Hare Krishna,
Can you help me understand Karma?
Why is it that Africa, a continent so rich in resources are always suffering, people dying of hunger, disease, and the suffering does not end. Slavery, colonial atrocity by the Europeans, and now whenever any nation tries to become strong, than the European/Americans will put them down. Gaddafi wanted to create a Gold Dinar > he is dead because as I see it that would have ended the American supremacy.........
In my view, the Western countries have committed so many atrocities......... continue to do so, yet why is Karma not catching up?
Please help me.......... this is one question that i have yet to find an answer.
Jay
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As learnt from Swamijee, which action will be awarded which result and when, is not time-tabled. You have to study the whole episode then your question will automatically vanish because there is no flaw in Nature.
Humbly,
Saadhaka.
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Karma theory says that man alone is responsible for his actions. This is against facts. The world in which we are born, neither with nor against our will but as a result of certain actions of our parents, is a world of many-cause and many-effect phenomenon. For the things that happen to man, man alone is not responsible. Vyasa, who subdivided the Vedas into four parts, of which only 13 remain out of a total of 1131, thoroughly brainwashed innumerable generations of Hindus by making them believe in Karma theory. But the saving grace is that in the Gita, which is again compiled by a Vyasa as having been uttered by Krishna (I dont know how Vyasa came to know what Krishna said to Arjuna), Krishna says:" Do your duty and desire not the fruit". The reason is that in areas where man has to contribute his part of work, the result may or may not come, depending on the operation of other causes contributed by other beings and inanimate things in nature which are essential for the result to happen. Krishna seems to be aware of this and that is why he asks us to do our duty and shut up. Without a combination of several causes of which human factor is only one cause, the result will not come. And no amount of prayer, or 'chest-beating' as Swami Vivekananda calls it, can bring about the result even if one contributory factor is missing. Many things in the world can be explained if we understand that the causative factors come from man, other beings and things, or one or more of these factors if not all. Man in his arrogance thinks that he is the Lord of creation. But the Lord of Creation is different, has made natural laws which operate without favour to or prejudice against anyone, and the "the effect must come if the causes are exact, proper and powerful" in the words of Swami Vivekananda (Vol II, 'Work and Its Secret'). Man, on account of his superior brain which has evolved during the course of lakhs of years of his existence, has however the capacity to select laws whose operation makes for his progress and happiness. But he has no power to alter natural laws or prevent effects from happening. We have only a small part to play in the universe and that should make us humble.
Srinivasa Rao Kankipati
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What appears to be..........may be an illusion....
A rich may be really rich, a poor may not be really poor....it may all be a reflection of our level of consciousness....our understanding of life.....
best way to know the truth is to have patience, contemplate....understand.....experience....
Sushil Jain
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Dear Jay
Karma is act of aatma (self) with the laws of nature (dharma). Aatma is only Karta Purush and all karm is an act of that. The Jiiva or within which Atma and Nature both exist is not responsible for karma but only makes a desire which his/her parents (aatma and prakriti) follow.Â
Jiiva if desires for good, karma which is acted by aatma and dharma shall deliver good results and if jiiva desires something bad, karma fal will be bad. This is learning window which Jiiva uses to improve his/her desires while being in the world. The world is an experimental or play school for Jiva and parents facilitate it in learning.Â
With the above fundamental of the Bhagwat Giita, you can treat the question of Africa and America. Africa has lots of suffering because people have no food as perceived by American and children die in absense of medical treatment. America has a different story. People in America die by over eating and obecity. Ameriica has no hunger and malnutrition but it creates war and destruction which substitute that. There is less threat to the earth from Africa than from America. This is all the desires which differ from one mind to another.Â
Did you get your answer?Â
Regards
K G Misra
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This a topic dear to me and I like to keep things simple.
Karma, as one of the pillars of Santan Dharma i.e What you did yesterday will affect today and you do today will impact tomorrow. This applies to every aspect of one's life - whether it is health, hygiene, nurturing, relationships, career etc. I have yet to find an application that it does not apply.
Krishna in the Gita also tried to project the message of when confronting a challenge - deal with it and move and the results will be whatever it will be.
Specifically in relation to Africa. One has to refer to Japan when the land broke away from China and a culture of honesty, integrity and dedication evolved and we all witness the Japanese behaviour after the Tsunami. Surely Karma applied - the stage was set for the behaviour.
Africa has not evolved as quickly, however there are positive signs as South Africa is part of the BRICS group of countries. The challenge Africa has is too much outside influence and colonial hangovers and everything foreign is great rather than utilising the good from different parts of the world.-no different than some of the things happening in India. It is said that the billions that Indians and Pakistanis have stashed away abroad can create employment for years for all its umemployed if that money was returned.
The western world is on the decline, no different from the Greeks etc. However, they will find a way in which to control for a period of time until they learn to live in harmony with the rest of the world.
Mangal Deolal
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Dear sadaks,
God requires such places for your to be born to undergo your previous birth Punniyas and sins. It is clear in Bible- Quran- Srimath Bagavath. I feel many sadaks does not even know or read scripts. Apart from this earth the 13 worlds where we go to enjoy or suffer is clear. Everything from creation- how etc and causes of good and bad is clear. It is our choice.
B.S
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Karma … miseries and joy … needs and resources ... poverty and prosperity …
I understand the intrigue playing in your mind. Of course it intrigues most minds as well.
Knowledge is power for humans. Any human society that recognized the fact and embraced the knowledge bloomed in history. It is called civilization. Any action that was directed toward enhancing the collective knowledge for survival would increase the chances for survival collectively. Increase in assurance of survival is the only comfort any living being (including the humans) would generally care for. Whichever society embraced this power could hegemonize the other less evolved societies around. That is clear from history. In fact, The East did very well when compared to The West for a long time as the eastern civilizations emphasized the value of knowledge the most.
A paradigm shift happened in The West that changed the power balance completely. Knowledge retention was dwindling in The East due to the personalized style of education. Knowledge became rules and the rules became superstitions :(. Knowledge retention and growth was revolutionized in The West by decentralizing the very education system and opening the same to much vaster population. Decentralized knowledge retention and propagation helped the west to overpower the east and the rest in the world. Science is the best example for this today. There are thousands of universities and millions of students pursuing career in the field. Probability of retaining and growing the body of knowledge is million-fold today thanks to the western revolution in the knowledge sector. Of course, it reflects in social, economic, political as well as martial powers in a society.
Yes Karma bears fruits now as well as down the lane in the future. The population that is involved in the Karma would naturally claim stakes in the fruits. The rule remains the same for each individual as well. The probability of success depends on the population that supports and the population that competes. Economy of the population provides the general infra-structure for the individual success while individual capability and the associated competition within the population determines the individual's success within the population. But, my dear friend, nothing is free in this life. Success comes with a cost as well - competition, intrigue, stress and pain!
The knowledge, power and happiness correlation is often tricky as well as sticky! They are apparently well correlated but inherently remain in mutual contradiction!! One of my American colleague once visited Bombay and was shocked to see people sleeping in the streets. I quipped back, "they could sleep on streets while you could not in a five star hotel … who is happier?!" Good sleep is one main indicator of happiness in living.
Power (social, economic as well as political) has its own baggage. The Nobel Laureate Amraartya-sen's conclusions on economic basis for happiness is an eye-opener for the modern society (if any cares!). Using existential indicators such as sleep he establishes that an average Bangladeshi is happier than an average American! Count the symptoms of happiness in the person, not the possessions!!
Poverty is often wrongly calculated with relative deficiency of purchasing power in a competitive population - now it has spread globally thanks to economic and industrial globalization. When I visited China in nineties, the economy was blooming … all gadgets were available on street ... none could afford any! The true poverty is related to one's needs and one's access to resources. One popular (but ignorant!) way to become rich is to enhance one's access to resources. Stress of competition around and lack of knowledge within kills the fellow alive. We all know this as we all have succumbed to this monster one way or the other. There is no way of enhancing the resources beyond some limit. Worst of all, the resources never remain loyal to the hoarder ... they always follow the fittest in the competition. The fitness keeps degenerating in everyone as one ages. It is a vicious path that recycles one in cycles of poverty (fear of lack of resources) and poverty (fear of lack of competency). The fellow wanders from one fear to another perpetually. That way, the power-centric existential happiness is bound to remain within the shadows of fear all the time.
There is another simpler way with 100% surety to attain richness - REDUCE THE NEEDS WITHIN! After all poverty is lack of happiness and happiness is the fraction of resource against one's needs. The fraction approaches ZERO as one's needs increase exponentially. The happiness plummets to extinction as a result. The fellow remains POOR in spite of being a billionaire! As one balances one's needs to available resources, the fraction becomes ONE letting the fellow live in peace even in a hut. As one continues to reduce the needs within, the wealth becomes abundant leaving the fellow in joy even without a home. When one overcomes the very need for hoarding all the existential needs, the fraction becomes INFINITY. THE FELLOW BECOMES THE BLISS AS EVER. What remains around becomes irrelevant.
The key to wealth is within ... but we look everywhere else. The fatigue in wandering kills us before we can even think of the key within. Only one who recognizes the key within, finds it and opens the gate within to the infinitude of joy is RICH my dear friend.
Of course, if you are looking for balance sheets for material management, material always chooses the power of knowledge … power of socio-political centers ... to become a center of its own - economic power. That is its nature as it always looks for its own survival … and, its survival is secured in its own power center!
Everything follows its own nature with only one goal - survival. Karma facilitates that without fail. No sentiments there. Yama it is. One that cannot be controlled. Dharma it is. One that never interferes with the natural flow of matter and energy in this universe.
Regards.
Naga Narayana.
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Dear Ones, Namaste!
Dear Jay, before we discuss Karma let me say this.
In a recent E-mail sent by a friend I read the survey by some reliable organization or some group about Happy people of the world. Indonesia, India and Mexico were among the top three and US/Western Europe were somewhere in the lower middle, while at lowest were East European countries.
So if happiness means anything to us then it answers part of your question in a way.
Before we answer further we need to see what is the nature of Karma.
To me, Laws of Karma is not a theory or a belief but an observable fact as you can see it with an open mind.. It is fundamentally Mass Karma, not individual Karma yet, generated by what people have thought and acted since the beginning of mankind. Their kindness and their atrocities, based on acquired or inherited beliefs, religious practices, cultures, self-centered or self-less acts have left invisible but solid imprints on Human Consciousness. In other words, Human Consciousness is conditioned by these impressions or Karma, and act out from individuals dictating their thinking and beliefs and thus actions. This mass Karma is in subtle body where evolution takes place in time. All selfish activities/pursuits contribute and strengthen this.
Don't you think our current thinking at all levels of living is affected more or less by predominant traditions in a place and time we are born into? Marks left by people like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Hitler, and other ignoble or noble people influence our actions today. Such thought (Karma) based actions are never free and binds us as we say our Karma binds us!
We, in ignorance, believe we are independently existing individuals and consider part of this mass Karma as our individual Karma. As a matter of fact, this conditioning uses body-mind as an anchor to identify with and acts as "me/mine in and through our actions". It is this mass Karma, that get recycled from bodies to bodies across all generations. We call this the process of re-incarnation, continuation of ignorance body. Scriptures call this a re-birth of subtle body.
In some generation, in some place, in some Jeeva, Realization happens that "I am not an individual, I am not a doer of actions of this given body, I am Impersonal Being only ". The body identification drops off.
Then all his/her Karma gets burnt, so to speak, meaning now he/her is free from Karmic laws in the sense that whatever happens to body doesn't happen to him/her, is free from bondage.
As a matter of fact the Laws of Karma being Impersonal in nature acts as beneficial for greater good as it keeps on correcting the bad actions of people by getting rid of them through other people,(Avataras, Sages, Great Mahatmas, Leaders, Volunteers, etc etc - in Giita), and also through natural actions of dissolution (Shiva/Shakti) to create new eras. Only to the extent, we act selfishly due to ignorance, the cycle gets delayed in correcting actions, depending on the Karmic Balance of goodness vs evilness! The creative impulse is in-build in the Karma System.
This is not a theory or mere belief, it is happening in the world right now.
Now if nothing is really "personal", all is happening within Totality, or God by God, for God, then why to worry? God is the Law of Karma too! Anything good or bad happens is our perception happening to individual, but in the light of this fact, it is Impersonal Happening and not a victimization of one by the other! Only from an individual perspective good or bad happens, otherwise things just happen. This is what happens in Africa and the world and we need to do the best to undo wrong things which is also happening at the same time!
