The Riddle of Karma and Its Effect
Balangir in Odisha is famous as one of the KBK districts - stricken by drought and abysmal poverty. However, it also has given a true story to the people - a story known all over the district and beyond. The story is often repeated to reinforce the effect of Karma:
Balangir has a few successful lawyers who specialise in criminal law. The most eminent among them is Mr. X, who charges a hefty amount from his clients, but almost always guarantees success.
One morning Mr. X was getting ready to leave for the court when the servant of the house came to him and announced that there was a beggar at the gate wanting to meet the lawyer. He was a leper, his body was festered with sores and he refused to leave unless he meets the lawyer. Surprised, Mr. X went to the gate and on seeing the leper, took out a ten rupees note to give him as alms. The beggar joined his deformed hands in greeting, and refused the alms. He revealed that he was the famous zamindar of the largest estate of Bolangir. Five years back he had been charged with murder of five members of a family and Mr. X had fought his case tooth and nail and got him acquitted in the Sessions Court.
Tears rolling down his deformed face, he told the lawyer, "Sir, you got me acquitted in the lower court, but I could not escape in God's court. The highest court in heaven gave justice to the murdered family and convicted me. Look at the punishment God gave me for my Karma. My family has thrown me out of home. I am living in an abandoned cottage in a deserted corner of the village, cooking my own meal. No one ever visits me. I am haunted day and night by the dead faces of those I had murdered in cold blood"
The story goes that Mr. X, the crorepati lawyer collapsed at the gate. He gave up his roaring practice from that moment and eventually left his home to spend the rest of his life in an Ashram.
Our scriptures also offer glimpses of Karma and its effect in abundance. One such story relates to the aftermath of the epic Mahabharata war. Gandhari, the mother of the Kauravas, was grief-stricken after the loss of her one hundred sons in the war. She cursed Lord Krishna that the entire Yadu Vansh will be decimated and will become extinct. The next moment she regretted her curse, but once pronounced it could not be taken back. Bhagwan Krishna consoled her saying that the Yadu Vansh deserves extinction because the members of the clan had become too much divided and indisciplined.
Mata Gandhari asked Lord Krishna why she had to suffer the unbearable agony of the loss of a hundred sons. What did she do to deserve such a punishment?
Lord Krishna replied with a smile, "Matey, nothing in this world happens without a cause. One has to reap the consequences of one's Karma"
The Bhagwan then took her into a trance and recreated a scene of one of her previous births. She was a princess in that birth and it seems in a spirit of playfulness she had once burst one hundred crocodile eggs.
Mata Gandhari came out of the trance and realised that she had paid the price of the playful misdeed of a previous birth by losing her one hundred sons in the Mahabaharata war.
Major religions of the world, particularly Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism believe in the theory of repeated births and the sequences of Karma carrying over to several births.
There is also a contrary view that one is not necessarily visited by the consequences of karma and it is not true that good deeds will always be vested by rewards, nor bad deeds by punishment. Most argue that in society we see lots of bad people enjoying the fruits of bad deeds, such as stealing, looting and pilfering. In Kaliyuga ill-gotten wealth ensures luxurious life and a pious life does not necessarily bring riches or happiness.
Simple, honest people lead a simple life, but they never get the taste of luxuries of life. Arguments continue about what is a good life, what is a bad life, what is a true punishment, whether riches and seemingly luxurious life in reality is a good life. And if one escapes punishment or misses out on the reward in the present birth he or she will get it in the next birth or one of the many births hereafter. If one is suffering without any apparent cause it is because of some bad deeds of a previous birth, and if one is an Ambani in this birth he must have done tons of good work in one of his previous births and so on and so forth. The conundrum continues...
We are of course free to discard any of these theories and lead our life the way we feel right. But for most of us the riddle of Karma is an overpowering feeling, refusing to leave us and governing our thought and action.
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