actions performed selflessly are not stored up.
If a child, while playing, inadvertently strangles another child, he is not charged with a murder. At the most he is given a slap or two. A drunkard in his stupor may call others bad names but it would be inappropriate to file a defamation case against him, as he is temporarily out of his senses and almost unconscious of his actions; and his sense of 'I-ness' is very unclear. The enlightened sages too carry out their actions without a sense of doership. So they are not bound by any of their actions.
Similarly, wherever you live, whatever actions you perform, do them without a sense of doership and they will not bind you. Otherwise, with the sense of doership prevailing in your mind, even insects killed while strolling around would constitute your actions worthy to be stored up. Whether you offer a glass of water to someone or usurp something belonging to another, all these actions are stored up. But the same actions performed without the sense of being a doer create no bondage at all.
Once Buddha and his disciples were meandering from one place to another. At one place they saw a number of ants biting a snake which was writhing in pain. The disciples enquired, 'O Lord! Why is it so' So many ants are biting the snake and such a large snake is writhing helplessly! Is it suffering the consequences of its past evil deeds''
Buddha said, 'Some years ago, I was passing by this very pond when I saw a fisherman fishing in the pond. I asked him to desist from such a sinful act of killing jivas just to make a living, but he paid no heed to my words. The same fisherman is born as a snake and the fishes killed by him are born as these ants in their next birth and are thus taking their revenge. The fisherman is simply suffering the consequences of killing innocent beings.'
After the war of Mahabharata, a distressed Dhritarashtra once asked Vedavyasji, 'O Lord! How is it that all my hundred sons have been killed and I, the blind old father, remained alive' I have not committed so grave sins in this life as to face such an irony of fate, and I must have earned some virtues in my earlier lives to be born as a king. Then what is the cause of my terrible suffering''
Vedavyasji sat in meditation to see Dhritarashtra's past lives and found that in his earlier lives he had been a deer, an elephant and then a king. Thereafter he came out of his samadhi and told Dhritarashtra, '124 years back, you were a king and had gone hunting in the jungle. You saw a deer and chased it but could not hunt it as it disappeared in the woods. Seething with rage and with a hurt ego, you set fire to the jungle which burnt down the grass and dried leaves. But in the fire some offsprings of a snake were also burnt alive and the mother was blinded. You are suffering the consequences of that action in this life. You were born blind and all your children have been killed.'
Wherever you may live, whichever job you are engaged in, first of all realize your Supreme Self. Then whatever you do will be without a sense of doership and hence will not bind you.