What are the Sources to know the karma and their reactions?
A male devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
“Hare Krishna Sir, I have been following your site for a long time. It helped me to grow spiritually a lot. I am currently a student . In my school I learnt that doing good karma will definitely give you a good life. So in which scripture can we find the particular result of a particular good karma ? just like there is a particular punishment of particular sinful activities . Hare Krishna. God bless you.”
REPLY:
The unique greatness of Indian Scriptures is that each and every Purana and the Itikas speak about the karma and its effects and hence are the Sources to know the karma and their reactions.
The purpose of those scriptures is to make us aware of the reactions of our karma.
Primarily, Garuda Purana and Mahabharat are the two are the Sources to know the karma, its effects and punishments!
(The Scriptures to learn the relationships & their maintenance! READ HERE!)
Garuda Purana is the ONLY PURANA that speaks ONLY ABOUT the reactions of our karma after death and about soul and the effects of the activities of the soul in its conditioned state.
Garuda Purana is the dedicated purana to know the effects of our every karma.
Srila Prabhupada too have explained the facts given by Garuda Purana in the eyes of a devotee of Krishna.
Garuda Purana is the collection of facts only. Mostly it does not contain stories. It is the only ready reference to know about Karma and its effects.
It even lists all the names of the available hells and what types sinners go to those hells after death.
I can tell you, those who read Garuda Purana with faith in its authenticity, will never involve in any sinful activities. It will change us powerfully.
Next one is Mahabharat.
Mahabharat is the collection of almost all the types of karma and their reactions thru incidents.
If you read Mahabharat, you can learn about the effects of every karma thru real incidents.
You can also learn how to get rid of the reactions of our karma and not to involve in new karma.
(LIST OF 18 MAHA PURANAS & UPA-PURANAS CLASSIFED! READ HERE!)
Thousands of real stories are there in Mahabharat that will make us lead a sinless life.
So, my recommendation is: Just read with faith Garuda Purana for karmic facts and Mahabharat for karmic facts thru stories!
Then, evaluate the change in yourself.
The extract of all our Scriptures is:
(1) If you think and do good, you will get good status after death;
(2) If you think and do bad, you will miserable status after death;
(3) if you think and serve Krishna, you will get relieved from all the bonds and further births and get an eternal life with Krishna.
Garuda Purana and Mahabharath are the Sources to know the karma and their reactions very effectively preach these facts.
(Reading Garuda Purana Mahabharatha & keeping Krishna Photos wrong? READ HERE!)