Man the King of his Karma by Eric EH Buddhadharma - HTML preview

Commentary on karma

“You deserve it,” told your parents to you when you were young and your principal reprimanded you in the school.  “He was rightly paid back in his own coin,” someone says about a nasty man who was punished for his deeds, or incurred a loss.  What they meant was the result of one’s karma.  Even from religious point of view, those buried beneath the earth have to answer for their deeds while they were alive.  Those burnt to ashes will return as man or animal depending upon their deeds.  No religion, unfortunately says that you can commit sin and get away with it by worshipping the gods and by prayer for pardon by the loved ones after one’s demise.  No amount of wealth, prayer, or making gods happy can relieve anyone of their deeds or karma saves and except one’s very own doings in this world.  This is why karma of humankind remains at its helm from birth until death.  The key to all happiness, peace, smooth and healthy lifestyle and all the good (or bad) things that may happen to man is only by his karma(s).

As a fetus, the unborn child is the product of all the karma that touches his unborn life.  First, how his mother is being treated by others, her stress, malady and chain of thoughts and lifestyle, all goes into affecting the unborn child.  Healthy pregnancy and caring husband and environment will all go into giving a healthy and happy baby, while living in an unhealthy environment with polluted air and food, uncaring husband and stressful living conditions will definitely give birth to an unhealthy baby.  Sometimes the child seems to be healthy but as he grows up the mind of the child shows signs of disturbance and he is regarded as a difficult baby.  As the child grows up his parents, relatives, society, government and the entire environment keeps influencing the child all the time.  In the same way, if the child experienced healthy and positive surroundings all his life, he turns out to be good and successful otherwise he suffers and remains unable to tap his potentials.  The karma of parents, relatives, environment, the government, and all those that touches his life is responsible for his birth, growth, education, and career.  When he becomes independent and takes decisions on his own, he then becomes responsible for his own karma and that is when he brings about the results of the chain of endless karma for himself and his loved ones.

Someone told me if he did nothing, then he would not be committing any karma and therefore, he would be absolved of any good or bad doings.  This is absurd, unpractical, and negative.  One has to do some form of karma otherwise one is dead anyway.  One has to eat and live at least.  This eating and living itself will make one to perform so many karmas in his lifetime.  One has to steal and survive or work, earn and survive.  Therefore, movements are compulsory as a living being and with movement come the karma.  Karma in man’s life is unstoppable and with each such movement, we commit karma that binds us to this worldly treasures and pleasures or frees us from the unseen fire and whirlpool of misery, sufferings and malady of this mortal life.

Lastly, karma always produces consequences, good, or bad- even infinitesimal karma like washing your hand or killing an ant too produces karmas, good or bad.  The consequences of karmas are unstoppable.  The entire world and its population are creating karmas and its resulting consequences, which is visible to all of us all the time.  Man had been creating karmas since he first set foot on this earth with its resulting consequences, good or bad.  The chain of this good as well as bad karmas today is responsible for all that touches our lives.  We alter the prevailing chain of past karmas of others by creating our own karmas and its resulting consequences, which in turn directly affects the person and his family creating the karma, while it indirectly affects the world now and later.

After reading this book, if you resolve to perform good karmas for yourself, your loved ones, your country and the world  in general, you will contribute goodness to this world for which you will be rewarded with peace of mind, happiness, lower incidence of diseases and reversing of your ageing and ailing process.  Even a peaceful and dignified death is not rule out. Your children and their children will see better days ahead of them, which comes with the efforts of all of us and not with the slipshod methods for quick everything and selfish motives of “I, me, and myself”.