Radhey Radhey Swamiji! My question is how can we understand law of Karma in
Hinduism? The law of Karma! There are certain man-made laws and there are
certain universal laws not created by man but still existing. The traffic laws
the laws of IRS, the laws of the state they are all man-made. If you violate
them you can be punished and then there are the universal laws of God, like the
laws of motion. Newton discovered some of them when he said an object at rest or
at motion will continue in that state unless acted upon by an external force,
you've studied that right! So these are the physical laws and then there are the
subtle divine laws that control existence and one of them is the law of
Karma. This law of Karma is very much like the law of action and reaction or
cause and effect. It says that every cause will lead to an effect, when this
is applied to our thoughts, our actions, our works that is the law of Karma.
"Karma pradhan vishwa kari rakha, Jo jas karai so tasa phala chakha" ~ Ramayana
The law of Karma says whatever you do will have consequences,
so be careful about your every action, about your every thought. The law of
Karma also explains why you are responsible for where you
are in life. Very often people have this tendency of playing the blame game, you
know it's all my parents fault that I'm not so successful. it's the fault of
society, it's the fault of God, it's the fault of the government. It's so easy to
fall into this blaming mode but the law of Karma says no you took choices all
through your journey in life and the consequences of all those choices is
that you find yourself in a particular situation today. So the law of Karma
tells us it is our responsibility and that is why we now have the onus. If I am
responsible for where I find myself today then it gives me hope, if I am not
satisfied with my state all I need to do is to change my actions and to change my
thoughts and I'll find myself in a better place tomorrow so the law of
Karma helps bring out the best in people. That is the reason why God has it in
place. Just like for example now if you play well and your team wins that is an
incentive to play even better next time but if the scores and results have no
correlation with how you played then everybody will be demotivated forget it
it really doesn't matter that is why later on when you grow up and go into
the corporate world you will find that there's a performance appraisal system.
Your boss will evaluate your performance and
help you in your promotion. Why is that performance appraisal system there?
Because people need to learn this fundamental principle that to rise you
have to work, think and do better. So on the universal level this is the law of
Karma that God has in place. The law of Karma will also punish. Somebody came to
an Hindu Acharya and said Swamiji you know I'm so miserable my family
situation is so awful, my health is bad, I lost my job my house got burned why did
God do this to me? So the Acharya said that's because you
are a rascal and you did many sins in past lives.
Now that apparently is a very harsh answer, I'm a rascal and I did many sins
but it opened that guy's eyes that if I am in a terrible mess it was my Karma's
from this life and past life and if I wish to improve my lot I need to
improve my Karmas. So this at the subtle level the law of cause and effect this
law of karma. It exists in various forms in other religious traditions as well. So
the Bible says, as you sow that shall you also reap. In the Sikh Dharma the
Buddhist Dharma, the Jain Dharma the law of Karma also exists and as the Hindu
philosophy is getting more and more prominence and gaining influence these
words are getting adopted in the English language. So somebody once told me at
breakfast Swamiji would you like to try almond milk, I said let me check the box
and the box said good Karma proteins, so I said look this is proof that
mainstream has not opted the word Karma they saying meat is bad Karma proteins
and almonds is good Karma proteins so in brief that is the law of Karma!