Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People
The simple answer is Karma means more than just the law of cause and effect.
What comes to your mind when I say the term “Karma?”
The law of cause and effect. Right?
That’s one of the greatest reasons you (mis)use the concept of Karma with phrases like, “Karma is B*tch,” or “Be aware of your Karma. It’s coming for you,” and so on.
It also indicates that you use the Karma philosophy for only two things:
Prove our point
Degrade others
I was one of them.
But we all do it innocently as we have a myopic vision of this deep spiritual concept.
Like most, I thought that bad people deserved bad things.
So, when life threw curve balls at me, I realized that sometimes, even the most righteous individuals could fall victim to unfortunate circumstances.
It was then that I started asking myself, “I haven’t done bad to anyone, so why do bad things happen to me? Why do good people have to suffer? Why does God allow bad things to happen in our lives when we’ve done nothing wrong?”
My curiosity and hunger for these perplexing life questions made me attend multiple spiritual retreats, read ancient Indian scriptures, meet with the Yogis and tapasvis(ascetics).
Finally, I quenched my thirst by understanding:
Why does the law of Karma work?
Why is it inevitable for us to accept it without abusing it?
When does the law of Karma start and end?
What is good and bad Karma?
How does Karma operate?
The deeper knowledge of Karmic philosophy changed my attitude from blame to responsibility, chaos to peace, and revenge to forgiveness.
Here’s what helped me change.
“WHY” Does the Law of Karma Work?
Based on familiar logic and parallels from Law and Justice’s administration, Indian Philosophy argues that Karma is inevitable to maintain “law and order.”
We observe that even this temporal or statutory law is based on the principle that,
“Only those who have committed a crime, must be punished so that others be discouraged from violating the law.”
Subsequently, an innocent person must not be punished. Instead, they must be protected by the law.
Plus, the punishment accorded to a tried and proven criminal must be proportionate to the severity of the crime. These are the elementary principles of justice, and violation of these principles is ‘injustice.’
When we all care about justice, why wouldn’t our creator Almighty care about equality; after all, he is our universal father.
If parents (or responsible humans) want to protect their children or people in general from injustice, wouldn’t our universal father do something about maintaining equal law and justice for all, so that no one feels unjust?
Why Should You Accept the Karmic Laws Without Abusing It?
According to spiritual laws, when our creator created us, he also created the law of Karma to maintain law and order among his creations.
Instead of keeping a chart of everyone’s good and bad actions, he made this law operate impulsively to maintain peace and harmony.
So, the next time we use the word Karma inappropriately or lightly, we must remind ourselves that we are subtly insulting the Almighty.
Besides, if it weren’t for Karma, we would have been living in misery.
Stronger would have remained strong, irrespective of his evil deeds. If we don’t understand the logic of Karma to its very core, we will be doing more harm to us than anyone.
Let’s understand it from the primary level.
Let’s assume that the Karmic law is only about “cause and effect.”
Even if we remember this 24/7, our actions will improve. We would not indulge in trivial bickering or talking behind anyone’s back — because it’ll have a consequence.
Now suppose we are using the sword of Karma to prove our point or to belittle someone by saying arrogantly, “You were bad to me, and so you deserve this punishment from God.”
Isn’t this rude behavior or egoistic attitude going to have an impact on our lives?
It surely would.
Sooner or later, we will face the consequence of our impoliteness in the form of people boycotting us, unfriending us, etc.
But when that happens, we forget that it’s just the result of our past actions. When I say past actions, it can be anything — from the past hour, day, week, year, or past life.
Hence, understanding the law of Karma in its true nature is inevitable to improve our actions and make our lives better.
“WHEN” Does the Law of Karma Start and End?
Some basic curiosities most of us have are:
Why do some infants, from the very time of their birth, suffer from acute physical disease or some mental discomfiture or ailment?
What crime, sin, or wrong would they have done at that tender age when even their sense-organs have not yet developed?
Our necessary level of understanding forces us to believe that they do not even have the capacity to commit a crime or a sin, at least at the physical level.
But, if we look deeper, keeping our emotional attachments and sentiments aside, we would have a more reasonable approach like:
Isn’t their suffering some form of punishment?
Isn’t the law of cause and effect operating?
If the law of Karma is operational, what is the cause of their suffering?
Besides these questions, our logical mind would suggest answers too.
And that answer is simple — Sufferings appear in many forms.
For example, some children are born into a family that is backward in every respect. Others have a good start because they are born to parents who have health, wealth, character, education, and happiness.
Does this happen without a cause?
If we answer that there must have been some cause, then the question would arise about the cause’s time.
