Two Scriptures to know about karma and the 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, and hence avoid committing sins in life.
Though many acharyas, spiritual personalities have nicely spoken about karma and its reactions, all of them have spoken based on two important sources.
What are they?
Primarily, Garuda Purana and Mahabharat are the two important Sources to know the karma, its effects, i.e, rewards and punishments!
(The Scriptures to learn the relationships & their maintenance! READ HERE!)
Garuda Purana is the ONLY BONAFIDE PURANA that exclusively & extensively speaks ONLY ABOUT the reactions of our karma after death and about the 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 his writings and lectures.
Garuda Purana is the collection of Karma, reactions and remedies only. Mostly it does not contain stories. It is the great ready reference material 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 about its authenticity, will never involve in any sinful activities. It will make us fear for committing sins.
Next one is Mahabharat.
If Garuda Purana explains karma thru powerful points, Mahabharat, as a dharma sastra, explains karma and their reactions thru incidents and stories.
In Mahabharat, you can learn about the effects of every karma thru real incidents and powerful stories.
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 story based karmic facts!
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 get 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 very effectively preach these facts.
(Reading Garuda Purana Mahabharatha & keeping Krishna Photos wrong? READ HERE!)