Karmic Debts (A Novel)

Karmic Debts is a sensitive portrayal of an Indian Woman of the middle class family in a small village in Punjab . Mohini Tandan has telescoped with amazing perception the evolution of an Indian Woman rising from traditional orthodoxy to modernity.

Based on actual life, it is a story of love, pain and pathos. This thought-provoking novel portrays the under-currents and cross-currents of family expanding awareness of the India woman to acquire identity society.

The development into the context of the British rule in India in the first half century and the dramatic in chain of events after the attainment of independence since 1947, provide the historical background, adding a further dimension to the novel.

This original contribution of Mohini Tandan is daringly different in style and approach. Exposing the theory of Karma and Karmic debts and inner search, it is truly representative of the social and cultural ethos of the times. Besides creating a few memorable characters, the author has sketched a woman in all her tenderness, passion and resilience.

Mohinin Tandan obtained her B.SC. degree from University of Bombay with first class with distinction. Her deep interest in the subject stimulated her to worka s aresearch scholar for her Master of Science.

Mrs. Tandan is a successful business woman and has travelled widely. Inspite of her busy schedule she finds time to indulge in creative writing. She has written several short stories an d poetry. Karmic Debts is her maiden attempt at writing a novel.

Mrs. Tandan is married and lives in Delhi. Her other interests include Scriptures and Karma Yoga.

There is a general belief prevalent in almost all religions that actions of life have an all important impact on life after death. There is an element of retribution or reward attached to the philosophy appertaining to the subject. According to some religions, there is a Day of Judgment, when the souls of the dead are assigned to heaven or hell according to the good or bad deeds of a person during his or her life.

The Philosophy of Karma corresponds to this subject. The Hindu and Buddhist religions believe that there are almost endless cycles of birth-death-rebirth, where the soul fulfills its destiny, and that heaven and hell as a matter of fact exist in this world itself. The soul is the one which goes through many cycles of birth and death wearing different apparels of the body.

The soul is called forth to discharge its "Karmic Debts" in retribution for the deeds and misdeeds of the body in a particular life and to pay in lives that follow till it is free from all debts, worldly passion, to reach the state of Moksha or the final union with the Divine when the circle comes to an end.

The Philosophy of Re-incarnation is however not quite as simple as it seems. It has many complexities and refinements, which are to be found in the way the Brahmins and pandits interpret it in India. At birth, every Hindu usually has a horoscope cast, which gives' the planetary position of rising ascendant, according to the Hindu system of astrology. This horoscope is used by the pandits to calculate the Karmic factors that operate in a particular person's life.

Pandits use the horoscope to reduce the ill effects of Karma inherited from past lives by incantation of ancient hymns and prayers. It may seem ridiculous, but in practice, strange results have been achieved by such prayers or by the use of astrological stones. It may be a different matter that this knowledge has been misused by some pandits for their own personal advantage.

It is useful to note that a new arrival in the family like a wife or a new born child, have their own Karmic influences which tend to change the destiny of all others for the better or for the worse. In common practice, a lady with good Karmic influences, is called Karmawaali (one having performed good Karma in the past life and as a result has a good record) and she enjoys a very good position in that family. Sometimes, the converse can also be true.