“I am a disaster. I live in agony. I am doomed.” This is me, Achyut Rateria, just another explorer of life, trying to find a meaning. I dropped out of college, wasted all of my resources, and now I curse my shitty job. This book is surely not my autobiography, neither a self-help-book to attain enlightenment. Although matter is intriguing, but it is neither preachy nor creepy. Title “Kriya-Karma” bridges two concepts Kriya and Karma obviously, but approach is radical. Kriya, a change in nature represents an alteration under principle or laws of nature. While on other hand, Karma is the action made by a doer with a deed. So, what’s the catch here? Lets talk about schemas of observation. In transactional terms, I send a gift to my wife, and she gets happy. But in absolute terms, an object is given by a person with a set of conditioning to another who feels chemical changes produced in brain soothing. Flow of wind, formation of stars and explosion of black hole and even subatomic phenomenon are all kriya. At only the level of mind, kriya is labelled as karma and subjected to a karta. But how? What about doer-ship and free-will? In Bhagwad-geeta, Chapter 3, verse 28 – Krishna says to Arjuna that modes of nature(gunas) are merely interacting/ operating among the modes of nature”. The core philosophy being “Krishna is explaining Arjuna the secret to remain completely unattached to the actions”. Thus, it is only kriya no karma, also called akarma from lens of karta. Kriya and karma look simple as concept but they are really difficult to digest once one sees their cycle. Imagine a line which is infinite like kriya happening in nature which is nothing but alteration under principle. When mind intercepts it as a line segment with an end and beginning, it becomes a karma. When there is Karma, there must be a karta, with its personality and free will. From the goggles of kriya, there is no karta but karta does exist in transactional schema which is our damn cold experience. Hence the paradox exists. There must be a mechanism for this duality of tone. In absolute terms, only Kriya happens as resultant of opposing forces at inter and intra level, but at transactional schema only karma happens. Spontaneously or non- spontaneously karma happens through karta or doer, who has a set of personality and free will who can think as well. Hence Karta is held responsible for its actions. If we focus on a word called “Niyanta”, which is a name of Vishnu in Vishnu Sahasranama, it means the preserver or controller of law. The law is called “Niyam” and it is rigorously followed by the body or “pind”. Niyam collides at inter and intra level for a Pind to decide the outcome or “Niyati” by elimination of possibilities from the set of probable outcomes. If we compare this mechanism with Buddhist philosophy, niyanta becomes buddha, niyam becomes dhamma, and pind becomes sangha. All of them take refuge in the cycle of Kriya and Karma. And self being amalgamation of the trio at transactional schema, seems null in absolute terms. If we see Electro-magnetism, both electric field and magnetic field protect and support each other just like kriya and karma. If we see Buddhist circle with black & white parts with color inverted inscribed circles, we could see kriya and karma cycle. In pop culture also, in the movie tenet, Director Christopher Nolan Shows a scene where a bullet is being caught by protagonist but seems dropped in inverted time. This is also a depiction of mind-boggling Kriya-Karma concept or phenomenon. What if I understood this Kriya-Karma? What good will it do to my life? What about my suffering? What about my physical pain? Does it vanish them like magic? Owning the doer-ship makes us karta and rumination or chewing the mental cud makes us feel distressed. This is the only reason of suffering. But Physical pain doesn’t work like this. For relief in pain one must stay aware, mindful and ignore the noise of mind. Lastly, I would like to add a mental exercise for the readers. Just as a mango tree produces a mango seed, and the seed germinates into a mango tree again, is part of evolutionary mechanism, what about the invention of artificial intelligence made by human civilization? Is it Karma or Kriya?
Achyut Rateria (2026) studied this question.