Robert: .. on the point there is no karma for animals.”
Do you mean no agami karma?
Yes, there is no agami karma for animals since they do not have free choice and are driven by instinct, i.e. prarabdha.
The birth of the animal jiva means it has prarabdha karma which gets exhausted through its experience of life.
Isn’t this the teaching, that all living beings, jivas, exhaust their prarabdha.
“Karma only applies to human sentient beings, no others.”
Yes, agami karma applies only to humans. Animals do not gain agami.
Sundari: I understand where you are coming from. I think the confusion may be between ‘being born’ i.e., existence, time and karma? The whole creation is karma. Like all sentient beings, animals are born, exist for a ‘period of time’ and die. An animal, or any living life form, being ‘alive’ is karma. However, animals and other living forms (aside from humans) are karma, but they do not HAVE karma.
Prarabdha karma means the momentum of past actions. Though it seems logical that there should be the exhaustion of prarabdha when animals or other living life forms die, animals cannot have prarabdha, sanchita, or agami karma because they have no volition of their own, no agency, no self-reflective abilities, and thus, no momentum of past actions. They are just programs run by Isvara that, like the rest of the creation, blink on and off.
Jivas are also karma, also programs and also blink on and off, as in being born and dying. But they are the only exception with regards to the accumulation of karma because they do have agency and can go against their program, accumulating all three kinds of karma.
Much love
Sundari
