Should we not do good to others because to get the good reaction we will have to take birth again?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Is there that if we do some good to someone, then do we get the good karma to take which we’ll have to carry birth again? That is one way of looking at it. And there’s another way also. We see that ultimately what will take us to Krishna or what will stop our rebirth is the softness of our heart, the attraction of our heart towards Krishna.
So, when Radhanath Maharaj asked this in Chowpatty, he said that you always keep food with you, keep some prasad, and India on the streets, lot of beggars are always there, give some prasad to them. And he said if you don’t have prasad, then give money. He said give money.
And he said by that what will happen? Next time you’ll remember to keep prasad with you. Just keep prasad with you and give it. So, his point was that if somebody is in need and if we say no to them, that causes a hardness of the heart.
And Krishna cannot appear in a hard heart. Our heart becomes hard when somebody in need whom we can help and we don’t help. So, as far as helping others is concerned, there is the, my understanding would be that there are devotees of different natures.
And each devotee will have their own interests. And that comes from one’s past upbringing, one’s past culture, one’s own inspiration. So, some devotees may just be satisfied with just go to the temple, chant, dance and be happy.
That’s fine. Some devotees may be in environmental consciousness. We have to be eco-friendly, we have to be green.
Well, you could also say that by doing good karma of planting, of sowing seeds to build plants, that can also give us karma again, isn’t it? That is also good karma. We get the reaction of good karma. So, we could, if you want really extrapolate, you know, I build a mango tree and tomorrow some thief eats a mango from that tree.
I’ll get the karma for that. So, should we not build trees there? Should we not have eco-friendly communities? Or we could take it further, we build, we create even a devotional facility and somebody abuses that in future. Are we going to get the karma for that? See, karma, in my understanding, is logical.
Karma is not diabolical. Diabolical means, you know, somewhere something we did, it had a bad consequence, that’s why you got to be punished for that. It doesn’t work like that.
One point is we should be conscious. If we give money to a drunkard and that person uses it to drink more and then they go and beat up their family members, then it’s not a good thing to do. But it’s certainly short-sighted.
But even in ordinary legal system, if, say, a grown-up son of someone commits a crime, that or whatever they commit a crime, it’s not that the parents are held responsible for that. When it’s a child, parents are responsible. The parents may feel morally responsible.
The parents are not legally responsible. So we are all interconnected with our relations and through our various connections. But karma is not that somewhere something we do, it did something wrong and that’s why we are going to get the karmic result.
It’s not Karma is logical. So if our legal system is not going to hold us responsible for something which an adult son has done, then it’s not that the cosmic system is flawless. And one part of our philosophy is also that people have free will.
So if I do something with good intention and then somebody misuses it, then I’m not responsible for that. But if I know that they are likely to misuse it. Say, if a father knows that the son is hot-headed and the son is sad, given to streaks of violence and then the father has a gun and the father keeps the gun freely, loose, accessible to someone, then you can say the father is culpable.
Whether they are legally culpable or not, that we’ll have to see according to law courts. But I would say that if we know somebody is likely to misuse something, then being aware and not giving them facility to further misuse, that is important. But there are many forms of charity which cannot be misused.
Giving food cannot be misused. When clothes cannot be misused. What are you going to do with clothes actually? Sell them and get some money.
You can do that, but otherwise if they don’t sell, but I would say giving money, it can be misused. Giving support for education, that also is not so easy to misuse that. So, the point where I am leading to is that different devotees will have different inspiration in their spiritual life.
And that inspiration may come from their past. So some devotees, if they have a zeal for charity, social welfare activities, for them, they can, they should do it. To stop them will be artificial.
But at the same time, two things have to be careful. One has to be careful that while one does it, one doesn’t feel superior, that I am doing it, all of you are not doing it. And one doesn’t make others feel inferior.
You don’t understand this. You don’t understand this. So, basically, all of us can have, we could say, within devotion, we can have our own passion of what we feel inspired to do.
Now, it is fortunate if we have a passion. I sometimes say that, we talk about there are so many souls who are lost in the material world. But actually, there are many souls who are lost in ISKCON also.
That means what? They are in ISKCON, but they don’t know what I am meant to do in ISKCON. The ultimate goal is to love Krishna. What do I do right now? They don’t know.
They do this service, do that service. And sooner or later, they get into this gossip, that gossip, this thing, that thing. So, if we have a passion and devotion, this is how I want to contribute.
That is a fortune. That is a blessing. Now, let me complete this.
So, further, if you say that, what I was saying is, which is a practical dealing, if I have a passion, that is good. But if I impose my passion on others and judge them because they don’t have that passion, it becomes a problem. And that is what almost everyone does.
It’s very difficult. If somebody has environmental consciousness and anybody who is not having green consciousness, they will condemn them. If somebody is building temples and they go to a place where there is not a big temple, they say, what are you doing? Somebody is distributing books.
You don’t distribute books? What service are you doing? So, if we can have, if we have an interest for social service, we can do that. But we do it in a devotional way, spiritualize it. Now, as far as getting karma is concerned, I think it has to be very carefully understood.
So, I was talking with Radhanath Maharaj about this. Some devotee was initiated, had stopped practicing bhakti. And not only stopped practicing, he also started breaking the regulative principles and doing something.
So, now this devotee had been brought to Krishna consciousness by a disciple of Maharaj who is known to be a little strict. He will say, you know, he is doing such terrible things. You know, Maharaj, you will get the karma, I will get the karma, we all have to stop him from doing this.
So, Maharaj said, don’t talk about karma at all. Maharaj put karmic consideration aside. Just think at this pace, at this point, what is it that will best help him come back to Krishna? Whether it is chastisement or whether it is affection or whether it is some practical facility you have to provide.
Just don’t think about karma at all. Just think about how to encourage him from where he is towards Krishna. If we get into karma, we can become very heartless.
We can become very heartless. So, I was with one devotee. This karma, I feel it has to be very carefully understood.
This devotee, his son had gone into some business which was, son was not practicing bhakti, and gone into some business where some regulatory principle was being broken or something like that. Maybe he was working as a musician in a bar or something like that. What is something like that, I don’t know.
So, he was almost paranoid. Will all that karma come to me? Father was saying, will all that karma come to me? And then he was forcing his son, give this up. Son was not interested in giving it up at all.
And then the karma consideration was primarily coming in the way of their relationship. So, I think karma is better focused on the relationship and karma will be eventually taken care of. That way, how much karma we do already.
Everything, right? Everything we do. It’s what devotee was saying that many congregation devotees sometimes go for movies, watch cricket matches, and all this. He is telling that if I go and I watch a movie, take my children and family to watch a movie, nobody will criticize me.
But if I go and do some philanthropic activity, people will criticize me. So, our values have got skewed a bit. So, in one sense, what happens is, when we do something like watching a movie or going for some Disneyland or sports match or whatever, we understand that the movement understand that we cannot control people.
If people have certain desire, then it’s called in the family inspirational movement. So, people will practice at what level they can. So, somehow we accommodate that saying that this is their conditioning, this is their attachment, this is their need.
But some people may also have a need to do social service. But then we don’t acknowledge that as a need. We feel, okay, why are you doing this? Don’t do it.
There are so many problems. So, why are you giving money there? Why people get outside now and then get involved in karma and labor etc.