TO DO GOOD DEEDS OR BAD DEEDS IS OUR EVERYDAY OPTION





I don’t know much about the theory of Karma. But, yes, I have a lot of faith in it. It’s okay, if I sound naïve or stupid, here… It’s really okay.

Last night, a dear friend of mine shared in one of our groups a video, in which a young monk was telling us about that familiar human conflict: How to deal with those who perennially torment us… by hurting, ridiculing, abusing, defaming and conspiring against us. This monk was trying to rationalize the issue by evoking the theory of Karma…

Well, in this monk’s view, if a cruel person comes in my life, it means that I must have done something bad in my earlier life… So, the best thing for me to do, now, is: do even more good Karma…

Fair enough.

Next: if I still get hurt and offended by the nastiness of my tormentor, it means that I am still ruled by an inflated ego… The best thing for me to do, now, is: dilute my ego so that the nastiness doesn’t touch me…

Fair enough.

“All spiritual thok,” another friend of mine brushed aside the monk’s Karma theory, “Bakwas!”

I smiled.

Kamsa came in Krishna’s life to torture Him… and Herod came in Jesus’ life to torture Him… Now, was it because of the bad Karma of Krishna and Jesus in their earlier lives?

Whatever… It is the same Jesus who told us: “What you sow, you reap.” And, it is the same Krishna who counseled to us: “No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come.”

Why we do what we do… yes, this has been, always, a mystery to me. Why my tormentor does what he does… and why I do what I do to my tormentor. “Why my brother loves a sword and I love a pen… Why the Sun burns and I cry”… I voiced this in one of my books, almost two decades ago!

Just as to keep doing good deeds and bad deeds is an everyday option before all of us, to trust in their outcome, too, is an everyday option. I really do not wish to know how scientific the theory of Karma is… Suffice it is to know, that my good deeds make me feel good here on this earth… right now, right here… 

Let my past life and future life be!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Chetna Shetty

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