Punya (Hinduism)

Punya (Sanskrit: पुण्य) is a difficult word to translate; there is no equivalent English word to convey its exact intended meaning. It is generally taken to mean 'saintly', virtue, 'holy', 'sacred', 'pure', 'good', 'meritorious', 'virtuous', 'righteous', 'just', 'auspicious', 'lucky', 'favourable', 'agreeable', 'pleasing', 'lovely', 'beautiful', 'sweet', 'fragrant', 'solemn' or 'festive', according to the context it is used.

Dharma (धर्म) is referred to as good karma or a virtue that contributes benefits in this and the next birth and can be acquired by appropriate means and also accumulated. In Vedanta terms punya is the invisible wealth, a part of dharma, the third human goal; the other two goals being artha and kama. Punya and pāpa are the seeds of future pleasure and pain, the former, which sows merits, exhausts itself only through pleasure and the latter, which sows demerits, exhausts itself only through pain; but Jiwan mukti ends all karmic debts consisting of and signified by these two dynamics.

During the Vedic period, brahmacharya practiced by the Brahmins was believed to ensure the desired gain of eternal life but owing to the changes in living patterns and increase in the demands of life, people veered towards Brahmaloka which the accumulation of merits of punya-karma ('good deeds or actions') seemed to promise and opted for the deva-yāna or 'the path of the gods'. The dynamics of karma played a large role in the development of Buddhist thought. The Buddhists believe that karma determines one’s nature and life-pattern but to them karma is chetnā, a mental drive, a psychological phenomenon rather than a law governing substantial existence. The Buddhists consider Punya as the extraordinary force that confers happiness, as a spiritual merit which is one of the ten forms of balas (sources of strength) to a bodhisattva. They hold the belief that charity leads to the accumulation of punya or a happier rebirth on earth or a long sojourn in heaven. Buddha-knowledge (enlightenment) transcends even the law of karma.

The principle of Sthiti Bandha (duration-quality bondage), according to Jainism, involves attachment of karmic matter to the soul through anubhava bandha or rasa bandha which refers to the determination of the fruits of actions of the soul that such an attachment produces at the time of attachment of karmic matter or through pradesha bandha that deals with the quantum of karmic matter drawn towards the soul as determined by the soul’s actions. The karmic matter produced due to good activities of the mind, body and speech is the pleasant punya ('virtuous') karmic matter and that produced due to evil activities is the unpleasant pāpa ('sinful') karmic matter. These karmas have to exhaust themselves to produce their results.

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