Naturally, the cause of the suffering must lie before the infant’s birth because the cause always precedes the effect.
According to the Indian philosophy of reincarnation, every human action has a moral aspect. And the effects or consequences of our deeds are not bound by the birth cycle.
It means that whatever one experiences, good or bad, in the present birth are the result of the deeds done in their past births.
Besides, it’s interesting to note that not all deeds fructify immediately or in the subsequent birth.
Depending on the intensity and severity of the action, good or bad, the Karmic law decides the time of reaping.
We can understand this concept very well through nature.
Some plants or trees bear fruits within six months, while some take years.
We often say, “As you sow, so shall you reap,” but we never talk about the time or harvest. No one talks about how much time it will take for us to reap our deeds’ results.
In a nutshell, some results of our actions bear fruits in the same birth, while some take numerous births.
This fact about Karma leads us to a conclusion.
The person (or the being) who is an infant now must have committed some evil actions under the influence of negative factors. This, in turn, clouded his/her judgment and compelled him/her to do such actions has caused suffering to others.
P.S: This conclusion also clears the air about reincarnation and answers many questions about our existence. It also states that the soul is immortal and carries forward the baggage of actions into the subsequent bodily costumes. (i.e., births)
What Is “Good and Bad” Karma?
It would require a lot of space to express the Law of Karma elaborately and also what is morally acceptable and what is wrong but, in one sentence, we can say that:
“If a person acts under the influence of hatred, anger, lies, prejudice, greed, ego, partiality, lust, then his actions are bad or negative.”
Also, these Karmas create disharmony and conflict, and suffering in society.
On the other hand, we can define good Karma as:
“If a person has a balanced judgment, he has the stability of mind, peace of the spirit. Also, he acts with the feeling of love, justice, sympathy, humility, which would promote harmony, peace, unity, and happiness in the society.”
This elementary distinction between good and evil influenced the Indian Vedic scriptures to lay down the foundation of the Law of Karma “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
How Does the Law of Karma “OPERATE”?
Extending the application of the Law of Karma to the future, it would be correct to say that the person or the conscient being (i.e., soul), which is in the form of the infant now, will also continue to exist even when the body dies/decays/burnt because he will have to get a reward or suffer punishment for his actions done in that lifetime.
Besides, his own existence must not end with this body; otherwise, the Law of Karma would cease to be operative, and this would suggest that a person can escape punishment for his immoral acts when he dies.
“The law of cause and effect operates in the form of an eternal series as the links of an endless chain.
It does not stop suddenly at one end because, at every step, the effect works as a cause and gives rise to another result, and this series of cause-effect — cause-effect… goes on.”
Also, we may fail to keep track of our past actions owing to our limitations. Most of the souls forget who they were and what they did in their past lives.
(Hypnotic Regression has proved this fact)
As a result of losing this awareness, when the ball hits us back (uncomfortable situations or bitter experiences from people) due to our past actions, we get confused, irritated, and sometimes distressed.
But, the forces of cause-effect — cause-effect… are working eternally.
So, the series of birth and death also becomes eternal because the sequence of Karmas remains perpetual.
Sometimes, there may be a little pause between a cause and its effect, and the outcome may, at some stage, work as the cause for the first cause of the chain and may thus form a cycle, but it cannot end finally and forever.
This law of cause and effect or the Karmic philosophy or natural justice principles leads us to conclude that the ‘conscient being’ reincarnates.
This series of reincarnations must be cyclic though it may have a pause for a period, and the pace of reincarnations may speed up or slow down, but it must not stop forever and forever.
Even if we do not agree as to whether the series of reincarnations is cyclic or linear, one thing to which all the six systems of Indian Philosophy agree is that the ‘conscient being’ in the body does not have only one birth, but instead, it has several reincarnations.
This means that the self, which is the conscient being in the body, neither dies when the body perishes nor is it born when the new life takes place.
“Our present life is just the continuation of the previous one. The soul is just settling and making new Karmic debts based on its actions.”
In other words, the soul is everlasting and perpetual, i.e., it is eternal and immortal.
A logical conclusion is that the self or the soul is an entity that is different from the body.
Before I Sign off
Bad things happen to good people due to the forces of cause-effect — cause-effect…and our past choices.
How we respond to such events determines our future, no matter what our past has been like.
We must accept these situations and find peace with them in order to create a better future. It is all part of life’s natural flow.
The saying “Why do bad things happen to good people?” reminds us that although we may not have control over what happened, we can choose a better response to create the reality we want.
Please share your views on the Laws of Karma!
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Darshak Rana