How Karma Works
Many are the blessings that Bhagavan Baba bestows on His devotees, and spiritual instruction is foremost among them. From the private interview to the public discourse, He takes every opportunity to teach and enlighten the seekers that constantly gather around him. He graciously speaks to them on all subjects, from the mundane problem of how to shed weight to the sublime one of how to attain Self-realization, and gently leads them on to understand the distinction between illusion and reality through apt similes and appropriate illustrations drawn from everyday life.
Bhagavan’s explication of the doctrine of karma [action] in a recent chat with the teachers of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute serves as an excellent example of this edifying experience at Prasanthi Nilayam. The problem of the ordeals that righteous and godly persons undergo has always perplexed the human mind and has driven many a confused soul toward agnosticism or atheism. If the universe is in truth the creation of a just God and is being governed by Him, why do the righteous suffer in the world and the wicked thrive and prosper? Why does an omniscient God allow the unrighteous to inflict injury on innocent people and go unpunished for their misdeeds?
The doctrine of karma is the answer offered by the ancient sages of this country to this riddle of the presence and power of evil in a world created by a loving God. According to this well‑known law of cause and effect, whatever happens to a person in the present life is the result of his deeds in the past. As his soul goes through successive states of existence, good deeds bring happiness and evil ones yield sorrow and suffering. It thus maintains that a person’s past actions determine his present and future experiences.
Bhagavan explained the way this law operated in human society through a simple parable. He said, “God is fully aware of the suffering of the apparently righteous at the hands of the apparently wicked. He is not indifferent. He is waiting for the appropriate time. He himself is the embodiment of time. You can see only what is happening now. But God knows the past and the future as well as the present. You think that these are innocent people, and that evil-minded persons are unjustly harassing them. You do not know how these apparently innocent people had ruthlessly tortured others in the past.
“Consider this illustration. Let us say, you have five acres of agricultural land in Tamilnadu [in South India] and that another man has five acres in Andhra Pradesh [another state of India]. Tamilnadu had seasonal rains last year. So you could grow a fine variety of rice in your field and bring the grain home. As drought prevailed in Andhra Pradesh at that time, the other man could grow only millets. This year there are no rains in your village, and so you are obliged to grow millets. As there is good rainfall in his area, the other person is now growing a fine variety of rice.
“Suppose I visit your home now. You will serve me fine rice, because you still have the stock of last year’s rice. If I go to the other man’s house, he will offer me only cakes made of millet flour. Though you are now growing millets, you are able to serve me rice because you still have some rice left from last year’s stock. If I visit your home next year, you will serve me millets, whereas the other man will offer me a sumptuous meal with fine rice. Think for a while why things happen this way. You grew rice in the past and so you are now enjoying it. Now you are growing millets, so you will have to eat them in future.”
Thus, with a simple, universally familiar situation as an illustration Bhagavan expounded the implications of the complex doctrine of karma to us on that occasion.
~Dr. Adapa Ramakrishna Rao
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Dec. 1987