The issue boils down to Realize and live as if we are not such an apparent individuals as we seem, and all our problems will be resolved for sure.
You can see the answer to your query is implied here. I will stop now and be more specific in later post.
Namaskar.........Pratap Bhatt
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Karma … Praarabdha … Purushaartha … PERFECT BALANCE …
Action is universal transcending all boundaries. It remains The Absolute in spite of generating apparent variations at its infinitude of segments spread across space and time. It pervades all the entities (physical objects as well as their cognitive counterparts in thoughts) assuring the continuity across the apparently discrete entities. It is established as the eternal changes that morphs the matter-energy clusters into perpetual chain of variants across time and space.
Karma brahmodbhavam viddhi Brahmaakshara samudbhavam |
Tasmaat sarvagatam brahma nityam yagnye pratishThitam ||
But the humans attempt to subjugate even such a universal truth natural to their acute self-centered beliefs. Our ignorant assumptions regarding The Action are quite hilarious!
One can't fathom anything that is not discrete … so one assumes multiplicity by drawing imaginary boundaries within the monolithic existence.
One can't act without an identification … so one amongst the many is assumed as oneself and considers it as subject (or originator!) for the action.
One can't act without assistance from the rest … so the fellow calls upon the others as objects for the action originated by the subject.
Cunningly, the fellow assumes a lead over the very act identified and claims ownership … does not bother even to check its validity … does not care to cross check whether it is agreeable to the "others" involved. It is like a cat's assumption that it is invisible while stealing milk with closed eyes!
The self-proclaimed arrogance of the fellow is further more entertaining … it assumes the authority to expect certain fruits out of the action and dares to demand an explanation if the expectations are not met!!
The stupidity exceeds all limits as one furiously canvasses how the fellow is cheated in the act in spite of excelling in leading the actions. The contradictions that the fellow harbors are baffling. On one hand the fellow claims an excellent command on an act. On other hand one keeps lamenting how the fellow is cheated with wrong or insufficient fruits for all the labor put-in!!! As one claims "I command this act, it is mine" one laments "the act is not following my orders"!!!
The existential reality is such an egotic idiocy. It continues hilariously even in spirituality as it ought to root itself in the existential reality to start with. So we identify actions with different labels in an effort to assort our problems within to enable a rational appreciation within. We call two types of actions - Praarabdha (Destiny) and Purushaartha (Volition). The former is assumed to be predominantly controlled by the objects collectively while the later is assumed to be predominantly controlled by the subject. The idea is to educate the subject regarding its egotic idiocy to its own root. Since the fellow is incapable of understanding that, the prescription continues with a cause-effect analysis using the perceived subject-object relations in the activities. The prescription is to expose the fellow within his own accepted vocabulary such as "I", "Others", "Mine", "Doing", "objects", "Thoughts", etc.
The pretentious fellow starts hair-splitting ... then, the education is forced adopt sub-classifications within each category to help the fellow out of the ignorance. Accordingly you end up with many adjectives associated with Karma - Shubha, Ashubha, Nishiddha, Shaastrokta, Paraa, Aparaa, Sevaa, Poojaa, Japa, etc. Facts remain simple even when one dissects to look at segments of action:
1. Karma ensures integrity amongst all the participants all through its segment.
2. Karma provides the platform for all the changes keeping the integrity amongst the participants intact.
3. MOST IMPORTANTLY, Karma always ensures equilibrium amongst the apparently conflicting/contradicting desires and aspirations amongst the participants all through the course.
4. OPTIMAL RESULT is generated to cater to the collective wish of all the elements involved with absolutely equal importance to all involved - THAT IS CALLED EQUILIBRIUM IN PHYSICS!
Therefore, dear Jay, Karma is considerate, compassionate and impartial. Best of the results is provided to each participant in the perceived game without failure. Study Newton's laws carefully to understand this game between inputs and outputs at each station in the action. As mentioned earlier, Karma is Yama as well as Dharma for preserving the universe AS IS and AS EVER. It always ensures PERFECT BALANCE amongst its own perceived components such as destiny and volition as well as its perceived ingredients such as participants, change, etc.
My suggestion is that you look for the answer within the jumble of lopsided beliefs that we procreate in our imaginations every moment.
Respects.
Naga Narayana.
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