As you sow, so shall you reap!

[Vanitha T]

As you sow, so shall you reap DNA, 4th April, 2010 H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar When you cannot understand whether justice has been done or not, you need to look beyond your limited framework In life, you may find that sometimes people who are doing wrong are enjoying instead of being punished, while those who are doing right, are suffering. In this situation, your mind might question - where is God? Why is he supporting the wicked? What is he doing when the one doing good deeds is facing trouble? Such a question arises when you see an event in a limited framework. No good action will yield a bad result. Or, no bad action will yield a good result. This is the law of Karma. As you sow, so shall you reap. If you have sown a mango seed, a mango tree will grow, but along with the mango tree, some thorny bushes may come up. It is not the mango seed that brings up the thorny bush - the thorny bush comes because of the seeds present in the manure brought from somewhere else. Your mango seed will bring mango fruit, in due time. In the same manner, though someone may have sown a thorny bush, some groundnut or moong sprouts may grow amidst it, because those seeds were already present before you sowed the thorny bush. When you cannot understand whether there is justice or not, you have to look beyond the limited framework. This could be the reason why Jain philosophy does not even accept the judge. They simply say the whole world is governed by the law of cause and effect - they call it the Law. Law appears to be impersonal, like a rule, or like a principle in nature, but when law assumes a personality, a persona, then one calls it God. So from this perspective, there cannot be injustice; and if there appears to be an injustice, there are people who are bringing justice - this is also part of the law. For example, if someone gets a disease, there is someone else who has the cure for it. If the person with the cure knows that somebody is suffering, it is his dharma to bring them relief. The awareness of dharma also has a role to play. Karma is always dynamic, in the sense that there is perception and there is action. Whenever you see a bad karma or someone suffering, you need to help them. That is your dharma. If you do not follow your dharma, then you incur bad karma for not having done it. There is someone else who needs to put you back on track - to set you right is their dharma. Karma and dharma go hand in hand. The world is not a linear mathematics. It is a complex mathematics. See God as a movie director, rather than as a judge. He has no ill-feeling for the villain and no special favour for the hero. Each one is playing the role designed by the director. If the director wants to make the movie a tragedy, he will punish the hero. If he wants a happy ending, he will make the hero win over the villain. In either case the director is happy and doing justice to the movie. In the end, both the villain and the hero are rewarded. That is why, in the Puranas, every villain who dies also goes to heaven. After so many years, when the Pandavas reached heaven, they found Duryodhana already sitting there happily. Our perception of suffering, of good and bad, will always be relative. God does not come within the purview of relativity. He is the absolute reality - Sarva Sakshi - a witness to all that is.

[Ashwin Srinivasan]

Hi,

It's really facinating. What I shall say henceforth is just my opinion, so don't take much from it :)

Karma means, to my understanding, every cause has an effect. For example, an ancient way of thinking among Hindus is any talents that one has in this life was due to hard work or punyam in the previous lifetime. If someone is blind in this lifetime, it is because that person did negative actions -- he/she sowed a seed of destruction in the previous lifetime, resulting in current situation. Why is it that a cruel/or overtly egotistical person can have many friends, while a nice person may have none? Is it fair? It inspires others to dominate others for the sake of friends. How is it fair? It can be explained that one should look to a larger "framework", as guruji says. A cruel person's deeds will eventually catch up with him or her -- much later in the future, whether in this life time or the next. In the example of the person who sowed the thorn tree, and the other nuts also grew -- one may look and say : what is this? This person has sown a seed of cruelty, but he gets such good results! Maybe the thorn tree provided some help/aid in helping the other life exist? In other words, a successful person and corrupt person may be famous -- and we see all the attention he/she gets and say : how is it fair? He/she is so corrupt! But do you think that person can sleep at night?

Sincerely,
Ashwin

[Shobha Vaidyanathan]

My dear friends:
Vanitha: beautiful excerpt
Ashwin: Your maturity and knowledge at this young age is truly incredible.
For me:
The message  "as u sow so you shall reap" hit home! Knowledge about Karma is something you grow up with in most Hindu households.
Personally I have run into this question in my mind at different points in my life. There were several times in my life when I had to struggle a lot and some others had an easy path..It hurt the most when these people were not necessarily kind or gentle or compassionate human beings.
With Sadhana and Ashtavakra a lot of things are coming together for me and Guruji's interpretation provides clarity and reassurance.


Jai Gurudev.
Shobha