Punya(Sanskrit:पुण्य,romanized: puṇya,lit. 'virtue'), also renderedpunyam (Sanskrit:पुण्यम्,romanized: puṇyam)[1] is a concept inHinduism with various definitions. It generally refers to virtue or merit, and the activities that allow one to acquire this attribute, in order to achieve liberation fromsamsara, the cycle of birth and death in the material world.[2]
Punya is referred to as goodkarma or a virtue that contributes benefits in this and the next birth and can be acquired by appropriate means and also accumulated. InVedanta termspunya is the invisible wealth, a part ofdharma, the first of four human goals; the other three goals beingartha,kama, and moksha.Punya andpāpa 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; butjivan mukti ends all karmic debts consisting of and signified by these two dynamics.[3]
During theVedic period,brahmacharya practiced by theBrahmins 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 ofpunya-karma ('good deeds or actions') seemed to promise and opted for thedeva-yāna or 'the path of the gods'.
The dynamics ofkarma played a large role in the development ofBuddhist thought. The Buddhists believe thatkarma determines one’s nature and life-pattern but to themkarma ischetnā, a mental drive, a psychological phenomenon, rather than a law governing substantial existence.[4] 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.[5]
The principle ofSthiti Bandha (duration-quality bondage), according toJainism, involves attachment ofkarmic matter to the soul throughanubhava bandha orrasa bandha which refers to the determination of the fruits of actions of the soul that such an attachment produces at the time of attachment ofkarmic matter or throughpradesha bandha that deals with the quantum ofkarmic matter drawn towards the soul as determined by the soul’s actions. Thekarmic matter produced due to good activities of the mind, body and speech is the pleasantpunya ('virtuous')karmic matter and that produced due to evil activities is the unpleasantpāpa ('sinful')karmic matter. Thesekarmas have to exhaust themselves to produce their results.[6]
TheNyāya School understandsdharma andadharma to refer topunya andpāpa, withpunya relating to one’s own or others’ well-being andpāpa relating to harm done to others, or in terms of doing one’s duties and their violation; it connectsdharma to well-being and duty.[7]
The concept ofKarma, with the idea of rebirth as the background, was effectively introduced into Indian thought byYajnavalkya in the course of his discussion with Jāratkārva Ārtabhāga who wanted to know about what happens after death (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad III.ii.13), whether present actions matter in respect of the experience of the after-death state and how human efforts andkarma are inter-related.[8] TheVedic people were multi-religious and believed in the existence of heaven and hell and in the transmigration of souls. For them the performance ofyajna was important, and noyajna was complete or fruitful withoutdakshina i.e. the fee to the priests, anddāna i.e. charity, both deemed meritorious acts orpunya-karma; they accepted the philosophy of sin (pāpa) and merit (punya).[9]
Punya is a very ancient Sanskrit word which appears in theRigveda. For instance, in a prayer to Kapinjala Ivendro Devata, Rishi Gutsamada, while describing the qualities of anupadeshaka ('teacher') states:
in whichmantra the word,punya, is used to mean - 'good' or 'auspicious' or 'happy'. Many other Vedic texts, such asChandogya Upanishad (VIII.ii.6) – पुण्यजितो लोकः (in which phraseaja refers to the Brahmaloka), have used it as meaning 'agreeable' or 'happy'. Otherwise, inSanskrit literature, this word is used to indicate 'advantageous', 'good', 'convenient', 'beneficent' or 'purifying';Manusmṛti also uses it meaning the same; however, the opposite ofpunya isapunya, which means that the word,punya cannot at all places be translated as 'merit' or 'meritorious', more so because the wordpāpa is most often translated as 'sin'.[10]
Adi Shankara exclaims:-
In his commentary on this stanza,Śri Candraśekhara Bhāratī of Śringeri explains thatpunya is the outcome of doing prescribed works, andpāpa, the prohibited. All works pertaining to the body, to the mind and to speech arekarma, the good and bad with reference to actions make forpunya andpāpa respectively; all actions and their outcome relate to the mind or to the body with form possessing sense-organs. The infinite bliss that Shankara speaks of is thesukha not generated by connection with sense-objects and therefore, in its experience there is no grief, no superimposition and no imagination whatsoever.[11] During the Vedic period speaking untruth was a sin, and false accusers were the real sinners; performance ofyajna washed away all such sins, which means ritual acts were associated with morality. Untruth and impurity could be washed away by water or wiped away by Darbha grass. Along with the concept ofRta (righteousness) there was the more prominent concept ofanrta, the opposite of righteousness or untruth; terms for good and evil were developed and a wicked person was calledpāpa, where after from the term,sādhu denoting what was right, was the concept ofpunya developed. Yajnavalkya explains –
In his commentary, Shankara states that the 'doing good' referred to here is the prescribed conduct (scriptural injunctions and prohibitions), actions are not prescribed for acts, good or evil prompted by desire and the cause of identification and transmigration, do not require habitual performance.[12]
