As vaccination can prevent diseases that come as karmic reactions has science disproved or defeated the law of karma?

From: Mukund

Earlier, when people used to get affected by diseases like Small Pox, Leprosy, Polio etc. it was said it is due to their past life karma. But now due to progress made by medical science some of these diseases are completely eradicated while some others can be prevented by having proper vaccination. So if someone takes anti-polio vaccination on time then he/ she will not get polio. Does this disproves “Law of Karma” or has modern science defeated “Law of Karma”?

So we are trying to help people prepare for the season. Question from Kundaprabhu.
Earlier, when people used to get affected by diseases like smallpox, leprosy, polio, etc., it was said that it is due to their past life karma. But now due to progress made by medical science, some of these diseases are completely eradicated, while some others can be prevented by having proper vaccination. So if someone takes anti-polio vaccination on time, then he or she will not get polio.
Does this disprove law of karma or has modern science defeated law of karma? Answer, neither. Actually, the principle of karma works in various ways. And principle of karma in and of itself does not insist or recommend that we don’t take any counteractive actions.
Even in the past, there were ayurvedic treatments in India, and there were various other kinds of treatments in various parts of the world. So if this argument that by being able to cure a disease, we refute the law of karma were true, then in the past, Ayurveda, which is a part of the same Vedic body of knowledge that teaches law of karma, would have itself refuted law of karma. But the principle of curing disease is not antithetical to the principle of karmic reactions.
Why? Because there is the principle of we having this life’s duty also. So just as it is our duty in this life to take care of our body by feeding it properly, by giving it proper rest. If we don’t do that, we will suffer.
We will bring bodily problems for ourselves. So doing what is possible for us in this life is our duty. And doing our duty is essential for us.
Otherwise, we provoke some further reactions. Similarly, for a doctor to cure the patients is the duty. And even if you go to Ayurvedic doctor, there may be one medicine, but maybe it has to be tried in different dosages or different varieties of the medicines may have to be tried.
And generally Ayurveda also will give medicines depending on the person’s individual situation. His background is Kapha, Vata, Pitta, Prakriti and whatever. His or her Kapha, Vata, Pitta, Prakriti, whatever.
My point here is that taking medicines as well as preparing medicines for curing patients is a part of the duty of individuals and doctors respectively. So now regarding this specific eradication of some specific diseases, we need to understand the principle that it is not that all diseases have been eradicated. Rene Dubois, a well-known medical researcher who has written several books, one of his books talks about how the idea of perfect health is an illusion.
The diseases that we have eradicated today were largely a product of certain socio-economic circumstances. And when those socio-economic circumstances change, then those diseases also no longer affect people so much. So for example, in the past we had a plague.
Now when people were living in a civilization where rats were rampant, plague was rampant. But plague was removed not just by the medicines, but also by the change in the socio-economic situation where grains and rats were not so widespread. So people did not get the plague.
So today we see so many other diseases. There is obesity, there is diabetes, there is heart attack, cancer, AIDS. And we have debilitating and painful diseases today as much if not more than what there were earlier.
So the point is that we have not removed disease per se and karmic reaction can come in various ways. It is not that we as souls with free will and intelligence are meant to passively accept all karmic reactions. That’s why we need to take medicines and we need to also develop medicines to cure ourselves.
At the same time, karmic reactions will come in their own ways. And today, even in spite of the best medication, many people keep getting diseases. And if not the same diseases which we have specifically found vaccines for, then there are other diseases which come up.
So the principle of karma is that if we do wrong, we will get the consequences of that. But then that doesn’t mean that we have to be passive. We have to do our part as our duty to protect ourselves.
Otherwise that are not doing our duty becomes a further bad karma, which will give further reactions. So for a doctor to not treat the patient is itself a bad karma and that will also bring reactions. So in Ayurveda also, it is recognized that there are certain diseases that were caused by yasana, that is by bad habits.
And there are other diseases which are caused by just imbalance, by environmental factors, by imbalance or whatever. So treating the diseases is the responsibility of the doctor and getting the diseases treated is the responsibility of the patient. Now, the idea of karma getting refuted or karma getting disproved is based on a limited conception that karma has to come in specific ways alone.
No, karmic reactions can come in various ways. Today, earlier people may have had to work in hot, in the heat, outside in the farms or in the streets or wherever. And today we may have rooms with comfortable ACs and we may feel that, okay, I’m not suffering because I’m not getting the heat now.
But who knows, we might be in an air-conditioned room, but because we are working on such a stressful and demanding job, that within the AC room, we are sweating not because of heat, but because of stress. So that physical suffering of exposure to extreme heat has now come more as mental anxiety of great stress, which also expresses itself as sweat and bodily discomfort. So the bodily discomfort may be less, the psychological discomfort may be much more.
So karmic reactions come in various ways and we can’t defeat the law of karma or disprove the law of karma. But we also have our duty to do what we can to avoid problems. But we shouldn’t think that just by our capacity to avoid specific problems, we are going to make this world problem free.
We are not going to. But by not doing our duties, we are going to increase the problems that we have in our life. So therefore, we take medicines to whatever capacity we can to cure ourselves.
And doctors can also develop medicines as long as they don’t violate ethical boundaries in case of animal testing and other things like that. That is a part of the natural human initiative that is expected for all human beings. Otherwise, we could take this point to extreme and say that when a person is hungry, if a person, somebody else comes and gives that hungry person food, then the law of karma is being interfered with.
So therefore, if there had been no donor of food over there, then that person would have starved. But today there is a donor and the person is not starved. So therefore, the law of karma is refuted.
No, the law of karma is much more subtle. And it is not that specific causes have to produce certain specific results alone. Karmic reactions can come in various ways.
We may refute one kind of disease, but some other disease may come up. So to summarize, essentially three points. First is that we have our duty to do and not doing the duty is a further bad karma which will complicate our problems.
Second is that karmic reactions can come in multifarious ways and stopping one karmic reaction doesn’t mean that we have countered the law of karma or disproved the law of karma. And third is as aspiring transcendentalists or as intelligent human beings also, we should not focus so much on what is a karmic reaction and what is not a karmic reaction. We should focus on what is my duty and do that duty.
The Vedic philosophy recommends that we be duty centered, not destiny centered or karmic reaction centered.