How can we explain why bad things happen without seeming insensitive by bringing in karma?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Okay, so if people ask why something has happened, without thinking about karma, they will not be satisfied? Well, it depends on person to person, even with thinking about karma also they may not be satisfied. See, karma is not a satisfactory explanation for life’s problems. It is the least unsatisfactory explanation.
What options do we have? Why do bad things happen in life? You could say everything happens by chance. That’s not the way we function. There is some correlation actually.
So chance is not a satisfactory explanation. Then it is God’s arbitrary will. That’s also not a satisfactory explanation.
How can I devote myself to God? It is arbitrary. But karma, in a normal court, the person is punished without being told what they are being punished for. That is not considered a fair system of justice.
Karma is like that. So, that’s why, of course, we could say that we have been through so many lifetimes and so many things we have done, that to remember it all, to remember what action is in which reaction, it will be very complicated. And we will just get intellectual overload, remembering all the things we have done in the past.
And it’s not simple. One action leads to one reaction. Sometimes one reaction may be a result of many actions also.
So in that sense, we could say that it’s difficult for us to know, to process and that’s why we are not told about it. But the fact remains that when suffering comes upon us, without we coming to know the specific cause of suffering, it’s not very easily acceptable for us. So, actually, even when somebody has done something wrong, and even when they get a just punishment for that, still they feel, you know, I didn’t deserve this.
Almost no criminal in a jail feels that I was justly punished. So, in general, nobody will feel like that. But what I’m saying is that, because we don’t know specifically why somebody is getting a particular reaction for a particular situation, for what action they are giving a particular reaction, for us to take karma as the ultimate explanatory solution, that doesn’t work.
It is a reasonable intellectual explanation. But it is not a very reasonable emotional explanation. Because it doesn’t feel fair that I’m punished without being told why I’m being punished.
So, that’s why I say we have to see whether speaking about karma helps the person. If it helps, well and good. There are many psychologists who charge Hinduism as being a psychologically damaging doctrine.
Because they say that this whole principle of karma is psychologically damaging. Somebody is, say, born handicapped, and they are physically burdened, and then you burden them further that you must have done bad karma because of your burden like this, because of your suffering like this. So, you create a psychological burden on them.
You create a guilt complex within them. Now, that is not how karma was administered. But the thing is, we don’t know what a person’s psychology is and how a particular point will be interpreted by them.
So, karma is a philosophical explanation. But it has to be understood properly. It has to be processed properly, both by the person speaking it and by the person who is receiving it.
And we need to create a proper context by which, within which to process it, within which to convey that explanation. So, I have not seen many people being satisfied, especially amidst distress, feeling satisfied as if they didn’t know it and suddenly somebody is in great distress, somebody lost a loved one, somebody has got a cancer, sudden financial reversal, and then we go and tell them it is because of your karma. Oh, thank you, you have given me an explanation.
I am so grateful to you. I have been preaching for 20, more than 20 years, not even once I have come across somebody feeling grateful or you gave me the knowledge of karma. I personally, I did feel grateful when I understood that, you know, okay, I had a leg problem because of past karma.
But that was long after I had accepted that I have a handicap and I have no strong emotional involvement over here. I know one devotee who after his son passed away, he was very grief struck, but then he came to bhakti and then after a few years he came to bhakti and then he understood I am a soul and whatever happens to me by bad karma. So, after the emotional healing has been done, then intellectual explanation becomes more sensible.
Without the emotional healing, it doesn’t help much. I will give a simple example for this. Say somebody has got, somebody has got diabetes and they eat some sugar.
And some people, they suffer and they come to a doctor. You fool, why did you eat that sugar? Well, first the doctor has to treat them. That emergency that has happened, they are in pain, they may be vomiting, they may be on the verge of death.
First help them. And then, as it is, please don’t take sugar in future. So, knowledge has to be a part of the therapy.
Knowledge alone is not the therapy. And sometimes what happens, we think knowledge alone is the solution. Knowledge alone is not the solution.
Yesterday we had an elaborate question and answer on this topic in the last session. We told about how there was a natural disaster in some place and some devotee went and spoke in that village. I don’t know, this natural disaster happened because of your karma.
After that some Christian missionary came over there and offered them relief. 97% of the villagers converted to Christianity. So, the Hindu people just came off as insensitive to them.
So, we have to see what happens. Knowledge of karma is one resource which we have and it is a very powerful resource for people to make intellectual sense of things. But people have to come to a level where they can at least make sense of things intellectually.
It’s like when I am in physical pain, you know, I am in immense pain and doctor says, okay, this is your particular disease. You have got this particular disease. Okay, whatever disease you have, please give me some treatment right now.
Please help me deal with the pain right now. So, knowledge of karma is one part of the help that we can give. But if that is the only help that we give, often we may appear as very unhelpful and we may alienate people instead of actually helping them.
So, when something bad has happened and if we don’t tell them about karma, how can we actually help them? Now, we tell them that our consciousness normally goes on two tracks, material and spiritual. So, at the material level, bad things can happen. And why particular bad things happen to particular people, we just don’t know.
And it’s true. Why particular thing is happening to particular person? We know a general explanation of karma. But particulars, we don’t know.
We are not wrong in saying that. We just don’t know. But in general, the pattern of this world is that it is a place of distress.
So, the overall solution is basically, I have a whole seminar on this, but normally when problems come, you work at three levels. There is an immediate solution, there is an intermediate solution and there is an ultimate solution. The immediate solution is work as a practical.
Now, if I have got fever, then I go to a doctor and find out what is the problem. It’s malaria. Take some antelium, malaria medicine.
That’s the immediate level. That’s the immediate level solution. Immediate level solutions are required.
And not administering them is unfair, it’s harsh, it’s cruel. But sometimes, immediate solutions may not work. Or we can even go forward and say, why did this problem come? You know, okay, I was living in this house with five other people.
Why does mosquito bite me alone and not someone else? There, we can go to the intermediate level cause. Okay, it’s basically because of my karma maybe. And then, what can you do? Some people do some astrological things, you know, worship this devta or wear this ring or do this puja.
I can try to mitigate the results of the past karma. Now, the ultimate cause is, we are disconnected from Krishna. We are forgetful of our spiritual identity and spiritual relationship with Krishna.
So, traditionally, problems were dealt with at all three levels. Now, people would do practical things to solve the problem. People may also do some karma kanda rites or some astrological performances to try to deal with the karma.
And people would also be practicing spiritual life to go towards Krishna. So, in general, if we can offer an immediate solution, we try to offer that. But intermediate solution in today’s world, people don’t have much faith in that.
I don’t know whether astrology will help, whether worship of some particular devta will help. We don’t want to even recommend that. So, then we talk about the ultimate solution.
No matter what distress comes in our life, ultimately, if we connect with Krishna, we will get spiritual shelter. That even amidst the distress, if we absorb our consciousness in Krishna, we will feel relief, we will feel strength. So, understanding that, yes, this is happening to me at the material level, but beyond that, my spiritual core is indestructible and my relationship with Krishna is inalienable.
Let me try to focus on that. When we focus on that, then that’s also something practical again. If we try to chant Hare Krishna and become absorbed in Krishna, hear some peertan, hear some katha, to do something to absorb yourself in Krishna, it’s not as practical as taking a medicine.
But if a medicine is not working, that is still practical. Just attributing, oh, it’s because of your past karma. What do I do then? The knowledge of karma has no practical value.
Philosophically, it is very valuable. But what do I do practically? Yeah, so therefore, it’s best to acknowledge that the immediate solution not being there is sad, or the immediate problem being there is sad. But focus then on the ultimate.