Sometimes, Westerners tend to oversimplify Eastern concepts.
One such idea is the concept of karma. To some, it’s a system of rewards and punishments based on both your actions and the intentions (or lack of intention) of your actions. That’s simply not true.
First, karma is not dependent upon your intention or lack of intention. “I meant to give a donation” does not prevent you from eventually facing the learning that helping others is good for them, good for you, and good for civilization. “I didn’t mean to harm them” does not prevent you from eventually facing the learning that you are responsible for your actions, no matter the intent. There are no “Lords of Karma” who judge how much karma you get based on the intent of your actions.
But what about situations where multiple people experience bad things? Some purists will tell you all of those men, women, and children just happened to be in the same place at the same time because they needed to learn the same lesson for their mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual advancement.
I can understand that for a small group of people. But what about when tragedy strikes a thousand people or a hundred thousand or more? It is difficult, even impossible, to believe that all of those people reincarnated in the same place at the same time just to experience the same lesson. I just don’t believe that’s the situation at all.
Karma is an ancient Sanskrit word, and another Sanskrit word I’d like to share is pravalh. It means “to test with a question or riddle.” I believe that vast disasters are a pravalh, a test. They are tests of how the victims will respond. Will they come together and help each other or turn into a pack of wild animals? Will other people who hear about the disaster come to the aid of the victims, ignore them, or take advantage of them?
Disasters are the seeds from which karma grows. They are tests of your spirituality and caring for others. How you respond will be a source of the karma you experience in this lifetime and in lifetimes to come.
There is another Sanskrit word that is important for the notion of karma. Dharmadharma (pronounced darm-AH-darm-uh). It means “knowing right from wrong” or “knowing justice from injustice.” If you act justly and righteously you will advance spiritually. If you act wrongly and unjustly you will need more lessons in the future, lessons some refer to as “negative karma.”
For people who are not involved in disasters, two of the lessons that can be learned from such events are,” Help the victims. Don’t blame them.”
As I write this post, the people of Haiti have just experienced a horrendous disaster. A massive earthquake has resulted in the deaths of untold thousands, made hundreds of thousands homeless, and decimated an already poor economy and the governmental infrastructure. Governments of the world are uniting to help the Haitian victims. Already, both China and the U.S.A. are sending supplies and aid to this island nation. As a country we understand dharmadharma.
But what about individuals? One well-known radio talk show host, an alleged drug addict making over 40 million dollars each year, has advised his listeners not to aid the Haitians. A religious broadcasterâ€”who had used donations to build up a broadcasting empire and then sold it, enriching himself, for over a billion dollarsâ€”has claimed that this was a punishment to the Haitians because “all” Haitians supposedly made a deal with the devil over 200 years ago to free themselves from the rule of France and end France’s slave trade on the island. It would seem that according to him God waited over two centuries to punish them for this action.
So a wealthy man says “don’t help” and a religious man says “blame the victims for supposed acts of their ancestors.” I would say that neither understands dharmadharma.
I hope the readers of this blog will do what is right and just. Do a web search and find a legitimate charity. Then please make any donation you can to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake.