Question: I have heard that karma is counted only for those who are in human form and staying on earth. Can you elaborate on this?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Bharata-varsha or the earthly realm is referred to as the field of activities, or karma bhumi. That is to say one gets the opportunity here to perform activities by which one can either accumulate pious credits or sinful reactions. In all the other realms, one is more or less expending their karmic account, good or bad.
Just as in exotic tourist spots most people are generally busy spending their hard-earned money in the lap of luxury, similarly residents of heavenly planets are primarily busy enjoying its vast pleasures at the expense of their accumulated piety. For the most part, they do not have occupational duties and obligations as in the case of humans. Similarly, the residents of hellish planets and those in animal species are simply fulfilling those particular terms and gradually evolving towards human life.
In the human form of life there is an outstanding opportunity to perform duties according to varna-ashrama and perfect one’s life, or to neglect one’s higher duties and thus be implicated in the consequences of that neglect.
