According to the strict law of karma, there is no scope for expiation or repentance, as everyone has to experience the consequences of their sinful actions for the sin to be destroyed. Rather than being backward looking, karma should encourage us to take care about how we shape our future.Įven in the Hindu scriptures the law of karma is not in full control. And there is freedom.’ Gandhi used the doctrine of karma to suggest that people could help to shape the future by their present behavior. They are traced to our past karma, but we can call as we please, lead what suit we will, and as we play we gain or lose. The philosopher Dr S Radhakrishnan wrote ‘The cards in the game of life are given to us. Usually the doctrine is interpreted to leave some place for personal freedom and responsibility. In the same way, Christian teaching about sin is intended to lead to repentance and a change of behavior. To blame karma is to blame one’s own past actions and this should encourage a person not to act badly again. Karma like the Christian doctrine of original sin seems to me not so much to explain the inequalities of life as to acknowledge them. If that child were to die, then at that point the idea of karma might be introduced to try to ease the sense of loss, just as someone in the West might say ‘the child was spared further suffering’. Some sociological studies of how the doctrine of karma is actually used in daily life suggest, however, that it does not inhibit a parent seeking a cure for a child who is ill. I recall one Sikh suggesting that perhaps his illness was his karma and it was not for us to interfere. We were asked to contribute to the cost of his fare. If God is all-goodness and also all-powerful, how is it that there is so much evil and inequality in the world? Indian religions relieve God of this responsibility and make our karmas responsible.’ĭoes this mean that our present life is pre-determined by our past? At one conference of the World Congress of Faiths someone told us of a boy in India who was very ill and who needed to be flown to London for very special treatment. The question, writes R K Tripathi, who taught at Banaras Hindu University, is ‘How is it that different persons are born with an infinite diversity regarding their fortunes in spite of the fact that God is equally good to all? It would be nothing short of denying God to say that he is whimsical. Karma and rebirth are said to solve one of the great problems of life. The belief that we have all lived before and that the conditions of our present life are a direct consequence of our previous lives is widespread amongst Hindus. There is no process of repentance or forgiveness that can affect the inevitability of the punishments and rewards.’ The punishments and rewards might happen in this life or in subsequent lives but they will happen. According to the law of karma, every virtuous act is rewarded and every sinful act is punished in an inexorable manner similar to the laws of physics. Writing in the book Exploring Forgiveness, he says, ‘Central to the Buddhist-Hindu cosmology is the law of karma. This at least is the opinion of my good friend Joe Elder. The cross speaks to Christians of a God who takes the initiative in forgiving sinners, but in the basic Buddhist and Hindu cosmology, there seems to be no place for human repentance and divine forgiveness. There may be parallels between Jesus Christ and Krishna and Rama, but is there any place for forgiveness in Hinduism? It is a question that Christians sometimes ask. What Can We Learn from Hinduism : Recovering the Mysticalīy Marcus Braybrooke Chapter 8.
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